If you own a small business, then you know how expensive and out of reach an IT team is for helping you with keeping your server up to date.  Colocation is a great way for small businesses to stay online for much less money.

One of the drawbacks to having a small business, is the lack of funds available for keeping up with the web server and things that link the company to the website.  One of the best ways for small businesses or individuals to mimic a large IT department without the cost is colocation. 

Colocation is the process by which a business or individual essentially shares bandwidth with another company, corporation or internet service provider.  Colocation offers the customer a physical, secure place to house their software and server rather than having it in their building.  Colocation is especially useful for small businesses that do have space or money for an entire IT team to be constantly working on their web space. Once you have rented a server machine from the colocation company, that company will provide you with an IP, bandwidth, and power for your server.  It is sort of like web hosting in that you access it the same way you would with a web hosting provider.

There are many benefits to using colocation as a form of server space.  The most prominent advantage is the cost.  Bandwidth and server space can cost a lot of money, especially when you have to hire an entire IT team to run it for you.  Buying bandwidth on its own can cost enormous amounts of money, whereas placing your server in a colocation facility can provide you with the same sort of service, if not better, for a fraction of the cost.

Buying a spot in a colocation center is also extremely beneficial in that your server will stay up even in the case of a power outage.  Paying for backup generators and power for a server at your own business can run very pricey, and in the end may not even prove powerful enough to keep everything running.  The security of your server is much better by placing it in a colocation facility because you are paying them to run generators and backup power to ensure that your data is not lost or put down in the case of a power outage.

Unlike hosting sites which only upgrade when they feel it is time to do so, you will actually own the server machinery.  This means that you can upgrade and update if your server is running too slow or doesn’t have enough memory anytime you want.  You will not have to wait until your hosting site decides it is time to update.  You have much more freedom and control over your server and your information.  You also will own your own server software.  Once again, you will not have to wait for your hosting site to install everything from the software to the tools that you wish to use on your server.  You can install all of those things on your own time and as frequently as you wish to do so.

In addition, most colocation servers offer maintenance and services for just a little extra cost.  Once again, this is especially useful for businesses that do not have their own IT team to update and maintain their server.  You can hire a team of professionals to look after and update your server for you for just a little extra cost.

As with almost everything, there are also disadvantages to colocation.  Colocation is much cheaper than hosting your own website yourself and paying for your own bandwidth and IP address.  However, colocation also costs more than just your standard web hosting fee.  If you have a business that only requires web hosting, then the best way to go is just with a standard web hosting company.

When you first start out with a colocation center, there are quite a few initial cost involved.  First you must pay for the rack space itself as well as the server.  Even after paying for these initial costs, you must then continue to pay for bandwidth which is typically done on a monthly basis.  The cost of the bandwidth will more than likely vary from month to month depending on the amount of data being transferred.  These types of costs can vary from quite a large amount to vary little, making your monthly bills unsteady and difficult to budget out.  Web hosting sites are different in that you will always know what your monthly or bi yearly rate is which them, so once again, if your business only requires web hosting, it is best to go with just that.

Another disadvantage is the access to the server.  With web hosting, your site will always be fully available to you at any given time.  With colocation, you will have to physically travel to the facility where your server is and perform the updates and upgrades there.  Also, although you can hire someone to maintain and update your server, if you do not, you will have to go there yourself to maintain and update it.
   
Before you choose to use colocation, there are a few things to consider.  Because of the fact that your server will be located in a separate building than your business, location for your colocation server is something to think about.  You don’t want to end up with a colocation center that takes hours to get to in the case that you need to update something quickly.  Along with that comes the question of how often will you need to access your equipment.  If you feel that you will need to access it often, be sure to go with a location close to your primary business.  Consider how much space you will require as well as how much bandwidth your website will need. 

After you have determined all of the key elements that are required, find a colocation site and talk everything over with one of their experts.  They will be able to help you determine the exact specifications and slight tweaks you may need to make in order to keep your server running properly.  Be sure to go with a company that will help you along the way and provide you with the type of service you would expect.