Colocation Myths Exposed

In the small and medium-sized business circles, colocation had gathered some of the more off-the-wall myths. Probably because it offers solutions in a totally different background, colocation is prone to misconceptions.

Unfortunately, these myths can cloud perceptions and certainly affect decisions. The following are some of the more oft-repeated and widespread myths on colocation going around that you need to know.

Inconvenience

Convenience does not depend on the host you choose and where they keep their data. Today, your IT staff can remotely handle most equipment and configuration work.

It does help to have your staff and your equipments close to each other, but on extreme cases, your people can always go to your colocation site to upgrade equipment or software.

Still on the plus side, your colocation facility can provide more space and better equipment organization.

Uncertainty

Depending on your own security implementations, your colocation equipments are generally more secure in a colocation facility. Because it is their business, colocation companies equip their facilities with the latest in firewalls, IDS (Intrusion Detection System) and the assurance of a solid physical security (duly monitored cages).

This level of security and the wide array of security technologies may not be affordable for small businesses. Also, the staff of colocation facilities keeps your security patches up-to-date themselves.

Another web hosting scheme

There is a huge difference between a web-hosting deal and a colocation arrangement.
In web hosting, your site’s programming code is located inside another business server which is owned by the web hosting company.

In a colocation environment, your company’s equipment and software is physically located in the colocation company’s data center. Your company’s site has its own server and support components.

Web hosting companies usually handle thousands of web site users which your company has to share. In short, your company located in a colocation facility does not compete for critical server resources, bandwidth, storage and CPU. Glitches in other web sites (that usually happens in a web hosting setup) do not affect your business site.

Unreliability

Most colocation centers have redundant Internet connections, power sources and backups. Usually, they run at minimal capacities (less than 80%) so that competition for bandwidth is done away with.

Also, colocation centers employ IT professionals to handle outages and other technical problems on-site.

Limited support

Colocation services have all the support for their clients – physical and network security, data recovery, power systems, and more. These companies even offer customer service by way of emails and phone support and where IT professionals can be reached.

Managed service contracts are available to keep your company’s servers fine-tuned, including hardware and software upgrades. The support is only limited by your budget for these colocation services.

Inflexible

Some colocation services offer servers and other components but they can be flexible. This happens when all you rent in a colocation facility is space and connectivity where the servers and the software belong to your company.

This is where you control over what software runs on your company’s servers and how powerful those servers can be. On the other hand, the speed of servers and the available software to run them in a web-hosting arrangement are limited to what your host company can provide.

These are some of the more popular myths perpetrated by people who are less familiar about the nature of colocation and its advantages.