I run my own server for over 6 years at an IDC in San Diego. The hosting is managed by http://m5hosting.com/ and I think they are fantastic.
Would I do it again given the abundance of VPS options today? Possibly. There are only two reasons not to run my own hardware: 1 - dangers of hardware failure on my single server and scrambling to build a new one as opposed to spinning up a new VPS. 2 - scaling. But after 6 years, neither of these have been a problem. In fact, I bet if the hardware failure does occur, I can have m5hosting provide me with a replacement server in a few hours and I could have it config'd and back up in around a day.
I certainly pay less by running my own, with hardware cost amortized over such a long period. I feel the admin hassles are about the same as running a single VPS and less than running multiple VPSs. I set it up, have good docs on the config, automated cloud backups (tarsnap) and would have no problem reinstalling from scratch.
Oh, and of course, I don't run my own mail sever. I'm not a masochist ;).
My team and I run on App Engine for our startup's product, but I run all of my own stuff (email, websites/blogs, legacy projects) with Mike. It's a trust thing.
Would I do it again given the abundance of VPS options today? Possibly. There are only two reasons not to run my own hardware: 1 - dangers of hardware failure on my single server and scrambling to build a new one as opposed to spinning up a new VPS. 2 - scaling. But after 6 years, neither of these have been a problem. In fact, I bet if the hardware failure does occur, I can have m5hosting provide me with a replacement server in a few hours and I could have it config'd and back up in around a day.
I certainly pay less by running my own, with hardware cost amortized over such a long period. I feel the admin hassles are about the same as running a single VPS and less than running multiple VPSs. I set it up, have good docs on the config, automated cloud backups (tarsnap) and would have no problem reinstalling from scratch.
Oh, and of course, I don't run my own mail sever. I'm not a masochist ;).