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Cost
In-house hosting is an expensive option compared to renting hardware at a data center. It's doubly so when you consider the cost of training an employee and having them on-call 24/7, 365 days a year. Hosting at an off-site data center automatically provides you with these costly services at low monthly fees.
Initial Hardware Costs
- Server - $2000
- Router - $800
- UPS Battery Backup - $400
- Rack or Cabinet - $500
Continuing Costs
- T1 Internet Connection - $800/month
- Weekly Backups (1hr/week) - $200/month
- Software Updates (1hr/week) - $200/month
This works out to $12000/year or $1000/month, not including the $3700 required to get started. That doesn't account for the months of lead time required to get the hardware and T1 line from the telephone company nor the time and money lost when things go wrong. Compare this to a powerful dedicated server on a 10Mbps (6X faster than a T1) internet connection for under $200/month and less than $100 to set it up. You get a competent hardware and network guru, available 24/7, and a redundant and hardened network connection. As an added benefit your server is housed in a secure facility with protection from fire, flood, and theft.
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Security
Separating your internet presence from your local network reduces the chance of data loss and confidential information being stolen via worms and malicious crackers. Web servers are highly targeted computers and should not be located on a local network where sensitive information is stored. A breech in your web server can easily allow an attacker to see all of your local traffic and access sensitive information on local servers.
For more information see our guide on securing servers.
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