Key Takeaways:

• Network redundancy ensures continuous connectivity during failures
• Multiple network paths improve reliability and uptime
• Colocation providers design networks to minimize disruptions
• It is essential for mission-critical applications

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Colocation services need to be reliable to stay in business. This means they need highly resilient infrastructure with extensive redundancy. Network redundancy is particularly important as so many businesses now depend on networked applications and services. With that in mind, here is a brief guide to what you need to know about network redundancy in colocation services.

Understanding colocation services

Colocation services are services that provide managed data center infrastructure. The vendor takes care of running the data center itself. Businesses lease or rent dedicated spaces in the data center where they deploy and run their own equipment.

In practical terms, colocation services operate in a very similar way to the public cloud. Businesses decide the level of resource they need and the vendor provides it. If businesses wish, they can scale the level of resource they use in line with their workloads.

As with the public cloud, colocation service providers offer a service guarantee. This is usually a minimum of 99.999% uptime and is contractually enforceable. These guarantees are often hugely important to (potential) clients as they demonstrate that the vendor is confident that they can ensure reliability.

Understanding the principle of redundancy

The main way colocation service providers ensure reliability is by implementing high levels of redundant infrastructure. This includes not only the infrastructure needed for the task itself but also mechanisms for managing the transitions between different sets of infrastructure.

Each layer of redundancy functions as a safety net. It allows the colocation facility to continue to operate while the colocation provider works on fixing the root problem. Ideally, redundancy should be so effective that clients do not even notice there is a root problem to fix.

Network redundancy in colocation services is especially important as network failures can have implications beyond the temporary inconvenience of downtime. In particular, they can lead to data loss and/or corruption. They can also open doors to malicious actors such as cyber attackers. By doing so, they can potentially create regulatory compliance and/or legal issues.

Network redundancy and hybrid IT

Effective network redundancy is absolutely critical to the functioning of hybrid IT systems. This is because the whole point of using hybrid IT systems is to be able to distribute workloads across different environments according to your needs at any given time. Losing network connectivity therefore leaves hybrid IT systems crippled.

Moreover, hybrid IT systems need robust network connectivity throughout the entire hybrid ecosystem. These days, that is increasingly likely to mean from the edges to the clouds. In other words, they will need connectivity from multiple edge deployments to multiple cloud solutions (private and public).

The practicalities of implementing network redundancy

Implementing network redundancy in colocation services requires a strategic approach that covers the key elements of networking plus geographic redundancy. Here is a quick overview of what this means in practice.

Redundant hardware

Implementing redundant hardware involves deploying duplicate systems that can seamlessly take over operations in case of a failure in the primary system. For example, servers are often configured in clusters or with failover mechanisms to ensure that if one server fails, another can immediately take over its workload, maintaining uninterrupted service for hosted applications and data.

Multiple internet service providers (ISPs)

This redundancy is typically achieved by establishing connections with multiple ISPs through diverse network paths, thereby ensuring that if one ISP experiences an outage or degradation in service, traffic can be rerouted through alternate ISPs, maintaining connectivity and minimizing disruptions for users and applications hosted within the colocation facility.

Diverse network paths

This redundancy strategy involves utilizing different network infrastructures, such as fiber-optic cables, microwave links, or satellite connections, to create alternative paths for data to travel.

By diversifying network paths, businesses can reduce the likelihood of connectivity issues or data loss caused by network congestion, hardware failures, or natural disasters affecting a single pathway.

Additionally, routing protocols and technologies such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) are often employed to dynamically reroute traffic along the most optimal path in real-time, further enhancing network resilience.

Geographic redundancy

In the context of network redundancy in colocation services, geographic redundancy may entail deploying redundant servers, switches, and storage systems in separate data centers located in different geographic regions.

This approach ensures that in the event of a catastrophic event such as a natural disaster, power outage, or network failure affecting one data center, services can be quickly restored from the redundant infrastructure located elsewhere.

Geographic redundancy not only enhances fault tolerance but also facilitates disaster recovery and business continuity planning by providing redundant data backups and failover mechanisms across multiple locations.