The Internet Encyclopedia (Volume 3)

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COLOCATION 705

the dedicated hosting business. There are, however, two

distinct types of dedicated-server vendors.

Shared/dedicated vendors. Vendors that offer both

services. In most cases, their dedicated-server busi-

ness grew out of their shared-server business. As

their shared-server customers’ requirements increased,

these vendors moved those customers to dedicated

hardware.

Dedicated-only vendors.Vendors that are part of a some-

what newer breed. They do not offer any shared-server

hosting.

Shared/dedicated vendors tend to treat both categories

of customers (shared or dedicated) alike. Because these

vendors evolved from the shared model, that is how

they tend to view all Web sites. Many of the issues re-

garding shared servers earlier in this chapter also ap-

ply to this tier of dedicated-server vendors. For example,

shared/dedicated vendors are committed to standardiza-

tion and the self-service model.

Because dedicated-only vendors are comparatively

new, they began with a fresh start. These vendors

tend to offer somewhat higher levels of customization

and professional services than are available from the

shared/dedicated vendors, and, not surprisingly, they tend

to do so for a higher price.

Shared and shared/dedicated vendors generally offer

their support services in a depersonalized manner. Typi-

cally, shared and shared/dedicated vendors build call cen-

ters into which all e-mail messages, calls, and alerts are

funneled through a single queue, with the one possi-

ble exception of segregating NT and Unix/Linux issues

because the skill sets necessary to support Web sites

based on these two families of operating systems are so

different.

Because the average revenues per customer are sub-

stantially higher for dedicated-only vendors, these ven-

dors tend to incorporate at least some level of personal-

ized service into their offerings.

COLOCATION

Now that we have covered shared and dedicated hosting,

let us look atcolocation(orcolo). This is the oldest and

most basic of the four Web-hosting services, and unlike

shared or dedicated hosting, it is aimed at high-budget,

sophisticated customers. Colocation vendors supply the

fundamental services that are sometimes referred to as

“power, pipe, and ping,” a catchy phrase that includes, at

the bare minimum, the following services:

“Real estate” (equipment racks, cabinets, or cages)

Electrical power (including battery and/or generator

backup)

Air conditioning

Physical security

Fire suppression

Connectivity to the Internet

Some colocation vendors provide the following ancil-

lary services:

Domain name service (DNS)

“Remote hands” to reboot servers or to cycle them off/on

Basic Web-site monitoring and alert notification (pagers,

phone calls)

Swapping of backup tapes (i.e., the customer manages

the backup, but the colocation service removes and re-

places tapes from the drives)

Hardware installation services

Spares management (i.e., management of spare parts

made available to hardware repair technicians)

Three types of facilities are available from colocation

services: open racks, cabinets, and cages. The variations

in pricing for colocation real estate are primarily based

upon the type of space provided.

Open Racks

Open racksare best for sites that do not have enough

servers to fill an entire rack or cabinet. Originally called

“relay racks” because they held mechanical telephone re-

lays before the advent of semiconductors, these come in

standard 19- and 24-inch widths and are typically six or

seven feet tall.

The charges are based on the percentage of the rack

used, or the number of inches orrack units. For exam-

ple, some vendors charge for each half or quarter rack,

whereas others charge by the inch, foot, or “U.” (One U

orrack unitis equal to 1.75 inch. A server or other piece

of rack-mountable equipment that is 4U in height, for in-

stance, requires 7 inches of vertical rack space.)

Table 3 shows typical pricing for a site that has four

small servers occupying one-half of a single open rack.

Note that in this example, the vendor will be rotating

Table 3Sample Partial-Rack Colocation Pricing (as of April 2003)

One-Time (Setup) Monthly

Service Qty Each Total Each Total

Half Open Rack 1 1000 $1,000 $ 500 $ 500

Minimum Bandwidth (1Mbps) 1 $ - $1,000 $1,000

Remote Hands Service (Per Server) 4 $ - $ 50 $ 200

Daily Tape Rotation (Per Tape) 1 $ - $ 500 $ 500

Totals $1,000 $2,200