Why Carrier Neutral Data Centers Reign Supreme
We live in an internet-driven world. New online businesses are popping up every day while others make sure they capitalize on the opportunities that come with having an online presence. And in 2020 – a year that was largely defined by how companies could pivot the majority of their operations online – many businesses have adopted multiple years’ worth of technological transformation due to COVID-19 in just a few short months. Given this exponential increase in internet usage by businesses, various data centers have opened all over the world to provide services like cloud computing, web hosting, networking and so on. But how do you know what type of data center is best for your business?
Carrier Specific vs. Carrier Neutral Data Centers
Colocation data centers – those in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware – are becoming increasingly more popular, as they don’t require an organization to worry about managing their IT infrastructure. But as you begin to research data center colocation, you’ll likely come across two different options: carrier specific and carrier neutral.
A carrier specific data center is one that has an affiliation with only one particular network partner. In a carrier specific environment, you only have one option for service, and few options for connectivity. As a result, you could fall victim to high prices, limited bandwidth and lack of competition.
A carrier neutral colocation data center runs completely independent of the network provider. This means multiple telecom carriers can access the facility since it’s not owned or controlled by a specific Internet Service Provider (ISP). As a result, you have a variety of connectivity options to choose from.
Key Benefits of a Carrier Neutral Colocation Data Center
The added flexibility of a carrier neutral colocation data center can make a world of difference for your business as you scale your online presence and your technology needs evolve over time. Here are the key benefits to choosing a carrier neutral data center:
Benefit 1: Cost savings
The costs of selecting a single-carrier data center go beyond price. With only one carrier to “choose” from, you can easily fall victim to price increases and reduced bandwidth. What’s more, the costs of relocating to a new data center if your current one is no longer meeting your business needs would create an even greater expense.
A carrier neutral data center serves as a highly competitive marketplace for all ISP companies. As a result, all carriers are competing for the best price and most connectivity. By offering multiple connection options, ISPs have a strong competition incentive to keep their prices low and provide better services. Because you can switch providers at any time, you’re likely to experience better customer service from ISP companies.
You can also experience greater cost savings by incorporating a colocation remote hands service to accommodate changing business requirements. With colocation remote hands service, you’ll have 24/7/365 access to ITIL-certified technical experts, eliminating the expense of sending your IT staff to the data center facility.
Benefit 2: Reliability and Redundancy
In today’s data-driven economy, the need for business continuity is unmatched. A single outage can cost a company millions of dollars — in the case of Amazon, one hour of downtime on Prime Day 2018 may have cost the company up to $100 million in lost sales. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain service uptime.
Carrier neutral colocation allows you to connect the most critical of your systems to multiple data centers for redundancy that just can’t be duplicated in a single-carrier environment. Data centers that are dedicated to just one carrier have limited options when a problem arises. But a solution that offers multiple carrier options helps ensure that if one carrier experiences a system failure, business operations can continue so long as alternative carriers are running properly.
Benefit 3: Flexibility
It’s important to consider how your organization is likely to shift and grow in the future. That’s why you should select solutions that grow with the business. Carrier neutral colocation can scale to meet your business needs at any particular point in time. Additionally, you’ll have all the options provided by various ISPs and cloud providers at your disposal. Each carrier has their own unique features that you can leverage depending on your business goals, both in terms of service and physical infrastructure.
Use a Scalable, Tailored Data Center Solution
Colocating cloud computing data services allows you and your fellow IT staff to focus on primary business initiatives rather than operating on-premise data center facilities. Taking advantage of a scalable, fully-staffed colocation solution will help you streamline resources to save time and money. To future-proof your technology and enjoy greater cost savings, network redundancy and flexibility, watch this video on how to better leverage colocation solutions and facilities.