alt Hacker NewsIt was another time. Only big companies had dedicated data centers; the rest had an air-conditioned room in the office. That was before the "cattle, not pets" era, too: they would have a database server called "Debbie", a DNS server called "Denise", a file server called "Felix", etc.
100% this. It was almost weekly that we had to go to the DC to do something hands-on with the equipment, so having that be a 5 minute walk from our office was a huge benefit.