Colocation hosting is a highly strategic working solution for websites that need maximum performance and reliability. Using colocation hosting for websites delivers an attractive combination of performance, cost-effectiveness, and convenience. Here is a quick guide to what you need to know about it.
The three main forms of website hosting are shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and colocation hosting.
Shared hosting: This refers to hosting websites on servers that are shared by more than one client and also owned and run by a third-party (hosting) vendor. Shared hosting typically has the lowest costs but also the lowest performance. This may be acceptable for low-traffic websites but high-traffic websites are likely to experience performance bottlenecks.
Dedicated hosting: This refers to hosting websites on servers that are dedicated to a specific client but owned and run by a third-party (hosting) vendor. In terms of performance, these are a clear improvement on shared hosting. There are, however, limits to how far businesses can optimize their servers. Additionally, data is still hosted on equipment owned by a third party.
Colocation hosting: This refers to housing your website’s servers in a third-party data center, generally known as a colocation facility. This means that businesses get the cost benefits of shared infrastructure but can customize their equipment as much as they wish. They can also keep their data on devices they own.
Colocation hosting is a great working solution for websites as it enables businesses to gain maximum performance and reliability for minimal costs. Here are 7 specific ways using colocation hosting can benefit your website.
Access to the latest technologies: Colocation facilities are quick to adopt the latest technologies, especially when they’re clearly likely to be of interest to their clients. For instance, colocation facilities are very likely to deploy highly sophisticated power-distribution and cooling systems. These significantly lower running costs and improve sustainability.
Fast, reliable connectivity: Network connectivity is often a major selling point for colocation facilities. They will generally have the best networking technology (e.g. fiber optic and 5G) and know how to maximize its performance.
Bandwidth scalability for increased traffic: Colocation hosting provides the technical agility needed to scale bandwidth seamlessly. This feature is critical for accommodating spikes in website traffic.
Guaranteed reliability: Colocation facilities typically offer uptime guarantees of 99.999%+. These are achieved by implementing massive levels of redundancy in all key systems.
Security and compliance: Colocation vendors implement robust physical and digital security. Many of them comply with major data security frameworks and standards.
Ability to choose and configure hardware: Using colocation hosting enables businesses to tailor their hardware to their specific performance and capacity requirements.
Full control over software and applications: With colocation, businesses have complete technical control over the software stack and applications running on their servers. This level of customization ensures compatibility with specific workflows and business processes.
At a high level, choosing the right hosting option for your websites means balancing what you want to attain with the cost of attaining it. Performance is one obvious goal. (It also tends to be a very important one for websites). Some businesses may have additional goals such as convenience.
At a deeper level, it’s important to look closely at both the costs and cost structure of any potential working solution you are evaluating. Here are five specific points you should consider.
Hosting plan costs: Check both setup and recurring fees and be clear about what exactly is (and hence isn’t) included in both. If you use a pay-as-you-go option check how much notice the provider gives when fees change. Also, check how much notice you need to give if you wish to leave or change the plan.
Hardware and infrastructure expenses: These contribute significantly to the overall cost of running a website. Depending on the hosting plan you choose, they may be included in the price or separate (or a combination of both). If they are included in the price, they might be part of the upfront costs or the ongoing costs (or a combination of both).
Bandwidth and data transfer charges: Unless you are going for an unmetered connection, thoroughly check how data transfer is charged. In particular, be clear on whether there are different charges for different types of data transfer. For example, some providers allocate clients a “domestic” zone. They pay lower prices for data transfer within this zone than outside it.
Maintenance and support fees: Ongoing maintenance and support services often incur additional costs. These need to be factored into the hosting budget.
Scaling and upgrade costs: Likewise scaling up resources or upgrading hosting plans may involve additional expenses. It’s therefore important to consider future growth when allocating your budget.
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