Quarter Rack Colocation is a Affordable Low Cost Option

Colocation services have proved to be highly convenient for businesses that wish to migrate their servers to a more reliable data infrastructure. However, the cost implication, although still much lesser than on-premises server hosting, challenges many potential adopters.

For this reason, colocation service providers such as Safehosts let you choose a rack that suits your budget — you can opt for a full rack, half rack or quarter rack colocation.

Renting a rack for your data servers at a colocation data centre is like renting a house. You’ll have full access and ownership of the servers just like you would own all the items you bring into your rented house. The size of the house you’ll be renting will depend on your family size and the furniture you need to accommodate in the house.

Similarly, rack spaces can be rented depending on the amount of hardware supporting your data servers. The most popular of these colocation hosting options is the quarter rack.

Let’s find out what it is and how your business can benefit from renting out a quarter rack at your preferred colocation data centre.

What Is Quarter Rack Colocation?

Colocation data centres provide racks on which clients’ servers are stored. When you use quarter rack colocation, it simply means you’re utilising a quarter of the full rack space to store your servers.

Many businesses prefer this colocation hosting option because of the flexibility it provides in terms of scalability and affordability. In essence, it allows businesses only to rent enough space (no more, no less) for their servers at a colocation facility.

Quarter rack is just one of the most popular ways that colocation data centres price their services.

Colocation Pricing

As mentioned earlier, quarter rack colocation is determined by the amount of space your servers require for storage. Data centres use 1U (Single U) as a unit of storage space measurement.

A quarter rack is equivalent to 10U of rack space and accommodates most average data server equipment. Knowing that your equipment falls within this size will help you avoid paying for full rack space, thus saving you money.

Besides the quarter rack colocation, large corporations with bigger server equipment may not find this option to be sufficient. In such a case, Safehosts provide other options such as:

Full rack colocation

The majority of full rack cages are 42Us in height, with a width ranging from 19 to 23 inches. However, racks are not always of the same size, and thus you might find a data centre with full racks of 45U, 48U or even 50U in height.

This is why it's important to research the available colocation data centres to see which one suits you. However, it is very rare you’ll need a full rack since most servers range between 1U to 4U high.

Half rack colocation

Rack space can also be priced as 21U high, half the height of a full rack. When using half-rack colocation, you can either have:

• 2 server equipment, each taking up half the width of the rack frame placed side by side.
• 2 server equipment, each taking up only half the depth of a rack frame placed one in front of the other.

Why Choose Safehosts Quarter Rack Colocation Services?

Businesses taking up quarter rack server colocation can enjoy several great benefits. This includes;

• Smaller investment
• Setting up a dedicated server room for your IT infrastructure is a huge investment. Many small businesses do not have the capital for such an investment, so quarter rack colocation provides the optimal choice for their IT infrastructure needs.
• With quarter rack colocation, you’ll enjoy the full benefits of uninterrupted data server operation at a fraction of the cost.

Saves space and reduces carbon footprint

Businesses that choose to host their servers using quarter rack colocation eliminate the need to have an on-premises server room. This space can be used for expansion purposes in other areas of the business. Additionally, quarter rack colocation data centres have the right conditions for housing servers with HVAC cooling mechanisms and optimisation of electricity usage, minimising carbon footprint.

Great security

Quarter rack colocation service providers such as Safehosts go to great lengths to ensure security for your servers. Only authorised personnel are granted access either for maintenance purposes or routine physical checkups by you. Colocation data centres provide you with a sense of control and oversight over your server’s condition by granting you access to the servers.

These quarter rack colocation hosting data centres also provide backup internet connectivity and power to ensure zero downtime. They also employ robust security protocols to safeguard your data against theft, damage or accidental loss.

Ease of scalability

When you opt for quarter rack colocation, you are at liberty to add more space as your business's data needs grow. You can start with this option before your IT infrastructure demands more rack space. The quarter rack colocation will be able you to support multiple routers, switches, and even firewalls while still using only a single server.

You can also choose a quarter rack colocation as a backup for your main on-premises servers. This will provide continuity in case of any disaster since colocation facilities are built to withstand such scenarios.

Conclusion

Businesses have options when it comes to server hosting at dedicated data centres. Colocation is the most popular of these options as it relieves your business from the hassle of funding and managing an on-premises IT infrastructure for your servers. UK Colocation data centres like Safehosts have even gone further to tailor their colocation services to suit different business sizes, with options such as single U, quarter rack, half rack and full rack available.

The quarter rack colocation provides all the benefits that a colocation data centre offers, including security, network connectivity, cooling, uninterrupted power for zero downtime and maintenance to ensure optimal uptime. Quarter rack colocation also provides copper switch port, custom amp and CDR options, remote hands, and 24/7 support. Collectively, these features make quarter rack colocation a reliable option for many businesses both in the UK and internationally.