Shane told my friend that they were selling 35 servers a week, that's ALOT of servers per week.. can anyone vouch? 35 servers in 1 week for 1 year would be 1825 servers... not bad!

that's probably nearly as much as Rackshack? Is this true??? I can't believe they sell that many considering their high prices..

I can't believe they sell that many considering their high prices..

*shakes head*

Rackshack does 1000 servers a month.

Originally posted by jayglate
Rackshack does 1000 servers a month.

I really doubt they do 1000 servers a month; That means they did 12,000 last year alone? Very unlikely...

Around 100 a week I would say yes...

-Shazad

dude... rackshack's datacenter has over 10,000 servers in it i m pretty sure... n i wouldn't find 1000 servers/month that hard to believe...

100 a week does sound about right. I don't see them offering more than 35 servers in each of their categories.

I guess there are peaks during those Blowout Specials.

If I recall correctly, RS currently has over 10,000 servers active and they started operations several years back.

that was their cobalt and dialup divisions... not their dedi server divisions... the dialup and cobalt are what add the financial security to the company i figure... n the dedi servers just add all the frills... heh... or vice versa i guess... hehe... :)

needless to say, they haven't been doing dedi servers big time for tooooooo long... longer than most of the other providers on here... but i would not be surprised at 30/day servers from them...

they've spent big big bucks on appropriate advertising (as opposed to the bullsh*t advertising all the dead dot-coms did back in the day)...

Originally posted by netdude
dude... rackshack's datacenter has over 10,000 servers in it i m pretty sure... n i wouldn't find 1000 servers/month that hard to believe...

Direct from Rackshack Website... ...

September 2002 they had just over 8,000 servers and have been selling these servers since last quarter of year 2000.

Do the math’s yourself, saying 700 of those were Cobalt Raqs...
Either way only the man himself can tell us...

1,000 a month, I would say "no no"... Let the truth be revealed where you are you "head" guy?

-Shazad

Originally posted by netdude
that was their cobalt and dialup divisions... not their dedi server divisions...

Cobalt’s are not classified as servers?

-Shazad

well, they are... but they were doing cobalts b4 they were doing the dedi servers they do now... :P

Originally posted by netdude
well, they are... but they were doing cobalts b4 they were doing the dedi servers they do now... :P

Hehe, don’t worry it’s just the end of year sprit :)

I am pretty sure the cobalt’s are included on there ongoing server number count....

I am out for today, everyone have a great evening, Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year...

-Shazad

EDIT : Anyone want to do the honors of getting this thread back onto the original topic…

Originally posted by jayjay


*shakes head*
Mate, we are on WHT.. the land of everything for nothing.. Its rather discusting to see these pour lost people.. just something we all need to learn to deal with for the time being.

I think that once rackshack reached around the 8000 mark they started running out of space, so started finding new places to put them. They did manage to sell 1000 in a month at one point, not sure if that continued on for 2 months or if it lasted just one. I would think they are back down to about 100 or so a week, of course we can only guess.

Just to clarify, if Rackshack ever started just selling about 100 servers per week, I'd have to fire myself! :)

Current server count is +/- 10,000 sold to end users with about 1000 in variousl stages of inventory and/or build.

Up until about 11/2001, we had only around +/- 1000 to 1500 Cobalt only (I'd have to look back at the numbers) dedicated servers and thought we were doing gangbusters. With the introduction of Linux based white box servers in the new data center late November, our monthly numbers really started to grow.

These days, we are going a little slow while we wait on our expansion build as, even with reconfiguring our transport room and adding electric and HVAC, we can only support around 1000 additional signups. We have done a ton of work to increase the density in our existing space while we wait for the new space to be complete. Pictures of the new facility build out are on our web page.

The new DC build will be complete in late January.

I hope this sheds some light on the question at hand. Lots of companies say that they do this or that. AFAIK, we're about the only ones to really show you the living proof: network graphs, DC pictures, and live DC web cams.

Happy holidays to all.

So Mr HeadSurfer how many servers a month? Which is the open question. :)

Originally posted by headsurfer
Pictures of the new facility build out are on our web page.

The new DC build will be complete in late January.

I hope this sheds some light on the question at hand. Lots of companies say that they do this or that. AFAIK, we're about the only ones to really show you the living proof: network graphs, DC pictures, and live DC web cams.

Happy holidays to all.

New DC Pictures (http://www.rackshack.net/english/colo/newconstruction.asp)

I don't know but I wish fastservers would drop the contract of 3 months so I could give them a try before investing.

