What is colocation, and is it right for you? That question is the first step for businesses that own their servers and want to move them out of the office. A colocation service means hosting your company’s own servers, storage and network devices in a rented cabinet (rack) inside a professional data center: the hardware remains yours, while power, cooling, connectivity and physical security come from the data center. This article explains, step by step, which criteria to examine before you rent server rack space.
Office server rooms often depend on a single air conditioner, a limited UPS and a single internet line. A power outage, a cooling failure or a line problem can bring every business process to a halt. Below, we cover how the colocation model works, how to choose a provider, how it compares with the alternatives, the migration process and common mistakes.
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What is colocation? The basics of server hosting
Put simply, colocation means “the hardware is yours, the environment is the data center’s.” The business buys its servers or uses existing devices, and these are mounted in a dedicated cabinet in the data center. The data center provides uninterruptible power, precision cooling, redundant network connectivity and 24/7 physical security.
The rental unit is usually a full rack (42U or 47U), a half rack, a quarter rack or a few units (U) of space. In Turkish, the generic word for “cabinet rental” is also used in other industries, which is why the more precise terms for this service are server rack rental or rack space rental. The scope of the service goes beyond physical space: power capacity, connectivity and operational support are also part of the contract.
Among server hosting models, colocation gives you the most control over the hardware. Software, operating systems and hardware configuration are entirely your decision; the data center only operates the infrastructure environment.
Who is colocation for?
Once you know what colocation is, the next question is fit; colocation is not the right model for every business. Its advantages become clear in certain requirement profiles:
- Companies with existing hardware investments: Businesses with newly purchased servers, or servers still being depreciated, protect that investment by moving the hardware to a more secure environment.
- Users of specialized hardware: Environments that require specific storage systems, licensing appliances or specialized network equipment.
- Regulated industries: Finance, healthcare and public-sector suppliers that must document the physical location of their hardware and its access logs.
- Organizations building a hybrid architecture: Businesses running part of their systems in colocation and part in the cloud, with a low-latency link between the two environments.
For companies that would rather consume resources as a service than own hardware, dedicated server or cloud models may be a better fit. This comparison is covered separately below.
Criteria to evaluate when renting server rack space
In practice, choosing colocation comes down to asking the right questions. Rack prices are usually quoted in the same units, but many factors determine the scope and cost of the service. The table below summarizes the main criteria to check when comparing quotes.
| Criterion | What to ask | Impact on cost |
|---|---|---|
| Rack size | Full, half or quarter rack; number of U and depth | Proportional to the space used |
| Power (kW) | Power allocated to the rack, A+B feeds, metered or fixed | Usually the most decisive item |
| Redundant power / UPS | UPS and generator redundancy, whether maintenance causes downtime | Increases with the Tier level |
| Cooling | Hot/cold aisle layout, support for high-density racks | Makes a difference for high-kW racks |
| Uplink / bandwidth | Port speed, committed bandwidth, number of IP addresses, carrier diversity | Increases with committed traffic |
| Remote hands | Scope and turnaround of tasks such as cabling, resets and disk replacements | Included in the package or billed hourly |
| Physical security | Locked racks, card and biometric access, cameras, visitor logs | Increases with options such as a private cage |
The Tier level is an important indicator of how a data center behaves during maintenance and failures. The Uptime Institute Tier classification describes Tier III as a facility where maintenance can be performed without service interruption, and Tier IV as one with independent, fault-tolerant systems.
Common practice vs the right approach: power and cooling in rack selection
Among businesses just starting to research colocation, common practice is to base the rack rental decision on rack size and the monthly fee. Later, while the devices are being installed, it turns out that the allocated power is insufficient, an extra power feed is needed or high-density servers are pushing the cooling limits. This creates both extra cost and a risk of unplanned downtime.
The right approach is to work out the power budget before the rack size. Measure each device’s actual consumption rather than its nameplate rating, add room for growth and calculate the load level at which you can operate safely with A+B redundant feeds. On the cooling side, the thermal guidelines on ASHRAE’s data center resource page can serve as a reference for accepted server inlet air temperature ranges.
Another difference is on the operations side. In common practice, once the rack is handed over, the state of the devices only gets noticed when something breaks. In an enterprise approach, hardware, network and services are monitored continuously; a 24/7 system monitoring service catches events such as disk failures or lost connections before users are affected.
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On-premises server room vs colocation vs cloud/dedicated
The colocation question usually comes with a bigger one: “Do we stay in the office server room, move to a data center or give up owning hardware altogether?” The differences between the three approaches can be summarized as follows:
- Your own server room: Both hardware and environment stay in-house. Investment in power redundancy, cooling, fire suppression and physical security is the company’s responsibility; a single line and a single air conditioner are the most common points of failure.
- Colocation: The hardware is yours, the environment is the data center’s. Redundant power, cooling and multi-carrier connectivity come ready to use; hardware refreshes and failure management remain with you.
- Dedicated or cloud server: The hardware also belongs to the service provider. No capital investment is needed and hardware failures are the provider’s responsibility; on the other hand, your hardware choice is limited to the provider’s portfolio.
For companies due for a hardware refresh, dedicated server rental may be a more economical option than colocation. The decision should be based on the age of your current hardware, your licensing structure and how much time your IT team can spend managing hardware.
