Popular Mac colocation service MacMiniColo.net has introduced a new Mac Pro colocation service with similar services to its existing offerings.

After being the first company to offer Mac mini colocation, we've been at it for nine years. Starting today, we're happy to offer colocation of the new Mac Pro. For those who need extra power in the cloud, MacProColo is the way to go.

MacMiniColo owner Brian Stucki told MacRumors that the fan in the Mac Pro "does well getting air through the machine" and that heat dissipation will not be an issue in major data centers. However, he did note that the Pro draws significantly more power than the Mac Mini that they typically use which is the more difficult commodity to come by in a data center.

MPCLeft
The company is offering two pricing packages, one with a 12-month commitment at $99 per month for 2TB of data transfer, and another at $119 with 3TB of transfer and no contract.

Unlike its Mac Mini offering, MacProColo will only colocate Mac Pro's that users already own, rather than offering its own units for sale, because of extremely limited availability. Once stock improves, the company will offer Mac Pro units for sale and faster setup.

Yesterday, Stucki was testing a Mac Pro in his data center and noted that using a dummy HDMI adapter -- convincing the Mac Pro that it has a display attached -- has the machine running significantly faster because the Mac Pro's dual GPU's run faster when it believes a display is attached.

MacProColo.net isn't the only company planning Mac Pro colocation services; MacStadium plans to offer a similar service in the near future.

Top Rated Comments

mdelvecchio Avatar
120 months ago

Basically your internet and elec. bills at home will be reduced...but certainly not by $99 a month!!!

This service is for people who either a. don't like money, or b. are too stupid to set up a headless server at home.

you have no idea what youre talking about. this is for small businesses running remote servers/services for critical events that want the reliability of a hosted data center. you dont run a notification server out of your living room...
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacToddB Avatar
120 months ago
MacMiniColo makes sense, for me

No, the monthly subscription doesn't even get you a machine. All it does is connect the machine that you yourself have to pay for to a high bandwidth internet connection.

Basically your internet and elec. bills at home will be reduced...but certainly not by $99 a month!!!

This service is for people who either a. don't like money, or b. are too stupid to set up a headless server at home.

I appreciate money, and I'm not too stupid to setup a headless server at home... In fact, I worked for Sun Microsystems for 16 years, was the Product Manager for our first Multiprocessor system, taught Unix, System Administration, and am an award-winning, bestselling app developer. I tried the headless server at home approach, but there are issues.

I've tried RoadRunner Business Class and my own Mac mini server, but RRBC went down frequently and they never seemed to care. I also had to have reliable power, and that was an issue a couple of times, even with a UPS. To not have to worry about my internet and power and just have my Mac server work is great. I can even reboot it from my iPhone/iPad.

Why do businesses need a Mac Mini server as opposed to Linux? Well, in my case, there are specific features of Mac OS and third party software that only run on Mac OS, and are required for my server. Plus the Mac mini is a 'known' quantity... if I need to replace it, I can do so without worrying if Dell/etc. still make the system/components in some random PC box. In fact, MacMiniColo has spares on hand if needed.

I've been using MacMiniColo for years and they're great. They are reliable, professional and affordable.

The MacPro version of their colocation service is about twice the cost, not counting the hardware (I supplied my own Mac mini, but they offer them for sale... when the Pro is more plentiful, they will as well.) so I'm not sure I'll upgrade but if the demands on my server increase, it's nice to know that's an option.

If some people can't see the value, that's on them.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
120 months ago
This reminds me of Adobe's Creative Cloud. With colocation, you're basically paying a monthly lease on a Mac that you don't own. I'm not clear what the advantage is, unless you're always traveling. And wouldn't you need a computer anyway to in order to connect?
Can someone explain how all this works?
It's for web servers, file servers, push notification servers, etc. Doesn't usually apply to most normal consumers. I haven't looked into it too deeply, but I've been considering a MacMiniColo to use with open source software to create my own Dropbox with huge amounts of space, along with maybe a Minecraft server and web server for my freelance site and my friend's personal sites.

Edit to add: Here is a good list of uses posted on their blog: http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/47038825502/50-ways-to-use-your-server (http://blog.macminicolo.net/post/47038825502/50-ways-to-use-your-server)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bretm Avatar
120 months ago
This reminds me of Adobe's Creative Cloud. With colocation, you're basically paying a monthly lease on a Mac that you don't own. I'm not clear what the advantage is, unless you're always traveling. And wouldn't you need a computer anyway to in order to connect?

A lease is completely tax deductible, whereas softwAre sand hardware purchases have to be depreciated over 5 years.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SpinThis! Avatar
120 months ago
This reminds me of Adobe's Creative Cloud. With colocation, you're basically paying a monthly lease on a Mac that you don't own. I'm not clear what the advantage is, unless you're always traveling. And wouldn't you need a computer anyway to in order to connect?
No, with colo you own the hardware. And this has nothing to do with leasing software. (At least with Adobe's cloud you're paying them to stay up to date—like leasing a car, except you get access to the dealer's whole lot when you need it. With colocation you're just renting space and bandwidth on data center's rack.)

