Server Colocation Advantages

Server colocation is considered beneficial for a company from the point of view of reducing capital investment on purchase and maintenance of hardware. The new trend of server colocation is specially beneficial for small organizations.

By colocating their server, these companies can save a lot on the cost of hardware and expenses associated with maintenance work. Here is a detailed account of why should server colocation prove to be advantageous for a small company.

Before getting into the details of benefits of server colocation, let us first understand more about this activity. The activity of server colocation involves outsourcing the work of hosting and maintaining the data server of an organization, institution, business entity, etc.

The need to colocate the computer server arises from many different causes, i.e., high maintenance costs, unavailability of technicians to monitor the server, cost of power supplies, power outages, etc.

The customer of a colocation service is allotted a certain amount of space to upload their data. In short, the customers pay rent for the space they are using. There are variations in the way the customers are served by colocation facilities. The customers can either own the serve they are colocating or just pay rent for hosting their data on server owned by the facility.

There are many advantages of using a colocated server. The points listed below should present the benefits of transitioning from the condition of owning a server to renting one.

• Cost-cutting is an important factor in the functioning organizations where they try to edge out their opponents by offering competitive pricing. Colocating the serve should help organizations to focus on their core competencies rather than spending time and money on maintenance work.

• Bandwidth usage is an important factor that affects the costs incurred in managing a data center. Servers at the colocation centers are of large capacities. They can therefore, afford to allot the required bandwidth in times of traffic spikes.

Moreover, the cost is distributed amongst customers. The idea of sharing bandwidth with other customers therefore, creates a win-win situation for both the colocation service facility and customers.

• The activity of operating data servers requires power supply on a continuous basis. The cost incurred in supplying the in-house system with power without fail is greater. Let us keep aside the issue of cost of power supply for sometime; but then, maintaining the power supply in times of power cuts also is a challenging task. The decision to virtualize your data server can simply be a solution to sort out most of the problems.

• The security of data of an organization holds utmost importance in its smooth functioning; information leaks can cost the organization dearly. It is therefore, better to leave the job of managing the servers to specialists. The colocation centers provide the necessary security by safeguarding their clients' data through firewalls, private networks, anti-virus solutions, etc.

• Any problem in the proper functioning of a server could prove to be costly. Emergency situations and system failures can be handled quite efficiently at server colocation facilities and that too in less time.

• There are many non-IT organizations that don't have the expertise and resources to host a server. Colocation is a better option for these organizations rather than having a full-time employee to monitor the machine. Problems that occur in servers are immediately sorted out at the server colocation facilities.

• Outsourcing the activity of server colocation is also beneficial from the point of reducing the cost of manpower. A trained person is needed to monitor the smooth functioning of a server. Colocating the server should therefore, prove to be useful in saving money.

There are a few disadvantages of using a colocated server. For example, upgrading the server or software installed on it requires accessing a place that is physically distant. The advantages of serve colocation listed above, are however, far greater than the disadvantages. One should therefore, find the decision to outsource the server to be advantageous.