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
147 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
147 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
147 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
147 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
147 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
147 months ago
Can someone explain how all this works?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Friday April 18, 2025 5:16 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iphone 17 air dummy unbox therapy

iPhone 17 Air's Extreme Thinness Demoed in New Video

Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be. The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
ipad air windows 11 arm

M2 iPad Air Runs Windows 11 ARM via Emulation, Thanks to EU Rules

Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect. As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
maxresdefault

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Sunday April 13, 2025 7:52 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.5 Includes Only a Few Changes So Far

Monday April 21, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes. The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps. In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner. In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Triad

Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone May Finally Go All Screen

Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself. Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
CarPlay Hero

Apple Releases Wireless CarPlay Fix

Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed. Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles." If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...