Colocation Services
Securing a quality colocation service provider begins with knowing what to expect. Here's a guide to the elements of colocation service.
COLOCATION SERVICE FEATURES. A typical colocation package will include:
- Cabinet space or rackspace for your equipment
- Power for your equipment
- IP addresses for your use
- Internet bandwidth
- Support services
- Facility and infrastructure administration
Depending upon your colocation service provider, some of these items may be included with your base service, while others may cost an additional one-time or monthly fee. With the better colocation service providers, all of these essential features are included in your monthly package for one basic fee. Let's elaborate just a bit on each of these items. All the service providers referenced on this site provide these features as part of their base service, as follows:
 Cabinet space or rackspace for your equipment. Locking data cabinets are the most secure, especially if you occupy the whole cabinet. Access to your equipment and connections is only available to you and those persons you designate, with all others physically barred from touching your equipment. Cabinets should be well-ventilated, with floor and ceiling fans, and should be full-height (7').
 Power for your equipment. Colocation data center power should always be smoothed and conditioned, to remove 'noise' and voltage fluctuations. Power should also be fully backed up with UPS, and a continuous generator which can provider power indefinitely should the normal power grid suffer an interruption.
IP addresses for your use. You should be able to get as many IP addresses as you need, either from the same contiguous block, or as a selection of smaller subnets from different ranges.
 Internet bandwidth. This is generally considered the single most important part of colocation, so it stands to reason that you are going to want a provider who can give you a robust, stable and expandable internet connection at an affordable price. The ideal facility is going to have multiple redundant connections with low utilization, direct peering with as many networks as possible, and carrier-neutrality (meaning that they are not locked in to working with just one or two carriers). Service Level Agreements (SLA's) are not bad, but don't be lulled into a false sense of security by a provider who offers one! SLA's don't guarantee great service, but merely spell out the ways and means by which you can obtain credit for a service interruption. Better to pick a provider with a reputation for rock-solid service, making SLA's irrelevant.
Support services. While colocation is generally a 'hands-on' hosting solution, you will not want to drop everything and run to the data center every time you need a button press or a screen read. The ideal colocation service provider will offer free basic 'remote hands' support, so that you can call or email the data center anytime to get a server reboot, a read of screen output, a cable trace, and other basic things that really don't demand your presence. Remote hands service will greatly reduce the frequency of your trips to the data center. If something more involved arises, a data center which offers professional services, such as hardware and software installation and configuration, troubleshooting, setup, etc, can be very convenient of you are not able to perform these tasks yourself on some occasion.
 Facility and infrastructure administration. It should go without saying, but 24/7 facility staffing and security, network administration, monitoring, access logs, routine maintenance and other facility management tasks should all be taken care of on an ongoing basis by your colocation services provider. You should not be charged extra for things like 24/7 facility access, entries on your access list, power conditioning, or any other infrastructure features.
PREMIUM COLOCATION SERVICE FEATURES. In addition to the above, the best colocation service providers will also offer some or all of the following features at no extra cost:
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Free Cross-connects. Free data cable runs between cabinets when you lease more than one full cabinet in the data center.
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Free Internal Runs For Dedicated Lines. If you order dedicated service from a telco provider - such as a dial-up, DSL or PRI line - to service your equipment at the facility, the data center will run a connecting cable from the MPE (telco backpanel) to your equipment.
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Free Bandwidth Stats and Graphs. So that you may keep an eye on your bandwidth usage and trends.
All of the colocation service providers referenced on this site provide the essential features described above. Many other providers do not, so you are advised to shop and compare very carefully when evaluating providers!
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