31/08/2009
Co-location offers long-term cost savings on operations and maintenance, and green facilities offer employees a healthy and comfortable work environment while enhancing corporate social responsibility efforts.
The days of expensive raised floor, high-cost data centers are a thing of the past. High-efficiency servers, solid state storage, green co-location data centers, and cloud computing are just some of the initiatives helping to drive down costs and green the environment.
Green co-location data centers are characterized as data centers in which the storage, management, and dissemination of data occurs, and the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. The number of co-location providers offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) based on cloud computing is a strong indication of future growth.
Green co-location data centers offer:
- Minimal building footprints
- The use of low-emission building materials, carpets, and paints
- The availability of solid-state storage and high-efficiency computer equipment
- Sustainable landscaping
- Waste recycling
- Installation of catalytic converters on backup generators
- The use of alternative energy technologies such as photovoltaics, heat pumps, and evaporative cooling
- The use of hybrid or electric company vehicles
- Multiple telcom providers in one location for easy cross connection
Building and certifying a green co-location data center or other facility can be fairly expensive upfront, but co-location offers substantial long-term cost savings on both operations and maintenance. Another advantage is that green facilities offer employees a healthy and comfortable work environment while enhancing corporate social responsibility efforts and improving overall relations with local communities.
As I work with companies in a variety of industries, the most important factors considered when choosing a co-location provider include stability, security, savings, and convenience.
- Stability - Green co-location facilities offer 99.9 percent uptime guarantees, redundant power, hardened facilities, 24x7x365 support and security, and advanced communications capabilities.
- Security - Green co-location facilities offer around the clock monitoring, multiple levels of onsite security, hacker-proof network security, and multiple telecommunication providers in their facilities offering options for choosing the most secure solution.
- Savings - There are many benefits and documented savings to be realized when moving to a co-location facility. For new start up IT companies this is especially appealing. For companies with older antiquated data centers, retrofitting these facilities to make them eco-friendly is often too expensive. In addition, co-location centers are able to pass on additional savings to their customers because they buy in bulk and are in a position to negotiate terms with suppliers.
- Convenience - Many small companies do not possess the IT knowledge to host and run data center services. For larger users the fact that security, maintenance, and monitoring are handled by the co-location provider allows them to redistribute IT staff to projects that help their organization drive revenue instead of cost.
Whether a company is racking up its own equipment in a co-location facility or just renting space on the co-location provider's servers, it is becoming very apparent that there are great benefits to be enjoyed by using the co-location center services. Eco-friendly co-location data centers will prove to be a lasting trend as their value shows itself for years to come.
WILLIAM J. STUCKERT is vice president and general manager at Advanced Technology Services Inc., a provider of managed services of production equipment maintenance, information technology, and spare parts repair based in Peoria, Ill.