Dedicated servers vs colocation for small businesses

One of the big questions facing small businesses, especially new companies, is how they should build out their IT infrastructure. For some of these companies, the answer might be public cloud, but what about workloads that require high performance and low latency? There will almost always be an element of on-premises non-virtualized architecture required for the most intensive applications.

While the practice of colocation - renting space in a larger data center where the provider offers power, cooling, and connectivity to the outside world - is a popular option, more companies should consider dedicated hosting. There are many advantages to turning over management of your hardware to a company that is in the business of keeping infrastructure up and running:

• The Economics of Cloud: Entire books and have been written about the benefits of moving the cost of infrastructure from CapEx to OpEx, and those advantages exist with dedicated servers, as well. You can get your business out of the 3-year hardware refresh cycle and spread the cost your servers over multiple years instead of paying a lump sum up front. If a server fails, your provider is responsible for replacing it quickly at no cost to you. If your compute or storage needs change, you can quickly and easily add or subtract servers without having to worry about sunk costs. Pricing is predictable, as power and cooling are wrapped into your monthly server costs.
• Reduced Management Complexity: If you’re a small business, your IT team wears a lot of different hats. You may not have time or resources to dedicate to managing and maintaining your servers. You might not have the ability to get support to your colocation facility if an issue arises. With dedicated hosting, you can turn your team’s attention to building the systems and applications that are going to grow your business.

• Flexibility: For businesses that expect rapid growth or seasonal business, dedicated hosting can be a great way to scale up or down quickly. Provisioning new servers is fast and easy, which allows companies to right-size their infrastructure in the moment without worrying about long-term costs to the business.

By choosing to rent dedicated servers, you can take advantage of many of the benefits of cloud computing while getting the performance of on-premises bare metal servers. Most importantly, your IT team can focus on building the technology that will allow you to compete in your market, while your infrastructure provider takes care of the rest.

OVHcloud has been in the business of providing dedicated servers for nearly 20 years. You can learn more about the benefits of using OVHcloud as your provider here.