Colocation Sites and Top Server Colocation Providers
High-density colocation data centers. Be sure that you pick a colocation site that has fully redundant power. Find secure, reliable co-location services to house and manage your servers and web presence. Choose dedicated servers, or rent rackspace for your
own servers. Highly-available colocation facilities with security and virtual 24x7 uptime.
Sources for server colocation,
disaster recovery facilities, and managed network solutions can be found
here. You maintain control over
your web servers. Secure data centers offer dedicated server solutions in which
the
service provider monitors your servers continuously. There are Unmetered Bandwidth
and Metered Bandwidth Options. Co-location, collocation, and colo are
other terms for these services. Using a colocation site for your critical
servers saves some of the overhead involved in maintaining a company's own data
center. Colocation service providers
offer a wide range of data center management options. Whether dedicated
server hosting is needed, or if your company-owned servers are housed at
the colocation provider's site, the colocation facility may allow you to
manage virtually all of the server functions by remote control, including
remote re-boot. Or, you may choose options in which the co-location
hosting company is responsible for maintenance, patching and backups.
Rackspace Hosting Updates Rackspace Hybrid Email for 1.7 Million Users
Rackspace Hybrid Email now offers integrated calendar experience across hosted Microsoft Exchange and Rackspace Email
Colocation America Announces Superior Connectivity at Los Angeles and New York Data Centers
Leading colocation server hosting company delivers results through its fastest global connectivity to date.
Factors to consider:
1. Do you need a carrier-neutral colocation facility? This means, usually, that the site uses multiple bandwidth providers, and that your company may choose its preferred provider from among several options. Ask, though, if they accept any commissions from bandwidth providers.
2. Power protected colo facility: the extent of power protection may vary between co-location services. The number and capacity of UPS units and generators is key. Are there redundant generators?
3. A range, from secure metal cages to which your key employees have access 24x7, to locked cabinets containing your colocated servers, down to partial cabinets or just one or two rack units ( 1u or 2 u ) should be available.
4. Tape backup services and other hosting services are available from colo providers, pricing may vary significantly.
5. Does the colocation company host both telecommunications and ISP's? Learn whether they have a diversity of clients for their managed hosting services.
6. Ownership. You can usually choose between a dedicated server setup, in which the hosting company owns the hardware, or an arrangement where you own the servers. The advantages of colocation mean that bandwidth comes alot cheaper than what you may be able to negotiate on your own. The colo service basically supplies the bandwidth, the IP, and power to your server, and the data center in which it's housed.
The contract that you sign with the colocation hosting service should allow for easy upgrades. Your business may expand to require more e-commerce servers. Server operating systems may become outdated. You may need to upgrade your Oracle or SQL Server database version.
A "U" is a Rack Unit, a measurement of the vertical space that your server occupies within a rack. One 'U' generally equals 1.75 inches, or about 4.45cm. A full rack may have 40 to 42 U's. The minimum rack space you can rent for your colocated server is generally 1U. The amount of data transfer that you contract for is measuted in price per gigabytes of transfer per month. The colocation service may monitor your servers for any or all of the following, which may be priced separately, or included in your colocation plan:
Ping Tests
Disk Space Checks
Check IIS, Mail, and other services, and restart automatically on failure..
CPU Usage
Memory Usage
HTTP Availability |
|
