Colocation - your server, your hosting providers facilities - is it for you?
You may or may not know what colocation means; the word is synonymously used with the different spellings of 'co-location' and 'collocation'; although 'colocation' is the most frequent spelling you will find on the net.
Colocation is used to mean the rental of space for your telecommunications equipment, mainly dedicated servers, in a service provider's data centre. It offers similar benefits to dedicated hosting except you provide the server, and are responsible for the hardware maintenance.
A data centre sometimes known as a colocation facility, is a network-connected secure managed facility for the housing of telecommunications and IT infrastructure. All you have to do is purchase a web server and the ISP will house your server and connect you to the Internet via their network.
Server colocation takes the headache out of hosting. You don't have to worry about finding IT staff support, an optimised hosting facility, Internet connectivity, security, data backup or anything else related to your server being and staying online. Your co-location supplier provides and manages it all for you, whilst giving you 24-hour access to your colocated server when you request it.
It really is as simple as that - you provide the server to colocate and the co-location supplier provides everything else: rack space, connection to the Internet, IP addresses, backups, DNS, email and anything else that is needed.
2 types of colocation:
- Managed colocation - the hosting company takes responsibility of maintaining and monitoring the collocated server, so you don't have to, plus it ensures superior uptime.
- Unmanaged colocation - it is less expensive but you are responsible for the maintenance, monitoring, and upgrades to the system.
Advantages of collocation:
- Freedom to choose the hardware & configuration of server
- More choice about the installed software
- More control of your server
- Colocation Provider maintains the server
- Cheaper than having your own co-location centre
- UK based data centre
- Reduced risk in secure facilities
- Immediate technical support on site if needed (managed colocation)
Disadvantages of collocation:
- Recommended only to experienced technical users
- Must source and pay for your own server
- All configuration and loading of the OS and software is carried out by you
- Parts, labour and warranty is your responsibility
Colocation is a basic hosting service. The hosting provider does not help to prepare your equipment for hardware or software installation or maintenance, that is your job. Nor is the colocation provider obliged to supply you with any extra services. However this managed colocation option is available at an extra cost.