Meaning & use
colocation
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Meanings
noununcountablecomputingbusiness
The practice of keeping servers or other computing equipment in a shared data center owned by another company.
Grammar: Uncountable; used without 'a' or a plural: 'Colocation is expensive.'
Patterns
- colocation services
- colocation facility
- colocation provider
The startup moved its servers into a colocation facility to cut costs.
Colocation lets a small company use a secure data center without building one.
noununcountableformal
The act of placing two or more things or people in the same place or building.
Grammar: Uncountable; often used in formal or technical writing.
Patterns
- colocation of something
- colocation with something
The colocation of the library and the community center saved money.
Critics questioned the colocation of the prison and the school.
Common combinations
- colocation facility
- They signed a contract with a colocation facility in the city.
- colocation services
- The company offers colocation services for small businesses.
- colocation provider
- We compared three colocation providers before choosing one.
- colocation data center
- The colocation data center has backup power and tight security.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hosting
- Hosting means renting space or services on someone else's server; colocation means you own the server but rent the space and power for it.
- co-location
- A variant spelling with a hyphen, common in British English and in general writing.
Word family
- colocate verb
- To place servers or equipment in a shared facility.
- colocated adjective
- Describing equipment that is kept in a shared facility.
Commonly confused: colocation or collocation?
colocation vs collocation
Collocation (with two 'l's) is a language term for words that commonly go together, like 'make a decision'. Colocation (one 'l') is about sharing a physical location, especially for computers.
Practice
The company moved its servers to a ______ facility to get better security and power backup.
Choose one answer.
Colocation (one 'l') is the standard term for a shared data-center facility. Collocation means words that go together, and location alone just means a place, not the service.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “colocation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.