Most web hosting companies start off small. However, as you grow, investments in hardware and others also grow by leaps and bounds. You may end up thinking twice about colocation hosting once this starts to happen.
Outsourcing your entire network to an offsite facility is never an easy one. There are several questions that you should think about before making this decision.
Costs
Just like everything else, the first thing you need to consider is the overall cost of such a move. I hate to say it but the truth is you do in fact get what you pay for.
Remember though that cost isn’t everything. Quality is always more important in this business. Don’t be fooled by the low prices as they may include extra helpings of poor service.. It could result in expensive (from your company’s standpoint) downtimes caused by poor facilities or services from your colocation partner.
Support
Being able to actually get in touch with the support department is crucial with any colocation provider.. This is of prime importance when choosing a colocation service.
Defiantly look for a service provider that has around the clock support. Others offer help in live chat sessions along with support tickets. Nevertheless, there’s a need for a speedy turn-around time due to the fact troubles can happen just as fast in attempting to hook up or setup the actual server.
Redundancy
Inside a business which deals with extremely important information as well as information exchange, it is necessary that the facilities need to be redundant. Which means electricity, connectivity and cooling systems must have backups and extra sets to be used throughout unexpected emergency conditions.
The colocation facility should have power backups in the event of power failure (extra generators and UPS devices). This will need to have additional connectivity systems in case there is equipment crashes. Venting and cooling systems have to be backed up by means of another working system to over in case of emergencies.
Guarantees
Is there some type of a money-back guarantee with the colocation provider? Simply because of competition, a number of companies offer a number of incentives along with other deal-sweeteners.
At the very least, there are those who give you a 30-day money-back guarantee to show their confidence of their product. This might reduce several of the frustrations if you are upset with their service and choose to change hosts.
Waiting time
The old saying ‘time is money’ still is true with colocation and more so because yours is in the website hosting business. Stay away from any colocation web host that needs you to wait in excess of 7 days to get your server working.
If it takes that long to get you up and running, just imagine what will happen in a time of crisis.
Your choice
The factors that you need to consider before deciding on your service provider will boil down to individual needs. If you are short on funds, then you may be better off looking in to getting yourself a dedicated server instead.
If in fact you do decide to go the colocation route, just be sure you research all of the available options. Remember that many times the very life-blood of your company depends on it.
