Colocation – a Home for Your Hardware

One of the various business branches at Web Hosting is the provision of colocation space. In our high-tech data centers, located in Southern Germany, we offer the option of housing our clients' own hardware at a very reasonable price. Regardless of tower server, 19“ rack server, switches, firewall or external backup device, our clients are offered a low cost option to rent space and allocate power usage and bandwidth modularly as they need. Such a colocation subscription not only eliminates the burden from our clients to care for security and adequate climate conditions in their office or private environment but also takes the responsibility off their shoulders to care for an uninterrupted 24 hour availability.

Thanks to our well arranged website, it is pretty simple to configure a matching plan individually. At first it appears to be necessary to consider the exact requirements for the colocation space. Our support team will happily assist in doing so. It is required to determine in advance the number of housing modules, by regarding the dimensions of the hardware, the needed uplinks, and a matching power usage option. Nearly each and every configuration can be chosen by this convenient and user friendly tool on our homepage.

Regardless if a 1U only or a complete rack with 40U, lockable, Contabo is prepared to provide very flexible solutions. Even the reservation of space is possible if it is expected that the growing demand requires an expansion of colocation space.

In respect to bandwidth, hosting offers anything from a regular 100 Mbit/s connection to dedicated bandwidth (up to 10 Gbit/s) in nearly any desired volume range, to cover each requirement whatsoever. Whether a single uplink with a fixed bandwidth allotment or the assignment of bandwidth to multiple servers out of a "pool", whatever is technically manageable, we can implement it.

Electrical power consumption can be booked at a fixed rate in increments of 100 W for individual colocation space. When putting the hardware into operation the power consumption is being measured in order to guarantee a fair price which approximates to the power consumption in reality. Half or fully occupied racks are rather efficiently supplied with power at a flat rate or according to the realistic consumption generated.

How to place the order? Provided that the number of required units has been determined, the volume of bandwidth was chosen, and the question about the power consumption was cleared, our clients are asked to fill out the online order form on our website, and submit it afterwards. In turn, hosting provider will sends back the so called "Welcome mail" which contains a summary of the ordered components and – depending on the chosen payment method – a description on how to and where to pay. As soon as the required amount was physically received, we forward relevant information to preconfigure the appliances, for example, the IP addresses, further network information, and resolver details.

Subsequently we discuss the question about how the hardware is delivered with the customer. We appreciate the delivery by courier as much as we do welcome a personal visit by the client, bringing his equipment along. If the latter is favored, we ask the customer or his authorized representative to announce the visit well ahead of time, preferably 48 hours in advance. Since our data centers are highly secured areas with very limited access, it is inevitable that valid ID documents are presented upon arrival. One of our skilled technicians will be pleased to guide the client to his rack for installation. If a forwarding company, like UPS, DHL, or DPD takes over to deliver the hardware, we are apprised upfront by the client regarding the number of appliances, their make, their model, and the tracking number of the items. Upon arrival we get in contact with the customer, inform him about the receipt, and our technicians install the hardware. That's it! Servers are ready for use!