MTDC

What is an MTDC (Multitenant Data Center)?

A multitenant data center (MTDC), also known as a colocation data center, is a facility where organizations can rent space to operate their IT networks. MTDCs provide the space and power for organizations to install their networking equipment. Additionally, they provide connectivity to service providers at a minimal cost. Businesses can rent space to meet varying needs—from a server rack to a complete purpose-built data hall. The scalability of data center usage provides the business benefits of a data center without the high price.

Benefits of an MTDC

• 1. Cost-effectiveness: Compared to building a dedicated data center, hosting data center storage facilities in an MTDC is more cost-effective. Renting space and services from an MTDC saves a significant amount of investment compared to building a proprietary data center.

• 2. Reduced Manpower: MTDCs require fewer technical personnel, so enterprises do not need to assign their own staff to perform maintenance and setup tasks, greatly reducing labor costs.

• 3. Excellent Reliability: MTDCs adopt high-redundancy design specifications, which can provide excellent reliability and ensure the security and stability of the data.

• 4. Geographic Flexibility: Enterprises can choose MTDC locations based on their business needs, which increases flexibility.

• 5. Predictable Costs: MTDCs provide predictable costs, allowing enterprises to better plan and manage their IT investments.

• 6. Easy Scalability: MTDCs support enterprises to easily scale storage and computing capabilities without large capital investments, allowing them to respond quickly to business demands.

Types of MTDCs

Retail Colocation Facilities: This type of hosting facility allows customers to rent specific areas, such as rack space or secure zones, to meet smaller-scale IT requirements. It is suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises or startups.

Wholesale Colocation: This hosting model allows tenants to rent entire data center spaces at a lower cost. The data center infrastructure and operations are provided by the MTDC provider, making it suitable for large enterprises.

Hybrid Cloud-Based Data Center Hosting: This hosting model combines internal data centers and outsourced data center services, fully leveraging the advantages of internal IT infrastructure and MTDC. Enterprises can flexibly choose to deploy workloads internally or in the outsourced MTDC based on their needs.

Key Considerations When Looking for an MTDC

One of the most important factors when it comes to looking for an MTDC is locality. Your business should be close to your facility, because reducing latency and increasing bandwidth are two of the biggest challenges associated with outsourcing. For example, if businesses colocate within MTDCs in another city or state, connection speeds may drop and can negatively impact on the output of IT applications.

From an infrastructure perspective, data center scalability is key. Scalability within the data center will support simple migration to higher data rate connections and applications—a vital factor for meeting future bandwidth and transmission speeds that the IT applications require. As data continues to generate and technological advancements continue to increase, the need for your organization to meet customer demands for zero latency and real-time access to data will as well.

An MTDC facility also provides a variety of cloud service provider and telecommunication carrier options. For example, if your organization delivers cloud services that require high speeds, you can look to outsource just that part of your business. Alternatively, if you solely need storage, then another MTDC facility might better suit your needs. As most businesses have a range of needs that more than one facility can address, it is important not to restrict your business to choosing one facility when the best solution might involve multiple.

Finally, network and physical security are important factors in choosing an MTDC facility. If your network is colocated, you will want to be certain it is protected from inappropriate access. For example, facilities with layered security zones would only allow authorized personnel to access certain network areas and physical barriers, like fencing and locks. You’ll also want an operator that has monitoring systems—such as CCTV or other systems that detect emergencies like fires or flooding. Background on security and monitoring will provide insight into how the MTDC facility will protect your data and support client security. Knowing the importance of these factors, it is common for MTDCs to address security as a business imperative.

You should also consider additional services when choosing an MTDC facility. In addition to the typical space, power, and connectivity services, many MTDC providers offer an extensive range of consultative services to ensure the organization complies with mandatory regulations and/or other industry requirements. Even when the customer is educated on and aware of these requirements, the MTDC provider may have dedicated teams of regional, national, and international regulatory compliance personnel whose sole aim is to keep abreast of the latest developments.