No matter the size of your company, if your business is one that is rapidly growing, you may want to consider colocation and all the benefits it offers. Rather than store and maintain your own data in an onsite data center, colocation presents an offsite alternative with substantial advantages. Take a look below at four things to consider if you're hesitant about switching to a colocation service provider in the near future.

Colocation Is Cheaper

Building and maintaining your own data center can be a massive undertaking, both in the complexity that such a project inherently possesses, but also in the financial resources it requires. It can prove especially daunting if your business is growing so quickly as to outpace predictions concerning the need for larger power and cooling units. To avoid all the expenses involved in such a hassle, consider colocation as a more affordable IT alternative.

Colocation Is More Reliable

Though having a private data center does mean opportunities for customization and constant oversight, there are often network reliability issues that compromise these advantages. Colocation means instant access to constantly reliable networks, which in turn guarantees peace of mind if you and your business are beginning to handle a growing number of regular users.

Colocation Is Safer

Trying to protect a private data center against data breaches and other attacks from outside sources is an almost impossible job. But when you pay for colocation, much of what you pay to the service provider goes toward protecting the invaluable data stored on their servers through both digital and physical means: everything from hacking to natural disasters is protected against in a variety of ways. Something such as forced entry, which a small business might be particularly vulnerable to, is also protected against by colocation. 

Colocation Offers More Bandwidth

Small companies often find that previous estimates regarding necessary bandwidth quickly become outdated. If you're a growing business, one of the worst things you can do from an IT perspective is to underestimate the amount of bandwidth your users will take up, especially during a critical period such as a product launch or streaming event. In order to prevent catastrophe and ensure that you always have the bandwidth volume necessary to be up and running, consider handing over your data to a colocation service provider. You can carefully scale your usage as necessary, and as such it will ultimately prove the more cost effective option.