Drawbacks of colocation and how to get past them

There are several common drawbacks to taking colocation route for your servers and web hosting systems, even if it is the perfect choice for your organization. Here are some methods of getting past those issues.

Finding a good provider

The first issue is that good providers are hard to find. Too many providers are selling white labeled products in their name, increasing your costs, and adding an intermediary to a critical component of your organization. The solution is to look for local data center providers. Most major cities and states have several options, and all you need is to stop looking globally and look locally.

Cost

It is true that colocation can be more expensive than a lot of the subscription-based plans you get online. Even more so if you own the servers and software and need to follow a strict replacement cycle. Some data center providers will help by offering hardware at subscription rates, taking the headache of capital expenditure off your hands.

Bandwidth usage

Another common issue is the use and cost of bandwidth. When you colocate at a data center, you don’t have the usual restrictions that you would if it was in-house. The problem is that you can also vastly exceed your usual bandwidth usage and incur overage. The trick is to use a firewall, or even your web server to track and limit usage up to your limit.

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