When your company is in the market for a web hosting solution, there are many options available.

Colocation is popular among businesses seeking benefits of a larger internal IT department without incurring the costs of a managed service provider.

What is Colocation Hosting?

Colocation hosting is a type of service a data center offers, in which it leases space and provides housing for servers. The clients own the servers and claim full authority over the hardware and software. However, the storage facility is responsible for maintaining a secure server environment.

Colocation services are not the same as cloud services. Colocation clients own hardware and lease space, with cloud services they do not have their hardware but lease it from the provider.

Colocation hosting should not be confused with managed (dedicated) services, as the second implies the data center also assumes management and maintenance control over the servers. With colocation hosting, the clients are the one who is responsible for supplying, maintaining, and managing their servers.

How does Server Colocation Hosting Work?

Maintaining and managing servers begins by ensuring the environment allows them to work at full capacity. However, this is the main problem businesses with “server closets” deal with. If companies are incapable of taking on such responsibilities on-premises, they will search for a data center that offers colocation services.

Colocation as a service works for businesses who already own hardware and software, but are unable to provide the conditions to store them. The clients, therefore, lease space from their service providers who offer housing for hardware, as well as environmental management.

Clients move their hardware to a data center, set up, and configure their servers. There is no physical contact between the provider and the clients’ hardware unless they specifically request additional assistance known as remote hands.

While the hardware is hosted, the data center assumes all responsibility for environmental management, such as cooling, a reliable power supply, on-premises security, and protection against natural disasters.

What is Provided by the Colocation Host?

The hosting company’s responsibilities typically include:

Security

The hosting company secures and authorizes access to the physical location. The security measures include installing equipment such as cameras, biometric locks, and identification for any personnel on site. Clients are responsible for securing their servers against cyber-attacks. The provider ensures no one without authorization can come close to the hardware.

Power

The data center is responsible for electricity and any other utilities required by the servers. This also includes energy backups, such as generators, in case of a power outage. Getting and using power efficiently is an essential component. Data centers can provide a power supply infrastructure that guarantees the highest uptime.

Cooling

Servers and network equipment generate a considerable amount of heat. Hosts provide advanced redundant cooling systems, so servers run optimally. Proper cooling can prevent damage and extends the life of your hardware.

Storage

A datacenter leases physical space for your servers. You can decide to store your hardware in any of the three options:

• Stand-alone cabinets: Each cabinet can house several servers in racks. Providers usually lease entire cabinets, and some may even offer partial cabinets.
• Cages: A cage is a separated, locked area in which server cabinets are stored. Cages physically isolate access to the equipment inside and can be built to house as many cabinets as the customer may need.
• Suites: These are secure, fully enclosed rooms in the colocation data center.

Disaster Recovery

The host needs to have a disaster recovery plan. It starts by building a data center away from disaster-prone areas. Also, this means reinforcing the site against disruption. For example, a host uses a backup generator in case of a power outage, or they might contract with two or more internet providers if one goes down.

Compliance

Healthcare facilities, financial services, and other businesses that deal with sensitive, confidential information need to adhere to specific compliance rules. They need unique configuration and infrastructure that are in line with official regulations.

Clients can manage setting up compliant servers. However, the environment in which they y are housed also needs to be compliant. Providing such settings is challenging and expensive. For this reason, customers turn to data centers. For example, a company that stores patients’ medical records requires a HIPAA compliant hosting provider.

Benefits of Colocation Hosting

Colocation hosting is an excellent solution for companies with existing servers. However, some clients are a better fit for colocation than others.

Reduced Costs

One of the main advantages of colocation hosting is reduced power and network costs. Building a high-end server environment is expensive and challenging. A colocation provider allows you to reap the benefits of such a facility without investing in all the equipment. Clients colocate servers to a secure, first-class infrastructure without spending money on creating one.

Additionally, colocation services allow customers to organize their finances with a predictable hosting bill. Reduced costs and consistent expenses contribute to stabilizing businesses and frees capital for other IT investments.

Expert Support

By moving servers to a data center, clients ensure full-time expert support. Colocation hosting providers specialize in the day-to-day operation of the facility, relieving your IT department from these duties. With power, cooling, security, and network hardware handled, your business can focus on hardware and software maintenance.

