In servers you do not buy the hardware outright (if you only paid once for the cost of the equipment this would actually save THOUSANDS of $$$) instead you are charged monthly for what types of equipment you have installed. For some equipment it is a wash b/c it would take a few years before you cover the cost of what the equipment would have cost. For other things like RAM you generally pay the cost of buying new ram every month. For other things like a CPU for example you basically pay for a new one ever year.