Dedicated Server vs. Co-location Web Hosting
So - you know shared hosting no longer cuts it, and your single
office connection is not enough to host a web server - so which
is best, leasing a dedicated server or buying your own server
and co-locating it someone's data center?
Difference
For those that are unsure of the difference, here it is in a
nutshell. When you co-locate, you are simply renting space
within someone else's facility to store your own server or
servers. It's like a high tech gym locker that you are renting
all or part of to house your servers. You either ship or deliver
your server to your provider. Additional services provided with
co-location vary from host to host but it certainly won't
include the actual server. With a dedicated server you are
getting all the features of co-location, plus the actual web
server itself.
Which is better?
While it certainly depends on your particular needs, and there
are excellent situations for both the dedicated server option is
quickly becoming a better choice in more and more cases. If you
already own a web server, or cluster that you prefer to use,
then obviously co-location may be your best choice. If you are
considering buying new equipment and shipping it off for
co-location - please reconsider. The prices and equipment
available in dedicated hosting these days are outstanding plus
relieve you of the burden of hardware. Most hosts keep identical
spare parts on hand for the types of servers used and are quick
to react if something fails. Depending on your arrangement with
a colocation deal hardware failure could mean paying to have a
server shipped back (or you drive to get it), having it fixed
yourself then sending it back to the data center.