Colocation: Non-Clown Hosting

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Colocation hosting is being reexamined as an alternative to cloud and dedicated servers, especially for those who want full control over hardware, large storage, or GPU-heavy workloads. Commenters note that 1U or hobbyist colo is often uneconomical compared to cheap VPS or dedicated options, but costs become competitive at rack scale or when amortizing owned hardware over years. The conversation broadens into self‑hosting over residential fiber, the impact of CGNAT, reliability and “nines,” and how remote work, coworking spaces, and even home labs might reshape where and how servers are run.

Economics of Colocation vs Dedicated/Cloud

  • Many report that single‑server colo is significantly more expensive than renting a dedicated server or VPS, especially in major cities.
  • Colo becomes cost‑effective when:
    • You need lots of disks (tens–hundreds of TB) and already own or amortize drives.
    • You need high‑end or specialized hardware (e.g., big RAM, GPUs, custom storage) that’s uneconomical to rent.
    • You fill a large fraction of a rack; per‑U pricing improves with scale.
  • Others argue that cheap dedicated servers are often old/buggy and that good refurbished hardware in colo can be better value over 5+ years.
  • Several note that cloud can be cheaper on TCO for small/medium workloads once you count labor, maintenance, and scaling convenience, especially with spot/preemptible instances.

Scale, Audience, and Use Cases

  • General consensus: colo is primarily for racks and businesses, not single VPS equivalents.
  • Good fits mentioned: GPU farms, heavy storage, running your own ASN/peering, serious homelabs, long‑lived services (email, CI, Git, game servers).
  • Poor fits: “just a Raspberry Pi,” simple hobby sites, or a single small VM.

Home Hosting vs Datacenter

  • Many advocate just hosting under a desk or in a basement for light workloads, leveraging cheap fiber where available.
  • Tradeoffs:
    • Pros: lowest cost, immediate physical access, good enough for low‑traffic services.
    • Cons: power/internet outages, weaker physical security, sometimes bad peering.

Networking, CGNAT, and Workarounds

  • Carrier‑grade NAT is common in some regions, especially mobile and some fixed‑wireless; it complicates home hosting.
  • Workarounds discussed: cheap VPS as a bastion, tunneling tools (WireGuard, Tailscale, others), reverse tunnels, or simply choosing ISPs with public IPv4/IPv6.

Operational Considerations

  • Strong emphasis on:
    • Out‑of‑band access (IPMI, serial consoles, VPN to management LAN).
    • “Real” server hardware (ECC RAM, IPMI, hot‑swap drives) for reliability.
    • Backups from day one (to home servers and/or backup services).
  • Some celebrate never touching hardware again and prefer cloud APIs; others value hands‑on control and learning.

Market, Pricing, and Accessibility

  • Colo pricing varies widely by location; power costs (e.g., in Germany) can dominate.
  • Complaints that many providers hide prices or won’t talk below half/full racks; this deters hobbyists.
  • Examples shared of specific deals (cheap cabinets, 1U offerings, coworking‑style colo) and interest in prepaid or hard‑cap plans for risk‑free experimentation (e.g., for kids).