In hosting environment, a small enterprise may want to have the features similar to those of large IT department without incurring costs. The large corporate firms do have the internet infrastructure which hosts their own web servers. In this way, the firms will have a team of IT professionals to manage and even design the sites while small companies do not possess this facility. With colocation, you will place your server machine in another company’s rack and share its bandwidth as your own. The cost is higher than that of standard web hosting but still is healthy when it comes to bandwidth. You can also rent a server machine from the colocation provider who will then provide IP, power and bandwidth to your server. Access will be normal just as if visiting a website or a hosting company although you will be the owner of this server. Usually, the host and the client are located in the same location which allows the client to make any necessary recommendations and get access to his/her server. All the maintenance needs of the hardware are done by the hosting provider.

Advantages of Colocation

• The cost for bandwidth is low. In addition, you will enjoy higher bandwidth speeds and better redundancy for your connection.
• Protection on power outage – the hosting provider usually has power generators and backup power to protect against outages.
• Quick access- If you have the need to upgrade your server, you can do so since the server is owned by you. The software and other tools on your server are yours. You can upgrade, add and install software without relying on your provider.
• The host provider will offer security to your server. The server is stored in a secure location.

Demerits of colocation

• It may be hard to find the colocation providers. Mostly, the small enterprises would like to have the provider closer to their office so that they can have easy time in upgrading their servers. It may force one to move closer to them.
• Collocation can be expensive than standard web hosting because you will be managing and maintaining the server yourself. So you will buy hardware and install it yourself?
• Physical access- It may be difficult to have physical access since you will be forced to travel to your provider during service hours.

How BlueShield delivers collocation?

Server agreement- In this all will be clear that the BlueShield company will host your server while you still own all the rights of accessing it for upgrades. BlueShield will offer security in a securely manned location.

This is what you will get from BlueShield hosting services

• Redundant power generators
• On demand SAN storage
• Unlimited network traffic
• Migration array - expect zero down time in case of server movement
• Server colocation is getting valuable in business today. However; the services may be a little higher than web hosting in terms of cost.
• Care has to be given an upper hand when selecting your colocation providers since not all is genuine. With BlueShield all your requirements will be looked into with great care.

At BlueShield we will not be worried of location and our service hours are suitable for you in case you would be in need of upgrading your server both in software and hardware platforms.