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Indeed, these collocation facilities offer compelling advantages, both managerial and technical, over keeping your Web presence in-house. Collocation is a must-consider option for business-to-business markets, traditional e-commerce retailers, online content providers and others whose business requirements include not only a reliable Internet connection but also large or erratic bandwidth needs.

Of course, collocation has some disadvantages. Restricted physical access to your machines is the first issue. Some small companies that offer collocation services have limited office hours, with no way for customers to gain access to their boxes after hours. Another disadvantage is the so-called invoice preference, in which the best service goes to the customer with the biggest contract. Although service providers will deny that any preferential treatment exists, the long and short of it is that small and midsize customers may well receive less service than a larger customer with a similar contract.

Quite a few companies provide collocation services. Tier 1 providers include Digex and Exodus Communications, which hosts eBay. Hosting on a slightly smaller scale are Genuity, UUNet, Verio and WorldCom. Rounding out the playing field is an abundance of small, regional providers. Companies such as Yahoo and BBC America use collocation services from top-tier vendors to help ensure customer satisfaction.

Too Scary to Contemplate

Consider this scenario: You load up your in-house data center with bandwidth and put some cool content, product or service up on your site. A few days later, your efforts pay off: You get mentioned on Slashdot, and CNN.com picks up the story. Shluck! The giant sucking sound you just heard was your copious bandwidth being gobbled up while your servers sit at 50 percent capacity.

Meanwhile, customers are going elsewhere. Getting more bandwidth from your provider will take weeks, at best. Your site has lost valuable visitors, and it's unlikely you'll regain the traffic generated by the nationwide media coverage.

However, if your site had been hosted in a collocated data center that offers bandwidth on demand, such as one of the Exodus facilities, bandwidth would have scaled to the limit of your servers. This is the most crucial advantage of collocation: the ability to get all the bandwidth you need, when you need it.

This, plus the advantage of having pricing breaks on bandwidth passed on to you, heavily favors the decision to set up in a collocation center. You might think that your business will never need the kind of bandwidth that a collocation center can provide. Never say never. Planning for the future is how businesses get -- and stay -- ahead.

OK, You Sold Me

In a collocation arrangement, your servers reside in a provider's data center, in rented rack space or in a cage, and you're charged by the square or cubic foot. The provider supplies everything but the servers. But remember: Not every collocation center is created equal. It is important that a provider have backup generators and the latest in facilities equipment. When comparing collocation centers, you should find a provider that offers 24x7 secured access, high-tech HVAC, fire suppression and emergency power generation (for more on physical considerations, see "Environmental Protection").

Physical security is a must. After all, data security is impossible without physical security. Find out if the provider has had a physical-security audit and if such audits are performed regularly. The type of physical security also matters. Make sure the site offers live security personnel and video surveillance cameras. In the event of a physical intrusion, these systems might provide needed information.

Another clear indication of good data-center management is a clear and up-to-date diagram of the data wiring. Take a peek under the raised floors. If it looks as though the V-2 flying bomb went off under there, the provider may not be taking the best care of the wiring infrastructure. Any slacking off by the collocation provider in this area should set off warning bells: You're going to trust your business to this organization, so make sure its employees know what they are doing and ensure they're performing in the most professional manner possible.