Hi All,

I want to know if this can be done ...

Pay someone to buy a server and then colocate it in a DC ...

It might be cheaper to buy and colocate then rent a dedicated server ...

However, will this work if u don't have direct access to the DC?
What happens when there are hardware problems ?

I'd like to hear some ideas on this ...

There are DC's that will do that for you..

I used to start it that way a couple years ago ;-) ( not anymore.. but when i started my company)

Many colo companies will be glad to sell you the hardware. Just have to contact the right ones. What area are you considering?

matt_01: why not anymore ...
mj4589: anywhere in US :) not picky ...

But will these guys overcharge me? or can I get newegg to ship them my server PC .. ?

What DCs would you reccomend ?

I know gnax will sell you the hardware, we personally have never bought anything from sago but I've been told they do the same fusionnetworks claims to have bought some of their co-located hardware from them.... most datacenters will do this, you just need to ask :)

from your guys experience .. is it better / easier/cheaper to go dedicated .. or 'roll your own' and colocate ?

Txs

just starting out it's often cheaper to go dedicated and grow into a co-location situation, then cage/suite, etc...

with colocation you own the box..so if you wish to move the server, u can.. with dedicated server, your ISP will own the server.. so if you wish to move to a other ISP, u have to change the server

the nice thing with dedicated as I see is .. it the CPU/HDD/memory goes .. they replace it for free .. with colocation.. it's your problem ,,,

With colocation a lot fewer cpu/hdd/mem sticks go south, because you put proper cooling in with good parts in a quality case. instead of just oem parts in a whitebox case with no fans :) Or so has been my experience.

Really, colocation isnt worth it unless you value piece of mind over dollar value. Colocation isnt sold at the same prices as dedicated servers (it usually isnt oversold), so you cant get 100 TB of bandwidth / month for 100$. (I pay 100$ for 1u/150gb), its really only worth it if you have multiple servers (You can split the bandwidth through the servers, and get 5 megs of bandwidth at 325$ with a quarter rack, and use 8 servers on it.
(Opposed to the 8x100$ you would be getting on Dedicateds).

This is quite an interesting topic.

I always thought colocation meant you had to be hand's on at the DC to run your own server.

Try Rackmountetc,they have build a few machines for our clients and shipped them into our facility. And the client is like half way around the world...

What about faulty hardware?

Order your equipment from the vendor of choice and have it shipped to the colocation company. Most colocation companies fully expect the customers to rarely visit the datacenter. You might want to try smaller companies that actively advertise and solicit colo customers. These companies are more likely to provide the remote support (reboots, KVM, etc.) that you will need.


-js

Ok so let me see if I get this right ... in order of growth for a hosting company ....

1) Shared Hosting
2) Reseller Account
3) VPS
3a) Multiple VPS
4) Dedicated
4a) Multpime Dedicated
5) Multiple Co-Location servers