Dedicated Hosting and Colocation in Data Centres

By Steve D Evans

The terms dedicated hosting and colocation are used by web hosting providers.

Dedicated hosting means you have the whole machine (dedicated server) or hard disk on a web server to yourself. It also can mean that when your web server fails or falls down for, you will have to restart it. So, only buy this type of hosting, which is undoubtedly superior to the low cost option of shared hosting, if you understand how to set-up and maintain a web server.

Dedicated hosting is a wise choice if you have decided that you need an entire server and Internet connection specifically reserved for your own business activity. This type of server is for your exclusive use and offers unmatched levels of disk space, bandwidth and resources for your websites.

You will know when it is time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host because your web traffic will exceed the standard shared server packages, and you will find that a dedicated server will then be cheaper, than your existing service.

Colocation

You will find colocation services also described as colocated, collocated, and even collocation. It is a service offered where the host service provider agrees to the placement of your own server(s) and/or your network equipment in their Internet data center (or colocation facility) along with hundreds of other servers.

The Data Center is managed by the service provider to maintain reliable networking, power, connectivity and security services on your behalf. Colocation server hosting can cost considerably less than renting a dedicated server , since you are only paying for bandwidth and power meaning that the cost of the server itself is not included. There are many advantages of owning your own server in a colocation web hosting environment. Perhaps the biggest is the fact you can easily pick your server up and move it to another colocation provider with ease, if you do not like the service or the price after a period of time.

As we have already indicated both of these advanced web site hosting options require specialist computer installation and maintenance skills from the user, to install, use, maintain and update the operating software.

All website-related software is getting better and easier to use, and in time even these services will be likely to be made simpler for the non-expert to do for him/herself.

Already, it is not necessary for the non-technically-savvy to worry whether they can host their own websites and email, and as time goes on, the bar to doing what is considered more advanced now, will get lower and lower.

Most web hosting services for example, now provide web site creation software wizards to get their customer's sites up and running with the minimum of delay. Because of the quality of this specialized software these days website hosting and editing has never been so easy. Now you can use this software and add or delete pages, change navigation labels, and add links wherever you need them, with absolutely no knowledge of coding methods.

Another area which has improved greatly since the 1990's is that of watching servers to identify any problems. Gone are the days when it was necessary to keep loading your own sites yourself to check they were up and running still. Server monitoring ensures your data is kept safe and that your hosted websites maintain maximum operational status.

Datacentre connection speed into the main web communication structure is important, and speed have also risen in line with domestic broadband speeds. Good bandwidth service providers will offer good, high speed connectivity to the datacentres, supplied from diverse telco carriers for reliability, and many will have use of in excess of 25GBps (gigabit per second) bandwidth in total.

Anyone selecting a dedicated or colocated server host should look at the provider's connectivity carefully.

Finally, we would like to give you a tip about backups and the use of hosted servers of all types.

Server computers are not intended to be the master copy of anything. Do make your own reguar backups! The hosting providers do their best to keep all their servers running, but if a disk should fail, they will buy another one and install it and then expect you to upload another copy of your pages to the new web space yourself. It is no use complaining to hosting services about loss of data if they have made it clear, as most do, that the customer is responsible for backing up all their hosted site files regularly.

Steve Evans has been running some of his web sites for more than 10 years, and has in that time suffered from some poor hosting service choices. He decided that he would like to help others looking to select a reliable web hosting service, every time, and at a low cost. Also he set out to help them adopt his own successful policy of using the interactive "people" power of the web, to seek out real consumer comments and complaints, before making a final decision to buy. See the result in detailed consumer reports on more than a dozen UK Web Hosting services, and then make an informed choice.