When you lease space from a data center for your specific needs, and require access to the facility, the control and responsibility of your servers is one step closer to complete. If you are considering a colocation dedicated hosting account with a hosting company be prepared to pay more than a managed dedicated server but less than your own data center.
Tech Support
The ease at which you or your staff can work with the center in a friendly yet professional manner is critical. Being able to access a server in the middle of the night because of a proprietary software glitch is reason enough to research thoroughly each and every nearby facility.
In addition to the host’s reputation, technical support for their end of the web, familiarity with your specific requirements, and their guarantee of connectivity, the real consideration lies in the how far they are located from your own location. They must be available with tech support 24/7, not only by phone for something simple, but also in person at the data center where you or your tech can solve the problem together, anytime it is necessary.
Less Than A Data Center
Colo is becoming one of the faster growing segments of the esoteric world of web hosting. It reduces costs when compared to a specialized data center that houses all of your own servers and manned 24/7 by your own staff. It is true that the square foot is much higher, but you only need enough room to handle your servers, not the break room, conference, storage, cooling and other compartments that make up a data center.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All
In a colocation dedicated hosting facility, most offer a particular size accommodation such as a quarter or half cage or rack for your servers. But just fitting your comparable servers to their facility is not the only item on your menu of ‘what to look for”. You also want to make sure that the generator backups will work under any natural disasters that may commonly occur in the area. The heating and cooling systems should also have backups and the connectivity even more redundant connections.
Getting a list of their services and the equipment to match your own is the second step after getting access to the data center.