Skip to main content

Costs to factor when deciding on colocation

Written by Rack Alley

There are several options when it comes to server hosting now. There is the in-house system, colocation, server hosting and cloud hosting. Many organizations still prefer colocation at an LA data center to cloud hosting due to predictable costs and existing infrastructure. Here are several cost factors to take into account when making the decision:

Floor space

Rack space at a colocation facility is much cheaper than renting floor space. A proper in-house data center requires floor space for the actual equipment plus the support gear like UPS, batteries and cooling/heating.

Network access requirement

Point to point links are cheaper than ever, making it more cost effective to channel all connectivity through a data center, where internet bandwidth is much cheaper. Road warriors and home office workers can connect using a VPN.

Hardware under warranty

One of the reasons that it makes financial sense for companies to choose colocation over server hosting Los Angeles or a cloud implementation is the amount of hardware that is still under warranty. The more hardware that is within the warranty and support lifetime the more it makes sense to co-locate. Cloud hosting will not use any existing equipment.

Physical security

From an audit perspective, firms require several levels of security for data centers. Achieving this level of security in-house can be expensive. This security is not required for services like server hosting Los Angeles, but only for services that involve a physical asset of that organization.

______________________________________________________________

Rack Alley is an LA colocation and hosting services provider.