7 key differences between data center and server co-location

When do you need a dedicated data center and when do you need co-location? You must be trying to find out which system is going to work best for you. To ease out the confusion, presented here are seven key differences between having a co-location service and a dedicated data center.

Colocation

1. The difference between owning and renting: In a colocation center, you own the equipment and in a dedicated data center you take the server equipment on rent from a service provider. In both the systems, you will have to get in touch with a server service provider and have a consultation to determine what kinds of server facilities are on offer.
2. Responsibility: Ultimately it is an issue of responsibility. When you own the equipments, it is primarily your responsibility. When you rent the server space, you outsource the responsibility of maintenance to the server maintenance professionals.
3. Affordability: The expenditure varies in both the systems. In a data center colocation you are paying only for the server space and server accommodation facilities (like temperature control, humidity control, fire suppression etc.) In dedicated datacenter solutions, you are paying for the server accommodation as well as for the management of the server systems. You are not paying for server maintenance on a collocation server; you have your in-house team for that. However, even for co-location, you will need some extent of server maintenance. So, while deciding between data center co-location and dedicated server, you will have to see the extent of maintenance that is required and provided in each scenario. Both have their advantages and disadvantages and it depends upon your needs and requirements which one will be the best for you.
4. Manageability: The manageability of the equipment is a major issue of difference. At a collocation server, you have to manage the systems yourself, while in a dedicated server, the maintenance is carried on by the dedicated staff of the server service provider. If you think, you can manage well by yourself, only then you should opt for data center colocation. Otherwise dedicated servers are better options.
5.  Security: Security is a contentious issue while deciding between the types of hosting. Some network administrators are of the view that it is more secured to take care of the server system in a co-location server, while some prefer to leave the matter to a good dedicated datacenter solutions.
6. Speed: Like security, speed discussions are also contentious. You have to ultimately decide on the type of server hosting that can provide you with maximum speed. While dedicated data centers have a fixed bandwidth, in co-location servers, you are the master of your own speed.
7. Redundancy: For server redundancy management, you need to have experienced professionals who can tell you when a particular component needs replacement. For dedicated data centers, it depends on the professionals who maintain your services, but in a colocation center, you need to perform regular checkups with your in house team to decide on replacement of any component.