Businesses without an online presence are few and far between these days, and there is a vast number of options for web hosting for those who’ve joined the majority and taken their business online. The bulk of those business owners won’t know one type of hosting from the other, and that’s perfectly fine - we may well know little to nothing about the ins and outs of your industry also. Here at 4GoodHosting, part of what’s made us a top quality Canadian web hosting provider is the way in which we’re entirely receptive to the differing needs of businesses when it comes to optimally locating themselves on the World Wide Web. Web hosting is most certainly not a 1-size-fits-all utility, and we offer different options accordingly. Which leads us to this week’s discussion. Collocation is something of a ‘buzzword’ in the industry these days, and as such we’re going to lay it out in detail in this week’s blog. Conventional shared hosting will be fine for small businesses with a stable number of visitors, but a large multinational - for example - will probably have its own web servers. Those of you who are somewhere in between may want to look at colocation. What Exactly is Colocation? It’s when companies locate their own privately-owned web servers and IT equipment in a 3rd-party data centre. They don’t own the space, they rent it. The total space available will be rented out to many different companies, and the provider will offer day-to-day support to accommodate the entirety of the clients’ web presence needs. You’ll get bandwidth, power, cooling, security (physical and cyber), and as many IP addresses as needed. Client companies are responsible for maintenance and upgrades, but some data centres will offer this service for an additional cost. How much space is available in a colocation data centre? That’s a measure of racks and cabinets. The physical server equipment is kept on a rack, and most measure 1.75” high. On average, 47 racks make up a cabinet and clients typically can rent out full or half cabinets. Advantages of Colocation There are plenty of advantages to choosing colocation over shared or...
