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This is a first in a series of “guest author” posts. If you are interested in becoming one of our guest authors/contributors please contact us heres. In the meantime, please enjoy Sarah’s articles on choosing servers and colocation…

When your business depends on the efficiency of your server, the choice of a web host becomes a critical decision, one that takes on monstrous proportions if you make the wrong choice. While there are a variety of hosting options available – dedicated servers, colocation, managed and unmanaged services, shared hosting, virtual hosting and other – some are more expensive than the others and are thus not viable in the long run.

Colocation, where you place your server in a data center that provides you the best in terms of bandwidth, security, hardware and software services and physical infrastructure, is a costly option, and there are only some kinds of organizations that benefit from renting space at these facilities. They are:

• Companies that cannot afford to invest time, effort and money in building and equipping dedicated space for their servers; these server rooms must be protected against the elements of nature, man made accidental disasters, power outages and Internet backbone disconnects, data theft and tampering, and other threats. Rather than spend a fortune to house just one server or two, these companies choose colocation which is the more cost-effective option of the two.

• Enterprises that demand and use extremely high speeds to connect to the World Wide Web; rather than purchase T1 or similar lines at exorbitant costs, they would rather take advantage of the existing infrastructure at colocation centers where site access at high speeds is a matter of routine even during sudden traffic surges because of the large bandwidths provided.

• Organizations with sensitive and critical data that must be available online at all times to ensure that business is not affected; servers placed in the custody of colocation centers are safe from power outages and disconnection from the Internet because they are protected by redundant network structures and backup power sources to last through the ravages of a storm or other natural disaster, thus ensuring almost a 100 percent of server uptime.

• Organizations that do not have a strong IT team; these outfits can take advantage of the managed services offered by an experienced technical team at the colocation center and rest assured knowing that they do not have to worry about maintenance and troubleshooting issues related to their server.

• Companies that are in the telecommunication field; they benefit from the cross connections that colocation facilities offer and utilize it to exchange network data.

• Organizations that need regular offsite backup and disaster recovery measures; besides hosting your server, colocation centers offer additional services that include regular data backups to and disaster recovery methods when nature or manmade fury strikes.

This article is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of web designing institutes. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.