AWS, Azure, and GCP charge you for every CPU cycle, every GB stored, and every byte you move out. Colocation gives you the hardware advantage. You keep the savings. Columbia Colocation: rack space from $85/mo with real bandwidth included — vs. $400–$800+/mo for a comparable AWS instance.
Cloud has real advantages — but for stable, compute-heavy workloads, you're renting a Toyota at Ferrari prices. Here's what the numbers actually look like.
| What You're Comparing | Columbia Colocation Bare Metal / Colo |
AWS / Azure / GCP Cloud VMs |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (8-core, 64GB) | $85+/mo — rack space (own HW) | $400–$800+/mo |
| Bandwidth | 50Mbps incl., no per-GB fees | $0.09/GB+ (adds up fast) |
| Predictable Monthly Bill | ✓ — same every month | ✗ — variable, surprise spikes |
| Hardware | Dedicated — not shared | Shared hypervisor, noisy neighbors |
| Contract / Commitment | None — month-to-month | Reserved instances for best pricing |
| OS / Software Freedom | Any Linux distro — you own it | Limited to supported AMIs |
| Root / Hardware Access | Full iDRAC, full root | No bare metal access on standard VMs |
| Storage I/O | Local NVMe/SSD — no throttling | IOPS limited, extra cost for provisioned |
| Colocation (BYO hardware) | From $85/mo — your hardware | Not available |
| Local support | Direct — Quincy, WA staff | Ticket queue, no hardware access |
AWS charges $0.09 per GB of data leaving their network. If you're moving 10TB/month, that's $921 in egress alone — on top of your compute bill. Azure and GCP have similar structures. Columbia Colocation: 50 Mbps of bandwidth included on every plan, billed on actual usage rather than per gigabyte — overage is $2/Mbps. Not a promotional rate. Just how we're priced.
These aren't cherry-picked comparisons. These are realistic workloads and what they cost in cloud vs. what you'd pay us.
We're not going to pretend cloud is always wrong. Here's the honest breakdown of which approach fits which situation.
Colocation (bring your own hardware): 1U from $85/mo founder, 2U $150/mo, 4U $260/mo. $0 setup, month-to-month, 50 Mbps of bandwidth included. AI and GPU compute starting at $225/kW. All pricing and details on the colocation page.
Tell us what you're running on AWS and we'll show you what it would cost here. No sales pressure — just numbers.