Colocation (or Co-location and Collocation) allows you to place your server systems and other hardware inside of a datacenter facility or hosting company that has a high amount of bandwidth. The facility that you choose may have many different options such as dedicated network operations staff, monitoring, remote services, locking cabinets or cages, controlled cooling to regulate temperature and even video surveillance. Security is often important since you would be placing your systems outside of your home or office.
Advantages of Colocation
1. The biggest advantage of Colocation is redundancy. Datacenters have redundant power, backup generators, multiple internet providers and in most cases a 24x7 on-site staff. This type of infrastructure cannot be obtained within most organizations local offices at a reasonable cost. Multiple internet providers increase the chances of your customers being able to connect to your equipment at the very good speeds no matter where they are in the world.
2. In addition to having multiple internet providers at a single location for redundancy, the speed at which your equipment is connected can be much higher than the speed at your home or office. Usually 10-50 times more throughput that that of your single T1 or DSL line. This can be very advantageous if you need higher throughput at certain times of the day.
3. One word: cost. You can greatly reduce the amount of money that your company spends on dedicated staff members, internet service, and even office space by moving your equipment into colocation. You will be able to find many companies that have a managed services option that will allow you to utilize the dedicated staff at the facility for hardware management, reboot of equipment, and more.
Is colocation a good option for my business?
The answer will depend on what you do. If you are running a single site or server then you will probably be better off with shared web hosting or maybe a leased dedicated server system. Single sites like blogs or stores will probably not utilize most of the services offered with colocation. If you are an organization that already has owned equipment at an office or a home then colocation will probably be a great option that you and your business can easily grow into and use for many years to come.
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