Understanding Your Internet Connection

Colocation services are an invaluable resource for large business that handle vast amounts of data and require multiple servers to manage their data. There are many advantages to colocation that can benefit businesses of various sizes, especially if your business is primarily online.

Lower Operating Costs

Depending on the size of your business and available funding, keeping in-house information technology (IT) professionals may not be practical. You may need to compromise between the additional costs of keeping a staff of IT professionals readily available for server problems that are not guaranteed to happen, or limit IT staff which can prolong repair time if a problem occurs.

When you consider the median salary for network administrators and similar professionals, compared to the annual expense of colocation services, you can save a considerable amount of money. Prices for colocation will fluctuate depending on your needs and the company you choose for service, but it is not uncommon to find services starting at a few hundred dollars each month.

If your business is fairly new, you may choose to limit the number of positions available for IT and primarily depend on colocation to decrease employee costs. For businesses that have a longer history and are finding ways to reduce costs, you may choose to scale back the current work of your IT employees, such as changing them from full-time to part-time, or change their roles within the company by providing them with different job demands.

In addition to reducing your need for dedicated IT professionals, you can reduce or eliminate the space and extra resources required to maintain your servers. Typically, servers are housed in their own room and depending on the number of servers needed for your business needs, you can quickly consume space. Well-maintained servers require significant cooling equipment and ventilation to avoid overheating. Additional costs for in-house servers can include utilities and the cost of a backup generator for emergencies.

Better Security

Security is a significant concern for both your business and customers. Protecting your data from physical and virtual threats is top priority and remote data housing adds an extra layer of security. Since the servers used to store your data are housed remotely, you are less likely to suffer a direct physical threat or breach of data in the event of a break-in.

Furthermore, some colocation services may not house data for each customer at a single location, which makes it unlikely that an event, such as an accident or natural disaster, will derail your business. This can be a major concern with in-house servers, which can be damaged by power surges or weather-related events.

The distribution of data at several locations and among different servers also reduces the likelihood that a major cyber attack will substantially compromise your business and the personal information of your customers. In addition to standard methods of protecting data such as data encryptions and virus protection, storing different components of customer information in separate locations can make it more difficult for hackers to put all the pieces of information together.

For example, if your customers use debit or credit cards for payment, having the card number, customer name, and expiration date stored in different locations makes it less likely that hackers will access all three pieces of information and be able to successfully connect all the pieces to obtain valid account information from customers.

Reduce Server Problems

The amount of storage and retrieval of data that occurs on business servers every minute requires the best technology to prevent bottlenecks or crashing. Another major advantage of colocation is reducing the likelihood of server overloads.

Even small businesses should spread out their data by using multiple servers. There are two main advantages to partitioning information among multiple servers: temperature regulation and speed. The high influx of data processing that occurs in a single server can quickly overburden the system, causing overheating. Although a server crash can be a significant inconvenience to any business, the potential for damage to electronic components is more costly.

The importance of maintaining fast servers when retrieving customer information or processing transactions can heavily influence sales, especially for online businesses. A slow loading website or checkout process increases the chance that a customer will go to another website to make a purchase.

Colocation servers are a popular option that can reduce many of the server problems that can happen with in-house servers. Since most colocation companies offer various packages to meet the needs of different companies, you may find affordable options even if you have a small business. Continue for more information.