ITS Physical Co-location Service

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What is a physical co-location?

Vanderbilt University departments can request having a rack-mountable server placed in the ITS Data Center. Benefits of, alternatives, and fees for this service are detailed below.

Co-location is especially appropriate for high-reliability mission-critical servers, large computational systems, or dedicated systems with special needs that cannot be accommodated by a virtual server.

Departmental server collocation in the NOC Data Center includes:

  • Electrical power (208V single phase. 110V is available; additional fees may apply)
  • Cooling
  • Gigabit network connectivity and bandwidth (customer pays one-time fee for gigabit port)
  • 24 hour access for customer-approved server administrators
  • Firewall protection
  • Basic monitoring of server functionality (e.g., server heartbeat)
  • Protected physical access
  • Enhanced security monitoring
  • Fire protection

The following services may be available:

Requirements for co-location:

  • Contact information for server administrators and departmental business manager must be kept current at all times.
  • Server information (OS, patch level, etc.) must be kept current at all times.
  • Server must meet rack mount specifications and must use rails. No shelves are permitted.
  • Security vulnerabilities will be assessed by the ITS Security team before installation and throughout tenancy. Identified vulnerabilities must be mitigated before the server can be joined to or returned to the production network.
  • Co-located servers are sequestered together in a specific VLAN on the Vanderbilt network to provide additional security for all ITS customers.

Important notes:

  • All racking and unracking is performed by NOC analysts.
  • ITS reserves the right to specify rack location.
  • ITS does not guarantee that future expansions will be adjacent to existing equipment. Space in the Data Center cannot be reserved.
  • Management ports will be connected to a private network.
  • The customer is responsible for data removal/sanitizing of device and proper disposal at the time of decommission.

Cost (additional fees may apply; charges are subject to change at any time)

There is a one-time fee of $350 per gigabit network port. There are no recurring charges.

How to request this service

To learn more about the ITS Co-location Service, contact your Service Delivery Manager.