Why Colocation May Be the Right Choice for You

Let’s start this article by explaining what colocation hosting is all about.

What is Colocation?
Colocation basically means storing your server hardware in a facility equipped with resources that is specifically designed and built to house a large number of such equipments. A reputable colocation facility offers you high-security, including cameras, fire detection and extinguishing devices, multiple connection feeds, filtered power, backup power generators and other items to ensure high-availability which is essential for all online businesses.

In addition to these services, the very advanced colocation facilities also have other valuable features including climate controlled air conditioning, raised floors for cabling, and multiple high speed fiber links to the internet for increased reliability.

Why Choose Colocation?
Colocation services are primarily for those who require complete control over their server configuration. So, if required, they can access their machines by going to the facility. Typically, access is limited to any time during business hours, or by appointment after hours in the event of an emergency.

With full control comes full price! Keep in mind that the only way you can have complete control over your server is to actually own your server. So if you have the resources to purchase your own server equipment then colocation is the absolute best choice for you.

However, if you do not have several thousand dollars laying around to purchase your server, or believe that you do not possess the knowledge and expertise to administer, maintain, and perform upgrades to your web server, then you need to forget about Colocation and focus on dedicated hosting. Check out our article on Why and How to Choose A Dedicated Server.

Colocation Hosting Costs
Now you might wonder, why not house your server in your own office or some warehouse somewhere? Well, because storing your server in a datacenter offers you a package rich with features, some of which are outlined above. But there is also another reason why colocation wins this battle, and that is the overall savings on your hosting costs. Not only a colocation facility provides you with reliable and secure service, it offers it to you at a very affordable price.

You don’t need to pay for fast internet connection, high bandwidth, security, and other things. Your colocation facility pays for you. But you do have to pay for this service on a monthly basis. There are two types of fees associated with your colocation service - rental fees and connection fees.

Rental Fees
This is the cost of renting the server spot in a colocation facility (also known as datacenter). In order to maximize the use of space, servers are mounted on top of each other within an enclosed closet-like unit called a rack. Each rack contains a fixed number of spots for servers, and each of these spots is referred to as 1U. Most servers come in either 1U or 2U configurations. However, depending on how many servers you have, you can get colocation services anywhere between 1U to a full rack.
Connection Charges
Typically, a colocation hosting providers offer several packages based on the maximum amount of bandwidth you need in a month. So, if you have a traffic-intense website, you require more bandwidth per month. However, you can also choose to pay per connection average. That is, instead of measuring the total number of gigabytes transferred per month, a connection average is usually used. This method works based on MBPS (Mega Bytes Per Second) estimate. So a 1 MBPS connection means that you can have on average, 1 MegaByte of transfer Per Second for the entire month.

In other words, your hosting provider divides your total bandwidth usage in a month by the total number of seconds in a month. And the result would be your connection average, which is measured in MBPS. Although, it is not quite as simple as that! Most often, the way the bandwidth usage is measured using the connection average method, is by using a system called '95th percentile' in which bandwidth measurements are taken every 5 minutes. At the end of the month, the top 5% of readings are discarded, and the highest remaining reading left is what the user is billed for.

Your Checklist
Since you are entrusting your server in the hands of a Colocation Hosting provider, you need to be vigilant about which facility you choose.

Here, we have provided for you a checklist that can help you find the right colocation facility:

Location of the Facility
It is important to know where your server will be physically located. For example, data centers that are located in downtown areas offer much more expensive hosting services than the ones located elsewhere. And the reason simply is that the cost of the location is higher. Also, ideally, you would want to be close to the datacenter of your choice, since if needed, you can easily and quickly get to the location.
Physical Infrastructure
Natural disasters can and unfortunately do occur. You want to ensure that your server is kept in a safe environment, where disaster recovery procedures are in place.
Security
This is an extremely important aspect of colocation hosting. You must make sure that access to the datacenter where your server would be stored is limited, so that only individuals with proper authorization can enter the facility.
Bandwidth
This is a deciding factor for you. Each datacenter has a different internet connection. In addition, each datacenter has its own set of prices for different range of bandwidth usage per month. First, you need to realistically consider your bandwidth requirements in a month, in order to choose the best package. Also, you need to do a little shopping-around to find out which datacenter offers you the best prices, given relatively the same quality of service.
IPs
If you want to be using features such as Anonymous FTP, private nameservers, or game servers, having multiple IPs would prove to be important for you. So you need to find out if the colocation facility can provide you with multiple IPs, and if so, at what cost.
Support
This is generally important for any type of hosting. Although, it may seem like web hosting is all about technical matters, it is not the case at all. Customer service is paramount in this industry, and you want to make sure that not only the people who have access to your servers are both knowledgeable and helpful, but that they are friendly and can provide excellent support when you need it.
Uptime Guarantees
For any kind of hosting, reliable and continuous performance is extremely crucial. Therefore, you should find out about the datacenter’s policy regarding their stance on providing uninterrupted services.

More Questions to Ask!
Once you are done with the checklist, you still have other things to do! The only way to identify a quality colocation facility is to ask questions about every system. Although the power, cooling, and connectivity systems are different, the questions to ask are basically the same: