Colocation Hosting 101: What Your Business Should Know

February 26, 2014

What Is Colocation Hosting?

Colocation hosting is an off-site data storage solution that protects your business from local disasters like fires, floods, and earthquakes. Many businesses can circumvent the loss of data by including a hosting solution in their businesses.

Data loss may consist of loss from fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Companies who want a greater degree of security most often choose Off-Site hosting solutions. In general, it can help their customers access data storage space, servers, networks and also connect them to a variety of service providers. Here’s what you need to know:

What to Expect from Colocation Hosting Services

Most companies are seeking a solution to help you reduce capital and operational expenses. When you need to protect mission-critical applications from disaster, we recommend our Broward colocation facility. There are several things that differentiate colocation services providers. Your company simply has to decide which features work best for them.

A data center is very affordable for any small or medium-sized business, it lets the company expand its IT capacity while keeping costs down. Our managed hosting services allow businesses to run more efficiently and on a smaller budget.

Building a high-end data center, which ensures reliability and security, can cost millions of dollars. Adequate fire protection and 24/7 security make data centers expensive to build and maintain. This is much too costly for most to build, so they instead opt to use a remote facility to manage and store servers.

What to Consider When Choosing a Colocation Provider

Facilities infrastructure is a major consideration. The floor should sit at least 20 inches above the concrete slab and support at least 150 pounds per square foot. Loading docks and commercial-grade freight elevators should be able to withstand 20,000 pounds of capacity.

The staff should be highly trained and professional. They should also be able to perform maintenance tasks and troubleshoot. The staff should also act as on-site technical personnel and engage in migration planning.

Security and Support: The Real Differentiators

Many companies boast that they provide reliable hosting and support, but very few can adequately explain exactly what that means. Most simply provide statistics about their network uptime but are unable to reference more tangible technical systems that will work to protect their customer’s data.

One of the most important aspects of hosting is security. Security is so important because the worst disasters that can befall a client’s data all pertain to a lapse in security. Data theft can be infinitely more catastrophic than data loss. Modern companies claiming to host data securely should be able to make solid claims about what tangibly protects their customers’ data.

Some can offer 7-point military-grade security. Biometric access controls and similar protocols mean that even a physical breach of the host’s server environment won’t compromise your data. Network uptime matters, but true physical security matters even more.

It takes more than just security, however. Another critical element is support. Even the best protection is useless if authorized users can’t access their data. A reliable host offers around-the-clock access to live, qualified personnel. Much like the previous example, a reliable network is no replacement for reliable personnel.

Many companies like to make claims about their efficiency and the degree of their reliability, but reliability is more than good uptime numbers. It means providing appropriate defense for the client’s assets and offering realtime assistance when they require it. Modern hosting and support are all about providing for the unthinkable, the emergent, and being agile in the solutions offered.