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I am currently hosting a few websites on three dedicated servers (unmanaged) and considering moving to owned colocated servers in order to have better control on the quality of hardware and to be reduce the middle-man that could potentially have control over our data.

I would like some advice as to the extra responsibilities of co-location vs dedicated (apart from procuring the servers and sending these over to the data centre.)

  1. Installation in rack: Is this the responsibility of DC staff?

  2. KVMoIP: Would this be available and able to be attached by DC staff or do I need to personally go to the DC to do any debugging when usual remote access fails.

  3. Hardware Issues: Can I keep extra hardware at the data centre in case of failure (extra server, hard disk etc.?). Would DC staff be able to swap out hardware if the need arises?

  4. Licenses: Dedicated server providers are able to offer MS Windows and Sql Server licenses on a monthly basis. Will I be able to get similar license terms?

Thanks

Andrew
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    For what reasons not use a cloud provider? Then you don’t need to care about hardware. – Jonas Dec 05 '20 at 19:44

1 Answers1

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Most colocation providers do provide remote hands service which can have someone install your hardware, connect a KVM, (hint: use your server's IPMI instead) replace failed components, etc. This virtually always has an additional hourly and/or per incident cost, unless you've negotiated some other arrangement.

What they will not provide is software licensing. They are leasing you space, power and network connectivity. That is all.

Most or all of the questions you still have should be directed toward a representative of the specific providers you are considering.

Michael Hampton
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