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Basement Hosting - how many doing it?
Reading the recent BuyVM story, I was wondering how many other low-end providers are also using "basement" locations? I mean a non-DC location, or perhaps something with good connectivity but not a traditional DC.
I have visited many premises of large companies, who house their own internal DC. All the same specs as a DC that offers colo, but for their owns servers. Maybe "private DC" is an easier term.
For a low-end server, surely we don't ALL need 99.99% uptime and UPS/generator backup. Seems that's a big cost. Is there a market for lower cost DCs?
Comments
I know of a few companies that have what you could call a micro DC on premises ranging from 2 - 10 racks in various room types with leased lines etc but they are for hosting client services (B2B) and internal infrastructure but not for selling services to the general public.
I'd be game for a private datacenter for an older machine I have. All of my servers are not mission critical, so up time isn't a huge issue. I know of only a few around the Phoenix area that do a private DC scenario since it can cost a pretty penny for a good setup.
Its actually cheaper to collocate above a threshold of racks. There are multiple hidden costs (eg fire suppression, power installations, etc) that makes it non economical.
But today one or two 2U server or blades with virtualization can provide hundreds of virtual servers. That is more than enough for most small companies and that is what i call micro DC.
Add a few Amazon EC2 instances on demand and you are as powerful as any corporation out there.
I think the problem is that the older servers that lots of people who want cheap colo have much, much higher power usage.
And since power density is a problem and a major cost, it just doesn't work out.
This is very common in Asia - Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc
I would host 1 server, if my ISP can give me additional IPs. We got some nice fiber offers now
200Mbps symetric for aprox. 75 dlls, tax included.
I used to do it between 1999 and 2001, old times.
1 ADSL line, 1 static IP (512/256 kbps per line) and one cable connection (1024/256 kbps) with a dynamic IP. It wasn't basement, it was a closet in a small office.
50% of the usage was personal and the other 50% it was for client's, the fun ended when it became a pain the rear to manage email (both ISP's were marked as spam offenders), overall the customers didnt have a problem, it might seem strange but they felt more confident that the "infraestructure" (2 servers) was local instead of outside of the city.
This type of businiess mostly depends on the type of customers you have and what are they expecting.
Would I doit again now, definetly no, it's cheaper to rent 2 servers in different DC's.
this
can you explain a little more?
i'd do it if i could (evil laughter in the background) but connection is terrible here
yup. I have several clients that they feel that if the service is on the same city, it will be better. If something fails, they WILL get you sooner than if foreigns. Also, they like personal treatment.
I've been in more than a few "datacenters" that are simply office buildings that are lit by major providers. Many "real" DC's don't have things like redundant power(Looking at you FDC), multiple fiber paths etc..
I am still doing this
but not in a basement.
In my own office I have a room called "system room" with 3 racks and 2 bakers racks for tower servers.
have 1 Gbit sync. fibre optic line.
Have my own router , my own servers, my own equipment, my own ups, my own climate control, my own electricity panel with 2 feeds.
So why not?
Taking everything to the closest "real DC" will cost me more than what I pay for a month, If not I will loose all the flexibilty options I have now.
So if anyone can do it and be still profitable. Do it..
Of course, if its low end and not mission critical then there should be no problem with it. But sadly most people expect world class data centers for very minimum price.
Connections for your private DC is more expensive
iMountainHosting used to do something like that. They hosted with no redudant power, single-homed Comcast, inside of some old office building.
Needless to say, they disappeared with no explanation a few years later.
I don't do basement hosting, my servers are in the attic.
That's pretty badass, if you ask me.
They had Kiloserve VPS's on lowendbox. I had one, and it was pretty decent, until it wasn't.
The Comcast connection was kind of a bonus for VPN use, since it appeared more like a home or office connection. It would be interesting to see somebody else do that.
Do you not have 'summer' where you live?
It's snow outside, far from summertime here.
How would that interfere with the equipment?
The pigeons and squirrels start roosting in the racks.
I thought we're talking about a house not a shack :-)
We pride ourselves on being an eco-concious hosting provider, and all that.
i have 2 Racks in my spare room. i also know someone who converted their garage into a private facility.
I think "basement colo" is less prevalent then you might think. Not many organizations own their own servers let alone host them in their basement.
Since I was the one who has my servers in the attic, guess you never seen my house?
My servers are in the cloouuudddd dreamy look
Someone have a server in Hell too?