What is a cloud server and co-location server?

The key difference between a cloud server and a co-location server lies in how the infrastructure is owned, managed, and accessed.

With a cloud server, your data, applications, and systems are hosted virtually on a third-party platform—most commonly on a robust Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform like Microsoft Azure. This means you don’t need to purchase or maintain any physical hardware. Instead, you get secure, on-demand access to scalable computing resources that can grow with your business.

In contrast, a co-location server involves bringing your own physical server hardware into a professional data centre facility. The hosting provider supplies the power, cooling, bandwidth, and physical security, but you remain responsible for maintaining and upgrading the server hardware yourself.

For most businesses, cloud computing offers greater flexibility, cost savings, and scalability. Co-location hosting may still suit organisations with strict compliance requirements or legacy infrastructure they want to maintain in a secure, offsite location.