Outdated CPUs or higher price? We found a compromise! 2 x E5620 / 32GB DDR3 / 6 x 240GB SSD / 1Gbps?
Very often, especially recently, when the dollar rate has been growing, we have received more and more "accusations" from our potential customers from Russia and Ukraine that we offer outdated processors and a small amount of RAM at relatively high prices. For example, renting a server in the Netherlands with the following configuration: Intel Quad-Core Xeon X3440 / 8GB DDR3 / 4 x 500GB SATA / 100Mbps Unmetered costs $ 59 per month for our customers. At the same time, Hetzner, VH and some more low-cost providers, provide newer CPUs and more RAM is cheaper. But those who are used to saving often do not compare everything; they completely forget that there is practically no support there, a lower level data center, connectivity is worse, channels on the Internet are not guaranteed, and the volume of included traffic may even be less.
Among other things, in fact, for most projects there is no need for such a productive gland, and good numbers for low-cost sites are in essence marketing associated with risks that most users do not see, since this “high-performance” hardware is not always reliable and optimal to solve server problems. Take the same drives, how many users think about the reliability of the array? Not everyone fully understands why buying server drives that are optimized for working with a RAID controller with a cost much more expensive than the desktop version. Yes, they write that the probability of an error is less by an order of magnitude, and also that the drive more optimally interacts with the RAID controller, but what does this mean in practice?
When using drives in arrays, reliability decreases in proportion to the number of drives. And if with a small number of disks in the array the difference is not so critical and the probability of an error is still minimal, then in the case of a large array, the difference is quite significant. But that's not all. The most important thing is how these drives interact with RAID. Regular drives will try to overwrite / re-read data dozens of times, thereby significantly increasing the load on the array, sometimes creating a critical load, which with a high degree of probability can lead to a complete rebuild of the array and possibly its collapse, data loss, as the probability of an error in the critical mode increases exponentially. Drives optimized for working with RAID will set aside the problem sector “for later”, take the necessary data from another drive, or write to another without having a catastrophic effect on performance. Among other things, the rebuild itself, in the case of server drives, will be more optimal. But this is a separate topic for the article and we will try to highlight these features in our subsequent publications. Now back to the main issue.
')
It would be long to say that we value customers for whom quality is important and that price dumping by low-cost providers is their internal policy and business model, to consider the advantages and disadvantages of this model and the target audience these providers can be helpful. After all, there are projects that can easily work in case of failure of part of the server infrastructure and which do not require high reliability. However, the main paradox is that there are not so many such projects, and for them, in fact, the operating costs for the server park are insignificant and make up about 10% of the total costs, and the software part is so complex that it is simply not available to ordinary users . The rest of the projects are essentially “victims” of cheap marketing. This is of course our opinion, but it is correct.
We focus on customers for whom quality is important and we will meet these requirements with all our might, please — a good channel, please — and those who are looking for cheap, to the detriment of quality — are not our client, we understand this and don’t regret it.
However, in fact, we regret ... Especially now, when the percentage of such an audience has grown. Yes, we do not work in order to get the entire market at any cost, yes, we feel good enough and are a very successful provider, yes, we love our customers, because they love us and are always happy to make them happy. However, reducing the audience, we automatically increase prices. After all, the fewer people use a product, the more expensive it is.
Of course, there is a limit to everything. We tried and cut prices as best we could. For example, they began to provide 2 x Intel Quad Core Xeon E5504 / 16GB DDR3 / 12 x 500GB SATA / 1Gbps 100TB for as low as $ 99, which is not bad, but more productive solutions, alas, were more expensive. Operating expenses do not cancel.
The fact is that the data center can not update the fleet of all servers quickly, every couple of years, especially when there are tens of thousands of servers. A business model was chosen when the old chassis, which are already more than 3 years old, are provided virtually free of charge, and the monthly fee is taken only for electricity, the channel, storage and memory. Only due to this, it is possible to reduce the price. After all, new platforms cost money, and if the average server cost exceeds $ 1000, then only for the return on iron (in the case of a 30% margin, which is far from always) it will take a couple of years. Yes, there is a lot of money in Europe, but the server park will not tolerate updates every ten years. That is why new platforms in the data center are forced to put a higher cost, and make outdated chassis more accessible.
Among other things, unlike low-cost, there are additional costs for a reliable Tier III + class data center, which even accommodates payment systems, operational support, magic connectivity, a more flexible approach to customers. For example, it is possible to block a problematic PNI and send traffic along a different route, even in cases where only 1 subscriber and a part of his audience are experiencing a problem. And this can be done very quickly, which we did several times when the channel of one of the backbone providers fell, for example, providing connectivity between the Netherlands and Peter (the problem was outside the data center’s area of ​​responsibility, but our support quickly provided the correct output mtr and asked - center to make a rerout along a more optimal route for the time when the link is unavailable).
