Does Your Business Need Colocation? Answer These Quick Questions

If you have been scouting around for a web hosting service provider, you are sure to have bumped into this term called “colocation” more than once. Like cloud hosting, colocation is aimed at small businesses that want to enjoy the scalability and security of corporate web hosting solutions without breaking the bank. However, the truth is that it can be quite intimidating to compare these various server solutions like colocation, cloud, hybrid and dedicated unless you know what is in it for you.

So first things first – what is colocation? Simply put, colocation is the process of housing your own servers in a professional datacenter. This is different from picking a 'dedicated server' solution where you merely lease hardware from the web hosting service provider. What this effectively means is that in a colocation setting, your provider merely charges you for the shelf or rack space that you lease from them – all the hardware and the servers that you need to host your solutions is provided by you.

In other words, colocation is similar to having your own in-house hosting server except that you avoid the risks and scalability issues that come with managing your own in-house solution. If you have been deliberating on the various web hosting alternatives and are unsure if colocation is the way to go, here are some quick questions that you could answer to decide.

Are you a bootstrapped startup with just a few static pages?

Startup entrepreneurs often worry about being hit by major traffic and so want to be ready with sophisticated infrastructure. Regardless of how much traffic you expect, if all you host are static HTML pages, you really do not need colocation. It is best recommended for bootstrapped start-ups to save money by building and hosting websites through free services like IM Creator or Wordpress so that they could dedicate all their resources on marketing their business.

Do you already own in-house web servers?

Does your business already house web servers in-house? In that case, colocation could be an option to increase redundancies and ensure higher data protection.

Is physical infrastructure your main concern?

There is much more to web hosting than just owning server equipment. For one, you will need ensure sophisticated network connectivity, redundant power and cooling solutions. Making all of this available at your in-house location is not only highly demanding, but also extremely expensive. So if you already own the servers and only want to ensure better infrastructure, colocation is the way to go.

Do you already own industry mandated certificates?

Depending on your industry, there are often rigorous quality standards that you must adhere to  in terms of storing and handling sensitive data. According to Lane Livingston, the CEO of Fibernet, a Utah based colocation service provider, one of the lesser known, yet major reason why a number of businesses turn to colocation service providers like his company is to adhere to industry mandated certifications like HIPAA, PCI DSS and SOC I Type II. These certifications are extremely stringent and businesses often drain an enormous amount of resources in adhering to the requirements. Colocating the servers is often a simpler, yet effective way to ensure data is secure and confidential in line with industry requirements.

Do your applications need high performance hardware?

Dedicated servers provided by web hosting companies are good, but if your applications consume a lot of resources, even expensive solutions provided by web hosts can come a cropper. Additionally, while such high performance servers are indeed available with multiple web hosts, it may make more sense to purchase your own servers at a one-time cost instead of leasing such hardware from a third party which can tend to be more expensive in the long run. In such circumstances, colocation is the better solution.