Choosing a Redundant Colocation Center

A colocation center is designed to house IT equipment for multiple separate firms. Such a facility is also equipped with technical staff, as well as every other feature necessary for the maintenance of IT equipment. However, not every colocation facility is going to be able to provide top-quality services. One of the best ways to figure out how efficient a colocation center is by analyzing its capacity and redundancy.

The goal of every firm should be to outline its IT requirements. Then, it should cross reference them with the features of a particular colocation center.

Capacity and Redundancy of a Colocation Center

The capacity of a colocation facility refers to the amount of load that it can withstand. Colocation facilities need to be able to manage a substantial increase in load, as well. This increase is inevitable as the IT requirements of clients continue to expand.

Redundancy is defined as the ability of a colocation center to redistribute load over other units when one unit fails. Redundancy is a feature that is vital for power management and cooling systems. It is also necessary for network traffic management within a facility.

The formula to calculate redundancy is N + 1. Basically, if the requirements of a facility are fulfilled by one generator, then it should have two generators. This means if one generator fails, there is one extra one available to take up the slack.

How to Manage Power Outages

Colocation centers depend upon the national power grid just like every other facility within the country. However, in case of outages, colocation facilities are equipped with UPS units as well as generators for backup power.

A UPS unit keeps the facility online while the power source is re-routed from the main power grid to generators. Ideally, there should be a number of UPS units available. Facilities are also fitted with automatic circuit breaker switches that shift the source of power to generators. Facilities are also fitted with a number of backup generators. This is where redundancy plays an important role. Every generator should be capable of managing the power requirements of the facility individually. However, while running together, each generator should have an equal share in managing power requirements. Such a design provides the maximum amount of backup.

Managing Internet Blackouts

Similar to managing power outages, Internet blackouts can also be handled quite easily. If a colocation facility was designed with redundancy as a key component, its clients will not have connection downtimes.

Ideally, a facility should have more than three Internet connections at hand. There are certain devices that allow a variety of Internet connections to be merged together. This not only augments connectivity speed but also acts as reliable backup. If one connection fails, the others can share equally in managing the increased load. Merging connections also minimizes latency as well as data packet loss.

Redundancy in all aspects is the hallmark of a quality colocation facility. Companies who partner with those facilities with multi-layered redundancy can rest assured that downtime will be limited if not eliminated.