Thinking About Buying a Dedicated Server?

Prices for Dedicated Servers have come down so much that in some cases, it is cheaper to buy your own server than to even purchase a Shared Hosting account! But what is the difference between my $39/month Dedicated Server and simply paying for the hardware upfront?

Currently, the entire web hosting industry is recovering from the falling out of the Internet crazed era where E-Business web sites were popping up like crazy. Companies are continuing to reduce operating costs for their respective companies. For those who are thriving on high traffic, undoubtedly efforts have been focused towards reducing infrastructure costs (ie. hosting charges). Through all of this has come the evolution of the cheap or discount dedicated server hosting market. Entire companies have focused a great deal of time into determining the cost advantages and disadvantages of colocation over a single dedicated server.

Typically, individuals and companies would think that server colocation is a cost effective alternative to hosting. However, that is not always the case. The decision is no longer that simple. Chooses to co-locate a server implies that you own a server. A typical server can range anywhere between $400 for a simple desktop PC configured with server software or upwards to $5,000. Colocation services often charge for any type of server management, backups or even reboots.

By now you are probably thinking, you want to purchase a dedicated server? Think again. Dedicated servers charges can run quite high as well and there are limits on what a company will allow you to do to "their" box (ie. adding custom hardware, software or scripts) You are paying for a rental service. Also, if you already own the hardware, it would be wise to simply colocate at a local data center.