{"id":1711,"slug":"pre-cloud-dedicated-colocation-pricing-2004-2007","title":"Pre-cloud dedicated/colocation pricing 2004–2007 — managed dedicated $250–$1,400/month; budget $89–$199; 1U colo ~$50/month","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["hosting-platforms","web-foundations","cloud-infrastructure-economics"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Mid-2000s pricing (contemporaneous Web Hosting Talk invoices):\n- **Managed dedicated server (Rackspace and peers):** ~**$250–$1,400/month** depending on configuration.\n- **Unmanaged / budget dedicated:** ~**$89–$199/month**.\n- **Single-U colocation:** ~**$50/month**.\n\n**Source:** Forum-quoted real prices on Web Hosting Talk (2004–2007). Archived Rackspace/colo pricing pages via Wayback not retrievable.\n\n**Confidence:** Single-source — forum-quoted invoices, not vendor pricing pages.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** This is the *pre*-state for the capex→opex story. A small-business website that needed a database in 2005 was looking at $50–$1,400/month for the box alone, before bandwidth or admin labor. The structural-shift entry ([[capex-to-opex-structural-shift-synthesis]]) depends on these baseline figures.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"s3-launch-march-2006-15-cents-per-gb","title":"Amazon S3 launched March 14, 2006 at $0.15/GB — object storage as a metered utility","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"ec2-launch-august-2006-ten-cents-per-hour","title":"Amazon EC2 launched as limited public beta August 25, 2006 — single m1.small instance at $0.10/hour","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rackspace-founded-1998-fanatical-support","title":"Rackspace founded 1998 — premium \"Fanatical Support\" managed hosting; launched budget ServerBeach brand Jan 2003","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-falling-cost-floor-real-web-functionality-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the falling cost floor of \"real\" web functionality for SMBs (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"pre-cloud-sysadmin-wages-bls-2024","title":"Network & Computer Systems Administrator BLS median: ~$51K–$58K (early 2000s, needs-verification) rising to $96,800 (May 2024)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"capex-to-opex-structural-shift-synthesis","title":"The structural shift: capex (server + sysadmin) → opex (managed service, administration included)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"caveats-falling-cost-floor-vendor-incentive","title":"Caveats: AWS vendor framing quarantined; build-vs-buy vendor cost pages flagged; DrPeering single-source; sysadmin wages needs-verification","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:00.504Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:00.504Z"}