<\/span><\/h2>\nColocated servers <\/strong><\/p>\n\n- These are purchased and owned by the business, then housed remotely in a data center (colocated) whereas dedicated servers are owned by the hosting provider (who may or may not also own the data center).<\/li>\n
- With colocated servers, businesses can design the hardware, software, applications and security parameters for each server, but they\u2019re also responsible for the upkeep of those servers. Some major considerations for collocation would be how far your business is from the data center where your server will be housed.<\/li>\n
- Could you feasibly travel to the data center to replace a failed HDD or would you need to contract with the data center for remote hands assistance? The most that some data centers will assist for \u2018free\u2019 is walk over to your server and reset it. Beyond that, some charge reasonable rates for labor and others are outrageously overpriced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ask before you commit to a long term collocation contract. It\u2019s also highly recommended to keep spare parts for your servers at the data center \u2013 to expedite any needed repairs.<\/p>\n
Dedicated Servers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Conversely, dedicated servers are typically either owned or leased by the hosting provider, who then rents them to businesses. Some hosting providers will customize their servers to match a client\u2019s requirements, but others will not.<\/li>\n
- The norm for most hosting providers offering dedicated servers is that they\u2019ll offer servers in a variety of combinations of CPU\u2019s, RAM, hard disk drives, control panels and bandwidth, leaving you to select from a cheap dedicated server all the way to a server costing hundreds of dollars monthly. One advantage with dedicated server hosting is that the provider is responsible for the upkeep of their servers. If a hard drive goes down, they\u2019re on the hook to replace it.<\/li>\n
- Managed services are not normally offered with colocation services, but are widely available when renting dedicated servers. When pondering which method makes more business sense, consider this, \u201cDoes your in-house IT staff have the technical knowledge to manage all system admin and maintenance activities on your servers remotely?\u201d If not, managed dedicated servers are highly recommended.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n