Colocation centre

A colocation centre (also spelled co-location, or colo) or "carrier hotel", is a type of data centre where equipment, space, and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers. Colocation facilities provide space, power, cooling, and physical security for the server, storage, and networking equipment of other firms—and connect them to a variety of telecommunications and network service providers—with a minimum of cost and complexity.

Many colocation providers sell to a wide range of customers, ranging from large enterprises to small companies. Typically, the customer owns the IT equipment and the facility provides power and cooling. Customers retain control over the design and usage of their equipment, but daily management of the data center and facility are overseen by the multi-tenant colocation provider.

Buildings with data centres inside them are often easy to recognize due to the amount of cooling equipment located outside or on the roof.

Colocation facilities have many other special characteristics:

Colocation data centres are often audited to prove that they live up to certain standards and levels of reliability; the most commonly seen systems are SSAE 16 SOC 1 Type I and Type II (formerly SAS 70 Type I and Type II) and the tier system by the Uptime Institute. For service organizations today, SSAE 16 calls for a description of its "system". This is far more detailed and comprehensive than SAS 70's description of "controls". Other data center compliance standards include HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) audit) and PCI DSS Standards.

Most colocation centres have high levels of physical security, including on-site security guards. Others may simply be guarded continuously. They may also employ CCTV.

Some colocation facilities require that employees escort customers, especially if there are not individual locked cages or cabinets for each customer. In other facilities, a PIN code or proximity card access system may allow customers access into the building, and individual cages or cabinets have locks. Biometric security measures, such as fingerprint recognition, voice recognition and "weight matching", are also becoming more commonplace in modern facilities. Man-traps are also used, where a hallway leading into the data centre has a door at each end and both cannot be open simultaneously; visitors can be seen via CCTV and are manually authorized to enter.

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