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Hosting advice
  Why so many?
  The basics
  Network connectivity
  Power supply
  Data centres
  Location
  Shared or dedicated
  Managed or not
  Server software

Data centres

Bearing in mind the above, you can see that the ideal place for a web server is in a physically secure climate controlled room with 24/7 engineering support, fire suppression systems, multiple redundant sources of electricity, and multiple internet connections that leave the room down distinct conduits. This is expensive.

Space in data centres is typically sub-leased many times over. Many hosting companies refer to "our data centre" in their advertising, when in reality they are renting a couple of "U" of rackspace.

For example, Telecity operate 9 data centres in 7 European cities; their smallest rentable space is a lockable "quarter-rack" - which is big enough to hold 10 thin (1U high) servers.

For this they charge £200/month. That's just for the space; bandwidth costs extra.
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