What is colocation?
If you are running your own web server from home or your office, it is recommended that you get a colocation service. Colocation quite literally means placing your server machine in another person’s rack and then sharing their bandwidth as if it was your own. However, colocation services will cost more than ordinary hosting services. Once you set your server up you can then take it to the location of the provider and install your machine onto their rack, or you can even rent their server machine. The company will then provide you with an IP address, power to the server and also bandwidth. Once everything is up and running you can then access everything much like as if you were accessing a hosting provider with the difference being that you own the hardware.
Advantages
One of the biggest advantages is the fact that colocation service providers tend to have much faster internet connections than business or residential connections. If you’re getting a lot of traffic, or you need a super-fast internet connection which you cannot get at your home or office, then this is the right option.
The other big advantage is that you will not have power issues as colocation hosting service providers tend to have large data centers with high end circuitry, which can supply hundreds of servers with power. In the event of a power outage or some other issue with the power they also have backup systems in place such as a generator which will continue to supply your server with power for many days, which works out much better than installing a UPS at home which does not last as long.
The other thing a colocation service provider has which you do not is good cooling. Data centers are kept at a constant cool temperature which ensures that your hardware does not burn up in the hot weather. In addition, many service providers also provide your server with added physical security, which ensures that no one can physically break into your server. A number of different types of service locks are used on your server’s cabinet as well as security guards that patrol the vicinity.