The colocation migration and setup process, step by step
Moving servers from the office or another data center can be completed within a controlled maintenance window when it is well planned. A typical colocation migration consists of these steps:
- Inventory: List the model, U height, number of power supplies and actual power consumption of every device to be moved.
- Rack layout plan: Map out device positions in the rack, cable management and PDU distribution in advance.
- Network design: Prepare the IP plan, uplink connection, firewall and VPN access; test any IP changes in advance where possible.
- Backup and rollback plan: Take a full backup before the move and document in writing how you will roll back if something goes wrong.
- Physical transport and installation: Transport the devices in suitable packaging, mount them on their rails, label them and cable them.
- Validation and monitoring: Test services, activate monitoring agents and keep a close watch during the first days.
Instead of physically moving every server, you can also virtualize some of them and move them to the cloud. Our cloud migration services retire aging hardware and move workloads to a virtual environment through a planned process.
Common mistakes when choosing colocation, and the right way to do it
The details skipped at the contract stage matter as much as understanding what colocation is. Most problems faced by businesses renting rack space in a data center stem from these gaps. The most common mistakes and the right methods to avoid them are:
- Calculating power from nameplate ratings: The rating on a power supply label does not reflect actual consumption. Base your numbers on measured device consumption and startup load.
- Settling for a single power feed: If dual-PSU devices are not connected separately to the A and B feeds, the benefit of redundant power is lost.
- Not asking about the scope of remote hands: Who performs a reset or disk replacement needed at midnight, and how quickly, should be defined in writing.
- Keeping backups in the same rack: Backups sitting in the same rack as production systems offer no protection in a disaster scenario. Keep a copy in a different location.
- Not updating the access list: The list of staff authorized to enter the data center should be updated regularly as people leave the company.
Stating these points explicitly in the contract or a service annex reduces uncertainty during operations. Remote hands and power overage terms in particular are the topics that cause the most disputes later on.
Colocation in Istanbul: data center location and KVKK
For many businesses in Türkiye, the colocation question is directly tied to another one: “Where is our data physically located?” Thanks to its carrier diversity and connectivity density, Istanbul is at the center of data center investment in the country. For Istanbul-based companies, a data center in the city offers low latency and lets teams reach their devices quickly when needed.
Companies that process personal data must document the physical location of that data and whether it is transferred abroad under KVKK (Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law). Guidelines published by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority set out the framework for technical and administrative measures. Hosting in a data center in Türkiye simplifies these obligations; for a definitive assessment, consult your company’s legal counsel, as this article is not legal advice.
Colocation with MAV Cloud: Equinix infrastructure, processes and standards
At enterprise scale, the value of colocation depends on the quality of the infrastructure. MAV Cloud provides server rack rental on Equinix data center infrastructure in Türkiye. The rack service is planned not just as physical space allocation but as an infrastructure layer that can be combined with monitoring, backup and security services. See our colocation / rack rental page for scope and options.
The key elements supporting our service processes are:
- Management systems certified under ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27701, ISO 22301, ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 20000.
- First-response targets defined by incident priority: critical 15 minutes, high 1 hour, medium 4 hours, low 1 business day.
- 24/7 expert support and an optional 24/7 system monitoring service.
- Veeam-based backup and replication to protect colocation systems in a separate environment.
This setup makes it easier for businesses that want to keep their own hardware to move to a hybrid architecture: some systems run in the rack, others in the cloud, while management and monitoring are handled from a single point.
Frequently asked questions
What is colocation and how does it work?
Colocation means hosting a business’s own servers and network devices in a rented rack inside a data center. The hardware remains the business’s property, while power, cooling, connectivity and physical security are provided by the data center.
What is the difference between rack rental and a dedicated server?
With server rack rental, the hardware belongs to the business and is managed by the business. With a dedicated server, the hardware belongs to the provider, the business rents it as a service and hardware failures are the provider’s responsibility.
What factors determine colocation pricing?
The main factors are rack size, allocated power (kW), the redundant power setup, uplink and bandwidth, the number of IP addresses, the scope of remote hands and additional physical security options.
Why does a data center’s Tier level matter?
The Tier level indicates a data center’s ability to keep services running during maintenance and failures. Tier III and higher facilities are designed so that planned maintenance can be performed without service interruption.
What does a remote hands service include?
Remote hands means data center staff physically working on your devices on your behalf. It covers tasks such as resets, cable checks, disk replacements and visual inspections; scope and turnaround times should be defined in the contract.
Which devices are suitable for colocation?
Rack-mounted servers, storage units, switches, routers and firewalls can be hosted in a rack. Desktop-style devices require a shelf or a custom solution, so share your inventory in advance.
Is there downtime when moving servers to a data center?
A physical move requires a planned maintenance window because the devices must be powered down. With a well-prepared layout plan, network design and backup, downtime can be kept to a minimum.
Does colocation in Istanbul help with KVKK compliance?
Hosting data in Türkiye simplifies cross-border transfer processes and makes it easier to document the physical location of the data. For a legal assessment, consult your company’s own legal counsel.
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For readers researching what colocation is, the criteria table is a practical way to compare quotes. Teams undecided between their own server room and a data center can share their device inventory to get a concrete comparison. Businesses ready to move can start the process through the quote form or by phone.