Want to build your own local cloud? Is leasing or buying hardware the right choice for you.

Considering establishing your own local cloud?

As cloud repatriation continues to be a hot topic, and enterprises look to bring their data back to physical hardware, there’s never been a better time to position yourself as your customers own local cloud.

From security & data management, hosting & hardware, all the way through to pricing and packaging your solution in a replicable manner. With so many moving parts, let’s break it down.

Hardware… to lease? Or buy?

The technology industry has experienced severe supply chain challenges in recent years due to a variety of factors, including trade disputes, natural disasters, and geopolitical tensions. These challenges have impacted the availability and pricing of a wide range of technology products, including servers and how this evolves over the coming years is impossible to predict with any certainty.

Leasing servers and buying servers each have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and the best option for a particular organization will depend on its specific needs and circumstances.

Pros of leasing servers:

Lower upfront costs: Leasing servers typically involves smaller capital investment compared to purchasing outright, providing an accessible entry point into establishing your own local cloud.
Maintenance and support: Many server leasing agreements come with maintenance and support included, which may save you considerably on human resource where staffing shortages continue across the sector.
Scalability: Leasing servers often provides organizations with more flexibility and scalability, as typically they can easily upgrade or downgrade their leased servers based on changing needs.

The downside?

Higher long-term costs: While leasing servers may have a lower cost of entry, the long-term costs typically end up being much more expensive than purchasing outright.
Limited customisation: Leasing may mean few options and less customisation, this may or not pose an issue depending on your ideal systems architecture.
Dependency on third-party providers: Leasing servers means you’re reliant on third-party providers to maintain and support their infrastructure, so it’s important to work with a reputable provider with a proven track record.

Pros of buying servers:

Long-term cost savings: Purchasing servers outright may involve higher upfront costs, but it typically carries much lower cost over the life of the server.
Customisation: The ability to tailor hardware and software configurations to your MSP’s specific needs, provides greater control and flexibility, while also providing room for a point of difference against an “off the shelf” solution.
Ownership: with ownership comes control and the ability to pivot and change with your business needs without being tied into a multi-year agreement.

The downside?

Maintenance and support: With ownership comes responsibility for maintenance and support, which can resource-intensive and cost your team in billable hours.
Obsolescence: Servers can become outdated quicker than you’d like, and organisations that purchase servers will need to ensure they’re investing in a solution that is designed to integrate and adapt with rapidly changing technology.

Whether leasing or buying servers, MSP’s should carefully consider their priorities and balance that with the use case of their typical customer.

When deciding whether to lease or buy equipment for building out out your own local cloud solution, the equipment itself is just once small piece of the puzzle.

Managed Rack Space

State of the art colocation facility in the heart of Wellington.

Learn More

Broadband for Business

Fast, reliable, resilient connectivity solutions for New Zealand Businesses.

Learn More

Uncategorized

5 Reasons New Zealand Businesses Choose Local Data Storage over the Cloud.

Cloud Storage and Colocation both rely on the resilience and reliability of data centres, so why do many businesses choose local data storage over the cloud?

Need Colocation?

For over 20 years, Xtreme Networks has been helping businesses like yours with the best internet and data centre solution in the country.