Have you heard the terms colocation center
or carrier hotel data center? These terms are interchangeable for the same kind of data structure in which space, equipment, and bandwidth are rented to customers who engage in retail applications.
Facilities designated for colocation engage in power, space, physical security, and cooling regarding the networking equipment, storage, and servers that belong to various firms. Moreover, such a center also provides connections for these renters regarding multiple types of network and telecommunications services at the rate of a cost noted as being minimum and with no burdensome complexities.
What is Carrier Hotel?
A carrier hotel, colocation center, or colo represents a secure facility that houses multiple telecommunications and network service providers’ equipment and provides the physical space, power, cooling, and security necessary to maintain and operate it.
Carrier hotels act as central interconnection hubs where providers can exchange data, establish peering relationships, and rent space for their servers and other networking equipment. They are essential for the smooth functioning of the Internet and other telecommunications services, as they enable efficient data exchange between different networks and providers.
These facilities typically offer various services such as:
- Rack space: Renting space in standardized racks to accommodate networking equipment, including servers, switches, and routers.
- Power supply: Providing reliable and redundant power sources to ensure continuous operation of the equipment.
- Cooling: Maintaining optimal temperature and humidity levels to prevent equipment overheating and ensure optimal performance.
- Security: To protect the equipment, implement physical and digital security measures, such as surveillance cameras, access controls, and fire suppression systems.
- Connectivity: Facilitating interconnections between providers and networks through various transport options, including fiber-optic cables and Ethernet connections.
Carrier hotels are usually located in major urban centers to facilitate efficient interconnection and minimize latency between different networks. In addition, multiple service providers in one location foster competition and can help reduce customer costs.
A carrier hotel is also called a colocation center, a secure physical site, or a building where data communications media converge and are interconnected. It’s common for varied service providers to share the facilities of one carrier hotel.
This minimizes overhead and optimizes communications efficiency for all participants because the infrastructure is sufficient to handle the information sometimes required by peak demand.
A carrier hotel may be a sizable facility, often containing 5000 square meters (approximately 54,000 square feet) of floor space. Customers of carrier hotels include website hosting companies, storage service providers, and telecommunications companies.
Colocation refers to the space supply for a customer’s communications equipment on the service provider’s premises. For instance, an internet site owner can place the site’s servers on an online service provider (ISP).
Benefits of a Colocation Data Center
- Lower Costs
- Fewer Technical Staff
- Easy Scalability
- Exceptional Reliability
- Geographic Location
- Predictable Expenses
A carrier hotel provides colocation on a vast scale, offering various services to customers, from modest-sized racks to dedicated rooms or groups of rooms. A carrier hotel can also house a gathering room where human representatives for all the businesses or guests served by the power can exchange information and common interest concepts.
When trying to find a data center, people often determine that the carrier hotel is an exciting choice. So what’s the carrier hotel (collocation center)? Most of its elements are rented because it goes with most collocation servers.
The rented paraphernalia includes space, equipment, and bandwidth. Other facilities, like power, physical security, and climate control, are also available. In addition, the establishment is often connected to network services and telecommunication.
Famous carrier hotels in the US
- 60 Hudson Street – New York, NY
- 111 8th Avenue – New York, NY
- One Wilshire – Los Angeles, CA
- Infomart Dallas – Dallas, TX
- 350 E Cermak – Chicago, IL
- 401 North Broad Street – Philadelphia, PA
- 1950 N Stemmons Freeway – Dallas, TX
- 200 Paul Avenue – San Francisco, CA
- 600 W 7th Street – Los Angeles, CA
- 2300 Southwest Fifth Avenue – Portland, OR
Businesses take advantage of the carrier hotel benefits primarily because of the low cost and straightforward maintenance. The host already handles the upkeep, so it won’t bother the business that rents the power.
Let’s glance at its configuration to know the carrier hotel’s specifications. The carrier hotel’s cupboard consists of several racks that accommodate the server. The cabinet is slightly raised if the host shares an equivalent place with the clients. It allows the servers to share equal electricity and cooling systems. The space on the private server is enclosed. The solid partition is involved in guarding the server. Such a feature is usually known as the suites. Suites have a slightly more creamy facility than common spaces. Meanwhile, the modules are used in the quality space.
After considering the carrier hotel’s configuration, it’s also recommended to scrutinize the building’s features. The cooling system is the main crucial building feature. When getting used to processing information, the server usually heats up.
The raised temperature might cause severe damage to the component. To prevent this, it’s necessary to ensure the temperature is low. Alongside this climate control, fire protection is also implemented. The hearth protection is required to guard the active and passive elements of the carrier hotel.
The last important consideration for carrier hotels is physical security. To ensure that the server is protected, it’s often implemented in several layers.
Carrier Hotel Practical Example of Cost Reduction
You run a growing e-commerce business based in New York City. You have a website that receives a lot of traffic, and you need to ensure that your site is up and running 24/7, with minimal downtime.
To achieve this, you must host your servers in a secure, reliable, and well-connected facility that can handle high levels of Internet traffic. This is where a Carrier Hotel comes in.
By colocating your servers in a Carrier Hotel such as 60 Hudson Street in New York City, you can access a high-speed, reliable network with direct connections to multiple internet service providers (ISPs) and content delivery networks (CDNs).
Assuming you spend $10,000 monthly on hosting and bandwidth costs, you could save money by moving your servers to a Carrier Hotel. Here’s how:
- Hosting costs: Let’s assume you currently lease a dedicated server from a hosting provider for $500 monthly. If you move to a Carrier Hotel, you could purchase your server for $3,000 and pay a monthly colocation fee of $500. This would result in a cost savings of $2,500 per month.
- Bandwidth costs: Suppose you currently pay $0.10 per gigabyte (GB) of data transfer. If your website receives ten terabytes (TB) of traffic per month, your bandwidth costs would be $1,000. You could negotiate lower bandwidth rates by colocating your servers in a Carrier Hotel with direct connections to multiple ISPs and CDNs. You could reduce your bandwidth costs to $0.08 per GB, resulting in savings of $2,000 per month.
By colocating your servers in a Carrier Hotel, you could save $4,500 monthly ($2,500 on hosting and bandwidth costs). Additionally, you would gain access to a more reliable and secure infrastructure, with faster internet speeds and lower latency, which would improve your website’s overall performance and provide a better user experience for your customers.
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