I hear so much good about them but everyone I talk to say it's harder than heck to get servers from them.

There have been 5 months (through November) in 2002 that have been at or above 1000 gross with one month being 1432 gross. Nets are obviously slightly above <BELOW, sorry> these numbers ....

Now, Jay, how about your numbers? :)

Happy Holidays everyone!

He Speeks!
I saw that, I love web-cams! That's one big datacenter, when are you opening up to live there? I can sleep with my server, maybe with one of the support techs. :)
BTW-
Love your servers, makes me feel warm inside!

We just started up this venture we will have # info prolly at the end of jan on our monthly volume.

I have one box with fastservers and I must admit that so far they have been just great.

%100 uptime
fast and efficient support
The two most important thing you expect from a hostserver.

Greetings:

To answer the original question on the sales volume of FastServers.Net is we do sell 35-50 servers per week. In terms of the exact number of servers we currently have in our facilities this number is somewhere between 1000-1200 servers.

Are we as big as Rack Shack ---> NO. Are we competing with them --> NO. FastServers.Net is a privately held company that has not had one penny of funding. In business since 1996, we did not actual enter the budget server marketing until July of this year. Our original focus was specifically on higher end corporate hosting and working with companies like Fortune Brands (www.fortunebrands.com), Ford Motor Company (www.fordbetterideas.com), and Marketing Firms all around the world.

In July of 2002 we launched FastServers.Net and being involved with the development of the business model we knew that if we were to survive we would need to reshape the "budget" server offerings with our own twist. With better technical support, CPanel Experts always available, and unique offering such as free server monitoring and middle management of servers(Personal System Administrators) our popularity quickly grew.

Had any of the management staff knew at the time that we produced the next "pet rock" of web hosting we probably would have done things slightly different.

2002 was a great learning experience and even through some tough situations we have remained both focused and centered on what really matters ---> the members of FastServers.Net.

To be perfectly honest we have the capacity and demand to sell far more servers than 35 to 50 per week. We have more incoming sales mail than we sometime know what to do with. This was never our intentions and in the future rapid growth like that is not something we are aiming for. Our current customers and potential customers of the future respect the fact that everything we stand for is not about making a quick buck and exiting quickly.

In terms of the remark on high prices, that is a single opinion and in this business I would hope that the philosophy of “getting what you pay for” is something that is still considered and used…. I know it is when we are buying hardware, support staff, and bandwidth!

I am not really sure what the intention of this thread was, but hopefully I have shed a little light on who we are, what we are about, and as company what we stand for. If not please get in touch with me anytime and we can discuss it one on one.

Have a Great Holiday Season,
Aaron Phillips

Aaron are you guys thinking of one-time hardware upgrade fees?

Originally posted by universal2001
Aaron are you guys thinking of one-time hardware upgrade fees?

It is something we have debated during the current restructure of our pricing and specs of dedicated servers. After long consideration we have decided to stay with monthly fees for hardware upgrades.

The reasons for this are below....

1) Paying monthly fees for hardware upgrades is like having a lifetime warranty on the hardware. If the hardware ever fails we are then responsible for the cost of the hardware and the labor to replace it for the life of the server.

2) Staying with monthly fees keeps the start up cost of getting a server down. This is very important as many people like to spend as little money as possible when getting a server going. One time fees for hardware upgrades would significantly raise the start up cost for getting a server with FastServers.net.

If you have any additional questions about this feel free to contact myself or Aaron and we can talk about it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Originally posted by Shane


It is something we have debated during the current restructure of our pricing and specs of dedicated servers. After long consideration we have decided to stay with monthly fees for hardware upgrades.

The reasons for this are below....

1) Paying monthly fees for hardware upgrades is like having a lifetime warranty on the hardware. If the hardware ever fails we are then responsible for the cost of the hardware and the labor to replace it for the life of the server.

2) Staying with monthly fees keeps the start up cost of getting a server down. This is very important as many people like to spend as little money as possible when getting a server going. One time fees for hardware upgrades would significantly raise the start up cost for getting a server with FastServers.net.

If you have any additional questions about this feel free to contact myself or Aaron and we can talk about it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


one time fee for upgrade should be the way !

Monthly fee for like upgrading 512mb of memory is at my look a rip off, no effence to all... ;)

I prefer paying more to get 512mb ram 1 time in place of paying 10$ 20$ 30$ a month for that....

You will see this only in web hosting ...
For me its a ripoff !

