Co-Location |
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Understand Your Hosting Needs |
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The first obvious step is to determine your needs and analyze your own operation.
You try to see what exactly is your priority and what you don`t want in
your business which depends on the size and style of your business. If you
have a defined budget, decide which criteria are the most important ones
on your list and keep those priorities in mind as you speak with providers.These
analysis are particularly useful when assessing the need for "managed
services" such as data storage, Internet connection security, scalability
and application hosting.
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Make notice on industry news |
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There are colocation providers who have withsatnd the swings of dot com
and telecommunication businesses for years. Then there are some who have
been hobbled and are facing crises, and some have already failed in their
venture or been sold. So it is important that you decide to work with a
company who has a modest revenue plan, not a newbie in the market and have
enough financial back up.
Monitoring and evaluating industry news sites is one way to stay connected
and thus you have a fair idea of which providers are faring well and which
ones may be carrying large debt loads.
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Neutral Provider |
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A neutral carrier specific provider offers a single bandwidth or has business
incentive to its direct customers to a particular provider.
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Features |
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- Neutral carrier provider offers customers a choice of connectivity.
- Make sure that you have many alternative carriers available to provide
you the
- coonection. This eradicate the compulsion of working with a single
provider.
- Having choices is important for both price and flexibility.
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Power |
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A reliable and redundant power supply is the basic need for colocation services.
Obtaining electric service is increasingly expensive for facility operators,
and some maintain more capacity than others. Know as much as you can about
how much energy your equipment will require, and whether the provider can
meet your needs.
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Redundancy |
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Having enough power isn't enough. Your servers must continue to operate
if a facility loses power. Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems featuring
battery banks and powerful generators are standard in most quality data
centers. The best facilities will have backups for the backup equipment
in these key areas.
This same approach to redundancy should be applied to other mission-critical
systems. Ideally the facility should be equipped with dual fiber and power
feeds into the building.
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Survivability |
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Would your servers stay up and running if an earthquake measuring 6.8 on
the Richter scale hit the neighborhood where the data center resides? Try
to have a knowledge whether the facility has been engineered to withstand
disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and fires.
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Physical Security |
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Finally, educate yourself about the physical security in place at the facility.
Many colocation providers employ tools such as thumb scans or retinal scans
to verify a user's identity. Some have "man-trap" corridors to
restrict access in case intruders who get past the first line of security.
Video surveillance is another important component in a facility security
plan.
With such measures in place, be sure you understand which employees will
be granted access to the facility, and in what scenarios an employee of
the colocation company or vendor technician will be allowed to access your
equipment.
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Is collocation right for you |
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When you know that you have grown more than the capacity of your local web
host you know that time has come to switch to a bigger one. Co-location
differs from leasing a dedicated web server in that you actually provide
the hardware to the hosting company. You basically "rent" space
in their Network Operations Center (NOC) where you receive the bandwidth
and facilities to get your web server up and running.
The big advantage of co-location is that you can use your own machine. This
allows for greater flexibility in terms of administration and implementation
of services, especially when dealing with your own clients and customers.
This is also beneficial if you have an existing machine that will suit your
web server needs but lack the appropriate facilities to get that machine
online. Co-locating your server with a hosting company is usually cheaper
than leasing a dedicated server directly from the company because you are
providing the hardware rather than leasing a machine.
Typically your machine will be housed in a Network Operations Center (NOC).
This gives you many benefits that would not be otherwise available. These
include an environmentally controlled and secure facility, uninterruptible
power supplies, 24x7 monitoring and the availability of bandwidth to meet
your web hosting needs.
One of the biggest drawbacks to co-locating your web server is that hardware
tends to become obsolete very quickly. Unless you have an existing machine
that will serve your needs, purchasing a new machine specifically for use
as a web server may not be cost effective.
Co-location advantages include :
- Greater flexibility
- Ability to use existing hardware
- More control over web server administration
- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
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Co-location disadvantages include :
- Initial cost up front
- Hardware may become outdated quickly
- Web Server Administration is your responsibility
When considering co-location, it is important to determine your specific
needs and compare the cost associated with co-location and other types
of web hosting solutions. When evaluating a company, be sure to ask plenty
of questions and ask for references.
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Colocation v/s dedicated derver |
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If you have outgrown your current virtual Web hosting account and you want
greater control over your Web site, you may want to consider co-located
or dedicated server services. Both provide greater control and flexibility
but there are differences as well.
The primary difference between co-located or dedicated server services is
that with co-location, you provide the hardware and the Web Host provides
the facility, bandwidth, etc. With a dedicated server you lease or rent
the hardware that is owned by the Web Host.
If you have an existing machine that will serve the needs of your Web site,
then it may be most cost effective.
Leasing a dedicated server is usually more expensive than co-location but
you receive the full package including hardware, software, bandwith, etc.
Leasing also allows you to easily upgrade as your Web server needs change.
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