A while back I took a poll and more people on these forums were dedicated server users then were co-location server users.

So my question now is: Why do you choose dedicated instead of co-located? Granted there is the obvious: You don't have to buy your hardware up front, but what are the other reasons you guys have? Its obviously a lot more expensive in the long run.

Not always more expensive.

You dont have to worry about hardware faults and it makes it a lot easier to move to different providers if you dont have hardware to cart around.

Another reason is its easier to have servers in other countries (saves you posting your own hardware to foreign DC's)

Well probably it would cost lower in a long run. I have not tried Co-location as yet but from what I understand, you are responsible for the hardware and software installation. Thus this probably means that if there is a hardware fault, you would probably have to provide for replacement parts (and may have to do the repairs yourself).

There is also the issue of future upgrades. Probably 1 to 2 years down the road, the server might not be able to handle the load. With Dedicated plan, you could probably give up the current configuration and move on to a faster machine in the future.

And with Colocation, you are trusting your hardware to a datacenter. I believe that most are trustworthy but if things goes wrong, they may hijack your machine and refuse to return you your hardware. You will probably get it back through legal means but I don't see it as worth the hassle.

With Dedicated Hosting, I am not bounded by a long term contract. If the host is not up to par or I move beyond what they could provide, I can just pack up and move on. I will be assured that they would replace any faulty components (provided it is not my fault).

I may be totally off the mark here but that's how I see it.

Originally posted by UH-Matt
Not always more expensive.

Another reason is its easier to have servers in other countries (saves you posting your own hardware to foreign DC's)

Matt,

Good point. I am from Singapore and there is no way I am going to bare the cost of shipping a server over. Moreover, we are using 220/240v powerpacks which probably is not compatiable with those in the US.

I once shipped a PC to Malaysia using a courier service and the PC came out damaged on the other end. Of course, the clients got compensated for the damage but it sure is not a good idea. I am sure this does not happened all the time.

To start off dedicated servers are cheaper than colocation.

Typically places that offer both dedicated servers and colocation charge more for colocation per amount of bandwidth, plus you have to pay for the server. Cololcation is seems significantly more expensive to start.

Further, with colocation you have to worry about having spare parts on hand at the datacenter. With dedicated machines if they have 100 of the same model, the amount of money spent for spare parts can be much lower on a per server basis.

In a lot of places for some reason, colo is more expensive. Take Nocster for example. ~$100-150/month for 300GB Bandwidth and a server, while colo there costs $100/month for a tower and no bandwidth, or $40/month for a 1u server. On top of that, it's $75 for 50GB, or $200/mbit. That's $550/month for 300GB and a tower, or $490/month for a 1u server... or you could buy four servers with a total of 1200GB of bandwidth for roughly the same price.

Also, Nocster's 10mbit servers are only $500 - 520/month - that's $50/mbit and a free server to use, versus $200/mbit. Strange indeed....

- Matt

ahh the power of supply and demand.

There dedicates are cheaper because they can work out exactly how much rackspace and bandwidth will be used and buy ahead for it.

With colo there is a lot of uncertainty with each sale.

Originally posted by UH-Matt
With dedicated servers there is a lot of uncertainty with each sale.

you mean with co-location?

yeah :)

ya really wanna know the big reason? because there are not too many companies out there at a favorable price point that you'd trust right off the bat... sure they may seem like nice people on the forums or over the phone, but put $40k of equipment in front of 'em... and if their business isn't large enough to matter (which, how can you really tell how large a company is? in the end its just a domain name and a web page), they can run like hell... and you're screwed a lot of money... thats why i don't colo with many anymore...

i've lost a shipment of servers... around $40k USD worth... to a company called digi-wave.com... hosting directly out of uunet in atlanta... had a uunet sub-delegated IP block too... had 24/7 tech and all... like actually around 24/7... my equip got there... all connected to 'net... then... about a week later... everything went offline... and nobody on phone would answer... and then i had an associate fly out (he was closer, could get a flight faster as i atleast couldn't afford downtime) there and check up on them... they were gone and so were my servers... the business was legally registered in atlanta too...

thats why people don't colo!

man, thats one nasty story! ...

yup... it bloody pissed me off too... but thats life, what can you do? *hugs the bat*

lol

I am sure you can trace the owners if the company is registered.

nope

they all gone gone

i tried dude...

lifes a pile of sh*t... gotta make the most of it... lol...

