August 28, 2019 admin

5G technology will transform colocation

Colocation is the best choice in hosting your web and other IT resources, and 5G wireless connectivity is going to make it even better.

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5G, or fifth-generation wireless connection technology, is set to change the cellular and mobile digital market in the United States and around the world. And while most are looking forward to better smart phone applications, 5G will also transform colocation — the best way to manage your business’s digital resources. The question is, how do you take advantage of that transformation?

You have choices in how to host your business’s online presence:

  • In-house: you can do it all yourself, with your own servers, networks and other infrastructure
  • Web hosting: you can pay a web-hosting company to host your website and other digital assets on their servers
  • Colocation: you can rent space on servers from a specialist that provides security, maintenance and technical support

Each has advantages and disadvantages. With an in-house data center, you have complete control. But you have the responsibility for keeping the hardware and software up to date, to keep IT specialists on staff, and to stay on top of the security risks.

Outsourcing to another company can save you money and ensure that the IT team is up to the minute in resources and security.

A web hosting service will take over the responsibility for maintaining hardware, software and security. However, you don’t own the servers or network. This means you have less control.

With colocation, you also store your digital resources off-site. However, you rent the space on the server from the colocation provider. This gives you up-to-date hardware and software, full security, reliable connectivity and speed, technical support and backups, as well as full control over your digital resources.

It’s the best of all worlds for most companies, especially those doing most of their business on the web.

And the next wave of mobile technology, 5G, stands to transform connectivity and colocation.

5G and colocation

5G is the fifth-generation cellular or mobile network. It promises far higher data speeds than the current 4G LTE standard. 5G networks offer much greater bandwidth and higher data speed with low to no latency (the lag between touching a screen and getting a response). They’re also much more reliable than even 4G networks, with fewer dropped calls.

5G networks can be deployed within buildings, as well, providing better coverage within enclosed spaces than 4G or earlier technologies.

Many users are looking forward to nearly instant video downloads and reliable multi-party video conferencing over 5G, but the impact is going to be far deeper and more extensive.

5G also allows a much greater number of devices to connect to wireless networks. It’s the connectivity technology that will enable things like driverless cars, which need to connect to each other as well as control systems instantly, and through different nodes as they move around a city.

5G is also the technology that will bring the “Internet of Things,” of IoT, into reality by connecting a far larger number of different devices. Not just servers, computers and mobile devices, but also machines, sensors, monitors and a growing number of appliances — even your refrigerator or thermostat.

IT consultants predict that 5G will transform software development by connecting more people in different locations together seamlessly. This will allow technical teams to move closer to the core of the business, building integrated solutions to new business initiatives from the get-go.

According to this article in IoT World Today, extensive deployment of 5G networks removes the need to maintain WiFi modems or routers. 5G nodes have a much shorter range than short-range communications directly from the 5G network device to the user’s device.

Colocation market growth predicted

While 5G remains imminent in the United States, colocation is growing fast. Adoption of colocation and managed hosting is predicted to have a compound annual growth rate of 14.9% from now to 2022.

The growth is being driven by the increasing recognition of the flexibility and cost-saving of cloud computing — which includes colocation.

Another emerging trend is the hybrid platform, which combines in-house resources and colocation to make data storage and management more flexible and easier.

North America will remain the leader in adoption of colocation, because of the existing lead and rapid development of infrastructure, including 5G technology. The Asia-Pacific region will also have strong growth in colocation because of its lower costs and dynamic economic growth in the region.

Call us at Broadline Solutions to learn how to make colocation work for your clients.