Value-adds between Dedicated Servers and Colocation

[SenseiSteve]

Value-add when talking about dedicated servers versus colocation would be a provider's unique blend of infrastructure and services as perceived by the IT industry. Why would you opt for one versus the other?

 

[bigredseo]

For us, we used Dedicated Servers if the provider had the type of system we wanted, and had the parts on hand (extra CPU, Memory, Hard Drives etc).

Colocation we kinda do similar checks, but most times we have custom hardware. Again, having the support contract that staff at the datacenter might be able to swap out memory, CPU, drives etc (all provided with our colocated equipment) is handy to have.

In years past we had custom boxes from Google and Norton. Those custom machines were preconfigured with everything and all we needed was the connection and power. That's a perfect example of colocation only requirements.

But in general, I think the availability of parts on hand is a solid decision maker as to whether you go Dedicated (purchased via the Data Center) or Colocation (purchased by you).

The secondary is dedicated servers that are rented monthly versus purchased outright at the datacenter. If you're going Monthly Rental, then usually price is a factor in the decision making process, along with the ability to easily migrate from one machine to another when the hardware gets a little outdated.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Great reply Connor - do accounting methods play into your choice at all (for example depreciation). Or server rotation?

 

[bigredseo]

Great reply Connor - do accounting methods play into your choice at all (for example depreciation). Or server rotation?

For us, it didn't play a factor. We did automatically take the full depreciation in the same year we purchased the hardware, but that was less of a deciding item than the actual cost of the machine to start with. Going to the accounting dept and saying I need $3k per machine and I need 10 of them in the next 2 weeks - that can be a hard pill to swallow as a small business.

Now, going to the accounting guy and saying I need 10 machines, it'll cost me $250/machine - well that's $2500/month and a much easier bill to pay - even if you have to pay it for 12+ months.

Given how fast hardware was changing, and types of resources were changing too, a monthly expense and writing part of it off as a Cost of Goods & Services (COGS), doing the monthly rentals often made more sense.

 

[Internxt]

This decision also depend upon type of usage. Depending upon the requirement, sometimes colo is better than rental and vice-versa. For example, you have client with very custom need and he is going to pay nice for long term then would prefer colo as that custom need generally turns our costly if you compare that to similar rental plans.

On the other hand, if there are good offers available then renting is also not bad but need to do good research before buying anything on offer. You don't want to end up loosing money and client for bad support or bad product.