Data Center Services: Why Cloud Providers Turn to Colocation

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION
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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• For many years, enterprises have turned to
  colocation providers for data center services.
• The huge expense and time requirements for
  building a company-owned facility create a huge
  deterrent.
• In fact, industry analyst Frost Sullivan
  estimate land purchase and facility construction
  costs in the United States can reach 1,500 per
  square feet, depending on the location.
• The project can also take upwards of five years,
  from concept to completion.
• With these kinds of numbers, its not surprising
  enterprises have migrated to colocation models.
• But whats interesting is cloud providers and
  managed service providers have also turned to
  leasing data center services from third-party
  providers for the same reasons.

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• Although the U.S. market is fairly mature, Frost
  Sullivan estimates total data center space will
  increase by 10 through 2015.
• However, the analyst notes this growth figure
  wont include space built and owned by cloud and
  managed service providers. Instead, these
  providers will lease the capacity and data center
  services they need from colocation providers.
• By using colocation, cloud providers can lease
  space by the room, cage or rack. The cloud
  providers decide how to configure their leased
  space. They deploy their equipment and develop
  the data center services they will market to
  their own customers.
• In some cases, cloud providers re-package another
  service providers data center services and
  market them to their customer base.
• Colocation creates a low barrier to entry and
  allows a cloud provider to bring solutions to
  market more quickly.

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• DOES LEASING SPACE AFFECT CLOUD PROVIDER SERVICE
  DELIVERY?
•  
• Turning to colocation presents many advantages
  for cloud and managed services providers. As
  discussed, lower costs and faster deployment are
  major benefits. But do any drawbacks exist?
•  
• A major concern for cloud providers using
  colocation involves service delivery to their end
  customers. A tricky messaging project for
  these providers is how they describe their data
  center services delivered from colocated
  facilities. In other words, cloud providers
  must determine how they position the data center
  space they own versus the space they lease.

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• DOES LEASING SPACE AFFECT CLOUD PROVIDER SERVICE
  DELIVERY?
•  
• The risk of inconsistent service delivery across
  diverse data center locations is of grave concern
  for cloud providers leasing colocated space.
  These providers dont have control over
  facilities with different owners, locations,
  networks, power stations and more. These
  locations wont always deliver uniform data
  center services to the cloud providers end user
  customers.
•  
• Cloud providers can help create more standardized
  data center services among leased facilities by
  taking certain measures. For example,
  installing similar equipment and using common
  configurations across locations can help deliver
  the same performance.

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• DOES LEASING SPACE AFFECT CLOUD PROVIDER SERVICE
  DELIVERY?
•  
• In terms of building out future data center
  space, cloud and managed services providers will
  mirror their enterprise customers behaviors.
  Instead of investing huge amounts of capital
  and time into constructing complex facilities,
  cloud providers will lease space from a
  third-party colocation provider.

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DATA CENTER SERVICES WHY CLOUD PROVIDERS TURN TO
COLOCATION

• CyrusOne currently provides more than 1,000,000
  square feet of colocated floor space in top tier
  data centers across the nation.
• The company operates colocation facilities in
  various centers of business including Houston,
  Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Chicago,
  London and Singapore.
• CyrusOne serves enterprise clients in many
  industries, including energy, oil and gas,
  medical, technology, finance and consumer goods
  and services.

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About the author
Nicole Aguillard is the marketing director for
CyrusOne, a global enterprise colocation provider
operating 23 highly secure data centers across
the United States, London and Singapore. Learn
more about Data Center Services by visiting
http//www.cyrusone.com.