What does colocation mean?
Colocation is a noun describing the act of placing things side by side or situating them together. Its most prominent modern sense belongs to the world of information technology: colocation refers to renting space in a third-party data center where a business houses its own servers and networking equipment, benefiting from shared power, cooling, bandwidth, and physical security without bearing the full cost of a private facility. Colocation providers supply the infrastructure while clients retain ownership and control of their hardware, an arrangement prized by organizations that need reliability but not the overhead of running their own data center. Beyond computing, the word retains a broader, more formal meaning — simply the fact or condition of being located together, as in urban planning or architecture. Derived from Latin roots meaning 'to place together', colocation should not be confused with the near-homophone 'collocation', which concerns how words pair up in language rather than how objects share physical space.
nounThe act of placing or being placed side by side or together; in computing, the provision of space, power, and connectivity in a data center for a client's own servers and equipment.
- The placement of things side by side or in close proximity; specifically, the housing of privately owned servers and equipment in a third-party data center that provides power, cooling, bandwidth, and physical security.
- In linguistics, less commonly: the occurrence of words or elements side by side in a text.
"The company moved its hardware into a colocation facility to take advantage of redundant power and round-the-clock security."
"Our startup chose colocation over building its own server room, renting rack space in a secure data center downtown."
"The colocation of the library and the community center encouraged residents to use both facilities."
The plural is rare but legitimate, typically used when referring to multiple colocation sites, facilities, or arrangements.
"The provider operates colocations in twelve cities across three continents."
Colocation and collocation differ by a single letter — one puts servers side by side, the other puts words side by side.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of colocation
Colocation derives from the Latin prefix 'co-' (together) combined with 'locare' (to place), via the past participle 'locatus' — the same root that gives us 'locate' and 'local'. English adopted the word through Late Latin 'colocatio', with the general sense of placing together appearing by the early 17th century. It shares this Latin root with cognates such as 'allocate' and 'dislocate'.
Related word forms
How colocation is actually used
In modern usage, 'colocation' is dominated by the IT/data-center sense, where it is sometimes written 'co-location'. The general sense of physical placement is more formal and less frequent. Spelling varies between 'colocation' (one word) and 'co-location' (hyphenated), with the hyphenated form common in older British usage.
Easily confused with colocation
Collocation refers to words that habitually appear together in language (e.g. 'strong tea'), while colocation refers to the physical placement of things together or the housing of servers in a shared facility.