Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

August 10, 2010

The Expenses of Colocation Web Hosting

Building and maintaining an online business can be very difficult, thus it is no surprise that there are many services available to help business owners safeguard their investments. One such service is colocation web hosting, which gives you access to a state-of-the-art server storage facility in which you can safely store your online data in private web servers. Unlike other web hosting plans colocation web hosting does not let you rent a web server, and you do not have access to server upgrades, multiple plans or included software like control panels. Instead it is simply a server storage service that gives you the luxuries of owning a professional server facility without spending millions of dollars to do so. However there are many expenses associated with colocation hosting, especially if you do not already own a web server.

The Server

As mentioned, colocation hosting plans do not come with web server's and are different than any other kind of hosting plan. Therefore, you must purchase your own web server, which can cost anywhere from $2,000-$10,000. This expense is simply not necessary for most online businesses, and in many cases it would be best to simply rent a dedicated server if you needed a lot of server resources. If you are planning on operating hundreds of websites, or even one super site then you may want to purchase your own web server, however anyone with more modest needs than that should consider another option.

The Support

Unlike other web hosting plans, colocation hosting does not comes with tech support. Which means you will need access to internet technology specialists that can help you manage and administrate your server remotely. Fortunately many colocation companies can recommend you to specialists that will be able to perform on-site maintenance for your web server if needed. In any case, support is a factor that you will need to consider when purchasing a colocation web hosting plan. Hiring a support staff to look after your web server can be costly, unless you pay on a usage basis. In other words, it would be best to hire a IT agent that charges by the hour, so that you only have to pay him for the hours that he works, rather than hiring a company for a monthly fee when you may not need any assistance that month. It would be optimal to learn server administration yourself, or to have in-house technical support if you do decide to go with colocation hosting.

The Service

Colocation hosting itself is simply a web server storage service, which costs a few hundred dollars per month in most cases. Colocation storage facilities are protected by high tech security 24 /7 and there are rarely any problems with the servers. Keep in mind that you are paying for this security and nothing more, so you need to factor in all of the aforementioned expenses when choosing a colocation hosting plan. In the end, you really need to decide if such a bill is worth the expense based upon your position in business and your budget.

Tags: web server,  colocation,  colocation web hosting,  colocation expenses,  server storage