Colocation hosting platforms enable organizations to place their privately owned servers within a third-party data center facility. Instead of managing servers on-premises, businesses lease space in these facilities and gain access to enterprise-grade infrastructure such as redundant power, cooling, climate control, and high-speed connectivity.
These platforms typically provide dashboards, APIs, or management tools that allow customers to monitor usage, request resources, and oversee their colocated hardware. By outsourcing the facility layer, organizations maintain full ownership and control of their servers and applications while benefiting from the reliability, scalability, and security of professionally managed data centers.
With dedicated hosting, the provider owns the hardware and leases an entire physical server to a single client for exclusive use. With colocation hosting, the organization owns the hardware but houses it in a third-party data center. They have full control of their servers and benefit from enterprise-grade power, cooling, connectivity, and security.
To qualify for inclusion in the Colocation Hosting category, a product must:
Enable businesses to host privately owned servers in a third-party data center facility
Provide customers with tools (such as dashboards, APIs, portals, or ticketing systems) to monitor colocated hardware, request resources, and manage usage
Deliver enterprise-grade infrastructure benefits such as redundant power, advanced cooling systems, climate control, and high-speed internet connectivity
Ensure robust physical security through measures such as biometric access controls, video surveillance, and restricted entry
Offer service-level agreements (SLAs) to guarantee uptime and reliability