There are a lot of ways for companies to bootstrap, and even more companies and partners willing to lend a helping hand if you know who to ask, and where to look. One of the companies that’s willing to help is Sun Microsystems.
Through their Startup Essentials program, companies can get access to Sun gear and resources at heavily discounted rates. That’s great, because Sun gear is pretty much the best out there, and being competitive with other companies like Dell and HP on price will help get their technology into more Data Centers and up and coming businesses. But like all shiny objects, servers lose their luster. Even if they’re free.
In order to run a server you have to secure colocation space, pay for bandwidth, buy some switching gear and a router, and depending on your setup get UPS power. Sure you can get cheap switches to connect your high-end servers, but depending on your work load it would be like running a jet engine on bacon fat.
If you’re running more than a few servers you’ll probably need to get more than the standard ~3000W/Rack – especially if you have a SAN device. That means one full rack with extra power. Most older data centers don’t have the cooling capacity to handle todays dense and powerful systems, so your full rack will probably be half full (if you’re lucky), then you’ll have to get another rack if you want to expand. That involves more waiting. Average amount of time for a colo to provision a new rack? 4-6 weeks. You’ll also need to pay for installation, and every colo provides space on contract so you’re committed for a year. Time is money, and waiting 4-6 weeks to be able to expand your environment means you have less flexibility.
There are certain scenarios where getting colo still makes sense. If you’re running your own hosting environment *as a business* then obviously having the control over your environment is necessary. Companies with certain regulatory or security requirements will also need to stick with colo, but otherwise, why lock yourself into contracts and inflexible environments and hire extra staff to manage that operation, when you can just rent some servers en-masse and get super cheap bandwidth?
If you run the numbers you can get just as much if not more *power* for the same amount of money from companies like Joyent, Amazon, ServerBeach or Rackspace, and not have to worry about contracts. While it’s nice to have an awesome piece of kit, sometimes it isn’t worth the time or money.
