Three tips for preparing for colocation

For many companies, a great way to see growth is to opt for colocation. This is because in-house data centers and server rooms have a limited capacity. Most of the time the capacity is un-utilized because of strict requirements affecting the growth for the company. In some cases, it can adversely affect outlook if service levels dip below customer expectations. Using a data center service provider for server hosting allows companies a breath of fresh air, and hand the reigns to someone else. Many of the data centers handle power, cooling, networking, and security for you. Here is some information to help you transition into renting a server.

Sizing

To put it simply, colocation is the rental of your provider’s infrastructure. When renting a server you can allocate as much space and resources as you need in order to fit your companies needs. It is wise to assume some growth, but any expansion can be undertaken later. Avoid under-provisioning in a bid to keep costs low.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is a resource that you should always monitor. Try not to pay for too much bandwidth in anticipation of traffic spikes. It would be better to allocate enough bandwidth for bursts during peak load times. Also, keep in mind that bursts can be limited to prevent cost overruns.

Cost

The primary reason we make infrastructure changes to the server is to improve the growth of the company as a whole. The change from in-house hosting to renting a server will definitely help improve costs for the company.

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Rack Alley is a provider of Los Angeles web hosting at their LA data center.