To make the best decision on how to meet your company’s network infrastructure needs, you need to understand the difference between a data center and a colocation agreement. What each one can do for you… and what not.

In some respect they are all the same. Colocation simply means placing your network equipment in another location. CLECs (FD, XO, Megapath) all the time put equipment into a CO or POP from the ILEC (Bellsouth, Verizon, Quest). They’re just fielding different teams, but the end result is the same.

In fact, at one point MediaOne in Atlanta (long before AT&T and then Comcast gobbled them up) allowed anyone to put equipment in certain central locations. I don’t know the details of how, what, where and why, but I know it was done. In theory, the same could be done at Bellsouth or similar if you know the right person or are willing to pay the right amount, which may have been the case with MediaOne.

For Data Center vs collo they are mostly the same. Let’s put it this way, a collo facility is a data center, but the opposite may or may not be true. The only difference between the two would come into play in the rules of the data center. Some data centers (eg NAC, the site where the DSLR is hosted) may not allow collocation of equipment (I don’t know if they do or not, just an example), but they will allow you to buy all the pre-existing dedicated . servers you want and basically accomplish the same thing. But assuming NAC allows you to chat doesn’t mean it’s not a data center.

Basically, a data center is any hardened facility (we hope) that houses various types of equipment for the purpose of allowing remote users to access it for any number of reasons or methods. A CO or POP could even be called a data center, in fact they are likely to be much more hardened than a typical data center. But just as a CO or POP can serve specialized needs, so can a collo. Basically what I mean by that is a CO would generally not host your server but will host your DSLAM if it was a CLEC a collo on the same token will host your server but may not have pre-existing dedicated servers to sell. your.

As far as how you get the bandwidth you need… that really depends on where you put your servers and that also means you may or may not be billed at the 95th percentile as well. If you buy rack space from a shuttle hotel like 55/56 Marietta here in Atlanta, you’d be in the 95th percentile because it’s connected to the building’s network infrastructure. The advantage of that is there are dozens of companies that have endpoints in that building so say you wanted something from Georgia Tech servers just a couple of hops into the colo facility and you’re on the gatech.edu network and it didn’t even touch the public internet to get there.

But at the same time, if you rent a color space from an ISP, then you have the benefits of power and cooling, but it’s not directly connected to their network. Instead what they did was sell you the T1 or DS3 or whatever and all you paid was the cost of the port with no loop costs because there really wasn’t any loop (at least not in the sense of what’s on the poles ).

There is also a difference in how each company sells its space. Some places allow you to purchase 1U rack space at a time. Some allow you to host tower-based servers, while others do not. Some force you to buy part (or all) of a shelf (say 1/4 or 1/2 of a shelf), but you’ll be dedicated to anything you can fit in there, and you’ll usually be locked out. XO, on the other hand, only sold cages. What you get is basically a little “room” where you bring your own racks and fill them however you want. This is generally the best option for those who have existing racks and infrastructure and just want to have it in a data center.

Remember… placement isn’t about staffing, it’s about where your team is located. Instead of running upgraded power supplies and data circuits at your location, you’ll put your servers in a data center where they have plenty of high-speed circuits and robust environmental controls, and large backup power generators. They have staff in those data centers, who will sometimes do things for you if hired at extra cost.

The other side of Collo is bandwidth. If, for example, you were a “larger” company… the installation cost of running a DS3 or more at your location could be prohibitive. This is more directly the point if you need matchmaking redundancies.

The biggest difference is if you “rent” the bandwidth instead of your own pipe. Most invoice over 95%. It’s not like an all you can eat cable or DSL line. You pay per MB… plus the rack space you use and the power. On the bright side, the world might end, but chances are your servers are fine. COLOs are built like Fort Knox. However, if the world were to end, no one would care if their servers were up.

If you need help finding a colocation solution…or any bandwidth solution for your network infrastructure needs…you can get that help at no cost at DS3-Bandwidth.com.