Emerson Network Power identifies three areas of opportunity for colocation providers

COLUMBUS, USA: Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and a global leader in maximizing availability, capacity and efficiency of critical infrastructure, has identified three areas of opportunity colocation (colo) facilities must flawlessly meet to motivate more data center owners to move some or all applications to a colo.

"For most businesses, running a data center is not a core competency," said Peter Panfil, VP, global power, Emerson Network Power. "So, as data centers have grown in importance, complexity and cost, and many have outgrown capacity, colocation has become an increasingly attractive option. Organizations now may choose the colo business model - from boutique purpose-built colos to remote managed IT services (RMIT) to colos that offer cloud services - that provides the level and type of services they need."

In spite of the substantial cost and other advantages, not all data center owners who would benefit from doing so have chosen to use colos. In a 2012 Data Center Knowledge report, 49 percent of enterprise data center respondents said they used colos in some capacity, 3 percent were testing the concept and 9 percent planned to adopt within 24 months. The remaining 38 percent had no plans to adopt colocation.

To make colocation feasible for data center owners, the colo must be able to meet all the requirements of an in-house data center at lower cost and increased speed while delivering better reliability. Physical and IT security, energy costs, scalability - including ease and speed of equipment deployment - and increased visibility are critical to a successful colocation conversion.

In working with their in-house data center and colo customers, Emerson Network Power experts have identified opportunities for colos to better serve customers.

According to Panfil: "Colo staff are highly skilled, tend to push the envelope and are early adopters of the best critical infrastructure technologies and solutions. But the bar is very high for colos, and there are things they can do in the areas of availability, efficiency and scalability to increase their utility and, in turn, grow the business."