> Is this is a list of what is most likely the cheapest options? The options with the fastest setup? Lowest commitment? Comparing server-hosting options (dedic

> Is this is a list of what is most likely the cheapest options? The options with the fastest setup? Lowest commitment? Comparing server-hosting options (dedicated, own hw+colo, vps, cloud) merely by paid $$/month, dedicateds and owned hardware + colo-housing always wins (in my experience). You can get a HP DL120G7 w/ good cpu and 16gb ram, incl housing and a TB of traffic for ~ $300/month[0]. Last time i checked the prices for an aequivalent offering on amazon (and others) was way beyond that (excl traffic). A startup could easily boostrap with mentioned hardware. And you're the only one on that hardware, you're pretty much guaranteed the power that you're promised. Now if you want more than one machine, you'd probably put some virtualization on your server. For that, you need someone on your team who is able to and can spend the time to setup some virtualization on your HN. And care about it. (Can be lot of work or very little, depending on how much time/effort was spent in the setup process). If you don't have that person on your team, you'd have to pay someone to do it. This can push the costs significantly, maybe beyond those of the virtual competition. Another benefit of VPS/cloud is that you never have to care about the hardware running your boxes. A harddrive dies? Not your problem, and you probably wouldn't even notice. If you have your own hardware, you could protect against downtimes due to hardware failure by having critical server-parts redundant, e.g. hw/sw-raid, redundant power supply. If you put some service-contracts with the hardware-vendor or the datacenter, you can have your failed hardware hot-swapped by someone in a decent amount of time (depending on what sla you're willing to pay for). Fast setup is usually better on vps/cloud providers. Having fast setup times with own hardware depends on you choice of datacenter/provider i'd guess. They might have pre-setup/cabled machines ready to be activated within short call. If you need some more power RIGHT NOW and you're running on dedicateds and for some reason it takes 2 days to get the new hw, that i'd probably spin up a cloud machine temporarily. Preferably a prepared image that's usually shutdown and taken up for such a scenario. please mind, that comparing those soultions to heroku is a different story. Heroku offer way more service and take away most of the sysops headaches from you. Of course that's a little more pricey, but again: for any server-instance based solution (vps, cloud, dedicated) you need _someone_ setup your httpd and a deployment of you app. So back to you're question "What does this data tell us?". The hosting diagram tells me personally, that choices were made based on not wanting to spending time/money on sysops and/or more trust in cloud/vps solutions. [0] http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/configurator-custom-built http://www.leaseweb.com/en/dedicated-servers/configurator-cu...?