Glossary · simply explained

Colocation

Colocation means: your own hardware in someone else’s data center — with professional infrastructure and direct cloud onramps.

Colocation means operating your own servers and network equipment in a professional third-party data center: the provider supplies space, redundant power, cooling, physical security and connectivity — the hardware, its operation and the data remain fully in your hands.

Between your own server room and public cloud, colocation occupies the middle: professional infrastructure without owning a data center, full control without cloud dependency. Especially valuable is the neighbourhood — carriers, internet exchanges and cloud onramps are reachable in the same building.

What colocation delivers — and what not

The provider guarantees the shell: uninterruptible power with backup generation, redundant cooling, fire protection, access control and availability SLAs, classified by tier or EN 50600 levels. You rent by rack units, racks or cages; power is increasingly priced by consumption and density — relevant since GPU racks draw multiples of classic servers.

Everything inside the rack remains the customer’s business: hardware lifecycle, operating systems, patches, monitoring, backups. Those who do not want to staff for this combine colocation with the operator’s remote hands services or a managed services partner who takes over operations — the line between colocation and managed hosting can be drawn flexibly.

Why companies colocate

Hybrid foundation: own systems right next to cloud onramps — private interconnects instead of internet.
Data sovereignty: full control over hardware and data, site selectable in Germany/EU.
Cost stability for steady loads and special hardware (GPU, licence-bound systems).
Exit from the own server room: professional redundancy without construction investment.

Frequently asked questions about Colocation

What is the difference between colocation and cloud?

With colocation the hardware is yours — you buy, operate and scale it yourself; only the environment is rented. The cloud rents virtual resources by consumption. Colocation scores on control and predictable steady costs, the cloud on elasticity and managed services.

What does colocation typically cost?

Billing is usually per rack or rack unit plus power — the latter is now the dominant factor, priced by consumption or provisioned capacity. Add cross-connects and optional remote hands. For stable base load, colocation often sits well below comparable permanent capacity in the cloud.

How do colocation and hybrid cloud relate?

Colocation sites are the natural anchor points of hybrid architectures: in-house cloud onramps enable private, low-latency connections to hyperscalers, carrier diversity redundant WAN paths. Own systems and cloud workloads move within a few milliseconds of each other.

What should you look for when choosing a provider?

Availability class and evidence (tier/EN 50600, the operator’s ISO 27001), power pricing model and density per rack, carrier neutrality and available cloud onramps, remote hands quality, expansion reserves — and the location: latency to users, redundancy distance to the second site.

Does responsibility for IT security stay with the customer?

Yes — the operator is responsible for physical security and building infrastructure; everything from the rack inward remains the customer’s task: system hardening, patches, network segmentation, access control, monitoring. Exactly this operational part can be delegated to a managed services partner.