Dedicated servers vs. colocation

As your business grows and becomes more of a success, you may have to face the decision of whether to lease dedicated servers from a hosting provider or to collocate your own equipment.

The long-term goals of your business will determine whether you decide to collocate or lease, along with how complex your solutions are and also the number of servers that your business requires. Purchasing and colocation is the way to go if our cash flow is good, and your services can run on less than cutting edge equipment.

The businesses that decide to collocate use their own equipment, which is sent to the colocation provider’s facility where it is then installed. It is typically not touched by the provider unless there is an issue which requires immediate intervention, or unless the business has negotiated a management agreement with the provider. The equipment is usually owned by the company which is securing colocation services.

The business that owns the equipment also owns the software licenses. Options that aren’t available on a leased basis are given to you by the use of colocation. Your business will get the flexibility to plan for growth, to incorporate mirroring and load balancing.

There are in fact many hidden costs and risks involved even though colocation sometimes appears to offer similar benefits to dedicated servers. It’s not as cheap and easy as you might think.

• Network – Creating your own network infrastructure is a sizeable cost of colocation. A dedicated server client would benefit from hosting on one of the only self-healing networks in the UK, which incorporates a guaranteed performance due to multi-homing and server load-balancing.
• Resources – When using colocation, it is imperative that you have the necessary disaster recovery solutions in place at all times, in order for your business to really flourish. This includes expert technicians and replacement parts. The web host managed it all for you with dedicated servers so that you don’t have to worry. There are highly qualified technicians on hand who can be at your server within minutes, 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Capital expenditure – You have the initial capital expenditure of buying all equipment upfront with collocation. A hosting facility in which to place it in then has to be sourced. This comes with the added cost of keeping your hardware and costs up to date. A more headache free solution is presented with dedicated servers, as all maintenance, network and facilities are managed by the hosting provider. This is usually accompanied by a parts and hardware warranty. You can significantly reduce your up-front capital expenditure for faster ROI by spreading the cost in affordable installments.

To find out how dedicated server hosting on Microsoft Windows 2003 or Linux can enhance your online business call now on 0800 4584545 or leave your details to request more information.