Scalability and Room to Grow

Colocation hosting also has the advantage of providing flexible resources that clients can scale according to their needs without having to make recurring capital investments. Allowing customers to expand to support their market growth is an essential feature if you want to develop into a successful, profitable business.

Availability 24/7/365

Customers turn to colo hosting because it assures their data is always available to them and their users. What they seek is consistent uptime, which is the time when the server is operational. Providers have emergency services and infrastructure redundancy that contribute to better uptime, as well as a service level agreement. The contract assures that if things are not working as required, customers are protected.

Although the servers may be physically inaccessible, clients have full control over them. Remote customers access and work on their hardware vie management software or with the assistance of remote hands. Using the remote hands service applies to delegate in-house technicians from the data center to assist in management and maintenance tasks. With their help, clients can avoid frequent journeys to the facility.

Clearly defined service level agreements (SLAs)

A colo service provider will have clear service level agreements. An SLA is an essential asset that you need to agree upon with your provider to identify which audits, processes, reporting, and resolution response times and definitions are included with the service. Trusted providers have flexible SLAs and are open to negotiating specific terms and conditions.

Additional Considerations of Colocating Your Hosting

Limited Physical Access

Clients who need frequent physical access to servers need to take into account the obligations that come with moving servers to an off-site location. Customers are allowed access to the facility if they live nearby or are willing to travel. Therefore, if they need frequent physical access, they should find a provider located nearby or near an airport.

Clients may consider a host in a region different from their home office. It is essential to consider travel fees as a factor.

Managing and Maintaining

Clients who need a managed server environment may not meet their needs just with colocation hosting. A colocation host only manages the data center. Any server configuration or maintenance is the client’s responsibility. If you need more hands-on service, consider managed services in addition to colocation. However, bear in mind that managed services come with additional costs.

High Cost for Small Businesses

Small businesses may not be big enough to benefit from colocation. Most hosts have a minimum amount of space clients need to lease. Therefore, a small business running one or two machines could spend more on hosting than they can save. Hardware-as-a-Service, virtual servers, or even outsourced IT might be a better solution for small businesses.

Is a Colocation Hosting Provider a Good Fit?

Colocation is an excellent solution for medium to large businesses without an existing server environment.

Leveraging the shared bandwidth of the colocation provider gives your business the capacity it needs without the costs of on-premises hosting. Colocation helps enterprises reduce the costs of power, bandwidth, and improve uptime through redundant infrastructure and security. With server colocation hosting, the client cooperates with the data center.

Now you can make the best choice for your business’s web hosting needs.

Data is a commodity that requires an active data center security strategy to manage it properly. A single breach in the system will cause havoc for a company and has long-term effects.

Are your critical workloads isolated from outside cyber security threats? That’s the first guarantee you’ll want to know if your company uses (or plans to use) hosted services.

Breaches into trusted data centers tend to happen more often. The public notices when news breaks about advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks succeeding.

To stop this trend, service providers need to adopt a Zero Trust Model. From the physical structure to the networked racks, each component is designed with this in mind.

Zero Trust Architecture

The Zero Trust Model treats every transaction, movement, or iteration of data as suspicious. It’s one of the latest intrusion detection methods.

The system tracks network behavior, and data flows from a command center in real time. It checks anyone extracting data from the system and alerts staff or revokes rights from accounts an anomaly is detected.

Security Layers and Redundancies of Data Centers

Keeping your data safe requires security controls, and system checks built layer by layer into the structure of a data center. From the physical building itself, the software systems, and the personnel involved in daily tasks.

You can separate the layers into a physical or digital.

Data Center Physical Security Standards

Location

Assessing whether a data center is secure starts with the location.

A trusted Data Center’s design will take into account:

• Geological activity in the region
• High-risk industries in the area
• Any risk of flooding
• Other risks of force majeure

You can prevent some of the risks listed above by having barriers or extra redundancies in the physical design. Due to the harmful effects, these events would have on the operations of the data center; it’s best to avoid them altogether.

The Buildings, Structures, and Data Center Support Systems

The design of the structures that make up the data center needs to reduce any access control risks. The fencing around the perimeter, the thickness, and material of the building’s walls, and the number of entrances it has. All these affect the security of the data center.

