Enjoying Better Technology

Should You Keep Your Data Center Onsite or Offsite?

27 September 2017

Riley Garrett

Choosing between hosting your sever onsite or offsite can be quite tricky. This is actually a debate that happens in every business around the globe because it's hard to determine which is best. Some companies are afraid of hosting their important data in an offsite data center and hence overlook all the benefits associated with that option. Either option has its pros as well as cons and you can make a decision depending on your business data requirements. To make it easier for you, this article highlights the advantages and disadvantages of both onsite and offsite hosting.

Onsite Hosting Advantages

Onsite servers mean that you will be able to access your data and have complete physical control over it at all times. You will be able to add more data when necessary and it will be easy to backup any networked devise. In addition to that, there could be a very fast recovery in case of primary failure when your servers are onsite.

Onsite Hosting Disadvantages

Human error is prone to happen and if someone forgets to backup the data, your entire company will be at risk. With onsite servers, you risk vandalism or theft of the physical gear and as if that is not enough, you will need to call in specialists to perform routine maintenance, which can be pretty expensive. In addition to that, you must ensure that your server is located in a cool area. Onsite servers can hike up your costs as well, especially on energy when they are not in use during weekends and after hours. Worse than that, in case of any disaster like a fire or flood, you will have a very high chance of losing your data.

Offsite Hosting Advantages

When servers are in a date center, you will save on energy costs, reduce your high IT costs, which you can defer to growing another aspect of your business. Anyone from your company will be able to access your data from the internet and it will be very easy to scale up new resources on the server. Offsite servers have built in redundancy, which means you will have backup in case of anything. On top of that, offsite servers have automated backups, eliminating any chances of human error.

Offsite Hosting Disadvantages

First, you will need to have internet access at all times if you want to access your data. You also need to ensure that you are relatively close to the data center so that in case something happens at the primary site and you need to access data onsite, it will be possible.

Regardless of the decision you make, you need to ensure that you take all the necessary steps required to keep your data safe. If you decide to go offsite, ensure that it is with a company you can trust. A data center move can be more complicated than you think, so hire a specialist to ensure that no data is lost in the transfer of files and relocation of your servers.

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