It all costs money, and not small. Nevertheless, we found a way out. It is in volume. Nevertheless, if you put a lot of platforms - you can reduce the price a little, but this will require some time to work at a loss until the server park reaches the desired value. And we will go to this step, but your support is also needed for this. In this version of the script, we can not afford the high cost of advertising. Therefore, we ask if this offer will not be interesting for you - put a plus, recommend our services to your friends. After all, this proposal is no longer in the market of hosting services now and it is truly unique. Our goal is to implement 1000 server platforms by the end of this year.
Advantages of the new offer:
- more productive processors;
- more storage and storage capacity;
- more RAM (minimum 32GB RAM DDR3);
- reduced cost for chassis with solid-state drives for maximum performance (6 x 240 GB SSD);
- free IPMI;
- The possibility of expanding traffic and Internet connection (up to several gigabits) without the need for physical migration of the server;
- The ability to upgrade RAM and add additional drives, even for servers with instant activation.
To begin with, we installed 5 servers of the specified configuration into the cabinet for instant activation, but we have the opportunity to deliver them as many as you like, even 1000, depending on how many such servers you need as soon as possible (1-5 working days):
Also on these platforms will be available a special offer for long-term payment, the discount is even more standard, from $ 108.25 / month
But this is not all, we have prepared several non-standard offers with even better characteristics, the number of which is 100% limited (after the sale it will be impossible to order more, unlike the offers above), always with instant activation:
To realize how profitable the offers are, it is enough to estimate one of the platforms by the configurator, located at the bottom of the page www.ua-hosting.company/servers . Take the last option, for $ 299:
Netherlands (Switch) / 2 x Intel Hexa-Core Xeon E5-2620 V2 / 32GB RAM / 6x480GB SSD / 1 Gbps 100TB - $ 673.03 payable, which is more than 2 times more expensive than the cost of specials. offers. And such a server is only 1. Later, most likely, this option will not be. Do not miss your chance if you need a productive solution at a good price!
Do you need a large infrastructure? We are ready to help and deliver several dozens of servers at once, or even a hundred, within 5 working days, if you have such a need. Perhaps even with even more productive processors, at a very reasonable price as well.
Nevertheless, if you have an interesting project, but the solution you need is still too expensive, we are ready to consider the possibility of providing additional discounts. Feel free to ask. Perhaps we will find a compromise, by reducing some unimportant parameters and increasing the necessary ones, and perhaps even without it, simply by giving an additional discount.
Contact us and we will find the best solution for you!
Among other things, in fact, for most projects there is no need for such a productive gland, and good numbers for low-cost sites are in essence marketing associated with risks that most users do not see, since this “high-performance” hardware is not always reliable and optimal to solve server problems. Take the same drives, how many users think about the reliability of the array? Not everyone fully understands why buying server drives that are optimized for working with a RAID controller with a cost much more expensive than the desktop version. Yes, they write that the probability of an error is less by an order of magnitude, and also that the drive more optimally interacts with the RAID controller, but what does this mean in practice?
When using drives in arrays, reliability decreases in proportion to the number of drives. And if with a small number of disks in the array the difference is not so critical and the probability of an error is still minimal, then in the case of a large array, the difference is quite significant. But that's not all. The most important thing is how these drives interact with RAID. Regular drives will try to overwrite / re-read data dozens of times, thereby significantly increasing the load on the array, sometimes creating a critical load, which with a high degree of probability can lead to a complete rebuild of the array and possibly its collapse, data loss, as the probability of an error in the critical mode increases exponentially. Drives optimized for working with RAID will set aside the problem sector “for later”, take the necessary data from another drive, or write to another without having a catastrophic effect on performance. Among other things, the rebuild itself, in the case of server drives, will be more optimal. But this is a separate topic for the article and we will try to highlight these features in our subsequent publications. Now back to the main issue.
')
It would be long to say that we value customers for whom quality is important and that price dumping by low-cost providers is their internal policy and business model, to consider the advantages and disadvantages of this model and the target audience these providers can be helpful. After all, there are projects that can easily work in case of failure of part of the server infrastructure and which do not require high reliability. However, the main paradox is that there are not so many such projects, and for them, in fact, the operating costs for the server park are insignificant and make up about 10% of the total costs, and the software part is so complex that it is simply not available to ordinary users . The rest of the projects are essentially “victims” of cheap marketing. This is of course our opinion, but it is correct.
