Colocation hosting is a way of having all your data storage, its access and service needs with the backing of all required software and hardware put in one place that is offsite. The difference between having it all done on your own servers in your own server rooms is that it is all placed off-campus with collocation hosting providers.
This hosting method allows small businesses to have the power of larger businesses without the cost that comes with running an entire IT environment and its ensuing overhead.
In a typical collocation environment, you place your data and/or web server in someone else’s (obviously a hosting provider) rack or server farm while you are allowed to access it through their bandwidth.
Scenario 1
You first build, setup and configure your server before physically moving it over to the place where the providers do their business. They take the server from you and connect it to their rack of servers.
Scenario 2
Alternatively, you can buy a server from the providers, install and configure it and they assign it with an IP address and allocate a bandwidth for you to use.
Who is Colocation Hosting for?
The ideal candidate for collocation hosting is a medium-sized business that wants to have more hosting and application-serving power and yet doesn’t want to, or can’t afford to, run a full-fledged IT department. Of course, someone should be around to do the configuring and maintenance of the server – usually a systems or website administrator.
That being said the business should be able to afford the initial (read “hefty”) cost of a server.
Also, the business would need to have a decent amount of traffic accessing its servers otherwise it wouldn’t be worth the investment.
The main point to consider is that one way or the other you, the business, own the physical server and not the providers – it’s your hardware.
Advantages of Colocation
- The primary advantage of collocation is the amount of money you save via bandwidth. Typically, small businesses spend a couple of hundreds of dollars for a DSL connection. While it might just be enough to do the trick, with collocation they can get a higher bandwidth speed for the same (or even a lesser) price – and you get someone else to house your server.
- Having your server connected to the grid of a professional hosting business means you have a higher rate of up time. The provider can ensure your server almost never fails. One thing is for sure: they will do a better job at keeping the servers running than any non-industry business could ever hope for. They (the providers) – if they are any good – will know what they are doing: how to avoid mistakes and implement all the necessary preventive measures to ensure continuity.
- On the rare chance that something does go wrong and your server crashes, there will be professionals around to handle its recovery. Replication also means your data or website won’t have to be inaccessible or down while the main server is brought back to life.
- Your physical server and all the data on it is protected at all times. You won’t have to spend sleepless nights (or at least your systems administrators won’t) wondering if the protection you have put in place can stand up to the probing and hacking of the outside world. With the experience they have and the soft- and hardware they have access to, providers can offer you more protection than you could probably be able to afford if you chose to do it yourself.
- If you think you need to make changes to your server – you think it is too slow or there isn’t enough space on your hard disk – you can simply run over to it and upgrade it. You don’t have to sit and wait until a hosting provider does it for you. You don’t have to have the back-and-forth communication that normally comes with complicated upgrades and configuration. It’s your server, so you can do it yourself. The same principle applies to the software and data on it.
- Although your server will be your responsibility, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be on your own when it comes to hard times. Hosting providers usually have the technical know-how hanging around and should you need any help with configuration, maintenance, upgrades or recovery you will be able to get a helping hand. They will, of course, ask for payment (unless you get free support as part of the collocation deal). In some cases, the providers might even have hardware in stock which eliminates the hassle of tracking down and purchasing items offsite.
- Moving your company’s location doesn’t require you to unplug servers, haul them across the city, state or even country, and then put it all back together once you have arrived – you simply move… sans servers.
And so, if you think it is time your website needs more oomph than that is offered by regular webhosting, a great choice would be to go the collocation hosting way.
