08/05/23

When opting for Colocation Data Center services, your company can choose between different hiring models. One of them is Wholesale, also known as “wholesale leasing”, aimed at large companies from various segments.

Usually, businesses with this profile have specific needs, such as more space to accommodate all servers, switches with exclusive access and large cages, among others. Therefore, there are currently natively prepared environments located inside Data Center buildings and maintained by specialized providers to meet this kind of demand.

To give you an idea, until recently, larger companies needed to rent an entire property to accommodate their entire IT infrastructure. However, as the market evolved, these suppliers began to make larger areas available within their perimeter, which facilitated the migration of workloads and, in addition, created the conditions for contracting and maintaining the structure even more attractive.

Do you want to know more about how Wholesale works in practice and the advantages related to this model? Keep reading this article:

Customized solutions optimize IT infrastructure

The adoption of Data Centers in the Colocation model is growing worldwide, mainly due to the increase in the demand for digital services – which, in turn, has been extensively driven by the rise in remote work and the usage of online platforms.

It is, therefore, a solution aimed at growing companies, mainly due to the scalability and security it provides. In addition, as pointed out by the Gartner consultancy, hiring outsourced services has been identified as a trend, precisely due to the flexibility and practicality offered by this format.

When choosing this path, the customer can access customized Data Center services provisioned according to existing requests (being able to change plans whenever necessary). And the best: without the necessity to invest time and money in constructing and maintaining grandiose physical structures.

In the case of large companies, which naturally need more space to accommodate their servers, counting on this scalability is essential. In addition, this kind of business usually has specific needs, which require more prominent and/or exclusive spaces within the infrastructure of a Data Center.

Therefore, the Wholesale colocation model stands out as a strategic decision.

What is Wholesale Data Center and when to choose the model

To meet this type of demand, Colocation service providers, such as ODATA, make entire rooms available within a Data Center – or even a complete building, depending on the volume desired by the customer. Thus, the concept of ‘Wholesale’ can be defined.

As an example, it is a choice commonly made by organizations that hold environments based on cloud computing or, then, on high-performance computing, known in the market as HPC.

By choosing such a model, the space is used only by the contracting institution, which is responsible for installing the necessary equipment (or else contracting this service). And even for implementing all the ideal inputs for your business infrastructure to work, such as connectivity, levels of redundancy and energy sources, and cooling structure, among others. Thus, the client can have individual access to the building and also a totally isolated space, if necessary.

However, the cost related to contracting the service varies according to these structure specifications and is previously defined between the customer and the Colocation service provider.

The wholesale Data Center segment will grow 17% by 2024, mainly due to its ability to meet demands with agility and exclusivity.”

Source: MarketWatch Reports

Does my business need a Wholesale Data Center?

It is essential to analyze business demands and the volume of workloads handled by the Data Center before choosing which path your organization should follow. Generally, colocation models aimed at leaner IT infrastructures, known as retail or “retail tenancy”, require less than ten racks.

Therefore, the Wholesale service is recommended for higher needs, with an architecture encompassing thousands of servers. Consequently, this scenario calls for a more flexible and unique approach.

Another aspect inherent to the service is precisely the restricted access to the company’s professionals or, alternatively, to authorized technicians. The model is even much requested by companies in sectors such as finance and government, which operate under stringent security rules.

In addition, energy requirements directly influence the choice – Wholesale, for example, can vary from 100 kW to 10 megawatts. And this volume is defined when contracting – the customer pays only for what will need.

Concerning connectivity, one of the main inputs of a Data Center, it is important to enlighten that there is little difference between wholesale and retail services. This is because bandwidth delivery is usually similar, mainly due to the multiplicity of providers.

However, the story changes when it comes to refrigeration. In standard installations, cooling cannot always be custom-made. If there is any specific demand, for example, it may be better met in the Wholesale leasing format.

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ALSO REED: Understand why Data Center outsourcing can improve your company’s sustainability rates

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Advantages of contracting a Wholesale Data Center

All the factors mentioned above, taken together, form the basis for sustaining the decision between contracting a colocation service in the retail or wholesale model. In the Wholesale market, as we have seen, there are more in-depth requirements in terms of energy distribution, cooling and environment monitoring that, consequently, require the customization of the services offered.

In short, therefore, the main benefits of this model are:

• Exclusivity: access is granted only to authorized employees or technicians;
• Space: contains the adequate size to accommodate all necessary servers and equipment;
• Customization: the environmental conditions are chosen according to the company’s needs, especially regarding cooling and energy consumption;
• Flexibility: the model is widely used by businesses that opt for a hybrid architecture, which combines physical and cloud-based servers;
• Scalability: services are contracted according to requests made by the organization, which directly impacts the costs involved; and also enables continuous growth (without the need for significant investments);
• On-demand: it is an interesting option for companies that have workloads with hyperscale and supercomputing specifications, among others.

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ALSO REED: Hyperscale Data Centers

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Conclusion

As we have seen, the Wholesale Data Center model is indicated for businesses with a denser IT infrastructure composed of hundreds – and even thousands – of servers. Hence the need to hire larger spaces, often with exclusive access, to accommodate all existing equipment.

As a result, the complexity of the environment increases exponentially, especially with regard to cooling needs, power supply and, in some cases, connectivity.

Thus, Wholesale allows greater customization, adapting perfectly to the customer’s requirements. That is, such infrastructure provides the creation of dedicated and secure environments, with all elements specified to measure.

For example, to meet the demands of more extensive computing infrastructures, ODATA Data Centers support the rental of exclusive spaces, ideal for ecosystems that integrate cloud computing and HPC. These are robust and secure locations, highly used by businesses that maintain hybrid and integrated architectures, one of the biggest trends in the market.

Therefore, choosing the right Data Center service is essential in all cases and situations to optimize the company’s operations and ensure the necessary day-to-day availability. This is precisely why ODATA provides both colocation models: wholesale and retail.

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Do you want to know how to migrate your IT infrastructure to a natively prepared Data Center, with all the right conditions?