Make Money Online:I Buy Books & You Read Free!

Colocation Hosting

February 1st, 2007

Hosting solutions can be likened to housing. Virtual hosting is like renting an apartment. Managed hosting is like renting a condominium. Dedicated hosting is like renting a house. Colocation is like either owning your own house or paying the mortgage on a home, in hopes of owning it in the future.

If you have already purchased the server, your monthly price will be fairly low. Your monthly bill will encompass two things, the use of the Host’s facility (power, security, and the actual physical space where your server will be located) and the bandwidth and data transfer of your Host. If you are renting to own your server, the monthly prices will include the above as well as the server’s hardware. This will typically cost more than a dedicated server’s monthly charge, but will be less money in the long run.

Besides the pricing, colocation is very similar to a dedicated hosting solution. The advantages of colocation over dedicated hosting is the lower monthly cost and the piece of mind of knowing the server is yours and if you have to switch Hosts all you need to do is pick up your server from the old Host and drop it off at the new Host. The main drawback to colocation is the upfront costs. Servers can cost thousands of dollars and purchasing them can be very expensive.

Colocation also gives you physical access to your computer, where as with Dedicated and Managed Hosting you have virtual access to your server. Nearly every colocation host allows the owners of the server the ability to go in, upgrade hardware, swap out servers, perform backups, etc. With Dedicated and Managed hosting you need to call or send in a support ticket in order to upgrade hardware and you can perform remote backups only if your Host has the necessary software and hardware in place.

Colocation offers maximum performance. Since you are building your server you have the opportunity to fine tune it to whatever specs your pocket book can take. Because you have full control over what goes in to the server be it hardware and software, indeed you also setup everything yourself, the possibilities are endless.

Disadvantages of Colocation
Maintainance, upgrades, updates, and purchases are all up to you. Computers get outdated rapidly and its up to you to keep up with the changing times. Although some Colocation Hosts provide support at a nominal fee many do not. Therefore it is essential that you or your designated server administrator and maintenance staff is located close to your Colocation Host.

If you do not have the proper knowledge of hardware components, software, security protocol, server administration, et cetera you will find your growth potential will be greatly slowed. Especially since administration is your total responsibility.

As stated before, this is very much an expensive upfront venture. Do not be surprised to spend a minimum of several thousand dollars your first month of service. Depending on what your needs are it may even be ten to twenty times that amount.

Who should be interested in Colocation
Those who ran their sites in house and are looking to moving into a data center are very good candidates for colocation. They already have the servers, they have the technical know how. In these instances, Colocation will most likely save them money and even floor space. Utilities and data transfer consumption as well as bandwidth does not come cheap for enterprises were as Host Data Centers often times get discounts because they are a bulk buyer.

Those who use up copious amounts of bandwidth and need custom configurations. Though many Dedicated Hosts carry custom solutions.

The main users of Colocation Hosting are in fact other Hosts. Hosts that are just starting out, but have plenty of starting capital generally purchase several servers and colocate them. It avoids the problems with reselling hosting plans, giving maximum control to the startup Host, but also makes it so that the new Host doesn’t have to build or purchase their own data center.

Colocation Hosting is more for the business or individual who wants total control as well as total responsibility. Its an excellent way for enterprises and newly formed Web Hosts to save money, however can be a costly venture in money, time, and expertise. If you are looking into Colocation do your research. You may find Dedicated or even Managed Hosting to be a better fit for your need

Entry Filed under: Web Hosting