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An option was left out which is to have your own T1 running into your own facility (that is not a data center). We did this for years ('96 to 2004) and had much

by larrys 15y ago

An option was left out which is to have your own T1 running into your own facility (that is not a data center). We did this for years ('96 to 2004) and had much better up time than with colocation with diverse paths and biometric security. We didn't need a generator either. Just an array of industrial batteries hooked up to a power inverter with a line conditioner could keep the equipment running for 24 hours if utility power went down. (This is much cheaper than anything you would buy commercially from APC or Triplite).

hga 15y ago
Well, that does trade off risks to your T1 getting knocked out by a backhoe, perhaps power failures between you and the other end of it (e.g. if I bought a business DSL connection from AT&T to run a server at my apartment, I could lose it in a general power outage when the DSLAM's battery ran out). But I can well believe it's better than many co-lo experiences, although all of mine have been positive. Right now I'm helping a friend with one: due to it housing Protected Health Information we pretty much have to run it on our own servers, which I built and he put into a co-lo that he's worked with before for this sort of thing.
- larrys 15y ago
  "trade off risks to your T1 getting knocked out by a backhoe" Well luckily no backhoe but I did keep, at my own expense, Westell DS1 NIU's around because I had a situation where one went bad and it took the Verizon tech time to go and find one. So I bought a few so he would have the parts around. I also made sure when they strung the fiber from the connection point to our office (several hundred feet through other offices in the ceiling) that it was in orange conduit as opposed to just strung through the building (they were just going to run it like phone wire). I also had them bring an extra fiber through, as well as a fishing wire in case it was ever needed for anything in the future.
count 15y ago
A T1? Can you even get hosting that slow these days? At hundreds of dollars/mo for a T1 (or more, depending on where you are at), you can get a dedicated gigabit connection and hardware colo'd somewhere. A T1 in an office is laughable these days.
- larrys 15y ago
  Depends on what stage you are at and what type of site you are hosting. You get the advantage of being able to have unlimited hardware space and not worrying about paying a premium for electric to the colo which, in many cases if you aren't serving up video could be a trade off worth making. You also get the hardware physically where you are which can be a benefit. It may not be the desired option the majority of the time but it belongs on the list as an option.
  - count 15y ago
    A dedicated line is hundreds of dollars a month in most of the US. Electricity is also not-at-all cheap in many office parks/buildings. You'll run out of hardware space quite rapidly, simply because the electrical density necessary just isn't there in many office environments (how many boxes can you fit on a 20A circuit today?). Colo / hosting providers exist and sell for tens of dollars a month, and handle all of that pain and suffering. I can't imagine when self-hosting would ever be actually cheaper over the long run.

by larrys 15y ago

hga 15y ago

Well, that does trade off risks to your T1 getting knocked out by a backhoe, perhaps power failures between you and the other end of it (e.g. if I bought a business DSL connection from AT&T to run a server at my apartment, I could lose it in a general power outage when the DSLAM's battery ran out). But I can well believe it's better than many co-lo experiences, although all of mine have been positive. Right now I'm helping a friend with one: due to it housing Protected Health Information we pretty much have to run it on our own servers, which I built and he put into a co-lo that he's worked with before for this sort of thing.

larrys 15y ago
"trade off risks to your T1 getting knocked out by a backhoe" Well luckily no backhoe but I did keep, at my own expense, Westell DS1 NIU's around because I had a situation where one went bad and it took the Verizon tech time to go and find one. So I bought a few so he would have the parts around. I also made sure when they strung the fiber from the connection point to our office (several hundred feet through other offices in the ceiling) that it was in orange conduit as opposed to just strung through the building (they were just going to run it like phone wire). I also had them bring an extra fiber through, as well as a fishing wire in case it was ever needed for anything in the future.

count 15y ago

A T1? Can you even get hosting that slow these days? At hundreds of dollars/mo for a T1 (or more, depending on where you are at), you can get a dedicated gigabit connection and hardware colo'd somewhere. A T1 in an office is laughable these days.

larrys 15y ago
Depends on what stage you are at and what type of site you are hosting. You get the advantage of being able to have unlimited hardware space and not worrying about paying a premium for electric to the colo which, in many cases if you aren't serving up video could be a trade off worth making. You also get the hardware physically where you are which can be a benefit. It may not be the desired option the majority of the time but it belongs on the list as an option.
- count 15y ago
  A dedicated line is hundreds of dollars a month in most of the US. Electricity is also not-at-all cheap in many office parks/buildings. You'll run out of hardware space quite rapidly, simply because the electrical density necessary just isn't there in many office environments (how many boxes can you fit on a 20A circuit today?). Colo / hosting providers exist and sell for tens of dollars a month, and handle all of that pain and suffering. I can't imagine when self-hosting would ever be actually cheaper over the long run.