Dedicated storage servers for Ceph, MinIO and backups

Build your own storage cluster on hardware you control. Pick the drives, link the nodes on a private network and run Ceph, MinIO, ZFS or your backup software of choice. Big drives are cheap on our order forms: 14 TB enterprise HDDs are $79 a month each, and a 10 Gbps private network link is $20 a month per server.

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99.5% Network uptime SLA in writing (99.95% managed)

30 min Ticket response (15 min managed)

2 hours Hardware replacement (1 hr managed)

$79 A month per 14 TB enterprise HDD

What people build on our storage servers

Want storage we run for you instead? Our managed NFS, iSCSI and Ceph storage is hosted next to your servers. This page is for teams who want the hardware and root.

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Ceph clusters

Block, file and object storage from one cluster. Ceph wants at least three nodes so it can keep three copies of your data on three machines.

MinIO and other S3 stores

An S3-compatible bucket store you run yourself, with MinIO, Ceph's RADOS Gateway or another S3 server. Your apps talk the S3 API, and you don't pay per-request or egress fees to a cloud platform.

Backup targets

A landing zone for Veeam, restic, Borg or database dumps from your other servers, in a different building from the data it protects.

ZFS file servers

Snapshots, checksums and compression on a single big box for NFS or SMB shares.

Media libraries

Video, images and archives that grow every month and get read far more often than they get written.

AI datasets

Training data and model checkpoints close to the compute that uses them, without a per-gigabyte bill each time you read them.

Drives and network

Drive and network prices on our order forms

These are per-drive monthly prices on our standard dedicated server order forms today. You add drives to a build and the form shows the total before checkout. For more drive bays than a standard build holds, ask for a high-density storage chassis on the quote form.

Drive	Per month	Per TB per month
4 TB enterprise HDD	$49	~$12.25
8 TB enterprise HDD	$59	~$7.38
14 TB enterprise HDD	$79	~$5.64
1 TB enterprise SSD	$59	$59
2 TB enterprise SSD	$89	$44.50

The usual pattern for Ceph or MinIO: big HDDs for capacity, an SSD or two for the write-ahead log and metadata, and the 10 Gbps private network ($20 a month per server on the form) for replication traffic between nodes. That keeps the heavy copying off your public port. A standard build takes three drives on the order form, so a node with three big HDDs plus an SSD needs a storage chassis, which we quote.

Serving a lot of data to the internet? Put a 1 Gbps unmetered port (on the order form) or 10 Gbps (by quote) on the node that faces your users, so downloads don’t show up as overage on the invoice.

Planning

Sizing a small cluster

Raw capacity isn’t usable capacity. Plan for the copies before you buy drives.

Three-way replication (Ceph’s default) keeps three full copies, so usable space is about a third of raw. Three nodes with 42 TB each give you roughly 42 TB before headroom, so plan on 30 to 35 TB of real data.
Erasure coding (Ceph or MinIO) stores data plus parity. A 4+2 layout keeps about two thirds of raw capacity usable and survives two lost drives. Surviving two lost whole nodes takes six or more nodes.
Leave headroom. Ceph gets unhappy as disks fill up, so plan to run well below full and add a node before you hit it.

Send us the usable capacity you need, how fast it grows and how the data gets read, and we’ll suggest a node count and drive mix on the quote.

Tell us how much you need to store

Send the usable capacity, growth per month, read and write patterns and your preferred region. We'll quote the nodes, the drives and the network, as one monthly price.

Get a storage server quote Managed storage

24/7/365

US-based support

99.5%+ uptime

SLA in writing

Same or next day

In-stock delivery

SOC 2

Type II certified

Storage server FAQs

Other options: Managed NFS, iSCSI and Ceph storage · Server clusters · Unmetered servers

What is a storage server?

A dedicated server built mainly for capacity: lots of drive space, enough CPU and RAM to run the storage software, and a fast network. You get root and run Ceph, MinIO, ZFS or your backup software on it.

How much does storage cost per TB?

On our order forms today a 14 TB enterprise HDD is $79 a month, about $5.64 per raw TB. Replication or erasure coding decides how much of that raw space you can use.

Can I run Ceph or MinIO?

Yes. You get the whole machine, so you install and run the stack you want. If you’d rather we run it, look at our managed Ceph, NFS and iSCSI storage instead.

How many servers do I need for Ceph?

At least three, so Ceph can keep three copies on three separate machines. Many teams start with three and add nodes as the data grows.

Is traffic between my storage servers billed?

A 1 Gbps private network between your servers is included on the order forms, and 10 Gbps is $20 a month per server. Replication over the private network stays off your public bandwidth.

Where can the servers go?

The drive options above are on our Chicago and Los Angeles order forms. For Ashburn, or for a high-density storage chassis anywhere, tell us your region on the quote and we’ll confirm what we can build there.