A Simple Guide To Colocation In Indianapolis

Colocation offers businesses the key benefits of both in-house data centers and the public cloud. It has therefore become a popular solution for businesses of all sizes. This article will look at the benefits, challenges, and costs of colocation with specific references to colocation in Indianapolis.

An overview of Indianapolis’ business landscape

Indianapolis is still very much the “Crossroads of America”. These days, however, it might be more accurate to call it “the logistics hub of America”. This position also makes it one of the USA’s most important manufacturing hubs. It’s also home to major pharmaceutical companies and research facilities.

The city is, however, also embracing the digital age. By doing so, it’s future-proofing its economy. Indianapolis is fostering a growing technology sector, with a focus on innovation and digital transformation. At present, Indianapolis has yet to attract many tech giants from other states. By contrast, it has numerous startups and many established tech SMBs.

Indianapolis’ ability to attract new businesses is boosted by its attractiveness as a place to live and study. It’s full of history and culture with several world-famous museums, including the world’s largest children’s museum. It also regularly hosts major events, particularly the world’s largest single-day sporting event, the Indianapolis 500.

The benefits of colocation in Indianapolis

Here are the three main benefits of colocation in Indianapolis.

Cost-effectiveness: As in most cities, buying real estate in Indianapolis is a significant purchase. Modern businesses are likely to be increasingly reluctant to tie up their cash in this way when there is an alternative such as using colocation in Indianapolis.

Scalability and customizability: The public cloud is strong on scalability but relatively weak on customizability. In-house data centers, by contrast, are strong on customizability but relatively weak on scalability. Using colocation offers both scalability and customizability. What’s more, colocation solutions can be integrated with the public cloud for even more scalability.

Convenience: For most companies, even technology companies, IT infrastructure is essentially a utility like electricity, water, and internet access. Companies need these utilities but they generally don’t want to have to manage them.

The challenges of colocation in Indianapolis

Here are the three main challenges of colocation in Indianapolis.

Choosing the right vendor: Choosing any vendor for any service tends to be a challenge and this is certainly true of choosing a colocation vendor in Indianapolis. The first step in dealing with this challenge is to ensure that you are very clear on your needs, wants, and budget. The second is to ensure that you have a robust process for evaluating vendors fairly.

Creating a suitable contract: Many of the same comments apply to creating a suitable contract. It is often challenging and can be tedious but it is a requirement that most businesses have to handle at least fairly often.

Finding support for niche requirements: Colocation vendors may support customization but it’s usually the customer’s responsibility to implement it. In Indianapolis, it may be a challenge to find contractors or staff for very niche requirements.

The costs of colocation in Indianapolis

The factors influencing the cost of colocation in Indianapolis are much the same as the factors affecting colocation in other areas.

Location and space

The city of Indianapolis is the 18th-most extensive city by land area in the USA, covering 368 square miles. Real estate prices vary widely according to the specific locality. Generally, prices reduce as you head out of the city center towards the suburbs (on a like-for-like basis).

Likewise, the cost of colocation in Indianapolis will be influenced by how much space a business uses. This fact can, however, be offset by paying attention to effective space utilization.

Tiers, facilities, and services

Essentially, the more a colocation facility in Indianapolis can offer, the more it is likely to charge. With tiers, the charges are likely to be levied on all customers as all customers benefit from increased resilience. With facilities and charges, there may be a baseline charge levied on all customers. Usually, however, charges are then scaled in line with a customer’s usage of what is on offer.

Utilities and support

In the context of colocation in Indianapolis, utilities effectively means electricity and network connectivity. Colocation facilities with high levels of energy efficiency and/or high connectivity usually charge more than those that don’t. This premium can, however, often be justified by the long-term operational savings these facilities can offer.

The cost of on-site support is likely to vary according to various criteria. Probably the most significant one is location. Regardless of whether you’re using the colocation vendor’s own staff, a third-party managed services vendor, or your own staff/contractors, they will all have to travel to the location.

Colocation Indianapolis

If you are looking for colocation services in Indianapolis, DataBank is an excellent choice. DataBank has three state-of-the-art data centers in the Indianapolis area, which combine to offer 48,030 square feet of raised floor space, and 5.9MW critical IT load. Learn more about DataBank’s Indianapolis data centers.

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