With the shift to flexible work environments, IT teams are challenged to support more and more remote employees. By the end of 2023, more than 90% of infrastructure and operations organizations will have most of their staff working remotely.¹

The challenge is this: the farther away your team is from your IT resources, the higher the latency – and the longer it takes to process transactions. The closer you can get your infrastructure to users, the faster the transaction takes place. The faster that process is, the better the user experience.

As an IT manager or influencer, how can you provide team members with low latency and increased speeds while combating security concerns? Enter: edge computing via colocation in local (regional) data centers.

Getting Your Team Closer to the Edge

Much of what we use today is powered by cloud computing. Microsoft, Webex, Salesforce – the list of cloud-based software we use to power our everyday functions as organizations is exhaustive. Cloud storage, as powerful as it is, leans on edge computing to enable devices to process data closer to its source – or the "edge."

How do you get your team members – and your data – closer to the edge?

The answer was easier when all your users were in one or two (or three or four) locations. Instead, now businesses support "anywhere operations" (or distributed enterprises) where employees can log in from any geographic location.

Using Data Centers to Localize Your Data Source

Today, any business with multiple sites needing access to company resources should be considering how data centers can support an edge-based infrastructure, but not all data centers are built the same.  

Edge Compute Data Center Need-to-Haves

• Access to major carrier hotel data centers. Midco's data centers can easily be connected to major carrier hotel data centers in Minneapolis, Chicago, Omaha, Kansas City and Denver.
• Ability to interconnect with public cloud platforms. Midco can facilitate transport connectivity to many of the cloud providers that you're already doing business with, and at the major carrier hotels where they're present.

Edge Compute Data Center Should-Haves

• Support of a stable and reliable network. Midco's wholly-owned and operated network is a differentiator for us over providers that do not own or operate a network.
• A secure network. Midco's internet service offers distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation as part of the standard offering – with enhanced DDoS available for dedicated internet over fiber customers. This keeps our colocation customers’ data and IT infrastructure safe from attacks that can cause poor performance and/or downtime.

Another challenge teams face is maintaining the level of collaboration needed to meet the demand of remote or hybrid working structures.

Audio, video, accessibility, reliability – these are topics Midco’s IT team, like many others, are constantly discussing and improving. And it’s non-industry-specific! The expectations of collaboration have changed from phone calls to video calls, and organizations need their network structure to keep up.

Data Center Colocation Benefits

Lower Latency

Getting you closer to carrier hotels, the cloud and networks is just one of the many perks that come with collocating your equipment in a Midco data center.  

Expand Real Estate

… without the electrical bill. If you’re running a growing enterprise, ask yourself "Do I have the real estate to be able to ensure that my IT infrastructure is able to scale at the same pace?"

Efficiency Improvement

Generally speaking, data centers eliminate the ambiguity surrounding power levels due to stringent guidelines. Data centers privatize power, so companies often see significant improvements in technological speed.

Remote access? No problem.

Data center providers like Midco will provide smart hands – or remote assistance – where our team will support basic equipment needs, including hard drive swaps or resets.  

Protect and Prolong Equipment

Place servers – and business-critical data – in facilities built to standards of the Uptime Institute made to keep your equipment safe and optimized.  

Data Backups

For redundancy, the best practice is to back up data at a geographically diverse location from your primary facilities. Colocation can help check this box, providing you with data peace of mind.