Just to clarify,
On 2005.6.12, at 03:17 AM, Andy Holyer wrote:
On 11 Jun 2005, at 18:57, Joseph Alotta wrote:
Hi Joel,
What does colocation mean?
Colocation is when you set up a server on your own machine, and then
pay an ISP or similar connectivity provider a rental to place your
machine on their network,
at their physical location (thus, co-location),
connected to the Internet.
Included in this is usually guaranteed 24/7 power and connectivity,
security, and occasionally backups.
And, in many cases, they can do some other aspects of the actual setup
and maintenance, for a fee, of course.
Installing an OS usually has a set price (when they do that). Just
inserting the CD and getting it started while you do the rest remotely,
and being on standby in case you need someone to read a message that
went to the console instead of to the remote admin's terminal will
usually be a bit cheaper. Many places will let you just bring the
servers in once you've set them up, others may offer to purchase the
servers for you (in which case colocation looks more like dedicated
hosting).
The two biggest providers of these in the UK are Telehouse and
TeleCity, both in London's docklands. In these cases you rent a 19"
rack cabinet in which you can place as many servers as you want. That
really costs big, though.
Some places also rent by the shelf/slot, and the places offering
special services for the Mac Mini will rent a partial shelf. That's
where this becomes relevant to this thread. A pair of Mac Minis is
usually plenty for your average Mom and Pop retail or one man
consultant shop (and even a little bit larger than that), and the
prices for that are usually better than the cost of dedicated hosting,
may even be as good as the better shared hosting.
Of course, all of that may require factoring in using an OS other than
Mac OS X server, and I don't recommend Mac OS X client or Darwin for
servers unless you have the server under your physical control and are
willing to do a lot of hand customizing, and know how to nurse a server
yourself when necessary.
--
Joel Rees
even though much of what I do is not sensible
it does make sense if you know why ...
