Dedicated Server Hosting vs Colocation

All companies have different kinds of needs when it comes down to hosting. Colocation and dedicated servers are two types of services offered by a hosting provider.
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The difference between colocation and dedicated server hosting is that with colocation, the customer owns the hardware, and with dedicated server hosting, he rents servers from the hosting provider. In the case of colocation, the client performs all the maintenance on the server. In contrast, with dedicated server hosting, the hosting provider performs the servers’ installation, management, and maintenance. Companies can fully manage their own IT or hand it over to a hosting provider.

What is dedicated server hosting?

With dedicated server hosting, a client rents a server with installation, connectivity, bandwidth, and rack space in the data center from a hosting provider. If you rent a dedicated server, you can install your software, but the hosting provider owns the hardware, which means that they are responsible for all maintenance. Uptime service level guarantees usually support dedicated servers as described in the Service Level Agreement (SLA), which contains all the hosting provider’s contractual agreements.

When do you choose dedicated servers?

Many companies use shared hosting or a VPS because it’s comparatively inexpensive. With shared hosting, multiple parties share a server, which can affect available capacity and performance. VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, and this gives more control than shared hosting. A dedicated server is more reliable and secure than shared hosting or a VPS that uses shared resources. As a result, the performance, internet connectivity, and disk space of a dedicated server are fully allocated to the customer. This service is designed to enable 100% uptime, and customers can be sure that the applications are always available at the enterprise level. The servers can be set up to run heavy business-critical applications with good uptime and performance. However, the most significant disadvantage of dedicated hosting is that people have limited control over the choice of hardware and software since hosting providers often offer standardized options.

Advantages of dedicated server hosting

  • No purchase costs
  • Better performance
  • Agreements about server maintenance specified in an SLA
  • Hosting provider does all the maintenance and offers technical support

Disadvantages of dedicated server hosting

  • The customer has limited hardware options

Dedicated server hosting vs. Managed dedicated server hosting

There is also a distinction between dedicated server hosting and a managed dedicated server hosting. Regular dedicated server hosting is cheaper and offers less support as compared to its managed counterpart. Companies do not always have the technical knowledge, and managed services reduce their need to hire their own IT staff.
Servers with cables demonstrating connectivity

What is colocation?

In colocation, the data center only delivers electricity, cooling, and an internet connection, which means that customers are fully responsible for providing and maintaining the hardware. Companies can rent rack space in the data center. Rack space includes racks in a server room with all the necessary network equipment. With colocation, the client has complete control over the server and is responsible for every change made to security, hardware, or software.

Advantages of colocation

  • Complete control over hardware and software, including server specifications and operating system
  • Flexibility and scalability

Disadvantages of colocation

  • Travel time to the data center
  • Investment in your hardware
  • Employees necessary for maintenance

Both hosting options have advantages and disadvantages. What you should choose depends entirely on the needs of your company.

With dedicated server hosting, the hosting provider remains the owner of the hardware. Dedicated server hosting is often cheaper than colocation because there is no investment needed for hardware, saving time and money on maintenance. Companies can entirely concentrate on business growth.

Thanks to an SLA (Service Level Agreement), agreements on how quickly can the hosting provider support the customer in case of emergency are stated in writing. With colocation, the customers themselves are responsible for the maintenance of the hardware.

If a project is expensive, a dedicated server may be a more cost-effective option, but colocation may be a better choice if you have the technical resources and knowledge.

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All companies have different kinds of needs when it comes down to hosting. Colocation and dedicated servers are two types of services offered by a hosting provider.