I am interested in becoming a webhost, I have thought about it before but never thought about owning a server. However, I do have some questions before I get ahead of my self:

1. Build or buy a server?
a. If I buy, where? (Looking for best prices)
b. If I build, where should I buy the parts? (Pricewatch.com?)

2. Should I go colocation or dedicated?
a. What is usually better for a startup?
b. What kind of prices am I looking at for a colocation or dedicated plan? (Medium - High end plans)

3. Who is a good dedicated/colo provider?
a. I've heard a lot about rackshack, but who else is there that is just as good or better?

4. How much should I invest?
a. Colo
b. Dedicated

Thank you for your time,
Blake.

1. Build or buy a server?

Building may be slightly cheaper than buying but with most bought servers you get covered for the parts and onsite maintenance if something goes wrong. Take a look at http://www.broadberry.co.uk for some good deals.

2. Should I go colocation or dedicated?

This depends on your needs. If you buy a server you'll go co-lo but if you feel that you'd rather rent a server and have the company look after and be responsible for any broken parts, etc then dedicated/managed solution would be better for you.

3. Who is a good dedicated/colo provider?

Steer clear of Rackshack (I know they've had some good posts on this board but they are giving away too much for too little). Try http://www.webhostingguide.co.uk for details of different providers. I recommend Netweaver or Caladan for UK customers.

4. How much should I invest?

This all depends on what you require. You are looking at around £800 - 1000 for a decent server then £100/120 + per month to CoLo with 20/30 gb bandwidth.

However with a dedicated you would be looking at around £250 per month upwards for a decent server.

Bear in mind that most CoLo contracts have a minimum of around 3 months where as dedicated is around 12 months.

Hope this helps,

David

If you're a new provider your best bet is to find a decent datacenter and rent a high end dedicated server until you're established. Some will charge out the arse for it, some wont, you want the good stuff though if you're serious (scsi raid, 1-3gb ram, etc.). I would highly recommend having enough idle capital though to survive if you sit dead in the water for 6+ months, as thats what a lot of people seem to be doing before they get the "e-rush" of clients :)

I would definitely go COLO versus dedicated. You get more for your money, and don't have any unreasonable expectations. If you rent a dedicated server and something goes wrong, the potential of it taking an entire day to fix things is pretty high. (my personal opinion, no facts to back that up).

Talking build versus buy, you can save money by building, but if you are hosting in a data center that isn't local, you will end up paying for shipping and down time if a hard drive crashes. If you go with a company like Dell - they'll go to your location and replace the parts for you.

I am colo-ed with Rackmy.com - they have great service, bandwidth, and network uptime.

If you are going to start a business - you have to think about which direction you want to take. If you are offering cheap service as your way of drawing customers in, then going with a cheap bandwidth provider makes sense. You'll have network downtime, but your customers will stay with you because of the price.

If you are offering good customer service as a way of maintaining customers, then spending the capital up front on a reliable network and a reliable web server will pay off within a year.

Good luck to you, wherever you go.

Lease a server until you have established your business. Get a cheap RaQ4 and go to town.