5 Benefits of Carrier and Cloud Neutral Colocation Data Centers

Choosing a colocation facility is no small task. Colocation is more than just “white space” for housing equipment — it’s a collection of services that includes power, cooling, security, and connectivity. While many organizations focus on power and cooling due to their direct relationship to costs, connectivity is arguably the most critical feature to consider.

Without highly reliable, high-performance connectivity, organizations are unable to deliver applications and data to their business users and customers. Connectivity must be competitively priced and have the ability to scale to meet growing demands. It should also provide flexible access to major cloud providers.

That’s why it’s crucial to choose a carrier and cloud neutral facility. Neutrality means choice, which equates to reliability, flexibility, cost-efficiency, and reduced risk.

Some colocation facilities are owned and operated by a network service provider, or contractually tied to a particular provider. These facilities may only offer that provider’s connectivity services or be unable to attract competitive services. Increasingly, network service providers are offering cloud services, which may also limit the number of cloud options for similar reasons.

A carrier and cloud neutral colocation facility gives customers the freedom to select the connectivity services that best meet their needs. Customers also contract directly with the providers of their choice, independent of their relationship with the colocation operator. Most importantly, a neutral facility can attract a wide range of network service providers, cloud providers, and other services because they don’t face competition from the colocation operator. Neutrality brings several benefits to colocation customers. Here are five reasons to choose a carrier and cloud neutral colocation facility.

1. Cost-Efficiency 

Competition gives network service providers an incentive to keep their costs low and provide high-value services. Customers are in the driver’s seat, enabling them to negotiate everything from service level agreements to billing cycles to price.

2. Flexibility

The availability of multiple options gives customers the power to choose the service that most precisely meets their business and IT requirements. And if customers are unhappy with their connectivity, they can change providers without the cost and disruption of moving to another colocation facility.

3. Resilience

Downtime is the enemy of the data center industry. When customers have the option to work with multiple network service providers, they can build in redundancy for business continuity. Automated failover to a secondary provider in the event of a primary service provider outage reduces the risk of costly downtime.

4. Scalability

In a carrier neutral facility, customers can quickly add WAN links, interconnects, or bandwidth to meet surging demand. Provisioning additional services can be as simple as clicking a few buttons on a dashboard or calling the colocation facility. 

5. Cloud Choice

Carrier neutrality goes hand in hand with cloud neutrality. Access to a marketplace of public, private, and hybrid cloud providers allows customers to choose the best platform for their applications and data and take advantage of advanced services that provide competitive advantages.

Conclusion

Carrier and cloud neutral colocation facilities create a tightly integrated marketplace designed to enhance revenue-generating opportunities for participants and provide the differentiated services today’s customers demand. Service providers have an opportunity to develop more collaborative relationships with customers across the industry and bring new services to the market. 

While there are many factors to consider when choosing colocation, it makes good business sense to select a carrier and cloud neutral facility.