Some key factors will also include:

• Server cabinets fitted with a lock.
• Buildings need more than one supplier for both telecom services and electricity.
• Extra power backup systems like UPS and generators are critical infrastructure.
• The use of mantraps. This involves having an airlock between two separate doors, with authentication required for both doors
• Take into account future expansion within the same boundary
• Separate support systems from the white spaces allow authorized staff members to perform their tasks. It also stops maintenance and service technicians from gaining unsupervised entry.

Physical Access Control

Controlling the movement of visitors and staff around the data center is crucial. If you have biometric scanners on all doors – and log who had access to what and when – it’ll help to investigate any potential breach in the future.

Fire escapes and evacuation routes should only allow people to exit the building. There should not be any outdoor handles, preventing re-entry. Opening any safety door should sound an alarm.

All vehicle entry points should use reinforced bollards to guard against vehicular attacks.

Secure All Endpoints

Any device, be it a server, tablet, smartphone or a laptop connected to a data center network is an endpoint.

Data centers give out rack and cage space to clients whose security standards may be dubious. If the customer doesn’t secure the server correctly, the entire data center might be at risk. Attackers are going to try to take advantage of unsecured devices connected to the internet.

For example, most customers want remote access to the power distribution unit (PDU), so they could remotely reboot their servers. Security is a significant concern in such use cases. It is up to facility providers to be aware of and secure all devices connected to the internet.

Maintain Video and Entry Logs

All logs, including video surveillance footage and entry logs, should be kept on file for a minimum of three months. Some breaches are identified when it is already too late, but records help identify vulnerable systems and entry points.

Document Security Procedures

Having strict, well-defined and documented procedures is of paramount importance. Something as simple as a regular delivery needs to well planned to its core details. Do not leave anything open for interpretation.

Run Regular Security Audits

Audits may range from daily security checkups, and physical walkthroughs to quarterly PCI and SOC audits.

Physical audits are necessary to validate that the actual conditions conform to reported data.

Digital Layers of Security in a Data Center

As well as all the physical controls, software, and networks make up the rest of the security and access models for a trusted data center.

There are layers of digital protection that aim to prevent security threats from gaining access.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems

This system checks for advanced persistent threats (APT). It focuses on finding those that have succeeded in gaining access to the data center. APTs are typically sponsored attacks, and the hackers will have a specific goal in mind for the data they have collected.

Detecting this kind of attack requires real-time monitoring of the network and system activity for any unusual events.

Unusual events could include:

• An increase of users with elevated rights accessing the system at odd times
• Increase in service requests which might lead to a distributed-denial of service attack (DDoS)
• Large datasets appearing or moving around the system.
• Extraction of large datasets from the system
• Increase in phishing attempts to crucial personnel

To deal with this kind of attack, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) use baselines of normal system states. Any abnormal activity gets a response. IDP now uses artificial neural networks or machine learning technologies to find these activities.

Security Best Practices for Building Management Systems

Building management systems (BMS) have grown in line with other data center technologies. They can now manage every facet of a building’s systems. That includes access control, airflow, fire alarm systems, and ambient temperature.

A modern BMS comes equipped with many connected devices. They send data or receive instructions from a decentralized control system. The devices themselves may be a risk, as well as the networks they use. Anything that has an IP address is hackable.

Secure Building Management Systems

Security professionals know that the easiest way to take a data center off the map is by attacking its building management systems.

Manufacturers may not have security in mind when designing these devices, so patches are necessary. Something as insignificant as a sprinkler system can destroy hundreds of servers if set off by a cyber-attack.

Segment the System

Segmenting the building management systems from the main network is no longer optional. What’s more, even with such precautionary measures, attackers can find a way to breach the primary data network.

During the infamous Target data breach, the building management system was on a physically separate network. However, that only slowed down the attackers as they eventually jumped from one network to another.

This leads us to another critical point – monitor lateral movement.

Lateral Movement

Lateral movement is a set of techniques attackers use to move around devices and networks and gain higher privileges. Once attackers infiltrate a system, they map all devices and apps in an attempt to identify vulnerable components.

If the threat is not detected early on, attackers may gain privileged access and, ultimately, wreak havoc. Monitoring for lateral movement limits the time data center security threats are active inside the system.

Even with these extra controls, it is still possible that unknown access points can exist within the BMS.

Secure at the Network Level

The increased use of virtualization-based infrastructure has brought about a new level of security challenges. To this end, data centers are adopting a network-level approach to security.

