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Colocation lets a business place its own servers and other IT equipment in a third-party data center, which supplies the space and facility infrastructure—typically power, cooling, physical security, and network access. It can spare a company from building and operating its own data center, but it does not automatically take responsibility for the company’s hardware, software, monitoring, or recovery.
What colocation includes—and what it leaves to you
In a colocation arrangement, the customer generally owns and controls its equipment while the provider operates the facility environment. That shared-responsibility boundary is central to understanding both the service’s value and its limits. Equinix’s overview of colocation describes the facility services operators may supply; the specific package varies by provider and contract.
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| Typically provided by the colocation facility | Typically retained by the customer |
|---|---|
| Rack or other contracted space; facility power and cooling; physical access controls; and facility-level infrastructure. | Servers, storage, networking equipment, operating systems, applications, network configuration, monitoring, backups, and recovery planning. |
Some providers sell additional services, such as remote-hands assistance, in which facility staff perform specified physical tasks. Do not assume that this means the provider will administer systems or resolve application and network problems: confirm each task, response time, and charge in writing. Data Center Knowledge’s explanation of what providers do and do not do outlines why the division of work matters.
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Use purpose-built facility infrastructure without building your own
A company can place equipment in a facility designed to support IT loads, rather than construct and run a dedicated data center itself. This may reduce the need to manage building infrastructure, but it does not make the customer’s equipment or IT operations someone else’s responsibility. The economics depend on the company’s requirements, utilization, facility location, and contracted services; colocation is not automatically cheaper.
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- Save valuable floor space: 6U wall mount server cabinet Dimensions: 13.78" H x21.65" W x17.72" D.Maximum mounting depth is 14.2"
- Keep critical network equipment secure: glass door and side panels are lockable to prevent unauthorized access. Front door can be installed on either side of the front of the cabinet to satisfy your door swing orientation preference
- Easy equipment configuration: Fully adjustable mounting rails and numbered U positions, with square holes for easy equipment mounting with top and bottom punch-out panels for easy cable access
- Durability: Made of high quality cold rolled steel holds up to 110lb (50kg) (Easy Assembly Required)
- PCI & HIPPA and EIA/ECA-310-E compliant
Connect systems across locations and services
A facility may offer access to network carriers, cloud connections, or other infrastructure in the same location. These connections can be useful for hybrid IT, where workloads span customer-owned equipment, colocation, and cloud. Availability and performance depend on the specific site, providers, configuration, and route; verify the connection options rather than assuming they are present.
In a 2025 survey commissioned by CoreSite and conducted by Foundry, 98% of 300 CIOs, CTOs, and other IT decision-makers surveyed said their organizations were implementing or planning a blend of public and private cloud, on-premises, and colocation services. The finding describes those respondents, not all businesses. In the same survey, 19% said their colocation provider offered interconnection services—a useful reminder to ask providers directly what connectivity they offer. CoreSite’s May 29, 2025 report release describes the survey and its sample.
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- Universal 19” Rack Mount Compatibility – Perfect for pro audio, video, IT, and network gear. Compatible with mixers, routers, patch panels, servers, power amps, and more.
- Heavy-Duty Load Capacity – Built to support up to 550 lbs. Ideal for studio gear, DJ setups, server equipment, and AV components that demand serious stability.
- Robust Steel Frame & Design – Made with 1.5mm thick steel and weighs 36 lbs for maximum durability, reduced vibration, and long-term reliability in any setting.
- Mobile & Secure – Preinstalled with 3” industrial-grade caster wheels (lockable), making it easy to move and position your rack exactly where you need it.
- All-In-One Setup Kit Included – Comes with 34 rack screws (5mm & 6mm), a 1U blank spacer, and an assembly tool—ready for fast installation out of the box.
Anthony Hatzenbuehler, CoreSite’s senior vice president of operations, said, “To have a truly successful hybrid IT environment, one that creates a secure and low-latency competitive edge, companies need seamless integration and connectivity across applications and services.” This is a provider executive’s perspective; whether a particular colocation deployment delivers those benefits depends on its design and connections.
Place equipment where it serves the workload
A site near users, business operations, carriers, or cloud connections may suit workloads with location-sensitive needs. The benefit is not inherent to colocation: compare actual locations, network routes, capacity, and service terms against the needs of the application and its users.
