Colocation is one of the best choices for big businesses wanting full control over their servers. But this doesn’t mean that colocation hosting is always the perfect solution. If you are interested in using colocation as a solution for your online business presence, you should be aware of all the aspects before taking the decision. Here are five of the most common problems associated with colocation hosting:
1. It Can Be A Costly Option
Colocation hosting costs more money in comparison with a standard website hosting service. First of all, you need to purchase your own server hardware and software. Then, you have to rent the physical space and pay for the monthly data transfer, the connection speed, etc. Often times, you will also need to pay money in order to maintain your server in good order. Thus, unless you have a successful online business, you might not need to use this type of hosting in the first place. However, if you have a constantly evolving website, which needs more and more bandwidth and a reliable hosting service, colocation will be exactly what you need.
2. A Good Service Provider Might Be Hard To Find
You might not be able to find a good colocation hosting provider in your area, because there aren’t too many companies that offer this type of service. While it is true that some web hosting providers offer colocation hosting services as well, they are mostly big and established service providers. The smaller web hosting companies will not provide this type of service for various reasons such as lack of demand, high maintenance costs, etc. This means that if you live in a small city you may not be able to find a good colocation provider.
3. Location Problems
Since you need to keep your own server hardware at the provider’s location, you should make sure that the distance between your company and your colocation hosting provider is as small as possible. This way, it will be much easier for you to travel back and forth between your company and the provider whenever you need to do something to your server. If the distance is too big, this can cause lots of problems, significantly increasing the website downtime.
4. Costs May Vary
While most web hosting packages have a fixed price, the costs may vary when you choose the services offered by a colocation hosting provider. The cost of bandwidth will constantly grow as your business grows, and your colocation provider will certainly charge you more money if you use more bandwidth. Thus, you may need to pay more money each month, especially if you have a constant website traffic increase. On the other hand, if you decide to use regular web hosting services, you will pay a fixed price regardless of how much bandwidth you consume in any given month.
5. You Need To Manage Your Server
Most of the time, you will need to manage the server yourself. And if you don’t know anything about servers (hardware and software) you will definitely need to hire an IT specialist to do it for you. If you decide to ask your hosting provider to manage your server for you, you are going to pay for this service.
These are the most common problems associated with colocation hosting. You might not be aware of them when you are first starting out, but they can be very frustrating to deal with later.
Bob Spiegel, the author of this article, is the founder of QuoteColo, a Plymouth, MA based company that offers colocation services to small businesses and enterprise companies. Connect with Bob on Twitter at quotecolo .