APN and Colocation — A Powerful Combination

“Cloud computing” and server virtualization are two of the hottest things going in network design these days. Adaptive Private Networking together with colocation facilities uniquely leverage and augment the power of server virtualization, and can pave the way to a secure, reliable “cloud” future at a pace that makes sense to you.

Server virtualization makes Intranet colo use feasible

By reducing physical footprint, cost and power issues, virtualization has paved the way for more and more companies to use colo facilities as more than just places to host their public-facing web servers. The move to using colo facilities for more and more corporate Intranet data center server has quickened in recent months, thanks to the improved Disaster Recovery and data backup having servers at a colo provides. Prior to APN, however, private WAN MPLS bandwidth at a colo facility cost nearly the same on a cost / Mbps basis that it does at other physical facilities — and that’s a lot! Yet today without that MPLS bandwidth, corporate Intranet servers and services at a colo are (pun intended!) virtually useless.

APN makes colo use less expensive and more powerful

APN cuts the cost of providing high bandwidth connectivity between your hq and existing data centers and your colo-based servers. Using APN, you can augment or replace expensive MPLS links with high speed public Internet links priced at a fraction of the cost / Mbps. Public Internet bandwidth costs as little as $5 – $10 per Mbps per month at most well-connected colo facilities — a 10x or more price/performance improvement over MPLS bandwidth. Higher bandwidth connectivity, lower monthly cost, plus the additional reliability of having more than one link between critical locations.

Symbiotic network benefits

The combined benefits of using APN and one or more colo facilities worldwide are both numerous and substantial:

Lots of very cheap data center bandwidth to serve the 10x – 20x greater remote office bandwidth now available thanks to APN
Cost effectively and reliably centralize those applications where most use is by remote offices at the colo, reducing bandwidth needs at hq / physical locations
Take advantage of Hardware-as-a-Service, Storage-as-a-Service and backup services at the colo facility reliably and at low cost
Solve the chicken-and-egg reliability problems of leveraging Software-as-a-Service for mission critical corporate Intranet applications
Enable more cost-effective and easier-to-mange Internet access/backhaul, Intrusion Prevention System network deployments
Take advantage of other “cloud” services at your own pace, as you see fit, having now solved the issue of reliable, cost effective, high bandwidth access to those services
Ultimately, reduce IT costs & WAN costs