The external administration of one’s own server is referred to as “colocation,” “server housing” or even “server homing.” It involves outsourcing a company’s server hardware to a
**colocation data center These computer centers are operated, for example, by Internet Service Providers (ISP) that already have the necessary infrastructure at their disposal. The ISP’s computer centers offer not only sufficient space for setting up external servers on so-called “racks,” but also a secure power supply, adequate air conditioning, and stable Internet access. The latter ensures that these centers regularly have access to fiber-optic cables installed for this purpose, which guarantee stable network availability

“Server housing” is not to be confused with so-called “
**server hosting With hosting, it is not only the hardware that is managed, but also provider software. The host of the server authorizes customers to use it. In a sense, customers rent server utilization periods. The rented server can be located anywhere in the world. Customers have no physical access to the hardware. Housing in the computer center, in contrast, refers to the storage and connection of one’s server hardware to external data centers. The administration, management, and maintenance of your server are performed by the company itself provided that nothing else has been agreed upon. For basic work on the server, it is also possible to hire an external technician from the computer center operator

Server housing is similar to dedicated hosting. However, while in the case of the latter one rents their own server from the provider, in the case of colocation, one in a sense only rents the storage space, including its infrastructure

** The server itself belongs to the company** and is housed in the provider’s computer center.