Choosing between Colocation and Dedicated Hosting

The two kinds of web hosting services most sought after by large corporations who need servers that are powerful and accommodate large bandwidths are colocation and dedicated hosting. Some companies do go in for their own data centers or server facilities, but with the upkeep and maintenance costs running into thousands of dollars, the alternative options of renting space at a colocation center and placing their own servers in secure cabinets or vaults (colocation) and renting a server itself from the colocation facility that’s dedicated to the company’s activities and sites alone (dedicated hosting) seem more financially viable. Besides this, a colocation center offers high speed access, large and unlimited bandwidths that prevent your servers from crashing during sudden traffic surges, security both from hackers and from the elements of nature, power backups and built-in redundancy to prevent down time and temperature and humidity controls. The decision of choosing between the two options is made easier if you’re familiar with the pros and cons of each.

When you opt for colocation, the server is your own and you have complete control over all aspects, from the hardware platform and software applications that run on the server to the amount of bandwidth that’s allocated and the storage space. One main advantage of colocated servers is that the long term costs are pretty low. On the minus side, you have high startup costs, you have to pay more rent if your server takes up more than one unit of space in the center, and you’re totally responsible for any hardware problems and server crashes. Organizations that need a high degree of customization for their websites, have a large volume of sensitive data and information on their servers, and have their own skilled IT team which has easy and swift access to the server are best suited for colocation services.

Dedicated servers on the other hand allow you to sit back leaving the onus of looking after the maintenance and backup operations of your server to the staff at the colocation center. While the initial costs are low, the long-term costs can get pretty steep if the colocation facility doesn’t offer any concessions for you being a long-standing and valued customer. If you’re planning to keep the server for quite some time, the rent adds up to more than the cost of a new server. On the plus side though, you don’t have to rush to check up on your server each time there’s a minor problem that needs to be resolved. This kind of web hosting is ideal if you’re in the deal for the short term, don’t need complete control over your server and do not have anything of a confidential or sensitive nature stored on it.

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This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of web design degree. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.