Co-location is for Experienced Webmasters

If you're apprehensive about leaving your web site hosting in the hands of another company, but don't have the funds to physically maintain a server and direct Internet connection out of your home or office, a co-located server is the next best thing. Colocation 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.

Is Web Server Colocation Right for you?

Server Co-location programs are ideal only for the most serious webmasters as it involves a hefty price tag. It's not that Co-location programs are necessarily expensive themselves, but rather that subscribers to Co-location programs must be able to put up the capital needed to purchase expensive server equipment. 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. For instance, a new server that costs $3000 today may loose a tremendous amount of value in as little as 6 months due to the rapid technology improvements. Another consideration that you should make is your server's scalability. You should make sure that your server's memory and disk space is maximized, since it will be very costly to make additions once the web server is deployed.

Server Co-location is an approach that comes with its own responsibilities. This means that your hosting provider will not help you prepare your equipment for hardware or software installation or maintenance. Setting up a co-located server is not an easy task and requires a large amount of IT expertise. Thus it can be said that this arrangement is well suited for successful industry veterans with a great amount of experience.

Administrating a server or multiple servers can be a significant responsibility especially for business with no previous experience of operating IT infrastructure from remote locations. There is a need to understand your ability to remotely access the machine and whether such methods are time and cost effective. System Security is another important areas that need constant monitoring. If done properly patches should be tested out on a non-production machine before being put on the public facing server.

If the service provider you select is far away, it can actually save you money to hire them to perform maintenance or replace failing equipment. But beware of hidden fees! Choosing a suitable operating system is essential. For example, UNIX based operating systems are developed to be administered remotely while windows operating system often require third party software to access the server. If this is the case, be ready to spend the time learning the software and also accepting the additional expense.

Access to the server hardware is important if you intend to maintain the equipment yourself. Make sure you find out how easy it is to get in to maintain your machine. Some ISPs restrict how often (or what time of day) they will allow you access into their facility to maintain your machine. Some ISPs don't really want their customers traipsing around the premises, and therefore charge you to visit and work on co-located machines. This is usually an hourly fee, and complex problems or reconfigurations can be costly.

On occasion a server will need to be physically restarted, especially if it's running applications on the Windows platform. Some ISPs will charge as much as $50 just to have someone push the reset button on your machine or do other trivial tasks. Ensure however that any co-location service you purchase comes with free "reboot" privileges.

The ISP normally recovers the cost of operating and maintaining their facility and its Internet connections by charging a monthly fee per server. There is almost always a certain amount of network usage included in the monthly fee, measured either by the gigabyte of total traffic or by the amount of bandwidth allocated to your server. Any network usage beyond that included in the monthly fee carries with it an extra charge.

Remember being a knowledgeable web host shopper prevents trouble down the line. Choosing a reputable host is the consumer’s concern.

Server Colocation is therefore not the best choice for inexperienced webmasters who require extensive customer care. Co-location is an industrial-grade option best suited for professional content distributors with extensive IT skills in server deployment and administration.

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