Hosting server colocation Denver is much easier now than it has ever been. Before, a company had to pay a high monthly fee for a preconfigured server that had to have the specifications to last for many years including memory, processing speed, and disk space and, which were kept racked at the hosts' location.

With new virtualization software everything has changed. Now it all occurs on ONE piece of hardware and resources such as drive space, memory, and CPU can be allocated as the customer needs it.

When hosting server colocation started the process was rather basic. Everyone would rent a server at the Denver colocation facility. The servers were then preconfigured to match the specifications required. Any repairs, upgrading and maintenance ran at the expense of the client - you.

Some of the information you would have to provide the hosting server colocation company would include:

• "User Account Access -- .greatly prefer dedicated machines with root access.will consider other setups.will require ssh access to a user account on the machine.require authentication via SSH keys, and ask that password logins be disabled.
• Core file limit -- .ircd code base continues to evolve, and .may require this debugging tool at times...servers will produce very large core files, so the limit should be accordingly high -- at least 1GB or so.
• File descriptor limits -- .servers must be able to open at least 15,000 concurrent connections, so per-user and system-wide file descriptor limits must be high enough to accommodate this. Suggested values are at least 24,000 for the .user account, and 25,000 system-wide." (www.freenode.net).

If you (the client company) wanted to upgrade to a new server you would have to invest in having a new server built from the ground up. This was costly and caused companies to overspend their allotted budgets. Other requirements you would have to meet were involved with notifications:

• ".ensure that we have up-to-date contact information, on and offline
• .stay subscribed to the freenode-sponsors mailing list (low traffic, announcements only)
• .endeavour to, where possible, give us ample advance warning about network, hardware or software upgrades and maintenance which may affect the network.
• .communicate unexpected downtime/maintenance ASAP." (www.freenode.net)

VmWare is a virtualization software technology which creates a virtual machine. "Each virtual machine contains a complete system, eliminating potential conflicts. Denver VMware virtualization works by inserting a thin layer of software directly on the computer hardware or on a host operating system. This contains a virtual machine monitor or "hypervisor" that allocates hardware resources dynamically and transparently. Multiple operating systems run concurrently on a single physical computer and share hardware resources with each other. By encapsulating an entire machine, including CPU, memory, operating system, and network devices, a virtual machine is completely compatible with all standard x86 operating systems, applications, and device drivers. You can safely run several operating systems and applications at the same time on a single computer, with each having access to the resources it needs when it needs them." (www.vmware.com)

The advantages of using VmWare technology are numerous. In a Denver colocation hosting situation this type of virtualization will allow you to:

• "Start your own hosting company without upfront hardware costs
• Alternate port SMTP relay for broadband provider restrictions
• Offsite disaster recovery or redundancy and remote backup
• Central processing with low connectivity costs
• A better, low cost alternative to ISP hosted email and web" (www.hmon.net)

Another important incentive is the ability to "reduce your costs by hosting a virtual machine on a secure network." (www.hmon.net)