Well thanks for all the insight. I still prefer co-location, but those are some good points. I especially don't like the pricing of bandwidth with co-location, but for me it is still worth it.

netdude: Sorry to hear that. I would think that you could track them down too, but I'm assuming if it wasy $40 k worth then you probably did everything you could.

Rebies,

Find a datacenter which you could crawl, walk or drive to. Schedule a visit and take a look at the place and if you feel comfortable then talk business.

This way at least you could see if they are trustworthy and also pop over in case you need to make any hardware changes or replace faulty components, ie physical administration of your server.

Good Luck!

its sorta like the difference between owning a car and leasing a car. At the end of the day the hardware is yours. You can send any configuration of hardware. If you leave you still have something to take with you. If you're smart and sign a contract with the company you colocate with there should be no problems.

Colocation is also better if you need clustered servers, load balancing, etc. You will find larger companies prefer to colocate then buy 50 rackshack servers(no offense rackshack).

The last benfit to colocation is having dedicated bandwidth and not sharing with others(this depends on where you colocate and what deal you have.)

Usually the support is better if you colocate as you can't be thrown around for being a lower quality customer with a 99 dollar server.

Unless you need more than 5 servers I wouldn't bother looking into colocation unless you happen to be a control freak.

Just my 8 cents.

Whenever we sell a dedicated server its priced in terms of co-location cost plus server lease rate. If you have good credit you can generally lease a server and co-locate it for less than it would cost to purchase the dedicated server lease.

The closest data center for me is at least 3+ hours away, to far to think about co-location. I'm sure others are in the same position.



Originally posted by eddy2099
Rebies,

Find a datacenter which you could crawl, walk or drive to. Schedule a visit and take a look at the place and if you feel comfortable then talk business.

This way at least you could see if they are trustworthy and also pop over in case you need to make any hardware changes or replace faulty components, ie physical administration of your server.

Good Luck!

DeathNova:

Ya, thats the way I sort of see it. Much less money for much more server. Plus, as TheVoice said, I get a lot more control over the servers and what is going on then I would with dedicates.

And yes, I am a complete control freek when it comes to computers. I only have one person I know that I would trust on any of my computers. And that is just computers - not servers!

A simple way to overcome this problem is to get a receipt for all equipment prior to making any payment. Get a note acknowledging what is expected to arrive, track it all the way there with signed delivery, and a second note acknowledging delivery and receipt of your equipment. Get an *officer* of the colo company to sign it with personal address information attached for each principle of the firm. Get the colo firm to agree to provide this PRIOR to shipping your equipment, and the leverage is yours. We will do it for our customers without thinking twice, as we run a legitimate business and have nothing to hide.

Sorry to hear about your experience, but it is most certainly the exception, rather than the rule.

Good luck,

Brandon

The general rule of thumb is small companies go dedicated. Where as the big companies colo and sell reselling accounts. This over the past year has changed. As colocation prices have changed dramatically.

ie, it can be cheaper colocating, then buying a dedicated server. Certainly cheaper in the long run. As long as you can afford to pay for the initial server hardware costs.

Aaaalso, your resonsible for setting the server up. Unless you fork out for per hourly rates for your choosen ISP to do the setup, or manage the server. So a dedicated server, where the hardware is managed, and you get a nice fluffy ensim control panel is great for those starting out who want to gain system admin experince.

To me its one of those things where if you're a large enough company with useful staff you would know to colocate. So rather than being better to colocate or not depends on the company and their needs. In a world of no setup fees and month to month contracts the majority of hosting clients see no need for good service. If they wanted good service they would pay for it and since its currently in the interest of the industry to cater to these clients we will continue to see companies like rackshack and dedicatednow grow and succeed.

To each his own.

I have been studying this topic of the ups and downs of colo and dedicated for some time now. I even wrote a paper on it for school a while back.

We have used dedicated servers from two different providers for a little over a year, but now we have built new servers that we own because the recent lack of hardware performance from these cheap dedicated boxes. We easily are turning 4 servers into 1!