Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/141720
errors, inefficiencies and so on) that result from a lack of experience— particularly if it's your first data center. The colocation provider is in the business of offering these services, so by colocating, you're taking advantage of that provider's experience instead of hiring your own staff. •Remote location. Your colocation provider can be located almost anywhere. Although this aspect can cut both ways, one upside is it enables you to locate your IT infrastructure in an area that may be relatively safe from natural disasters. If you're in a hurricane-prone area, for instance, colocating in another region means less of a threat to those resources. •Dedicated security. Owing to economies of scale, a colocation provider may be able to offer stronger security than you would be able to implement at your company campus. •Mobility. Is relocation in the cards for your company? Colocation means your IT can stay put—and stay running—while you move. Cons: •Facility sharing. Many of the advantages of colocation are also disadvantages; although sharing facilities can mean lower costs, it also means other customers will be much closer to your IT equipment than you might like. Colocation providers offer security measures, such as cages, but if your industry or business demands high security, this downside could be a deal breaker. •Surprise costs. Depending on your usage of resources (like network bandwidth), your costs may vary wildly from month to month. Colocation eliminates capital costs, but will you be able to afford the ongoing fees? •Remote location. Fixing a problem in an on-site data center is one thing; fixing it at a colocation site may be something entirely different. If you use a distant provider, servicing your IT equipment may involve expensive and time-consuming travel. Fur6 | THE DATA CENTER JOURNAL thermore, finding a nearby provider may be challenging; thus, a remote location can be both an upside and a downside. •Legal considerations. Your relationship with your colocation provider may be wonderful during times of smooth sailing, but what happens when the provider experiences a power outage? What if your equipment loses network connectivity? Service-level agreements (SLAs) generally hold the answers to these questions. The problem, of course, is negotiating a good SLA and understanding all the fine print. SLAs are like software terms of use: they can be interminably long and incomprehensible. And if you're not careful, you may find during a downtime event that your provider has an out, leaving you to foot the costs you incur when you lose service. •Changing providers. What if you're dissatisfied with your service or otherwise simply wish to find a new provider? Identifying one may be easy, but moving all your IT equipment can be a hassle. Thus, making a wise choice the first time is critical; even then, however, the provider may eventually go out of business. At that point, what's the status of your equipment? What if you need to find a new provider on short notice? Hosting: Colocation Lite Hosting is similar to colocation, except that it outsources more of the IT side: customers may own or lease a couple servers in a rack supplied by the provider, or they may not own any hardware at all: they simply upload or run their own software instances on the provider's hardware. Hosting is a good option for small companies with limited IT needs or a small web presence. If you just want an informational web site or a small online store, hosting is probably enough; if you run more-business-critical software, have a larger web presence or require much greater computing resources, colocation is probably a better option. Most of the upsides and downsides of colocation apply to hosting as well, al- though some aspects of colocation may be less important to hosting customers. Here are a couple supplementary characteristics of hosting beyond what colocation offers. Pros: •Provider-supplied hardware. If you have no taste for dealing with servers, patch cords, racks and so on, hosting is a good option. You essentially lease IT resources, all backed by the provider's facility infrastructure. Some hosting providers offer dedicated servers, and at some levels, hosting can bleed over toward colocation. •Low costs. For small businesses that need a basic web presence, hosting is a good option. It exploits economies of scale for nearly all aspects of the data center, sharing most costs across a number of customers. Cons: •Limited control. Hosting is like buying a share of an overall data center: you garner certain services, but you lack control of most aspects of how things are run. If you just want a web site, this may be fine; if you run IT systems that are critical to your business, it may be entirely unacceptable. •Small scale. Hosting is good for customers with small IT needs. If IT is a critical part of your business and you need more control of it, you should look to colocation or the cloud. Cloud: Focus on Your Core Business The cloud is the ultimate in IT outsourcing: it essentially turns the entire range of IT services (except for client machines and the infrastructure necessary to support them) over to remote providers. Many of the upsides and downsides of colocation apply to the cloud as well, except with the cloud, all IT resources— in addition the facilities—are under the provider's control. In theory, at least, the cloud offers the ultimate in cost sharing, mobility, redundancy and accessibility. But www.datacenterjournal.com