Mac Mini Hosting and Colocation - Why a Mini?

Why a Mini?

I'm so glad you asked! The Mac Mini represents, as we see it, a monumental step forward in computer design. The Mac Mini is a perfect fit within the data center because of its low power usage, reliable hardware, and small form factor.

The Mac Mini comes standard with Mac OS X which is based on UNIX. This provides a powerful platform for providing a number of services including web & e-mail hosting, offsite backup, secondary DNS or MX server, and it makes a great development environment.

Hosting your Mac Mini at a remote location is easy. Mac OS X has a built-in "screen-sharing" application which allows simple remote management. All of our accounts come standard with remote reboot free of charge.

Important Tip: Before shipping us your Mac Mini, but sure to enable auto-power on failure. This will allow your server to come back online after a remote reboot!

Web Server

A hosted Mac Mini makes a perfect small web server. The UNIX based operating system provides a tremendous ammount of flexibility. Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Postfix are all straight-forward to setup. Below are resources for configuring your Mac Mini as a web server.

- Installing Apache on Mac OS X
- Using Apache and PHP in Mac OS X
- Installing PHP and Apache on Mac OS X - That was pretty easy!

Off-site Backup

Off-site backup is a perfect function for the Mac Mini in a data center. It provides a low-cost platform which saves you money each month compared to even the most basic 1U colocation package. At a starting price of $30 per month our Mac Mini hosting will save you money on your off-site backup scheme. Rsync and SSH, both common tools in UNIX can be using to make incremental backups to your Mini. Below are additional resources:

- Howto: Design an offsite backup system (with a Mac Mini)
- Easy Automated Snapshot-Style Backups with Linux and Rsync

Daylite Database Hosting

Mac OS X Server is a perfect plaform for small to mid-size database hosting. The Mac Mini can also be a cost effective disaster recovery platform if your main corporate database goes down. With support for up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, the Mac Mini can now be used for a variety of resources intentive and missions critical applications. One very popular Mac-based CRM solution is called daylite, which allows users to collobrate around the world.

Daylite databases are a perfect fit in our datacenter. Updates can be sent to your iPhone or iTouch making it a truly mobile solution. Storing you daylite database in our facility protects your business from local Internet outages and physical threats. Your team can work from a coffee shop, the office, or from home without any special configurations. Mac OS X Server also provides a power suite of tools to simply server administration. With the integration of time machine backups are a breeze. You can even run additional services along side your daylite database, like e-mail or FTP, making this a perfect all-in-one solution

Development & Proofing

The Mac Mini makes a perfect development server. Mac OS X has long been the operating system of choice for many graphic and web designers. Using the Mac Mini as a server allows developers to work within a comfortable environment. Application developers can write and work in a native Mac OS X environment. This allows for a simplified testing, proofing, production process.

Ruby on Rails is an open source web framework which has become popular with developers because it focuses on making developers happy. Mac OS X Server is the prefect platform for hosting your RoR projects. Rails Hosting is extremely easy and ideal on Snow Leopard Server. If you are a rails developer a hosted mac mini makes a prefect base of operations allowing simplistic testing, proofing, and publishing.

- Deploying Rails Applications on Mac OS X Leopard