Ian Cottingham, Director, Mobile Network Operators, BT Wholesale, highlights the extensive benefits of colocation, including cost efficiency, scalability and repurposing legacy Internet Exchanges to maximise infrastructure use, and underscores how building a resilient digital fabric will be key in fuelling business growth across the UK.
The epicentre of connectivity is the data centre, serving as a central hub for all data and digital interactions. Large, climate-controlled rooms fortified with high security and supported by robust, uninterrupted power are intrinsic to global communication. But data centres shouldn’t just be thought of as huge out-of-town developments, we have an opportunity to increase urban presence, transforming historic strategic exchanges into colocation hosts.
This will stitch together a resilient digital fabric for the UK and give businesses a boost. While colocation centres vary greatly between providers, with some located in traditional data centre facilities, the positive impact of transforming long-term strategic exchanges should not be understated, particularly on the environment.
By threading the needle between old infrastructure and future demands, colocation services help ensure the UK remains at the forefront of global connectivity and closer to net zero goals too.
Battling a power and space dilemma
From video calls and streaming to AI and collaboration tools, the mind boggles to think about how individuals and businesses use data-hungry apps to stay connected on the go. More than 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day and this will only increase.
Sustaining a robust and resilient data centre to underpin this is crucial but it isn’t easy. Not only does a data centre require significant infrastructure investment to ensure it can keep up with data demands, but the energy, expertise and space needed to maintain one is huge too.
Whilst global corporations may be able to budget for this, small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) often can’t or may only need small estates before expanding.
So how do we solve this dilemma? Through colocation.
By enabling organisations to rent the data centre space they need across the country, colocation boosts latency and availability. For example, businesses could improve user experience by colocating within data centres strategically placed within major long-term strategic exchanges or using services to manage seasonal spikes in traffic without the need for significant upfront investment.
Breaking down the benefits
Colocation boasts numerous benefits that businesses of all sizes should take advantage of. The three key things you need to know are:
- It’s cost-effective.
By sharing infrastructure with other tenants, colocation can help to reduce capital expenditures. This also means that businesses, that might initially only need a part of a data centre, can start small and grow as their business does. This also protects them from having to put in substantial investment upfront.
- It offers greater reliability
Colocation centres are designed to be robust and are ingrained with Disaster Recovery measures to guarantee Business Continuity. This is essential for businesses that rely on uninterrupted access to data for both their own operations and to service their customers.
Urban colocation centres can also help to bring data closer to the end-users, reducing latency and improving user experience. By strategically placing their data centre operations within major strategic exchanges in densely populated areas, businesses can better manage seasonal spikes in traffic and ensure faster, more reliable connections for their customers
- It’s smart and sustainable
As legacy networks are decommissioned, such as the public switch telephone network (PSTN) and 2G and 3G networks, connectivity providers and vendors need to find a way to repurpose the buildings that housed them. Colocation centres offer an innovative solution for long-term strategic exchanges.
These historic buildings can now be transformed into modern colocation centres. This not only preserves the architectural heritage of these sites but also ensures existing infrastructure is used sustainably and positively.
By transforming old strategic exchanges into colocation centres the industry can showcase the steps it’s taking towards a greener future. The need for new construction is reduced, leading to lower carbon footprints and aligning with the UK’s net zero goals.
Driving growth for the country
Everyone relies on data to keep them connected and colocation services play a vital role in supporting the UK’s position as a global connectivity leader.
As traditional long-term strategic exchanges are refurbished into colocation centres, the issues of power, space, security and compliance are addressed whilst also offering significant new benefits. It allows new and old to come together to help industries flourish.
With features such as flexibility, scalability, reliability, colocation will help to drive growth and innovation across industries. It will enable businesses to operate more efficiently, breed innovation and deliver better services to customers. In turn, this drives competitiveness, supporting the economy. A robust digital fabric, that can evolve and grow, is essential for the UK’s economic growth and that’s exactly what colocation provides.
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