Co-location/Cloud Storage/Hosting: what do they mean and why should you care?
My closest friend, Alison said “ Your website looks impressive but I don’t know what the jargon means. If I’m a business owner, how do I know what I need?”
She is (as always) right: jargon fatigue is a real problem unless you are into technology for work or for pleasure. Even then it can be onerous. So what does it all mean and most importantly how does each apply to your business decisions
Co-location
Your hardware/software/data; our world-class data centers
Think of it as a computer room for rent. It’s your hardware, software and data. But you realize that your computer room (euphemism for filing room/store room/Bookshelf) is insufficient. Even if you have a proper, secure, climate-controlled computer room, it can be time and resource-intensive to maintain. In addition, commercial data centers like ours have multiple power sources, backup power than can last for days, military-grade security and multiple internet connections. Does yours?
Business Considerations
Co-location is a good business move if you have recently invested in new computer systems and;
Your computers can’t be down for more than a few hours without totally crippling your business
The security of your data is paramount. Everyone says that but you will know if there is an added importance to security of your customer and business data
You have multiple remote offices or users connecting into your systems
Cloud Hosting/Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Your software/date our world-class hardware and data centers
Let’s say your computer systems are old or you are outgrowing them. Best practice says you should be replacing computer equipment every 3-5 years (i.e. before they die on you, crippling your business). You can go buy new equipment and migrate your software and data over… and do this again in 3-5 years. Or you can let someone else worry about that. Hosting involves running your applications on the equipment of a provider like StorageHive.
Service Providers are motivated to provide best of breed equipment, maintained to an extremely high standard, monitored constantly and kept very secure. You get this for a low monthly fee.
The equivalent is not just buying new equipment. It is placing the equipment in the same grade of data centre with a similar level of monitoring and management as the Service Provider. This is extremely capital-intensive to setup and maintain. Why bother?
Business Considerations
Hosting is a good option if:
You are approaching a refresh of computer hardware and software
You are growing rapidly and are having difficulty keeping up with the additional capacity
You’re a start-up with limited capital
There is an opportunity to reduce operational expensive (staffing, office space etc) that would offset the cost of hosting
You are affected by all the reasons for thinking about Co-location
Cloud Storage
Store all your archived documents, photos,emails and backups in the Cloud; free-up your local storage
Many backup and archival solutions need disk as a target to storage the data. Storing it locally requires disk, space in your computer room, plus all the attendant overhead. Storing it on free or public Clouds like Hotmail or Dropbox is very unsafe and leaves you at the mercy of a (possibly rogue) employee. Cheap, safe, easily accessible storage by StorageHive is the solution..
Business Considerations
Consider this as part of your storage management strategy, if you are:
Running low on space constantly
Have a lot of old data that you need access to but don’t need for daily operations
Are regulated by a standard that requires you to retain data for a defined period e.g HIPPAA