We focus on customers for whom quality is important and we will meet these requirements with all our might, please — a good channel, please — and those who are looking for cheap, to the detriment of quality — are not our client, we understand this and don’t regret it.
However, in fact, we regret ... Especially now, when the percentage of such an audience has grown. Yes, we do not work in order to get the entire market at any cost, yes, we feel good enough and are a very successful provider, yes, we love our customers, because they love us and are always happy to make them happy. However, reducing the audience, we automatically increase prices. After all, the fewer people use a product, the more expensive it is.
Of course, there is a limit to everything. We tried and cut prices as best we could. For example, they began to provide 2 x Intel Quad Core Xeon E5504 / 16GB DDR3 / 12 x 500GB SATA / 1Gbps 100TB for as low as $ 99, which is not bad, but more productive solutions, alas, were more expensive. Operating expenses do not cancel.
The fact is that the data center can not update the fleet of all servers quickly, every couple of years, especially when there are tens of thousands of servers. A business model was chosen when the old chassis, which are already more than 3 years old, are provided virtually free of charge, and the monthly fee is taken only for electricity, the channel, storage and memory. Only due to this, it is possible to reduce the price. After all, new platforms cost money, and if the average server cost exceeds $ 1000, then only for the return on iron (in the case of a 30% margin, which is far from always) it will take a couple of years. Yes, there is a lot of money in Europe, but the server park will not tolerate updates every ten years. That is why new platforms in the data center are forced to put a higher cost, and make outdated chassis more accessible.
Among other things, unlike low-cost, there are additional costs for a reliable Tier III + class data center, which even accommodates payment systems, operational support, magic connectivity, a more flexible approach to customers. For example, it is possible to block a problematic PNI and send traffic along a different route, even in cases where only 1 subscriber and a part of his audience are experiencing a problem. And this can be done very quickly, which we did several times when the channel of one of the backbone providers fell, for example, providing connectivity between the Netherlands and Peter (the problem was outside the data center’s area of ​​responsibility, but our support quickly provided the correct output mtr and asked - center to make a rerout along a more optimal route for the time when the link is unavailable).
It all costs money, and not small. Nevertheless, we found a way out. It is in volume. Nevertheless, if you put a lot of platforms - you can reduce the price a little, but this will require some time to work at a loss until the server park reaches the desired value. And we will go to this step, but your support is also needed for this. In this version of the script, we can not afford the high cost of advertising. Therefore, we ask if this offer will not be interesting for you - put a plus, recommend our services to your friends. After all, this proposal is no longer in the market of hosting services now and it is truly unique. Our goal is to implement 1000 server platforms by the end of this year.
Advantages of the new offer:
- more productive processors;
- more storage and storage capacity;
- more RAM (minimum 32GB RAM DDR3);
- reduced cost for chassis with solid-state drives for maximum performance (6 x 240 GB SSD);
- free IPMI;
- The possibility of expanding traffic and Internet connection (up to several gigabits) without the need for physical migration of the server;
- The ability to upgrade RAM and add additional drives, even for servers with instant activation.
To begin with, we installed 5 servers of the specified configuration into the cabinet for instant activation, but we have the opportunity to deliver them as many as you like, even 1000, depending on how many such servers you need as soon as possible (1-5 working days):
Also on these platforms will be available a special offer for long-term payment, the discount is even more standard, from $ 108.25 / month
But this is not all, we have prepared several non-standard offers with even better characteristics, the number of which is 100% limited (after the sale it will be impossible to order more, unlike the offers above), always with instant activation:
To realize how profitable the offers are, it is enough to estimate one of the platforms by the configurator, located at the bottom of the page www.ua-hosting.company/servers . Take the last option, for $ 299:
Netherlands (Switch) / 2 x Intel Hexa-Core Xeon E5-2620 V2 / 32GB RAM / 6x480GB SSD / 1 Gbps 100TB - $ 673.03 payable, which is more than 2 times more expensive than the cost of specials. offers. And such a server is only 1. Later, most likely, this option will not be. Do not miss your chance if you need a productive solution at a good price!
Do you need a large infrastructure? We are ready to help and deliver several dozens of servers at once, or even a hundred, within 5 working days, if you have such a need. Perhaps even with even more productive processors, at a very reasonable price as well.
Nevertheless, if you have an interesting project, but the solution you need is still too expensive, we are ready to consider the possibility of providing additional discounts. Feel free to ask. Perhaps we will find a compromise, by reducing some unimportant parameters and increasing the necessary ones, and perhaps even without it, simply by giving an additional discount.
Contact us and we will find the best solution for you!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/304718/
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