Chicago colocation offers a number of benefits for businesses interested in obtaining data protection, lower costs associated with their networks, professional security (both electronic and physical), and redundancy in the face of disasters and outages. Of course, the number of colocation providers has grown considerably in recent years, leaving Chicago business owners, IT managers and decision makers with a tough choice. It’s vital that you make an informed decision in this area, though. For Chicagoland businesses, there are several promising options, and we’ll run down the top six colocation server providers in your area below.
QuoteColo
QuoteColo offers a free service matching buyers of colocation, dedicated servers, managed and cloud hosting to reputable and cost-effective web hosting providers. Unlike other services, we are only focused on colocation, dedicated servers and managed hosting. With over 15 years of experience in the hosting and IT industry, we have partnered with only the best-of-breed hosting providers. The majority of our providers represent the leaders and visionaries in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.
SingleHop
With over 100 years of collective experience, SingleHop is one of Chicagoland’s leading colocation server providers, and for good reason. They offer a very wide blend of programs, ranging from private cloud hosting to on-demand servers. They also offer lower pricing than some others, with a starting price just south of $300 for dedicated servers. Their platform has garnered awards for the amount of control it delivers to clients, and the company has “the industry’s only self-monitoring SLA”, as well. Finally, SingleHop operates data centers around the world to ensure faster times, redundancy and protection, and serves customers in 140 different countries. Cabinet options include private cages, full cabinets and full cabinets plus partial cabinets for larger needs.
TierPoint
TierPoint recently combined with Cosentry, giving the company a total of 39 data centers located around the world. They also have some rather big name clients, including Hershey, Vancouver Public Schools, Tommy Bahama and American Energy Partners to name just a few. GlaxoSmithKline actually tapped TierPoint to provide the company’s disaster recovery solutions, as well as to “consolidate global data”. For Chicago colocation, the company offers state of the art data centers located around the world, all of which provide around the clock service from expert technicians, and the ability to scale service as your needs change.
Steadfast
Steadfast has been building a reputation for efficiency, quality, uptime and customized services to fit individual industries. The company offers a 100% uptime SLA, as well as three data centers. All of the company’s data centers are located right here in the US, with two in Chicago and a third in New Jersey. For businesses who want a more hands-off approach, Steadfast also offers managed colocation services. You’ll find both SAS70 and SSAE16 compliant colocation sites, all of which offer 24-hour per day physical security and support to provide outstanding peace of mind to customers. One interesting feature on offer is the chance to build out your ‘colocation’ online and see the price, and even start the setup right from the company’s website.
Expedient
Expedient is headquartered in Pittsburgh, but offers operating locations throughout the US, including Massachusetts, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana and Maryland. Founded in 2001, Expedient has grown to become one of the most recognized leaders in the colocation industry, and features a 0 downtime guarantee across all 11 data centers. The company also offers immense scalability for clients, allowing them to upgrade or downgrade their service as their needs change, often on the fly. A host of managed services is also available for clients, including two-factor authentication, backup and archiving, firewall provisioning, migration and a great deal more.
QTS
QTS got its start back in 2005 as a standalone data center. The company has grown immensely over the intervening years, and today operates one of the largest such businesses in the US. Currently, QTS has 24 data centers located around the world, including in North America, Europe and Asia. For colocation, QTS offers a wide range of products and services. These range from cabinets and cages to full suites, as well as high density solutions for greater power and performance, remote technician deployment, physical security, hardware assurance (0 downtime), and more. Note that the company’s Hardware Assure program, designed to eliminate the need for technical knowledge on your end, is available at an additional cost.
GigeNET
Founded in 1997, GigeNET was originally called GlobalWebHost. Chicago colocation was one of the first new services they introduced, along with DDoS protection. Today, the company is one of the largest providers in the US, and is based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. GigeNET operates three data centers, all of which are in the US – Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington DC. For colocation, the company offers affordable rates, as well as a selection of different plans. Rates start as low as $100 per month for a 10 mb/s single server, and the company guarantees 99.9% uptime. Data centers are staffed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and each center has redundant power support in the form of a 2,000-gallon diesel generator to ensure all-time operability. Cold aisle containment and two-stage dry pipe fire suppression are just a couple of their advantages.
Choosing a Chicago Colocation Provider
Choosing between the six top colocation providers in Chicago can be tough. They all seem to offer similar features and benefits. However, they’re not truly identical. You’ll need to compare colocation plans and prices, as well as the features available with each plan (and whether or not that meshes with the price you’re willing to pay). Of course, you need to pay attention to uptime, but it’s just as crucial that you choose a colocation provider with an eye toward redundancy and ongoing support, as well as the ability to scale your services up or down as your business’ needs change.
Chicago colocation provides your business with the ability to drastically reduce your IT costs by moving your data center to another location and allowing an expert company to manage the server, monitor access, and guarantee minimal outages.