subject: Why Colocation Is Cheaper [print this page] There are several advantages to Colocation hosting. Amongst these is the price; it can be cheaper than some of the other hosting options. Although not cheaper than basic hosting, for those who have complex requirements it does offer cost savings.
With Colocation the same network is used for many servers, meaning several customers are essentially sharing the network. This can mean significant savings when compared to hosting your own server. The whole infrastructure is shared with the costs spread between the customers. The alterative would either be managed hosting, which is more expensive, or hosting your server yourself, which would mean having to invest individually in a lot of equipment. With Colocation the only major equipment you would have to purchase is be the server itself.
Bandwidth use is an area that can be a lot simpler and a lot cheaper if you choose Colocation. With most hosting packages you have a specific bandwidth limit, with a higher limit entailing a high price. If you unexpectedly need more bandwidth than normal you have a problem. This leads to most customers purchasing more bandwidth than necessary, something that obviously makes it more expensive. This basically works as an insurance policy. The fact that only certain options are available means that you cant specify the exact amount and only choose the package that fits more closely to you requirements. This is not necessary with Colocation. There is a total bandwidth available for all the servers within a data centre and this is distributed according to what is necessary at any one time. There is always extra bandwidth so you do not have to worry about running out. If you only use a little bandwidth within a month, that is what you pay for. But if you use more than usual it is automatically added to your bill. This saves money when you use less than normal, but doesnt cause any problems when you use more.
Hosting your own server will require employing your own IT staff specifically to look after the network. At a data centre, though, it is taken care of as they have plenty of support staff (depending on the data centre). They are there to support all customers so you are not paying for them yourselves, only contributing towards paying for it along with all the other customers. That the support staff are experts in their field means that you know they will do a good job, meaning value for money. You can therefore focus on your core business, saving time and money.
As a data centre has many customer, it means the provider can afford to keep the costs down. All services available are shared between all these customers, meaning you dont have to worry about forking out a much larger amount for each area of hosting yourself.
