Big colocation competitors are already exercising their predictive analytic skills by anticipating their market growth and measuring their colocation costs and pricing for consumable resources such as power. CenturyLink is searching to shift their power sources from finite resources such as fossil fuels to renewable energy like wind or solar. In addition to working towards a green future with power source advances, experts anticipate improvements to the efficiency of servers through combinations of raising the density and lowering the amount of energy used as they function. New technologies to control temperature and humidity in data centers using minimal energy are also expected to arise in the coming years. Lowering operational costs of colocation sites will allow providers to allocate more money to furthering their space availability and product offerings.

Thanks to the evolution of “Big Data” and the “Internet of Things” colocation enterprises are able to better measure their internal statistics and analyze their performance. Measurable components of the data center might include security systems, power and cooling systems, electrical usage as well as temperature and humidity control. By studying the results of measured statistics and employing predictive analytics, colocation providers can identify areas to reduce their own costs and optimize the efficiency of their data centers, as well as rev up their product offerings for existing and new clients.

The Market is Ever-Growing

With an annual revenue of 14 billion dollars and an average annual growth of 14.4 percent, the colocation market is only expanding. In the past five years businesses have made a tremendous shift to overall online operations. Not only can businesses increase their customer base while simultaneously cutting marketing costs by operating online, they can also cut consumable costs (fuel, power, paper, etc.) and reduce hourly staff as digitally acquired profits begin to account for larger percentages of overall revenue. Going forward these growth patterns are expected to not only continue, but increase as more and more businesses shift large amounts of their operations to online platforms and internet-based companies continue to grow and new companies are launched.

Many colocation service consumers have begun using multiple services from one provider. Customers are beginning to shift the hosting of their daily applications to data centers such as customer service portals, email and accounting. Outsourcing the hosting of applications such as these cuts costs and opens up space in budgets for new enterprises. Customers are also realizing the potential of reduce their own risks by entering into Service Level Agreements with their data center provider. As the demand for multiple services from each data center rises, providers will either rise to meet the new standard, or be crushed by the competition.

The Computing Game is Getting Stronger
In order to keep up with the colocation competition, data centers must now offer the most effective computing services for their clients. High-performance-computing (HPC) environments are rapidly becoming essential to colocation businesses. A data center company’s ability to keep up in the race depends on its ability to process a lot of data and deliver what is ultimately most important to their clients: a quality experience for their end users. If they want to keep their customers, colocation providers will need to be equipped with HPC capabilities.

Data Centers are now beginning to offer their clients options to customize their colocation services to fit the specific needs of their company. Clients might choose from housing their servers and hardware in locked cabinets, cages, or full rooms. Providers such as Verizon are offering access to hundreds of data centers worldwide for their clients. Verizon and other competitors are now also offering customized hybrid computing services that integrate colocation services, cloud computing, and managed hosting for a one-stop-shop to meet all IT needs.