Thursday, August 26, 2010

Why Using a Server Colocation Service May Be the Best Web Hosting Option For You

Using a server colocation service is one of the most attractive web hosting alternatives available for website owners today. It is the perfect solution for many small businesses who want the benefits of having a full fledged IT facility without incurring extra costs. Most large multinational companies have in-house IT departments with state of the art equipment used to host their corporate websites. However, having your own IT department can be quite expensive and many small businesses simply cannot afford it. There are many available options for hosting websites but most of these options are designed for small personal websites and many small businesses may find that these services are inadequate for their purposes. However, server colocation gives small business owners the benefit of a powerful hosting service at a fraction of the costs that it would take to build and maintain your own server facility.

Colocation is actually a very simple concept that involves placing your own server in a communal facility. The first thing that you will have to do is purchase server hardware and software. Once you have migrated all of your files into your new server, you can then contact a company that offers colocation services. They will then take your server and install it in their facility. You will share this facility with other clients, but this arrangement has many benefits. For one thing, you will be able to install your server in a state of the art facility that can go head to head with the IT department of any Fortune 500 company. You will have to share bandwidth and the physical facility with other people but you get so much more than you would get from lesser hosting options. Once your server has been installed, the server collocation company will then provide you with a special IP address that you can use to remotely manage your server. You will be able to upload website and transfer files regardless of where you are in the world in relation to the physical location of your server.

There are numerous benefits to server colocation. First of all, you can save a lot of money on bandwidth. Bandwidth can be very expensive but you will need a lot of it to host a site that gets a lot of traffic. As your site grows, and more and more people visit it, your current hosting plan may not be able to handle the increase in the amount of traffic. With server colocation however, you get more (affordable) bandwidth at faster speeds when compared to lesser hosting options. You will also gain the benefit of having a full time staff maintaining the facility 24/7. You will no longer have to worry about problems like power outages and data loss. Server colocation facilities often have many safety measures in place like power redundancy that can do away with many problems associated with server maintenance.

If you anticipate your website getting an increase in traffic in the near future but don't have the funds to have your own IT department, then using a server service may be the ideal option for you.

Want to learn more about whether a server colocation service may be the right choice for you?

Visit my server colocation website to get all of the information needed to decide whether this special type of hosting option can benefit you and your business.

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