Like buing a car then ho if you want a cd-radio its 30$ more a month for the rest of your life ...:eek:

Btw rs have changed this a bit, a little bit, my second server whit 1gb ram is now a bit cheaper... But still 10$month more because 512mb more...

my 2cents

:rolleyes:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Originally posted by x007



one time fee for upgrade should be the way !

Monthly fee for like upgrading 512mb of memory is at my look a rip off, no effence to all... ;)

I prefer paying more to get 512mb ram 1 time in place of paying 10$ 20$ 30$ a month for that....

You will see this only in web hosting ...
For me its a ripoff !

Like buing a car then ho if you want a cd-radio its 30$ more a month for the rest of your life ...:eek:

Btw rs have changed this a bit, a little bit, my second server whit 1gb ram is now a bit cheaper... But still 10$month more because 512mb more...

my 2cents

:rolleyes:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

but they do need to replace your ram if it goes bad and they won't charge you for that. also this is how they earn, headsurfer also need to maintain his lemo/bmw ;) :D

Originally posted by x007



one time fee for upgrade should be the way !

Monthly fee for like upgrading 512mb of memory is at my look a rip off, no effence to all... ;)

I prefer paying more to get 512mb ram 1 time in place of paying 10$ 20$ 30$ a month for that....

You will see this only in web hosting ...
For me its a ripoff !

Like buing a car then ho if you want a cd-radio its 30$ more a month for the rest of your life ...:eek:

Btw rs have changed this a bit, a little bit, my second server whit 1gb ram is now a bit cheaper... But still 10$month more because 512mb more...

my 2cents

:rolleyes:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I have never been a fan of "one-time" simply because "us" the datacenter would have to cover costs if it went bad.. I am pretty sure the clients would not want to pay roughly $100+ again.

By paying monthly you ensure that the datacenter can afford to cover costs if it turns out bad etc....

If you’re offering a guaranteed hardware replacement time-frame, monthly is the only way to go, something we have high considered and working to put into place.


-Shazad

In a 'one-time' payment for hardware, as a customer do we gain ownership of that hardware ? ie, do we have the right to have it shipped to us (after shipping charges) or it goes back into the datacenter pool when we shift host ?

If I am not wrong, for certain hardware component such as RAM, some vendors do provide life-time warranty so if they do go bad, it is just a simple replacement with the vendor. At least that is how it works out here.

Originally posted by cabalstudios


I have never been a fan of "one-time" simply because "us" the datacenter would have to cover costs if it went bad.. I am pretty sure the clients would not want to pay roughly $100+ again.

By paying monthly you ensure that the datacenter can afford to cover costs if it turns out bad etc....

If you’re offering a guaranteed hardware replacement time-frame, monthly is the only way to go, something we have high considered and working to put into place.


-Shazad

I have no problem paying if they are defect .. For sure not just after i have buy it... Ram are waranty for a year when you buy it, Then this will not append often, unless you buy crappy ram you have 95% chance you never got any trouble whit the ram ... So this is not a valid reason to act like that ...

Give customer 2 option :

1 montly fee like lot of provider do then if they broke its at your charge

2 Pay more then after waranty its at client cost ...


i will got option 2 :D

Anyone will got option 2 , at long term its better for me ...

Option 1 is better for the provider.... Not for me...;)

Originally posted by x007


I have no problem paying if they are defect .. For sure not just after i have buy it... Ram are waranty for a year when you buy it, Then this will not append often, unless you buy crappy ram you have 95% chance you never got any trouble whit the ram ... So this is not a valid reason to act like that ...

Give customer 2 option :

1 montly fee like lot of provider do then if they broke its at your charge

2 Pay more then after waranty its at client cost ...


i will got option 2 :D

Anyone will got option 2 , at long term its better for me ...

Option 1 is better for the provider.... Not for me...;)

And you’re willing to pay the cost for admin time to check, file RMA and install new hardware?

What happens during that period, your server is left offline?

This would count for HDD and processor upgrades, when your unlucky you can never say....

You get those clients that understand the host is ALSO there to make money and compete and those that don’t give the "two hooters"...
Hardware option can be a good idea, but you have to take both parties into consideration and I have to say Shain from fastservers summed it up spot-on!....

The cheapest option is NOT always the best, even thought it may seem so at first sight….

-Shazad

Personally I am in favor of one time charges. What ponders me is how to implement this, lets say we do a 1 time charge for 512MB of RAM. The cost of this is about $60-80. Being a business we of course would want to make a little money on it, so if we marked it up 10% and sold it at lets say $75.00 one time fee we are still sitting pretty fair.

Now my questions are the following.....