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- ADJUSTABLE DEPTH: 4- Post 22U 19" server rack enclosure with 4 vertical rails and adjustable mounting depth 5.7" to 33.0" (14,4cm to 83,8cm); IT rack is compatible with various servers / switches / data / video / AV and other IT networking equipment
- EASY SHIPPING AND ASSEMBLY: Enclosed 22U data rack cabinet ships compact flat-packed to avoid damage and facilitate installation; Include wheels & levelling feet to offer more stability; Home server rack cabinet is only 46.6in (118,3cm) in height
- DESIGN AND VENTILATION: Half height server rack cabinet has lockable and removable door and side panels with vented top allowing airflow; 4 Post 19" rack with 1764lb (800kg) weight capacity (stationary); Computer cabinet rack is EIA/ECA-310-E Compliant
- HARDWARE INCLUDED: Rolling home network rack includes rack mounting and equipment mounting hardware, such as 20 M6 cage nuts / screws, PVC cup washers; Front/rear doors and side panels Keys, 2x allen keys; Rack assembly hardware; Casters and leveling feet
- THE IT PRO'S CHOICE: Designed and built for IT Professionals, this 22U IT Server Cabinet is backed for life, including free lifetime 24/5 multi-lingual technical assistance
How colocation differs from cloud and managed hosting
| Service model | What the customer generally supplies | What the provider generally supplies |
|---|---|---|
| Colocation | Customer-owned physical equipment and the team or services to operate it. | Data-center space and facility infrastructure; optional managed or remote-hands services depend on the contract. |
| Public cloud | Workloads, configurations, and the operational tasks assigned to the customer under the cloud service model. | Rented infrastructure and cloud services, billed under the provider’s model. |
| Managed hosting | Requirements and applications, with the precise division of infrastructure and administration set by the agreement. | Hosted infrastructure and specified management tasks, as defined in the service contract. |
Colocation and cloud are not mutually exclusive. A business may keep some workloads on owned equipment in a colocation facility and use cloud services for others. The right arrangement depends on workload needs, operational capacity, connectivity, and cost structure. AWS’s data-center overview explains the distinction between a physical data center and cloud services.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to verify before choosing a provider
Compare facilities against your requirements and the full contract, not only a headline monthly fee. TechTarget’s colocation provider guide also emphasizes evaluating power, space, network options, location, security, compliance evidence, services, and contract flexibility.
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- DURABLE BUILD: Constructed from high-quality Cold Rolled Steel, the NavePoint Consumer Series 12U network cabinet boasts a sturdy, welded frame. Fitting EIA standard 19” networking equipment, this server cabinet confidently supports up to 110 lbs, providing a resilient base for your vital IT gear and equipment
- CONVENIENT DESIGN: This 12U cabinet features a reinforced, heat-treated, tempered glass front door with a security lock. Perfect for applications requiring both security and accessibility, its compact design of 17.72"L x 21.65"W x 24.42"H offers a practical solution for space-constrained settings.
- EASY & CUSTOMIZABLE EQUIPMENT SET UP - The 12U IT cabinet, with removable side panels and security locks, offers customization at its finest. Whether it's for an efficient device or cable management, this data cabinet ensures secure, adaptable configurations that suit your networking server requirements
- ENHANCED VENTILATION & SECURITY - Built-in fans and flow-through ventilation work to prevent overheating, ensuring optimal operation of your equipment. The reinforced, lockable tempered glass front door not only boosts security but also facilitates easy monitoring of installed equipment.
- SAFETY & COMPLIANCE - All NavePoint products are built to industry standards.
- Location and connectivity: Check proximity to users and relevant carriers or cloud connections, available network options, routes, and expected latency for your workloads. Confirm which connections are available at the specific facility and what they cost.
- Power and cooling: Establish the capacity available per rack, redundancy design, density limits, and how higher power or cooling requirements affect charges. Use the facility’s current specifications for your proposed load; example power capacities in general buying guides are not universal limits.
- Resilience and access: Ask about planned maintenance, incident communications, site access procedures, and the scope and response times of remote-hands support. Review the service-level agreement (SLA) for what is measured, exclusions, and remedies. An SLA is a contractual commitment with defined terms, not a guarantee that disruption cannot occur.
- Security and compliance: Review physical controls and independently verifiable certifications relevant to your workload. A facility’s security measures or certifications do not, by themselves, make the customer’s systems or organization compliant.
- Commercial terms: Compare recurring facility fees with setup, equipment changes, power, cooling, connectivity, and support charges. Check how capacity can be scaled, what happens at renewal or termination, and whether SLA remedies and contract flexibility meet your needs.
- Responsibility boundary: Put ownership and maintenance of hardware, network configuration, software, monitoring, backups, and recovery tasks in a responsibility plan. Confirm who can access equipment and how the provider handles requests outside its standard service.
When colocation is a reasonable fit
Colocation may suit an organization that needs to retain control of physical equipment but does not want to operate its own dedicated facility, and that has the people or contracted services to manage the IT stack. It may also be worth evaluating when a particular facility offers useful proximity or connections. It is a weaker fit if the business expects the facility operator to manage servers, software, or recovery without buying and defining those services.
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