In terms of expense to my business, the hardware isn't the only number I'm focused on. By using a VPS hosting provider that I know and trust, I don't have to wo

In terms of expense to my business, the hardware isn't the only number I'm focused on. By using a VPS hosting provider that I know and trust, I don't have to worry about contracts with colocation facilities, secure access auditing, host hardware failure, image-level backups, console access (in case of network issues [DDoS]), host system updates and upgrades, and a host of other things that I probably don't even know about. Although, I probably stated that incorrectly when I said I don't have to worry about these things. I do worry about them, but I have delegated them to someone I trust and has served me well for years. That's worth at least a full time salary + hardware, which is more than I pay for a few VPSs. Of course, that equation changes as my hardware requirements increase. At some point, economies of scale shift in favor of running my own gear, but that's a long ways off for most small to medium sized businesses.