Every colo facility I’ve used offers “remote hands”. If you need a button pressed or a disk swapped, they will do it, with a fee structure and response time that varies depending on one’s arrangement with the operator. But it’s generally both inexpensive and fast.
> What about hardware loss? You need backups regardless. On the cloud when a HDD dies you provision a new one. On premise you need to have the replacement there and ready to swap out (unless you want to wait for shipping).
Two of everything may still be cheaper than expensive cloud services. But there’s an obvious middle ground: a service contract that guarantees you spare parts and a technician with a designated amount of notice. This service is widely available and reasonably priced. (Don’t believe the listed total prices on the web sites of big name server vendors — they negotiate substantial discounts, even in small quantities.)