Network-level encryption uses cryptography at the network data transfer layer, which is in charge of connectivity and routing between endpoints. The encryption is active during data transfer, and this type of encryption works independently from any other encryption, making it a standalone solution.

Network Segmentation

It is good practice to segment network traffic at the software level. This means classifying all traffic into different segments based on endpoint identity. Each segment is isolated from all others, thus acting as an independent subnet.

Network segmentation simplifies policy enforcement. Furthermore, it contains any potential threats in a single subnet, preventing it from attacking other devices and networks.

Virtual Firewalls

Although the data center will have a physical firewall as part of its security system, it may also have a virtual firewall for its customers. Virtual firewalls watch upstream network activity outside of the data center’s physical network. This helps in finding packet injections early without using essential firewall resources.

Virtual firewalls can be part of a hypervisor or live on their own virtualized machines in a bridged mode.

Traditional Threat Protection Solutions

Well-known threat protection solutions include:

• Virtualized private networks and encrypted communications
• Content, packet, network, spam, and virus filtering
• Traffic or NetFlow analyzers and isolators

Combining these technologies will help make sure that data is safe while remaining accessible to the owners.

Data Center Security Standards

There is a trend in making data services safer and standardizing the security for data centers. In support of this, the Uptime Institute published the Tier Classification System for data centers.

The classification system sets standards for data center’s’ controls that ensure availability. As security can affect the uptime of the system, it forms part of their Tier Classification Standard.

There are four 4 tiers defined by the system. Each tier maps to a business need that depends on what kind of data is being stored and managed.

Tiers 1 & 2

Seen as tactical services, Tier 1 and 2 will only have some of the security features listed in this article. They are low cost and used by companies who do not want real-time access to their data and who won’t suffer financially due to a temporary system failure.

They are mainly used for offsite data storage.

Tiers 3 & 4

These tiers have higher levels of security. They have built-in redundancies that ensure uptime and access. Providing mission critical services for companies who know the cost of damage to a reputation a break in service creates.

These real-time data processing facilities provide the highest standards of security.

Take Data Center Security Seriously

More and more companies are moving their critical workloads and services to hosted servers and cloud computing infrastructure. Data centers are prime targets for bad actors.

Measuring your service providers against the best practices presented in this article is essential.

Don’t wait for the next major breach to occur before you take action to protect your data. No company wants to be the next Target or Equifax.

Servers are an essential component of any enterprise in 2019. Did you know servers require maintenance like any other equipment?

Keeping a server running is more involved than loading the latest patches and updates. Use our server maintenance checklist to ensure the smooth operation of your server and avoid downtime.

Here’s is our list of 15 server maintenance tips to help you better manage your hardware and avoid the most common issues.

Server Data Verification

1. Double-Check & Verify Your Backups

If you’ve ever had to recover from a catastrophic drive failure, you know how important data is to the smooth operation of a business.

With a good backup strategy, it’s better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.  Schedule a few minutes every week (or every day) to check the server backups. Alternately, you can mirror the server environment to a virtual machine in the cloud and test it regularly.

2. Check the RAID array

Many dedicated servers run a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) array. Basically, multiple hard drives acting as one storage device in the event of a single disk failure.

Some types of RAID are designed for performance, others for redundancy.  In most cases, modern RAID arrays have advanced monitoring tools. A quick glance at your RAID monitoring utility can alert you to potential drive failures. This lets you plan drive replacements and rebuilds in a way that minimizes downtime.

3. Verify Storage Utilization

Periodically check your server’s hard drive usage. Servers generate a lot of log files, old emails, and outdated software packages.

If it’s important to keep old log files, consider archiving them to external storage. Old emails can also be archived or deleted. Some application updaters don’t remove old files.  Fortunately, some package managers have built-in cleanup protocols that you can use. You can also find third-party utilities for managing old software files.

Hard drives are not just used for storage. They also use a swap file, which acts like physical memory. If disk utilization gets above 90%, it can interfere with the swap file, which can severely degrade performance.

Software & Server System Checks

4. Review Server Resource Usage

In addition to reviewing disk space, it’s also smart to watch other server usages.

Memory and processor usage can show how heavily a server is being used. If CPU and memory usage are frequently near 100%, it’s a sign that your server may be overtaxed. Consider reducing the burden on your hardware by upgrading, or by adding additional servers.

