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When running a business, you need to think of the best way to manage the physical requirements of hosting and choose between colocation vs. managed hosting vs. cloud or on-premise hosting. Each has drawbacks and advantages, so knowing as much as possible about different hosting options is essential to make the best decision for your business.
Colocation lets your business rent a space in a dedicated data center and use it to set up your servers. You provide your hardware and software — your colocation provider is responsible for maintenance, monitoring and backing up.
Hosting servers requires significant space, power and cooling. Having a dedicated space in a data center takes care of these elements. Many colocation centers also provide a network and assist with connectivity challenges. In short, you have a powerful partner while maintaining full control of your servers and equipment.
When it comes to the on-premise vs. colocation vs. cloud debate, colocation has considerable benefits for suitable applications, including the following:
Colocation is gaining traction amongst businesses that prefer to store their assets in a third-party facility but maintain control. Immense scalability suits companies of all sizes, whether they use the facility in the early stages of operations or complement an existing setup. You can mold colocation to suit your needs, provided you have the technical expertise. Some typical use cases include the following:
Managed hosting is similar to colocation in that you get your dedicated server at an off-site location, protecting your business from expensive downtime. The difference is that the server and other hardware belong to the provider.
Your provider will configure your server and conduct ongoing maintenance, which eliminates the need for IT professionals, but at the same time, doesn't afford you the same freedom. Your hardware and software choices are limited. Your provider will configure a system to suit your business needs and offer several additional services to ensure your business runs smoothly. They are also responsible for administering your server at an additional cost.
Managed hosting is an excellent choice for businesses with minimal technical expertise and startup capital. It's a common choice for web application hosting, data center extension and consolidation, storage and analytics. Some of the benefits of managed hosting include the following:
With expert access and minimal control, managed hosting is fantastic for businesses with limited IT experience. It's also cost-effective and scalable to meet your needs. However, a different option may be better suited for companies that prefer more freedom of choice.
Cloud hosting fundamentally differs from managed hosting and colocation — you don't have a physical server. Your business migrates its data and applications from physical servers into a cloud provider's virtual ones. The cloud provider then handles the daily management, networks, and storage.
Although this option is cost-effective and relatively hassle-free, it may be less suited to industries with security regulations and compliance protocols. Your data is stored on a third-party server at an unknown site, so you can't provide compliance information.
Cloud hosting has significant benefits for businesses, including the following:
Some common use cases for cloud hosting include backup as a service (BaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). You can use cloud hosting for a virtual data center, and your providers will manage a range of services. Other hosting services may be better suited to industries that must maintain compliance and abide by data security regulations.
Choosing between colocation vs. on-premise hosting can be challenging for businesses that own servers and hardware. In both cases, you own the infrastructure. As the name suggests, on-premise hosting involves housing and maintaining your hardware from your office building or a separate location.
You're fully responsible for configuring, maintaining and migrating your existing infrastructure. You'll also have complete control of how your system works. As you're not entrusting your security to a third partner, the liability rests with you. You'll require in-house staff to maintain your servers, install and manage the operating systems and buy the additional security and cooling equipment.
Although it requires more work and upfront cost to host at your facility, there are benefits, including the following:
On-premise hosting was standard for decades and still has many applications. It's simple and effective if you're still a paper-heavy business and can be more cost-effective for developers and small web hosting firms. If your company can manage infrastructure and staff costs and has the technical knowledge to operate independently of experts, it's worth considering.
As a business owner, your IT and hosting solutions must work for you. US Signal provides innovative data center technology, cloud solutions and managed services to meet your ever-changing needs. All our services are supported by our own secure fiber network and 24/7/365 support.
If you would like to learn more about our range of products and services, reach out to us and let us help you supplement and optimize your technology resources today!
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