My Mac Mini @ Macminicolo
There are thousands of web hosting / co-location services out there, but as far as I know, there are none that will co-locate a server that can be shipped in a shoebox, and will treat it like it belongs in a rack, next to the big boys.
Macminicolo.net does just that. You send them a Mac Mini (or buy one from them at the going rate) and they will hook it up to a smoking fast connection in a managed facility. You get full access to your machine, and can even (optionally) manage the power supply remotely.
Worried a Mac Mini would not be able to keep up with your needs? You’d be surprised. They perform very well under load, especially maxed out with RAM. In addition to being able to host unlimited domains yourself, it’s a great way to keep remote secure backups, manage an SVN repository, or just to use as a personal file server.
I’ve been using their service for about a year, and I’m extremely satisfied.
I can’t agree more, I’ve got a mini running there as well. Excellent service and great performance. Before that I was running the server from home using my DSL connection and I had a lot more issues on reliability.
Another great thing about running your own server is learning about everything works. Macminicolo also hosts tutorials and a video series on their blog (currently being updated for Leopard).
I’ve just added a second mini to my arsenal with 4gb RAM for a new project. Lots of fun.
I use a Mac Mini for my local development environment. It works great.
Me too Andy. The best thing about it is that it’s also hooked up to my TV as a media center. It’s a super-charged Apple TV, as well as a perfect dev machine, all in one, and the two functions don’t conflict at all.
We are just launching the mac mini colo and dedicated server program and we have received great feedback specifically from the graphic design colleges, photogrophers and music industry. There are a lot of students that are reeking benefit from a cost effective solution into enterprise level data centres