1.) The Dedicated Server Provider owns the server but not the RAM? Or do they own the RAM too and just charge a one time fee?

2.) If the RAM fails and is out of warranty should the Dedicated Server provider be allowed to charge them a 2nd fee for replacment?

3.) Should there be an install charge for the RAM? Does the Dedicated Server Provider get a small fee for the the RAM?

I totally understand and agree with the need for this as part of a product offering, but what I don't understand is if this is such a high demand to pay a 1 time fee for hardware to reduce monthly fees why the customers that are proposing this type of service are not going with co-location.

Believe me Mr. Reisner and myself have being going head to head on this for months. We literally have a good 15-20 hours of rock solid debating on this exact subject.

Shed some light and lets see in which direction we can take this!

Regards,
Aaron Phillips

Aaron,

The dedicated server provider owns the RAM so that is a + for you due to the fact that the client pays full amount. On the other hand if something goes wrong the dedicated server provider has to replace it which is a + for the client so it kind of balances out but overall the dedicated server provider is the winner since not too many rams go bad but you can sell the ram several times.

Regards

You own the RAM. For logistics this is easier anyway. Most memory has a (albeit limited) lifetime guarantee anyway, so you should be covered in most cases. The time it takes to replace the memory is probably more valuable than the memory itself.

Originally posted by ap_surge
.............................. have being going head to head on this for months. We literally have a good 15-20 hours of rock solid debating on this exact subject...............................


Dont worry Aaron, join the group :)

-Shazad

I guess it just depends on how much profit the provider needs to make on things such as memory upgrades and if there are reasons they dont' want people to get them (e.g. not enough employees to dedicate the time to install upgrades, more memory = more actual bandwidth usage, etc.)

For example:
Memory sold outright
cost = $60
sell for = $150 one time
labor = 15 minutes - cost = $10
1/1000 goes bad per year and needs to be replaced for free (one dollar to cover 5 years costs (troubleshoot + replace) divided by all upgrade customers)

Profit = $79

Maybe that's not enough though.

Billed every month @ $25/month
After 5 years profit = $1429


Obviously it's better for the provider to bill monthly - not so good for the customer, unless the datacenter can use all that cash to provide great service :)

A good argument can be made that those needing ram or other hardware upgrades should pay a higher cost (since all that money isn't really needed to cover ram cost) because they are heavier users of bandwidth and will demand more in general than very light users who can get by just fine with a standard offering server with plenty of resources to spare.

Originally posted by cabalstudios


And you’re willing to pay the cost for admin time to check, file RMA and install new hardware?


-Shazad


hmm Around 2 min to remove the 2 screw,
30 sec to press Power Off
2 min to remove & put the new ram
30 sec to press power on

total 5min .... No prop i will pay :D


Btw changing this type of politic may run whit more customer buying more ram HD etc... If there is not montly cost i can put 2gb in a server :-)

ex, curently my 2 server have 1 HD.. If Rs will sell the hd in place of charging montly fee i will add 1 HD on each of my server...

But i cant do that currently because this go UP too mutch on my montly fee...;)

Originally posted by panopticon
I guess it just depends on how much profit the provider needs to make on things such as memory upgrades and if there are reasons they dont' want people to get them (e.g. not enough employees to dedicate the time to install upgrades, more memory = more actual bandwidth usage, etc.)

For example:
Memory sold outright
cost = $60
sell for = $150 one time
labor = 15 minutes - cost = $10




That's the good way to go !
Someting like this will be perfect then more Honest via the customer!
Then sure you will have more upgrade & customer !

Originally posted by panopticon
labor = 15 minutes - cost = $10
Not in any DC that I'm aware of. :eek: :D

The dedicated provider should own the RAM, we clients don't mind that. Also, when something breaks we clients don't mind buying that new part.

We much rather this alternative than paying monthly fees. I notice a lot of web hosting host companies here dont use Rackshack because of these monthly fees.

also the dedicated provider should charge a small fee like $50 to isntall the rAM/hd.

Originally posted by panopticon
For example:
Memory sold outright
cost = $60
sell for = $150 one time
labor = 15 minutes - cost = $10

Profit = $79

Maybe that's not enough though.

Billed every month @ $25/month
After 5 years profit = $1429


How many support tickets, long distance charges, admin fee's, chargebacks etc. will your $79.00 pay for? Not much, that's why the monthly fee's make more sense.

Not to mention, if the extra $25.00/month is really going to put a hurt on your per-server profit, then obviously you think $1.00/year hosting works and you probably won't be in business very long. It's kind of disturbing what customers expect these days, they honestly don't care how much their upstream provider makes, they are all about themselves.

