- What is managed colocation?
- Managed colocation (managed colo) combines physical rack space and power in a third-party data centre with ongoing operational services from the provider — remote hands, 24/7 monitoring, OS patching, backup management, and network administration. The operator runs the day-to-day so your team does not need an on-site presence. It sits between raw colocation (you manage everything above the cage) and a fully hosted cloud service.
- How many managed colocation providers does viabandwidth track?
- viabandwidth tracks 1188 colocation operators that include managed services in their portfolio, sourced from operator websites and viabandwidth's own enrichment. The list sorts direct operators (verified own infrastructure) first, so procurement teams can shortlist by managed capability alongside verified infrastructure.
- What services should a managed colo provider include?
- The core managed-services stack typically includes: remote-hands coverage (24/7 or business-hours), hardware break/fix dispatch, OS and firmware patching, network monitoring and alerting, backup and recovery management, and a documented incident-response SLA. Beyond the core, look for: IMAC (install/move/add/change) services, asset tagging and inventory management, secure media destruction, and a customer portal for remote console access.
- When should I choose managed colo over public cloud?
- Managed colo is typically preferable when: (1) workloads are latency-sensitive or require dedicated hardware (bare metal); (2) compliance requirements demand physical isolation (HIPAA, PCI DSS, government); (3) TCO over 3+ years is materially lower than equivalent cloud reservation pricing; (4) the application cannot be containerised or virtualised without significant re-architecture cost. Cloud is preferable when elasticity, pay-per-use scaling, or managed PaaS services outweigh the control advantage of dedicated hardware.
