Colocation hosting is the process of a business taking their own physical hardware and hosting it with a third-party web hosting company in an enterprise-class data center; the simplest way of looking at co-location hosting is as dedicated server hosting, but you own the hardware that you are supplying. Larger businesses can often make deals with hardware suppliers when purchasing equipment in bulk and if this is possible then it can work out cheaper than dedicated server hosting; furthermore, by owing your own equipment you can guaranteed that it’ll have some sort of disposal value in several years when the time comes to upgrade – with a dedicated server you will never own the hardware and so you will never see any of the money spent on dedicated server hosting again.

ESDS provides a range of different co-location options so that we can cater for businesses of all sizes. Servers are available in different sizes and ESDS recognizes this by offering the following co-location choices to our customers:

• 1U servers are often the smallest available and aren’t usually very powerful, but can be engineered to provide effective performance at a low cost when the correct hardware components are used.
• If you are using larger servers then we can also accommodate for 2U and 4U server chassis so that you can introduce hardware configurations that can offer more power.
• If you are looking to host multiple servers with us then you can also purchase co-location space within the context of half racks or entire racks to ensure that you have the room necessary for your equipment.

All co-location purchases include network and power connectivity so that you have access to the services necessary to connect your hardware to the internet. The power supply that is offered with each of the co-location plans offered by ESDS is appropriate for the average power of the hardware that the hosting plan is designed to suit; you can always purchase additional power if you feel that your hardware is going to require extra juice to keep it running. As part of your connection to the internet, you will be provided with a number of IP addresses so that your server can be accessed from any internet-connected computer; similarly to power units, extra IP addresses can be purchased for your server as and when necessary.

Data Center

ESDS’ state-of-the-art data center has been designed from the ground up to provide the most reliable service available to our customers; as a co-location customer, you can expect the following from ESDS data centers:

• We have staff based on-site 24×7 working directly from the NOC monitoring our hardware and network so issues which have the potential to impact on the performance and operation of our customers’ services can be dealt with immediately.
• The above along with our agreements with the partners that provide connection and power facilities allow us to offer a 99.95% uptime guarantee with all of our web hosting plans.
• 24×7 support is available via Live Chat, telephone and email so that there is always someone available for you to talk to when you are facing issues with your co-location plan, or simply have query.

As ESDS owns its data center as opposed to renting space in a data center that is owned by another provider, ESDS is able to provide some of the most  affordable co-location rates. Furthermore, we also have full control of the hosting infrastructure and the data floor as a whole. We believe in providing a secure environment for the hosting of your equipment, with some of the core features including:

• Biometric access protects the data floor from access by unauthorized individuals, with only the most highly trained ESDS employees being allowed access – CCTV cameras also monitor all entrances and exits to the data floor and the site as a whole.
• All hardware is stored in secure server racks that are protected with lock and key access, with the keys being stored securely by our security team to ensure that access to hardware is only provided when needed.
• We are consistently carrying our Research and Development to identify any areas in our data center infrastructure that can be improved to increase stability or to offer additional security measures.

Choosing ESDS as your co-location partner, will provide you with the assurance that your hardware is being hosted in a secure environment. With our 99.95% uptime guarantee, downtime is going to be a rarity and even if it does occur then it won’t be noticeable. Contact us today to see how our co-location packages can offer your hardware the ideal hosting environment.