> hosting, power usage, cooling These are all the same thing, in the sense that they're all included by a colo provider, and even high-end colocation space wil

> hosting, power usage, cooling These are all the same thing, in the sense that they're all included by a colo provider, and even high-end colocation space will save you a ton over AWS. > backup solutions (an extra server, tape-libraries etc) Grandparent talked about server-level redundancy. > maintenance (your super servers will break down at times) 24h on-site service is a standard option on server-class hardware, and not all that expensive. > $60K a year is peanuts for most companies. It's peanuts for large companies, but they already have their own ops departments and won't shy away from the details of handling a little hardware. Smaller companies will be acutely aware that $60k/yr is a good fraction of the cost of hiring another developer (or marketer).