A shining example of a facility designed with enterprise colocation in mind is the Level 3 data center at 200 Paul Avenue in San Francisco. Level 3 has invested the capital to expand their data center so you don’t have to. That’s one of the primary benefits to colocation. It works especially well for companies that have reached the limits of growth in their own data centers but shudder at the thought of building an additional facility. By incrementally expanding into the Level 3 data center, you can get the enterprise level support you need but pay only for the resources you use.What are some of the features and benefits of 200 Paul Avenue colocation? You’ll find 8,000 square feet of high density cabinet and suite space with 8-12 KW power cabinets and support for 200 watts per square foot power density. The juice is there no matter what your power requirements are. That primary power is backed up by fully a redundant uninterruptible power supply.
You won’t have to worry about keeping your equipment secure. Level 3 is set up with multi-layer security that includes 24/7 closed circuit video and alarm monitoring and dual authentication security.
HVAC is another major investment when it comes to data centers. The Level 3 facility is set up with industry standard heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Pull all the power you need. The cooling air is available to whisk that rejected server heat out of the rack and out of the building.
Beyond the bricks and mortar, a major reason to consider colocation is connectivity. By moving into 200 Paul Avenue, you have zero latency direct connectivity to Level 3’s global network. How much bandwidth can you get? How much do you need? Many companies would love to hear a major carrier say that about their current location. However, the reality is that copper and fiber assets are limited in all but the most densely metro areas. Even there, full conduits and right of way issues may prevent you from upgrading to the connections you really want. Or, you could get hit with a big construction bill to bring in new fiber.
That won’t happen in the colo facility because the network POPs (Points of Presence) are already there and waiting. This includes a wide variety of bandwidth options plus carrier neutrality so that you can stay with the service provider you already have. Looking for new service? You won’t find a greater range of service providers to pick from than you have access to in the colocation facility.
You may be scratching your head, wondering how colocation can be gaining such popularity when all you hear is about companies moving to “the cloud.” Cloud computing and other cloud service are, indeed, expanding at a high rate of speed. However, some companies already have proprietary processes on systems of their own architecture design that are fine tuned to their unique needs. Re-engineering to use multi-tenant cloud facilities isn’t all that attractive and comes with more than a few security concerns. By the way, if the cloud is right for your business, Level 3 offers public, private or hybrid cloud services to match your requirements.
Have you developed a need for additional data center space or simply want to do some cost//benefit tradeoffs to see if running your own facilities still makes the most sense? If so, get prices and options for enterprise ready colocation and cloud services to help in your decision making process.
Note: Photo of downtown San Francisco courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
