Organisations choosing to co-locate their servers outside of London have the benefit of accessibility, reduced latency, affordability and increased security.

The fact is that the Greater London area has the highest concentration of data centres in the UK, and for many organisations, it will be the only location they consider. But with new hubs popping up in places such as Manchester and Birmingham, more and more regional businesses are looking at the benefits that colocation outside of the capital can offer them.

1. Accessibility

If your organisation is based outside the capital and your team need access to your server hosting environment, it’s kind of a no-brainer to pick a data centre near to your office location.

Even if you are based in London, concerns about data security in the event of a disaster or emergency may make it better for you to choose a location outside of the M25. A data centre location close to the M4 corridor such Maidenhead or Slough will still offer convenience for travelling Sysadmins and IT administrators, but will also keep Business Continuity and Risk Assessment happy.

Of course, many datacentres offer use of remote hands for basic requests, so you don’t even need to visit.

2. Reduced Latency

If your office is outside of London, choosing a data centre that’s closer to home will reduce latency to a minimum. In fact, even if your offices are in the capital, latency will be minimal if you have a P2P (point to point) line installed between your datacentre and your office.

There’s also the fact that some London datacentres have worse latency than better connected ones outside of the capital. For example, we have a direct line from our London cores (i.e. public internet) to our Maidenhead data centre, and it works better than someone being in London and then having to “hop” between three people in order to reach the public internet.

3. Affordability

London is the most expensive city in the world to live and work in. It’s really not surprising that it’s also the most expensive place to host your data.

Many businesses are wasting valuable office space to have their servers on site, or within the M25, largely because they believe this will reduce latency. The truth, however, is that latency will be negligible if you install a P2P.

4. Security

If data security and recovery in the event of a major terrorist attack is a priority for your organisation, then colocation outside of London may be a sensible hosting choice. Of course, with a city the sheer size of London, it’s still possible to choose central locations that are outside of high-risk areas.

Overall there are some great reasons to choose data centres outside of London to collocate your servers. You’ll most likely save money. Your equipment will be accessible, and it will be more secure.