Find Colocation, Dedicated Servers & Cloud Hosting:
Call Now (888) 400-5732

Colocation Server Hosting – Top 3 Benefits

Posted by QuoteColo on November 16, 2012 - Updated on July 05, 2016

What is Colocation Server Hosting (aka colocation)? In simple terms, you own the servers and network gear and you house that gear in an outsourced data center environment. The data center provides the rack space, power and Internet bandwidth. With all the outsourced hosting options available today – public cloud hosting, private cloud hosting, dedicated servers managed hosting, and shared hosting, I think it make sense to reexamine the benefits of  using a colocation service….

Top 3 Benefits of Colocation

1) Redundancy – Unless you have very deep pockets, it is nearly impossible to build a tier 2 or tier 3 data center at your office or home. Today’s best data centers offer redundancy in everything thing – power, internet and cooling.  True “Internet Data Centers” offer UPS conditioned power and back up generators. The best data centers can offer redundant power at the rack level with diverse electric feeds. If power is lost, generator power is available and some data centers even have backup generators.

Compared to only one or maybe two (if you are lucky) internet connections at your office, data centers offer multiple internet providers and blended BGP bandwidth from the best tier 1 providers.  BGP connections are ideal because your internet traffic “finds the best route” in case one or more telecom data providers are having a “bad day” – packet loss, latency, etc.

With the popularity of space efficient and power hungry per U and blade servers, cooling is becoming more critical. We have consulted with hundreds of growing web based clients who started stacking servers in their office “telecom closest” just to find out that they were having server malfunctions because of excessive heat. Today’s data centers offer temperature controlled cooling and flexible cooling options. Flexible cooling allows them to cool the “hotter” areas when necessary.

2) Cost Savings – Small, medium and large companies can save money by outsourcing their colocation server hosting. Tier 2 and tier 3 type data centers cost millions to build. According to a 2008 report by Reed Construction Data, it would cost approximately 5 million dollars to build a 22,500 sq ft data center.

Looking at the “micro” level – many colocation providers offer single per U colocation with 10Mbps for $50 a month.  According to the ShopForEthernet.com service, the average cost for an office 10Mbps metro ethernet circuit is $552 a month! Even a standard office T1 (1.54Mbps) circuit cost around $200-300 a month. Some office and home based data centers use the local cable company for cheaper bandwidth. Compared to business circuits like metro ethernet or T1, cable circuits typically do not come with an SLA (Service Level Agreement) which could be a big “headache” when there is an outage or service interruption.

Depending upon the US city, full rack pricing with 10Mbps starts at $700 a month. Compared to building your own redundant facility and acquiring multiple telecom lines, colocation services are your best option if you are looking to save money.

3) Flexibility – Compared to other outsourced hosting options, server colocation offers the best flexibility. You own the equipment and it is yours to play and work with. IT “geeks” hate restrictions and limitations on cloud and dedicated servers. With server colocation, you are “good to go” as long as you meet the AUP (Acceptable User Policy) provided by the data center provider. AUPs typically have obvious restrictions on illegal activities like spam, terrorism, child pornography, etc. Companies concerned with security will benefit from using a colocation server provider. In a secure data center environment, your company’s approved IT personnel will only have access to the servers and network gear. Compare this to a public cloud or dedicated server…..typically multiple layers have access in and out of either option.

In sum, colocation is great option for companies looking for redundancy, cost-savings and flexibility within their IT environment. To learn more about finding the best colocation provider for your business, please click below for our free whitepaper.

 

 

Categories: Colocation

What Do You Think?