How much money is it to rent or purchase a datacenter including all the hardware needed (switches, back bones, servers ) etc. I was currently looking into it but I was unsure of the cost as not many host have there own datacenter.

I've helped build out 3 data centers in RTP, and you're looking at between 4-7 million $US just for the shell and other equipment to open the doors. Then there's monthly upkeep, employees, etc.

However, the dot com meltdown left many DCs on the market. I was involved in the leasing of one, an 8,000 sq ft DC, with Power/Security/Environmental plus lots of cages/racks - the rate for a 3 yr lease was around $17,000 a month. Then you would have to add in the equipment (routers/switches/support servers etc) plus the pipes. But that's better than shelling out cold hard cash for a new building.

A company called Relaira (sp?) left many empty DC across the country. I'd find a good commercial Real Estate Agent - one you trust - and have them look around for you.

--Jack

If you expertise is hosting, why not leave it up to other experts to run the network. Managing servers and managing a network are quite different. Just like people trust a web host because they do it better, I think the same is for DCs. :.02

Hello guys,
Purchasing a data center is a very big step. From what I have noticed on http://whm-host.com you currently only have 2 Servers and my recommendation is that right now, you don't need a data center. For only 2 servers, you would go under faster then you would come up. If that makes any sense. Basically, you can't expect to go spend $1 - $4 million dollars and then only have 2 servers for that. You would go under cause you have no funding or profit.

There is alot of work and cost involved in starting a data center. For an example, we just recently was looking to acquire a data center in St Louis. The pricing was around $50/SQ Footage and it was around 8,000 SQ Footage. Now, you also can't forget about power and your power bill you're looking at another $15k a month just for power. Then you got cabinets, racks, servers, maintanece and alot of other stuff. It is one hell of a duty to keep a data center up.

Unless, you have over $3 million dollars to build and over $1 million dollars a month to pay the bandwidth bills, equipment bills, maintanece bills, power bills, and to up keep the generators then I would recommend you just stick to dedicated servers and then move into colocation and then get into a cage. Then try maybe in 10 years or more to think about starting a data center.

Our company experienced a major growth rate and has only been in business for 1 year (May 1st) and we have seeked to acquire a data center cause, we had the budget to do it and also we had the client base to beable to maintain the data center and up keep the place. Starting a data center isn't something that is easy to do and it is definately something that isn't needed to be done unless you have the funds, client base, and the revenue on a monthly basic to do so.

You can pull into a Carrier Neutral data center before, seeking to buy your own data center such as www.equinix.com www.telehouse.com www.switchanddata.com and www.365main.com and www.colo4dallas.com. Just to name a few off.

I hope that this post has been helpful and provided alot of information.

Never seen a datacentre for "hire" I have to say, Could just imagine ev1servers with a "For Let" sign outside. :roll2:

As for purchasing, I think ev1's new one was either 2million or 2billion.

Either way, thats just back pocket change for Robert Marsh