Colocation America Ensures Business Web Apps Are Always On

Colocation America: Ensuring the Web Applications of Modern Enterprises are Always On Through Fault-Tolerant Datacenters Designed for Redundancy

Written by: April Fitzgerald

April Fitzgerald

April FitzGerald has taught digital media technology at the college level for more than 10 years. Her courses focus on graphic design, multimedia production, and web design and development with a dash of programming thrown in. April's goal is to combine her artistic and technical skills to share entertaining tales of up-and-coming technologies and trends in the ever-changing digital world so that readers — from beginners to seasoned vets — can learn from and share in the experience.

Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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TL; DR: Founded with a mission to supply enterprises with foundational IT infrastructure, Colocation America has delivered some of the hosting space’s highest uptime guarantees, security, and web scalability for nearly two decades. By offering cloud, dedicated server, and IP transit, among other services, the company’s 22 US-based datacenters ensure the mission-critical applications of modern organizations are always available. And, with a robust corporate social responsibility initiative that aims to educate future technology professionals, Colocation America has earned its reputation as an industry leader.

IT and software development firm, Niagara Technology Group (NTG), operates with the goal to provide affordable technology solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses throughout the US, Canada, UK, and France. But, like the many SMBs it serves, NTG found itself needing to upgrade and streamline its IT architecture to best serve its many clients.

“Running our own facilities was not cost-effective nor did it provide us with the service levels we wanted,” said Scott Alan Miller, NTG Spokesperson. “Key staff who should have been working on our wheelhouse work were instead handling non-expertise datacenter tasks, which is a problem many businesses encounter.”

NTG had to free up staff so they could zero in on mission-critical business operations. And, as Scott noted, moving the company’s clusters to Colocation America provided the ideal solution.

Colocation America helps businesses power mission-critical applications from its 22 US-based fault-tolerant datacenters.

“For us, the shift in human capital was the biggest benefit,” Scott said. “But we also found benefits in many other areas — the biggest being stability and availability of the environment, which was something we were not able to provide by having our hardware in-house.”

For nearly two decades, Colocation America has been providing businesses, like NTG, with the high uptime guarantees, security, and scalability necessary to succeed in today’s technology-dependent landscape. The company’s 22 datacenters located across the US are delivering IT infrastructure that is producing huge returns on investment and proving colocation is a better choice than running on in-house architecture or turning to public cloud providers.

Guaranteeing 100% Network Uptime With N+1 Redundancy

Service had been knocked offline again. Phones rang nonstop with panicked clients wondering why their sites were down and when they would be back up. It was a hosting nightmare frequently experienced in the 1990s — one a group of industry-leading senior network engineers decided to vanquish. Determined, the group banded together and, in 2000, started Colocation America.

“We’ve built robust networks with enough of a great BGP pool where we really don’t go down,” said Samantha Walters, Colocation America’s VP of Corporate Strategy. “We don’t have those ups and downs.”

Keeping companies online and profitable was Colocation America’s goal.

Colocation America’s Samantha Walters told us how the company is helping enterprises scale and deliver apps to market.

“Our mindset is always to find the people that need our services,” Samantha said. “From there, we decide how can we best meet those needs and set up solutions.”

Colocation America’s built-in redundancy helps clients stay online, making sure applications are available whenever and wherever needed. With N+1 redundancy on all networks, hardware, and power systems, Colocation America offers plans that are optimal for any cost-conscious business.

The company’s packages span from 1U to 10U, with half- and full-rack spaces up to fully customizable cages and cabinets. This all comes with zero upfront costs to get started. This way, businesses don’t have to dish out big capital expenditures for reliable connectivity and large IT support teams.

Build IT Infrastructure: Cloud, Dedicated Server, and IP Transit Services

Colocation America has many options for a business to build and develop its IT infrastructure. The company’s main offerings include cloud, dedicated servers, and IP transit services.

Although Colocation America can provide cloud services, it prefers not to compete with its clients who already do. Instead, Colocation America acts as a connector to the cloud through its hybrid cloud solutions, called SmartE Cloud.

If a more streamlined option is needed, the company’s managed hosting solutions tackle storage, security, and high availability issues. Customers gain instant access to more than 240 leading tier-1 bandwidth providers, a scalable network, and datacenters throughout the US.

For testing IP connections, Colocation America offers a variety of IP transit service utilities, with TraceRoute being the most popular. Test files are available for download to track the speed and direction client internet connections take when communicating with Colocation America’s servers.

Dedicated servers are also available to clients who are looking for top-notch connectivity, scalability, reliability, and performance. If a client’s issue is more complex, build-your-own custom servers or pre-made, built-to-suit packages can be delivered.

“It’s hard to find people who are selling less than a cab or half a cab, and so what you’re seeing is providers trying to get them to a larger point of power than they really need,” Samantha said.

According to Samantha, Colocation America doesn’t oversell its services. Instead, the company helps clients discover what’s realistically necessary to fuel their operations.

“We talk to them to discover what service they need and what hey have,” Samantha said. “And, with colocation services, we can provide and dedicate the right bandwidth.”

Regarding space, Samantha told us clients need not worry about their servers having enough room to grow. Businesses can begin with a half rack and then expand to two or three. This allows Colocation America’s clients to grow their infrastructure in tandem with business needs.

“It really gives them the ability to test things and discover what their infrastructure really looks like,” Samantha said. “They can see where they’re saving and how they are servicing their clients.”

22 US-Based Datacenters Backed by Security and Reliability

With 22 datacenters stationed across the US, support is available 24/7 and is backed by 15 years of expert IT experience. Colocation America’s IT approach is intentionally made transparent within the company to ensure the best customer service experience.

This transparency allows customers to “really get us at any time,” Samantha said. “We will get back to you within 24 hours, and then we can pinpoint what you really need. We call it the Hand-Holding Effect.”

Samantha told us this approach is very effective, especially for businesses that aim to grow organically. When clients turn to Colocation America, the team gets to work on devising a tailor-made IT solution.

“Clients come in, and we start immediately looking at their existing technology and act as consultants as they build out,” Samantha said.

For networks, the company provides points of presence in major hubs, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Miami, and has access to more than 200 premier tier-1 carriers.

All datacenters are well protected with onsite guards, video surveillance, access control, and redundancy to ensure client data is safe and sound. To round out this suite of security measures, the datacenters are also backed by HIPAA, PCI DSS, SSAE 16, and SOC certifications.

Inspiring the Future of STEM Through Grants and Educational Programs

Colocation America’s comprehensive datacenter solutions have made the company a popular choice among modern businesses looking to streamline IT operations. However, the company’s commitment to supporting the development of future professionals in the tech space has cemented its position as a leader in the industry.

To ensure future generations have access to STEM opportunities, Colocation America provides grants for the development of STEM youth programs, giving back to the communities it serves. Youth organizations and educators engaged with STEM educational programs are eligible to apply for the scholarship program, which awards up to $7,500.

This robust corporate social responsibility initiative epitomizes Colocation America’s dedication to advancing knowledge in the technology sector and is helping ensure tomorrow’s global organizations will be able to innovate and cultivate world-changing ideas.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

April Fitzgerald

April FitzGerald has taught digital media technology at the college level for more than 10 years. Her courses focus on graphic design, multimedia production, and web design and development with a dash of programming thrown in. April's goal is to combine her artistic and technical skills to share entertaining tales of up-and-coming technologies and trends in the ever-changing digital world so that readers — from beginners to seasoned vets — can learn from and share in the experience.

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