What about the MLS (multiple listing services) real-estate engines that feed all of the "for sale" houses in your city? Yep, hosted on a server is some ISP's NOC (network operations center) or COLO (colocation facility). The consolidation of data must be kept in a most secure and reliable location. And since you are "parking" the bulk of your data in one place, why not share some of the application process? How different are all of these "web-enabled" applications that we see?

As the world becomes even more "web enabled", more of the software we use will be "on-line" and leased instead of purchased and installed locally on a PC. The result of consolidating and sharing creates the SaaS (Software as a Service) commerce model.

Colocation defined: the act of placing multiple (sometimes related) entities within a single location. Colocation is often used in the data sourcing industry to mean off-site data storage, usually in a data center. This is very important for people since the loss of data can be crucial for businesses of any size. An unexpected loss in data can result from fires, earthquakes, floods, or any sort of natural disaster.