Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Need some advice on Co-Location

[ludachris]

I currently own a 1U server and have it hosted in Las Vegas. It's supposed to be "fully managed". I'm going to move hosts and I have a few questions.

First of all, I am not a server admin but I'm thinking about trying to take on more server admin tasks to help save money and have more control over our server. With that in mind I was considering moving the server to a local data center. I have some people here that would probably be able to help me out with administration. But I'm also a little concerned about being completely responsible for administering the server.

If I were to move the server to a Colo that isn't managed, I'd assume I'd have to pay the hosting company for administration services or pay for the services of a local server admin where the server would be hosted? That's a scary thought. Are there any good and affordable "managed" Co-Locations out there?

Price - I currently pay about $125 for the "managed" Colo. The server transfers about 500-600 gigs per month in bandwidth. I'm not very familiar with the pricing structures out there (1Mb/sec). Can someone explain how that would work for me? And what I'll likely be looking at for pricing.

And finally, can you just offer some advice on what you think I should do - local Colo to have physical access to the server, or go with a good Colo that isn't local and just pay someone to manage it?

[appliedops]

As longs as its in a good colo, physical proximity isn't gonna be an issue unless you or someone else breaks the operating system on your server.
If you're a newbie, that can happen pretty easily during an OS upgrade, so you probably are actually going to save money by having your server managed by someone else.

[Ivan23]

Originally Posted by appliedops

As longs as its in a good colo, physical proximity isn't gonna be an issue unless you or someone else breaks the operating system on your server.
If you're a newbie, that can happen pretty easily during an OS upgrade, so you probably are actually going to save money by having your server managed by someone else.

agreed, get to know your OS before you go colo. maybe try a dedicated/managed server first

[repoman]

I would recommend going co-location with someone you know/trust. e.g. with SiKo-Hosting we started with a reseller with ...provider we needed a dedicated..thought why don't we try them out..they then sold us a Dell Server for much cheaper and I get colo discounts. Not only does it help via prices, but with the trust where if you THINK something is wrong just contact them they will tell you what to do, but if you were with a brand new company it would be kinda uncomfortable to do that..I would recommend getting to know some tech's in some companies .etc and go with whatever one you think is better..

Just what I think