In-House Versus Colocated Servers
ShareMany businesses rely on servers to deliver large amounts of information throughout the business and to the outside world via website connections. When working with servers, you have a choice of keeping the server in-house or colocated within a data center. There are pros and cons to each decision, so be sure to weigh your options as you look through a few of the following choice features.
The Requirements Of In-House Servers Can Be Demanding
An in-house server solution means keeping all of the equipment within your business property. This means that you have total control of the hardware and supporting systems, but you also hold the burden for maintaining an environment the keeps servers running at top performance.
Servers require temperature-controlled rooms due to the heavy performance of the processors. The processor in a computer can be the hottest component, able to elevate the temperature of rooms by many degrees and burn anything touching it that isn't designed to resist heat.
To maintain optimum server performance, you'll need more than the stock computer fan and a few vents. In addition to an air-conditioned room, you'll need either directed cooling pipes that can push cold air towards the processor and move warmer air away. If warm air is trapped inside the server system, cool air can begin to heat up fast enough to be useless.
There are liquid cooling solutions that perform the same task with more temperature movement control than air, but you'll need a technician who can clean and reorganize liquid systems while running the risk of spillage.
Servers also have a significant electrical demand. All of the previously mentioned cooling requirements need to be added to the demand of the server's power supply, which can lead to an expensive utility bill at the end of the month.
On the plus side, you'll be able to access the server hardware as needed. Any upgrades are at the whim of you or your technicians, and you have an easier time observing who has physical access to the server.
Colocation Takes A Lot Of Responsibility Off Your Hands
The power requirements, hardware maintenance, cooling and every other physical aspect of managing a server can be handled by the colocation data center team. Colocation data centers are maintained by trained server technicians who not only know how to maintain most server technology brands, but have the benefit of performing maintenance without being tied up in internal business affairs of its clients.
The costs are part of your fee, which can be far more affordable than paying for extra utilities and staff members. The environment requirements such as temperature and humidity are part of the business process in general instead of being an extra burden for a single part of the business.
Your only major loss is losing physical access to the servers if you're not in the general area. If you're wiling to visit for an on-site inspection, most colocation data centers are willing to bring you to your equipment in a secure, professional manner.
Contact a colocation professional to begin planning an equipment move or to lease existing data center resources. To learn more, contact a company like Isomedia, Inc.