When is it time to move to Quarter Rack Colocation?
So, you’ve been using single server colocation, maybe even multiple, for a while now and they’re working great! It saves you money and keeps your office from looking and sounding like a server room! But the number of servers and rack space you need is slowly going up as you grow. Quarter Rack colo could be the next step.
But when is it the right time to upgrade to Quarter Rack Colocation instead?
Would a Quarter Rack Be Cheaper?
This is as simple as it sounds.
Would moving to a Quarter Rack be cheaper for you in monthly costs?
For example, from us, Single Server Colo starts at £40/month, and for this, you can fit in a single 1U server. And Quarter Rack Colo for us starts from £325/month, which is 10U in size – or 10 single servers.
Some quick maths tells us that any more than 8 servers (8 x £40 = £320) would be costing you more than it would with a Quarter Rack! So, on a pure cost perspective, 8 (at least for us) is the cut-off point! Bear in mind the exact number of servers this point is, will be different for each Data Centre.
This also doesn’t take any room for future growth into consideration…
How Much Are You Expecting to Grow?
Single Server Colo is excellent as you can just get another server’s worth of rack space when you need it. However, this method of scaling up only works to a certain level…
At some point, it’ll get way more costly to keep getting Single Server Colo. It also leaves no guaranteed room for growth.
Let’s say you have 7 single servers in Colo. What happens when you need to grow by one more, but your Data Centre is at temporary capacity? Or maybe they’d have to store that 8th server in a different cage or even a different building? Maybe it could just take too long for another Single Server Colo to be processed and set up. It could be a lot of things that might happen unexpectedly, which could potentially leave you with negative results depending on how fast you need to expand.
Having a rack guarantees space for you. Even if you’re below the 8 ‘cut-off point’, the space alone could be worth it in itself! Investing early guarantees space for the future and probably means you’ll get it cheaper than in the future. Prices usually go up as a Data Centre’s costs do…
Freedom to Customise Your Quarter Rack
One of the big benefits of having Quarter Rack Colocation as opposed to a Single Server is the ability to customise as you need to.
With Single Server Colocation, you’re restricted to whatever infrastructure and physical space are available. It needs to fit multiple people and servers after all.
With a rack, you’re paying for space, so you can do what you like with it. This could be adding various other parts of kit to your servers, which you wouldn’t have room for before. This could be something like adding a switch, for an internal network between your machines.
This could even be things like keeping spare tech in your cage for the next time you visit.
Access Convenient to You
Another major benefit of upgrading from to Single Server to Quarter Rack Colocation is you have much more access!
Typically, Data Centres only allow escorted access for Single Servers, as your server will be next to other customers. This is never really an issue within office hours, and even out of hours it’s possible but probably subject to a charge.
With racked Colocation, at least with us, you have access to the Data Centre 24/7! We’ll give you a key fob, so you can come and go whenever you please – ideal for any late-night updates!
Even More Security
Having a Quarter Rack of Colo is inherently more secure too.
While Single Servers are kept secure and locked, there is always an issue that your server is next to other people’s. This isn’t usually an issue, and with appropriate security measures, nothing should ever happen!
That being said, as a Quarter Rack is your own individual, lockable rack, it is much more secure! Think of it as a bonus to the main benefits of racked Colocation! It’s also handy to have all your servers in one place too!
Want to Know More?
If you want to know more about our Colocation, you can click here. Alternatively, you can also visit our other blog posts about Colo.
Keep Up to Date
One of the easiest ways to stay up to date with what we do here is to follow us on social media!
Reader Interactions