Wednesday, January 4, 2012

What Is Offshore Colocation With Website Hosting?

By Arlene Parks


Offshore co-location is an alternative to managed hosting for web domains. With managed hosting, the host takes care of the equipment, the software, and the technical upkeep required to host a website. With co-location, website builders purchase their server and software, and have responsibility for taking care of their technical problems. The facility provider takes care of security and facility upkeep, while website owners maintain their own power, space, and bandwidth.

Website owners must configure their own systems. After they have chosen the right equipment and the right software, owners physically go to the host facility to set everything up. At the facility, hosts will provide data cabinet space, an IP address, power for equipment, and an uplink port for network connection. Website owners must provide the rest.

Offsite backup is a good solution for people who need customized equipment and a lot of bandwidth. A simple home page will do well with almost any server setup. However, for site owners who want to stream audio and video, host database and other online applications, or set up a search engine, the typical equipment provided by a managed host will not do the job. On the whole, website owners who need major capacity will get a better deal by setting up their own equipment.

Maintaining their own equipment will be the best solution for certain people. Website owners will have the ability to use multiple servers, firewalls, and load balancers, interconnecting the equipment and adding redundancies as they see fit. Then, owners will simply link up to the public internet utilizing the uplink port provided by the host facility.

If owners need to host content, then co-location will be a good solution. Most managed hosts limit the amount of space that users may dedicate to their own hosting, and may also limit the type of content they will allow clients to host. In contrast, host facilities will allow pretty much any type of content, as long as it isn't illegal.

Co-location will also work for those who need dedicated telco lines to their servers. Owners who want a dedicated line for monitoring, or who want to set up a networking application like a VoIP server, will need their own equipment to accommodate the service. The facility should be set up to be carrier-neutral, meaning that all telcos can service the facility.

Offshore locations will provide multiple benefits to website owners. Some major incentives for offshore re-locating include asset protection, lawsuit protection, and tax benefits. Also, offshore costs tend to be lower, allowing businesses to offer products at a lower price point. Owners will also bypass many business regulations, and guarantee added privacy for their customers, by choosing an international host.

Site owners going offshore will need to ensure that local computers are secure. Also, site owners going out of the country will want to register their domain names anonymously, and encrypt communications, so that transactions like banking can be conducted safely. Overall, offshore co-location will provide a sensible, cost-effective solution, for people who want to go beyond the offerings of managed hosting.




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