Colocation Suite Design: What to Consider Before Leasing Space
Amidst rising overhead and data demands, more businesses are turning to colocation data centers to offload infrastructure management and reduce costs. However, when looking for a new space to lease, one critical factor is often overlooked: the design of your colocation suite.
At first glance, your colocation suite may seem perfect with plenty of space and power, but if not properly planned, it can become a constraint. Suite design has a direct impact on performance, scalability, flexibility, and operational efficiency. So, before signing on the dotted line, consider these key design factors from Teladata to ensure your colocation suite is set up for long-term success and growth.
Assess Your Current and Future Needs
Before signing a new lease, take the time to assess your current IT footprint and project how it may evolve over the next three to five years. Go beyond counting racks—review a variety of indicators to better understand how your business plans to scale.
- Rack Space: How many cabinets are you using today? How much space will you need to accommodate future hardware? Will your equipment remain consistent, or are you expecting shifts in density or size?
- Power and Cooling: Does your workload require high-density compute, such as AI or big data analytics? Confirm your colocation suite can support those power and cooling levels—now and in the future.
- Growth Plans: Does the space you’re considering allow you to expand without moving infrastructure or renegotiating your lease? Scalability should be built into the design, not retrofitted later.
Don’t fail to plan for growth. This can result in costly reconfigurations, limited flexibility, and operational bottlenecks down the line.
Evaluate Connectivity and Redundancy
No matter how modern your infrastructure is, it’s only as reliable as the network and power it runs on. This is why it’s critical to ensure your colocation suite is positioned for seamless connectivity and uptime.
- Carrier-Neutral Access: Does the colocation space you’re considering offer diverse carrier options? Or direct connections to cloud platforms? Flexibility is essential for performance and cost control.
- Power Redundancy: Look for colocation suites that are designed with dual power feeds, backup generators, and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems. These are crucial safeguards that protect your operations from costly outages and allow for maintenance without downtime.
Connectivity and redundancy are foundational to colocation suite design. Don’t leave these components as an afterthought that may result in a costly upgrade down the road.
Determine Security and Compliance
Suite design plays a crucial role in maintaining compliance and mitigating risk. Choosing a secure, compliant colocation suite doesn’t just protect your data—it safeguards your brand’s trust and reputation.
In a world where data breaches are increasingly common, robust security and data protection are not optional. They’re essential in maintaining client confidence.
- Physical Security: At a bare minimum, the colocation space you’re considering should have surveillance cameras. Additional security options may include cages, biometric access control, and badge systems. Confirm what is standard and what can be added before making a decision to lease.
- Compliance Standards: If you operate in a regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance, it’s important to verify your colocation suite design aligns with SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, or other regulatory frameworks. This should also include audit support and documentation capabilities.
When evaluating a colocation suite design, make sure that security is prioritized from the start. A well-designed colocation suite not only simplifies compliance but also strengthens your physical security and cybersecurity posture.
Maximize Efficiency and Flexibility
Easy on-site and remote management is essential for modern IT teams. Make certain that your colocation suite layout is designed for seamless support, maintenance, and management so that it becomes an extension of your IT department, regardless of physical location.
- Physical Layout: Are cable management, hot/cold aisle containment, airflow design, and cabinet placement optimized for serviceability and thermal efficiency? Poor layout choices can increase energy costs and reduce uptime.
- Monitoring and Visibility: Smart Power Distribution Units (PDUs), environmental sensors, and real-time dashboards are key elements of a well-designed colocation suite. They enable remote monitoring and make it easy to identify and address issues as soon as they arise.
- Remote Support: If your team isn’t local, what remote or Smart Hands support does the provider offer? What’s their experience level and response time? Do they have a process for third-party support to enter the space? Your colocation suite design should support easy access for these teams to perform basic tasks without interrupting your critical business operations.
- On-Site Accommodations: Are there conference rooms and workspaces for your personnel to use when they’re on-site? Does your provider have an asset tagging and notification process with secure areas to store, unbox, build, and test equipment prior to deployment? Secure storage and dedicated working areas ensure your equipment stays protected until your team arrives on site—and that they can stay connected once they do.
Partner with an Experienced Team to Avoid Costly Colocation Mistakes
Leasing a colocation space without consulting a design expert can lead to expensive oversights and performance limitations. Turn to a trusted partner like Teladata early in the leasing process to ensure your colocation suite design is tailored to your business’s needs—now and in the future.
Bringing decades of experience to the table, Teladata’s team helps clients transform raw colocation spaces into high-performing environments built for operational ease, security, and scale. Visit our website to get in touch, and let’s get started on designing a colocation suite that supports your success.