A colocation centre or colocation center is a type of data centre where equipment space and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers. Colocating the server gives you the greatest flexibility. You get to choose the hardware configuration of the server and the software that goes on it. The hosting company maintains the connection to the Internet and deals with environmental details such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), fire controls, and air conditioning. On the other hand, you’re responsible for that server’s upkeep.
Colocation is a hosting option for small businesses who want the features of a large IT department without the costs. Many large corporations have the Internet infrastructure to host their own web servers and have a team of IT professionals to manage and design the site. There is a wide range of options available from simple hosting up to running your own Web servers off of a dedicated Internet connection. One such option is colocation.
It is also a very good option for small businesses that want to have a fairly large Web presence but don’t want to have to deal with a large amount items such as network connections.
Companies that offer colocated hosting say they’re moving away from this service and encouraging their customers to rent a dedicated server. This means, renting an entire server from the hosting service, but having the hosting company service and maintain it.
When you opt for dedicated server colocation with the hosting company, you pay for the physical space that your server takes up. Colocation hosting usually requires a higher startup cost than renting a server from a hosting company, according to figures from Digital Nation. The server itself will cost around $4000 for a low-end model, and $9000 for a midrange server. A half-rack of space at a colocation facility will cost between $500 and $700 to start up and the same amount each month. Finally, you’ll have to purchase a switch or a router, which will cost between $1500 and $2000 at the low end. This would result in an initial outlay of at least $7500 — and it doesn’t include the costs of staff time for setup and configuration, or the cost of equipment depreciation, insurance, and the standby equipment.
Colocation allows you to place your server machine in someone else’s rack and share their bandwidth as your own. It generally costs more than standard Web hosting, but less than a comparable amount of bandwidth into your place of business. Once you have a machine set up, you take it physically to the location of the colocation provider and install it in their rack or you rent a server machine from the colocation provider. That company, then provides an IP, bandwidth, and power to your server. Once it’s up and running, you access it much like you would access a Web site on a hosting provider. The difference being that you own the hardware.
The biggest advantage of colocation is the cost for bandwidth, have better outage protection, we own the server machinery and the server software so we can upgrade the server and the software easily. If we move, we can leave the server up and running the entire time. Provide additional security for your machines.
Disadvantages of Colocation are upgrading and maintaining server is difficult, more expensive than basic Web hosting, physical access to your server can be difficult, fluctuating prices. If you move out of the area where your colocation provider is, you have to either move your servers to a new provider or leave them there and pay for a maintenance contract.