Thanks Arron, You actually summed it up very nicely the reasons for charging a monthly fee for hardware upgrades..

Course some of us would be williing to have a second Option.. And it would have to be spelled out very clearly to the consumer..

With the normal way of paying a monthly, should any of my hardware go bad, I would expect it to be replaced at a min. of 24 hours from time of "death".. I am paying well more than the part costs and I would expect my provider to maintain a healthy supply of replacements for the machines that are on this plan..

Now for the one timers... They would pay a premium for their part.. So yes you may be able to get ram for 60 bux, but the provider should charge 175 for it, or even more.. The customer will also understand that they do not own that part when they cancel or are dropped for violations. Also should that part fail, they will have to replace that part at their cost.. Which would be the high charge again.. say 175.. Now it would be on the Providers part to install new the new hardware, either from stock or ordering a new one just for the customer. Then install it.. If the product is under warranty, The provider can go through that hassle, and if the item is replaced, credit the customer back to their account..

Now for the problem.. If i bought more ram for 175, 3 weeks later it goes bad. The Provider would contact me, or i would contact them. I would then agree to buy more ram to replace it. I pay another 175. The provider uses ram in stock and fixes my machine. The provider then contacts their vendor and gives them the third degree :).. Their vendor then refunds or replaces the ram.. The provider credits my account (2-3 weeks later, because thats how slow other companies are sometimes) the 175 minus some made up processing fees.. Hopefully then it would look like I payed for a Techs time to install the hardware.. If i dont pay for new ram, then I wait for the Provider to try and obtain a replacement from the vendor and I sit dead in the water until then and would still have to pay for the installation.

This would have to be thought out more, but I believe it would give some people that are willing to take a chance with their server another option.. I would say its the difference between going with "RS and going with FS, one has alittle more risk involved than the other.. Course you could be lucky and never have a problem with RS, then again you could and RS doesnt support your software problem :)... (i've never used RS or FS).

I was at one time always wanted a 1 time upgrade fee. but Arron explained it so well that I believe i changed my mind on this, but I would require my provider to replace any item near immediately if I am paying a monthly cost for it, because as someone already pointed out, you are paying for that item multiple times a year sometimes.

Just my .05 cents

Not in any DC that I'm aware of.
I thought fastservers was in their own datacenter - would they pay more than $30-40/hour for someone to build boxes and insert sticks of ram? What is the going hourly wage for someone to do things like this in a datacenter (the cost for someone like fastservers, not the markup to the end customer?)

afaik they are in the he.net dc, the regular going rate for server monkeys is anywhere from $10 to $15/hr i believe. keep in mind that they wont keep them busy all the time, so they also need to make up for the time they are on idle.

cheers,
paul

I favour, and think it would be fair to everyone, the DC charging a one-time flat fee: (cost of part + labour) x 25% for example. As most Servers have paid their parts costs within the first year (monthly income + depreciation), everything after that is gross profit. Using addon parts or services to create what amounts to a "slush fund", is not good IMHO. It's hard for me to think of high montly prices in any other way.

Or, if wanting to do a monthly payment, make it more reasonable: RAM increase to monthly payment: $5 for 512MB / $10 for 1GB for example with using DDR RAM. This would be taken into consideration under gross revenue as mentioned above. Most DC's buy in bulk (I presume) or have special arrangements with their Suppliers. Either way, I seriously doubt they pay Retail price for any of their hardware.

Regardless though, of which method is used, a DC should never be in a position of not getting being to get a Server back up or at least online -- due to any type hardware failure -- within minutes, not hours. As the DC owns a leased Server, which is the only option other then co-locating, they are always responsible for hardward failure remedies.

Okay, and how many of you that feel onetime is "unfair" charge monthly fee's for additional mailboxes, ftp accounts and most importantly, hard drive space. I mean, it doesn't cost any of you a monthly fee for hard drives (since you all probably selected one-time fee hosts). You should have the user pay a one time fee for the cost of how much they need, say 1 GB + labor (2 minutes) + 25%.

So if I check all of your websites will I see that additional web space is a couple of bucks one time, and no extra monthly fees? I don't think so, because those monthly fees help pay for OTHER expenses, which is EXACTLY what fasthosts and other hosts are doing.

Regardless though, of which method is used, a DC should never be in a position of not getting being to get a Server back up or at least online -- due to any type hardware failure -- within minutes, not hours.

And in my experience, the monthly fee charging companies tend to have larger staffs, so you get those fast times.