E-Communications   Co-location

Baseline service

Samantha Rendle of ColoAdvisors explains the concept and business benefits to be gained from co-location.

Co-location is a relatively new term in the lexicon of IT services, and consultants will need to understand what it is and what it can offer as they set out to evaluate options for their clients.

As in other areas of information technology, however, the terminology can sometimes be misleading. A wide variety of terms has emerged to describe the co-location market. Examples include:
 Telehousing.
 Data centre.
 Server farm.
 Cyber centre.
 Web hosting.
Carrier hotel.
Web farms.
Internet exchange.
Internet business exchange.

Despite this variety of terms, the idea is relatively straightforward and the benefits of co-location can be equally simply expressed.

Ways and means

So, a formal definition first – what is co-location?

Co-location is a secure commercial building used for the housing of telecommunications and IT infrastructure, including switches, routers and servers for the provision of interconnectivity to telecommunications networks and services.

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International Consultants' Guide July 2001
Copyright © 2001 Prime Marketing Publications