What is the Difference Between Colocation Center and the Cloud?

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You can have both colocation and the cloud but having one doesn’t automatically mean that you have the capability to consume the other. For example, your colocation provider may not offer cloud, managed services or migration services.

You can also use the cloud without being in a colocation facility. You may need both cloud and colocation if you have traditional applications or specific security requirements but still need newer, faster and business-aligned technical strategies.

Many people think that colocation is just a data center where you get floor space, electrical power and an Internet connection. However, colocation is about more than just data center facilities.

Some of today’s colocation data centers offer a host of services from managed IT to the hybrid cloud. They can also provide you with greater power density, which is key to quickly scaling and supporting new technologies.

Some data center colocation providers even offer a direct connection to the top public cloud providers such as Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

The term cloud means different things to different people. For some people, cloud means virtualization or a public cloud. For others, it means containers or a private cloud. To some, it means a hybrid cloud of both public and private.

For many, the cloud means risks to the business. With so many definitions, it’s vital to define cloud within your company, get everyone on the same page and understand the business outcomes at stake.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines the cloud as, a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.