I haven't looked into it too deeply, but I've been considering a MacMiniColo to use with open source software to create my own Dropbox with huge amounts of space, along with maybe a Minecraft server and web server for my freelance site and my friend's personal sites.
TBH I love the Mac but it really makes a crappy server. The beauty of a good server is the majority of the time, you shouldn't need to touch it—and there's where Mac OS X's strength is. You want to use it.

Mac as a general purpose internet server hasn't really made much sense with the falling cost of hardware. Remember, Apple is a hardware company and would love to sell you new hardware every year but for servers, it might be every 3 or 4.

When I need a server that's public facing on the internet, Linux is better, cheaper, and faster. These days, dedicated servers are overpowered and expensive, especially if you need to buy the hardware upfront. If you need a lot of power, you can easily scale up via VPS and let your provider take care of the ongoing hardware upgrades. Seriously, Linode gives me 2 TB bandwidth and 1 GB RAM for $20/month. (The only thing that's not so good there is disk space. Typically internet apps don't need much by way of disk space but if you're hosting a lot of files, S3 or something similar could be a better option.)


Not sure why I would want this. Maybe if you were a Maya artist and needed to render on a faster machine than laptops offer?
There's actually cloud render farms that specialize in this. You upload your Cinema 4D or Maya or 3Ds or whatever file and you rent CPU time. They'll spit out the frames you need. But unless you're rendering long scenes or huge video, there's no substitute for having your own Mac Pro or 2.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
osx11 Avatar
120 months ago
Can someone explain how all this works?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 16

iOS 16.4 Now Available for Your iPhone With These 8 New Features

Friday March 31, 2023 8:55 am PDT by
Following six weeks of beta testing, iOS 16.4 was released to the public this week. The software update includes a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone 8 and newer. To install an iOS update, open the Settings app on the iPhone, tap General → Software Update, and follow the on-screen instructions. Below, we have recapped eight new features and changes added with iOS 16.4,...
CarPlay Phone Call

General Motors to Phase Out Apple CarPlay Starting This Year in EV Transition

Friday March 31, 2023 8:43 am PDT by
General Motors (GM) will phase out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its vehicles starting this year, shifting to a built-in infotainment system co-developed with Google (via Reuters). GM owns Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC in the United States. It will stop offering Apple CarPlay and Android Auto starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer, which goes on sale this summer. The company plans ...
iOS 17 on Phone Feature

Three New iOS Features Coming to Your iPhone Following Apple Music Classical

Thursday March 30, 2023 7:13 am PDT by
With the Apple Music Classical app and an Apple Pay Later early access program now available, the list of previously-announced iOS features that have yet to launch is beginning to shrink. However, there are still a few features we are waiting for. Below, we have recapped three more iOS features that are expected to launch in 2023, including an Apple Card savings account for Daily Cash,...
wwdc 2023

Three Products We Might See at WWDC 2023

Friday March 31, 2023 3:37 pm PDT by
Apple this week announced the official dates for the 34th annual Worldwide Developers Conference, with the annual WWDC keynote event set to take place on Monday, June 5. The keynote is where Apple unveils new versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, and sometimes, we get hardware announcements. Rumors this year suggest there are at least three new devices that are set to be unveiled in the ...
iPhone 15 Pro Multi Purpose button Mute Switch Feature Green 2

iPhone 15 Pro Solid-State Button Sensitivity Can Be Customized to Cater for Cases and Gloves

Thursday March 30, 2023 11:36 pm PDT by
iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users will be able to customize the sensitivity of the solid-state buttons on their device, thanks to a new sensitivity toggle in Settings. That's according to details provided by a hitherto reliable source that shared additional details on the MacRumors forums. Earlier this week, the same anonymous tipster revealed that the iPhone 15 Pro models will use...
apple mixed reality headset concept by david lewis and marcus kane

Kuo: Apple Mixed-Reality Headset May Not Appear at WWDC as Mass Production Pushed Back Yet Again

Thursday March 30, 2023 4:50 am PDT by
Apple has again pushed back mass production of its mixed-reality headset and the device may not appear at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said. Apple headset concept by David Lewis and Marcus Kane In a tweet, Kuo explained that Apple "isn't very optimistic" about whether the headset will be able to create an "iPhone moment." As a result,...
iPhone 15 Pro Periscope Mock Feature

Periscope Camera Lens Exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro Max Will Be Supplied by Largan

Thursday March 30, 2023 1:18 am PDT by
The periscope camera lens that will be exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max will be solely supplied by Largan, according to the 相機鏡頭中獲利-apple-camera-lens-suppliers-face-two-risks-high-53db8da990b2">latest no by Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Rumors about the iPhone getting a periscope lens have been circulating since early 2020, when Kuo first mentioned the possibility. The analyst...