According to recent research from Gartner, the global colocation market is expected to double by 2020 to $50B. Rittal is seeing colocation providers move towards a hybrid cloud strategy to connect hyperconverged platforms.

Hybrid cloud solutions are helping colocation facilities differentiate themselves from the competition. The elastic demand of hyperconverged platforms into cloud computing meant customers didn’t often need an extensive cloud solution. By giving them access to a hybrid solution using a 100Gb connection, they could meet seasonal and test development challenges without taking on a large fixed cost.

To meet scalability demands for these type of solutions, many colocation facilities are turning to ship loadable solutions to move the fixed expenditures outside of their cost center. Manufacturer customization and integration is crucial to ensuring these solutions work for the needs of the data center.

However, customization can’t come at the expense of complexity. Product complexity creates greater cost for colocation facilities. By standardizing modular enclosures as part of their infrastructure offering, colocation managers are able to deliver service consistency, control costs, and lower the learning curve for facility maintenance operators. Manufacturers are offering infrastructure products that enable colocation managers to set up their rack around similar platforms of enclosures, and cable, power, and airflow/thermal management solutions.

As hyperconvergence requires more colocation support, turnkey solutions will enable data center managers to quickly scale to meet demands, grow their business, and differentiate from the competition.

- Hans Baumann, Rittal Corporation