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Few customers compare dedicated server providers purely on server spec and price. If that was genuinely all you were looking at then colocation would almost cer

by ollybee 15y ago

Few customers compare dedicated server providers purely on server spec and price. If that was genuinely all you were looking at then colocation would almost certainly be a better option. They also want extra services like backups, firewalls, ddos protection,control panel software, extra ip's and so on. Most people want support beyond the minimum which would be hardware replacement and network connectivity only. In an ideal world hosting companies would sell a server and then the customer would take complete control of the server and hate the idea of the host logging on to their box. In reality most dedicated server customers are people who have busy sites that have outgrown traditional shared hosting but are not sever administrators. They want a host they can call up to do small jobs for them and pay for more involved work. Were the lines are drawn on this extra support varies dramatically between providers but will make most real world difference to the majority of customers.

lnguyen 15y ago
You have to start somewhere. And right now the amount of transparency in the dedicated server market is pretty atrocious. How do you begin to compare one plan from another, one provider from the next? Server spec and price gives a hard number that you can use. It's certainly not the only number you should. But if someone is ripping you off on a commodity part or feature, you're going to be inclined to think that they're doing that to you in other places. FYI I do expect people will want and factor in those extra services in their decision. Those services should be made available with their costs, SLAs and exact support spelled out (aka an explicit managed hosting plan). I'll eventually work this all into the analysis of provider plans.
- ollybee 15y ago
  I agree it's a start and having a comparison site for dedicated servers seems like it could be a good idea , your right pricing is not at all transparent. I would look to the financial comparison sites (a big thing in the UK) at how they present data on products that are not like for like, for example home insurance polices differ hugely in detail. that should give you insperation on how to build to something useful. As an immediate change it would nice to have a tickbox to search only for hosts using branded hardware.

by ollybee 15y ago

lnguyen 15y ago

You have to start somewhere. And right now the amount of transparency in the dedicated server market is pretty atrocious. How do you begin to compare one plan from another, one provider from the next? Server spec and price gives a hard number that you can use. It's certainly not the only number you should. But if someone is ripping you off on a commodity part or feature, you're going to be inclined to think that they're doing that to you in other places. FYI I do expect people will want and factor in those extra services in their decision. Those services should be made available with their costs, SLAs and exact support spelled out (aka an explicit managed hosting plan). I'll eventually work this all into the analysis of provider plans.

ollybee 15y ago
I agree it's a start and having a comparison site for dedicated servers seems like it could be a good idea , your right pricing is not at all transparent. I would look to the financial comparison sites (a big thing in the UK) at how they present data on products that are not like for like, for example home insurance polices differ hugely in detail. that should give you insperation on how to build to something useful. As an immediate change it would nice to have a tickbox to search only for hosts using branded hardware.