5. Update Your Control Panel

Control panel software (such as cPanel) must be updated manually. When updating cPanel, only the control panel is updated.  You still need to update the applications that it manages, such as Apache and PHP.

6. Update Software Applications

Depending on your server configuration, you may have many different software applications. Some systems have package managers that can automatically update software.  For those that don’t, create a schedule to review available software updates.

This is especially true for web-based applications, which account for the vast majority of breaches.  Keep in mind that some operating systems may specifically require older application versions – Python 2 for CentOS7, for example.  In cases where you must use older software in a production environment, take care to avoid exposing such software to an open network.

7. Examine Remote Management Tools

Check remote management tools including the remote console, remote reboot, and rescue mode. These are especially important if you run a cloud-based virtual server environment, or are managing your servers remotely.

Check in on these utilities regularly to make sure they are functional. Rebooting can solve many problems on its own. A remote console allows you to log in to a server without being physically present. Rescue mode is a Red Hat solution, but most server operating systems have a management or “safe” mode you can remotely boot to make repairs.

8. Verify Network Utilization

Much like memory and CPU usage, server loads have a network capacity. If your server is getting close to the maximum capacity of the network hardware, consider installing upgrades. In addition to the capacity of the network, you might consider using network monitoring tools. These tools can watch your network traffic for unusual or problematic usage.

Monitoring traffic patterns can help you optimize your web traffic. For example, you might migrate frequently-accessed resources to a faster server. You might also track unusual behavior to identify intrusion attempts and data breaches, and manage them proactively.

9. Verify Operating System Updates

OS updates can be a tricky field to navigate. One the one hand, patches, and updates can resolve security issues, expand functionality, and improve performance. Hackers often plan cybersecurity attacks around “zero-day” exploits. That is, they look at the OS patches that are released, and attack those weaknesses before a business can patch the vulnerability.

On the other hand, custom software can experience conflicts and instability with software updates. Dedicate time regularly to review OS updates. If you have a sensitive production environment, consider creating a test environment to test updates before rolling them out to production.

Server Hardware

10. Physically Clean Server Hardware

Schedule time regularly to physically clean and inspect servers to prevent hardware failure. This helps keep dust and debris out of the circuit boards and fans.

Dust buildup interferes with heat management, and heat is the enemy of server performance. While you’re cleaning, visually inspect the servers and server environment. Make sure the cabinets have plenty of airflow. Check for any unusual wiring of connections. An unexpected flash drive might be a security breach. An unauthorized network cable might create a data privacy concern.

11. Check for Hardware Errors

Modern server operating systems maintain logs of hardware errors.

A hardware error could be a SMART error on a failing hard drive, a driver error for a failing device, or random errors that could indicate a memory problem. Checking your error logs can help you pinpoint and resolve a hardware problem before it escalates to a system crash.

Security Monitoring

12. Review Password Security

Evaluate your password policy regularly. If you are not using an enterprise password management system, start now.

You should have a system that automates good password hygiene. If you don’t, this can be a good time to instruct users to change passwords manually.

13. Evaluate User Accounts

Most businesses have some level of turnover, and it’s easy for user accounts to be overlooked.

Review the user account list periodically, and remove any user accounts no longer needed. You can also check account permissions, to make sure they are appropriate for each user. While reviewing this data, you should also examine client data and accounts.  You may need to manually remove data for former clients to avoid legal or security complication

14. Consider Overall Server Security

Evaluate your server security policies to make sure that they are current and functioning. Consider using a third-party network security tool to test your network from the outside. This can help identify areas that you’ve overlooked, and help you prevent breaches before they occur.

15. Check Server Logs Regularly

Servers maintain logs that track access and errors on the server. These logs can be extensive, but some tools and procedures make them easier to manage.

Review your logs regularly to stay familiar with the operation of your servers. A logged error might identify a hardware issue that you can fix before it fails. Anomalies in access logs might mean unauthorized usage by users or unauthorized access from an intruder.

Regular Server Maintenance Reduces Downtime & Failures

With this checklist, you should have a better understanding of how to perform routine server maintenance.

Regular maintenance ensures that minor server issues don’t escalate into a disastrous system failure. Many server failures as a result of preventable situations due to poor planning.