[Babase] Hosting v.s. buying

Hunter Matthews babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:43:51 -0500


On Mon, 2005-01-31 at 14:31, Susan Alberts wrote:
> Thanks for the info on hosting vs buying (Susan and Hunter, see info 
> below). I didn't get a chance to talk to Hunter about this yet but 
> did talk to Susan Gerbeth Jones, head of computer team here. Here are 
> some thoughts.
> 
> First, there is no model here in Bio for how this would work, and for 
> this reason the computer team is somewhat reluctant to go this route 
> at the moment.
> 
I haven't had a chance yet to talk to Susan about hosting, which is why
I had not replied earlier. I'm in agreement with SJG - somewhat
reluctant to try that.

> Second, the cost for hosting the dedicated hardware server is high if 
> we need it for an extended length of time. For instance if we kept it 
> three years, we are at the cost of buying.
> 
> once we could move to the dedicated software server then the cost 
> drops dramatically. However, again the lack of a good model here in 
> the department for how this would work probably makes the computer 
> team reluctant.
> 
> In my conversation with Susan G-J today, we discussed that it might 
> be good, for our first server, to buy it. We can reassess after 3 
> years when the end of the server's life is approaching and hosting is 
> more developed and more familiar here.
> 
> Hunter, input? Anyone else, thoughts?
> 
No, I think this is a good summary of the decision to be made. Let me or
SGJ know if another quote or some other information is necessary.


> Susan
> 
> >Hi,
> >
> >I've looked into it a bit, and forgot to mention
> >what I found in our last phone call.
> >
> >Before we'd go live we'd need a dedicated hardware server.
> >These are $136/month.
> >http://www.rimuhosting.com/order/startorder.jsp#karaka
> >We might want to pay a bit more to get more RAM.
> >
> >The conversion just puts too much of a beating on the
> >computer to be able to have anybody sharing with us.
> >
> >However, once we go live I'm sure we can get away
> >with a dedicated server that's pure software.
> >(Virtualization, it's the new hot thing.  IBM is
> >making lots of bucks on virtualization these days.)
> >We get the total control of having our own box
> >but the lower cost of sharing the underlying hardware.
> >(Too bad Hunter's not doing this.  It'd be the
> >perfect solution for us.  Susan, could you
> >mention "user mode Linux" to Hunter and see if
> >he just happens to jump up and down with desire
> >to do this?)
> >
> >For our own software server, we'd pay between $40
> >and $65/month.
> >http://www.rimuhosting.com/order/startorder.jsp#tawa
> >
> >The committments are month-by-month, unless you want
> >to pay for a year in which case you get one month
> >free.
> >
> >It will be nice to have (even the lesser) of Hunter's
> >spec-ed out boxes to run the conversion.  After that
> >I think it'd be quite a lot more than we need.
> >I do have plans for recording all the changes ever
> >made to the data in the database, but that will run at night
> >and we don't really care if it takes hours.
> >
> >Decisions, decisions.
> >
> >How does Hunter feel about out-sourceing the hosting?
> >
> >Karl <kop@meme.com>
> >Free Software:  "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
> >                 -- Robert A. Heinlein
> >
> >
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Babase mailing list
> >Babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
> >http://www.eco.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/babase
-- 
Hunter Matthews                          Unix / Network Administrator
Office: BioScience 145/244               Duke Univ. Biology Department
Key: F0F88438 / FFB5 34C0 B350 99A4 BB02  9779 A5DB 8B09 F0F8 8438
Never take candy from strangers. Especially on the internet.