How to Determine What Your Colocation Needs Really Are

While the move to a third party rack space can bring with it enough reasons for you to rejoice, it may be a good idea to ponder on it for a while before you take the plunge. If you can shift much of your overhead costs to a third party colocation host, you can save money and even get more resources to focus on core business matters. At the same time, if you must give up your control over hardware facilities, it may turn out to be quite unnerving for you. This is exactly why it becomes vital to assess your business colocation requirements first before you make this move. When you can understand exactly how colocation is going to benefit you, it becomes easier to migrate to a colocation facility. You also have complete peace of mind as you go through this transition.

- One of the main reasons why you can consider signing up for server colocation hosting is space constraints in the current data center. Colocation costs are decided after taking into account your space requirements. So, the costs will differ according to how many racks or cabinets you have leased. In most cases, businesses are seen to co-locate some servers and keep some servers on-site.

- Another important factor to understand your colocation needs is the costs involved as it is natural for businesses to get a provider which charges low rates for colocation hosting. You should ideally research multiple colocation providers to get the most affordable hosting packages. Usually the hosts will give you a single estimate which will cover the cabinet space costs, power and cooling costs, IP addresses and bandwidth costs etc.

- While most tasks may be handled remotely it is important to know about the physical location of the data centers. This is because you may need to transport your IT staff from time to time to such facilities to take care of upgrades and repairs. When trips need to be made often, it may become a cost burden if the facility is located at a great distance from your business.

- Another significant factor which can help you assess what you colocation needs really are is security concerns. There are some data center hosting facilities which can guarantee 24x7 protection through various robust security measures. So, when a company is planning to keep confidential and sensitive data or dedicated servers in a colocation facility, it needs a fully-managed, capable and experienced staff which can keep the premises well guarded at all times. Some of these stringent measures include CCTV monitoring with round-the-clock surveillance by guards, biometric scanners, card key entry, retinal and fingerprint scanning etc.

- Finally, while some businesses choose colocation providers that can guarantee fully-managed solutions, others may have to settle for providers which may limit their responsibilities to server restarts only. So, you need to know what your business specific requirements are to be able to take the right decision of a hosting provider. When your teams are less experienced it is best to opt for fully-managed solutions. These will be costlier as expected and you must include these charges when estimating your overall colocation costs.

Was this answer helpful? 9 10