I don't agree with this strategy. A spare PC under a desk might work perfectly for years without any trouble. Alternatively you might spill coffee over it next week and destroy the server - and your business.
If you don't know how you'll need to scale then chuck up a `t2.nano` instance on AWS and use that. In return for a tiny monthly cost you get:
- solid network connectivity
- disk snapshots for backups
- geographically redundant storage (S3) for static resources so you can survive the server hosing itself
- monitoring of CPU load / status / disk usage
- the ability to scale the server up vertically with the click of a mouse and 60 seconds' downtime
- (with a tiny bit more work and cost) automatic scaling so you cope _automatically_ if the server falls over or load increases
If you don't know how you'll need to scale then chuck up a `t2.nano` instance on AWS and use that. In return for a tiny monthly cost you get: - solid network connectivity - disk snapshots for backups - geographically redundant storage (S3) for static resources so you can survive the server hosing itself - monitoring of CPU load / status / disk usage - the ability to scale the server up vertically with the click of a mouse and 60 seconds' downtime - (with a tiny bit more work and cost) automatic scaling so you cope _automatically_ if the server falls over or load increases