Colocation Web Hosting

Overview

As a business, you may want to maintain full control over your website. You want to manage your website and provide your own hardware. In any case, you may not have the space to store and main your own equipment, especially if your company is large. If this is the case, you should consider a colocation web hosting service. With this service, you can store your hardware with the colocation provider. You prepare your servers so that they are ready to go as soon as the provider receives them. The colocation provider makes sure that your server stays online and remains running. Meanwhile, it is your responsibility to fix errors and troubleshoot control.

This type of web hosting service is especially useful for mission-critical and data-serving organizations. The data center that provides space for your website should have reliable networking, power, connectivity, security, and storage services.

The cost of hosting your websites using colocation web hosting is based on the power your server needs and space it occupies and not on its hardware specifications. Colocation web hosting requires an initial investment for the server. Hardware and software maintenance costs might result in additional expenses. Apart from this, you also should pay for the space and the bandwidth that is used by your server on a monthly basis. It may cost you as low as $69 per month to host your website using colocation web hosting service. Depending on the size of your business, costs could also exceed thousands of dollars.

Benefits

Colocation services offer enhanced security. You could use your colocation servers as a backup, so if one server goes down, you can replace it from the server from the second location. Your website will continue to operate normally. Colocation services provide high speed connectivity through multiple carriers to reduce downtime.

It can be costly to maintain a space for your servers. You might not want to invest in cooling systems, filtering systems, and storage page. You might not have the capacity to handle a power failure. You may rent your facilities, or you might be in the process of relocating. Whatever your reasons, colocation service providers can make sure that your website continues to run smoothly and efficiently. You will have added levels of stability and you can feel confident that your servers will run efficiently in a well maintained environment.

How It Works

You will set up your server before you send it to the colocation service provider. You set up all security and administrative configurations. You supply exactly what you want. Once you're ready, you will send your servers to the colocation facility.

At the colocation data center, your servers will be among hundreds of others. All the servers will be mounted in a rack space. A rack is a metal framework that houses electronic equipment. It usually contains bays that act like servers. The space used by your server is measured in Rack Units (RU or "U-Space"), which measures vertical space.

After installation and set up has been completed, a certain amount of space is provided in the data cabinet to place your server and required equipment. You are also provided with a power supply, IP addresses, andan uplink port to connect your equipment to the Internet.

You are free to access your servers at any time.