The Benefits of Colocation & Shared Hosting for Your Business

For most small businesses, cloud hosting is the better fit: there is no hardware to buy, capacity scales up or down month to month, and the provider maintains the infrastructure. Colocation makes sense when you already own servers, need full control of the hardware, run steady workloads, or have compliance rules that call for dedicated equipment. Shared hosting suits only simple, low-traffic websites. IS&T offers colocation, private cloud and web hosting in Houston.

Comparing hosting options? Ask IS&T which one fits your workloads.

When it comes to hosting, your business has a choice — not just in terms of hosting providers or data centers, but also in the type of hosting you choose. Colocation hosting and shared hosting are popular options for many businesses. They are both provided from remote data centers but are different in their own ways.

Here, we’ll discuss how colocation hosting differs from hosting in a shared environment and how your business can make the choice for one or the other.

Table of Contents

What is Colocation Hosting?

With colocation hosting, your server is located at a third-party location, such as a data center, but is managed by either your in-house IT staff or the managed services provider you work with. With colocation hosting, the data center provides power and bandwidth and maintains security over the server environment, but the client has full authority over the management of the hardware and software of the server. Colocation should not be confused with cloud hosting.

What is Shared Hosting?

With shared hosting, multiple companies or organizations are accommodated on one server. With shared hosting, your business does not own the hardware or software. Instead, the hosting provider owns the infrastructure. With shared hosting, multiple websites are hosted on a single server. Although this option is more cost-effective than other hosting methods, there are some downsides to shared hosting. For example, the lack of control over the equipment and software. Another downside is that your team will have no idea with who you’re sharing resources. This can ultimately affect the uptime, performance, and speed of your website.

When Should Businesses Consider Colocation Hosting?

Colocation rents the building. Cloud hosting rents the computer.

When deciding if your business should consider colocation hosting, there are many benefits that can help be deciding factors. For example, many customers choose to use colocation services due to benefits such as:

Reliability – Servers are kept in safe, temperature-controlled environments with backup power supplies.
Security – Data centers are designed to provide high levels of security against cybercriminals, burglaries, fires, natural disasters, and more.
Performance – A colocation provider usually guarantees high performance for equipment.
Scalability – When you colocate, you have the option to scale up or down very easily.
Cost and Space Saving – No matter the size of your organization, colocated hosting allows for businesses to save money while freeing up space in the office.
Speed – When using colocation hosting, your business gains access to faster speeds with high levels of performance.
Experience – Regardless of your IT team’s experience level, colocation providers often provide additional insights due to their many years of dedicated experience to network hosting, security, and support.
Less Maintenance Required – Generally, using colocation hosting means less maintenance work for your team. Data centers are designed to have everything a server needs to run at peak performance.

Colocation vs. cloud hosting vs. shared hosting

	Colocation	Cloud hosting	Shared hosting
Who owns the hardware	You	The cloud provider	The host
Upfront cost	Servers and setup	None	None
Ongoing cost	Rack space, power and bandwidth	Pay for what you use	Low flat fee
Scaling	Buy and install more hardware	Minutes	Limited plans
Control	Full control of hardware and software	Software and configuration	Minimal
Best for	Existing servers, steady workloads, compliance needs	Most small businesses, changing workloads	Simple, low-traffic websites

What's Best For Your Organization?

If colocating would mean buying new servers, compare that cost with three years of cloud hosting before you decide.

When choosing what hosting option is best for your company or organization, it’s best to weigh the pros and cons of each. Both colocation hosting and shared hosting offer distinct benefits. What may be the deciding factor for your business can range from the size of your company, the budget you have for hosting, or the specific concerns your business has regarding hosting. An experienced managed services or IT provider can help guide you to the best option for your needs.

Compare IS&T’s colocation data center, private cloud hosting and dedicated web hosting in Houston.

Tell IS&T what you need to host, from a website to a rack of servers, and we will compare colocation, cloud and hosting options for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between colocation and cloud hosting?

With colocation, you own the servers and rent space, power, cooling and connectivity in a data center. With cloud hosting, you rent computing capacity from a provider and never handle hardware. Colocation gives more control; cloud gives more flexibility.

Is colocation cheaper than the cloud?

It can be for steady, predictable workloads on servers you already own, because you are not paying cloud rates for constant use. For changing workloads, or if you would need to buy new hardware, cloud hosting is usually cheaper overall.

When should a small business move off shared hosting?

Consider moving when your site slows down under traffic, needs custom software or security controls, handles sensitive customer data, or runs business applications rather than a simple website.

Colocation Hosting VS Shared Hosting