No, he didn't. His question was concerning speed for a video sharing site - whether dedicated or colocated was a smarter choice.

I respectfully disagree. In a lot of cases you can get better bang for your buck out of colocation in the long run. Obviously this varies depending on factors such as what kind of server you're looking for, what the pricing is, etc.

Just for some real world examples using numbers I can speak to....

Say you take a dedicated server, Intel Dual-core 3.4Ghz / 2GB RAM / 1 TB SATA hard drive - $139/mo. You keep the server for 12 months, so at the end of a year you have paid $1,668.

If you know where to look, you can put together a system like that pretty reasonably. So we'll say it costs $300 to purchase the system (we're actually getting them a little cheaper, but YMMV). Colo on that server will run $69/mo (power, space and bandwidth). Again, we'll say you keep the server running for 12 months. This means that at the end of the year you've paid $1,128.

Given the above numbers, you save $540 by going colocated over the course of a year.

Some folks are uncomfortable with having equipment that they own in a remote location. However, most commercial datacenters are able to provide really good remote hands and technical assistance. For instance, we provide our customers with free remote hands and free use of IP-KVM so you could even reload an OS on the box from the other side of the globe if you wanted. Although we are in Dallas, we have customers spread across 5 continents, so it's kind of difficult for some of them to make frequent trips! :0

So it all boils down to what works best for your particular case. And Steve has already put together some very good points as well. When we get calls like this we typically spend some time talking it through with the customer. The customer usually comes to a good conclusion on their own after getting some information. I hope that the info helps in your process!

Hmm you may want a to start with a VPS a dedicated may be overwhelming for your pocket that is even though it is better and then colocation will come next but that will be lots more space and speed but more money. Shared hosting may be a hassle so the next step will be a VPS. Look for a good VPS service and you will be good.

Both options have their good and bad side. Dedicated is excellent is your technical knowledge is average but a little more expensive than colo after a few years. Colo is excellent cost wise over a few years but you are on your own for technical support ... It's more a personal business decision

I highly suggest a VPS to being with, then move onto a Dedicated server then once that river has run dry use Colo.

For video sharing purpose you might consider of Dedicated Server. You may refer to Exabytes.

You may be good with anything from a dedicated server to a high end VPS depending on what you're willing to spend and what you need.

I respect your opinion, but somehow I do not agree or suggest a VPS for hosting a video sharing website on a VPS, no matter if its a higher end VPS. VPS`s have limited resources as compared to a dedicated server, they are shared between different VPS accounts. Video sharing sites are hungry for resources, hence very soon the web host would either suggest you to move to a dedicated server or would simply suspend the account. Consider for example, your website suddenly starts getting loads of traffic, since there are limited resources allocated to a VPS, they start falling short of whats necessary for smooth functioning of the website and the site site does not perform as expected.In such cases, visitors usually leave such a site and move on.This would hamper the reputation of your site and your business too.
Hence, IMO a dedicated server would be most suitable to serve the purpose.

Depends on your budget.

I would say that colo is the best, but you also need to be hosted on a high quality network if you want the best performance.

Long-term, colo is the way to go. There is a bit less convenience with colo, though.


If I was doing the same, I would probably run a colo for the site itself but integrate with a CDN for all the actual videos. Akamai & Limelight would be great for this, but on the expensive side. Other CDNs still provide valuable benefits over running the videos from a single server, though.

For video sharing purpose you might consider of Dedicated Server,but it also depends on your budget,if your budget is very enough,you can select dedicated server,if not I recommend you choose colocated server.