Originally Posted by rowan

There are also advantages to leasing.

1) Quicker setup time. Shipping costs may also be an issue if you're located in a different area or country to the DC.

2) Tax is simpler because you're claiming it as a simple ongoing cost rather than fooling with depreciation schedules.

3) Cash flow. You don't need a large upfront payment to set up decent hardware.

4) Easier upgrade path. You can hop over to a new server in a year or two with significantly better hardware for the same price. (Sometimes less)

5) Easier to change hosts. If your server(s) is/are only at a single location, how do you switch without downtime? With leasing you commission a new one and can have them running concurrently for as long as you need.

6) Hardware failures. Because the host provides the hardware they are experienced with working on it, and may also have spare parts on hand. What happens when the oddball RAID card in your self-provided server fails on a friday evening?

Anyway, just some food for thought.