[Babase] A babase project server at Duke
Karl O. Pinc
babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Sun, 28 Nov 2004 02:57:49 -0600
On 2004.11.28 00:06 Susan Alberts wrote:
> Sorry to be so long in replying to this. My slow and unstable network
> connection makes it hard to explore on the web and I usually have a
> list of things I need to access that take some time to get to.
>
> I've now read the departmental policy on servers and it looks good,
> it does seem that this will serve our need. I am prepared to buy a
> server for our project and follow the guidelines laid out in the
> policy. I am still a bit concerned about whether we will encounter
> problems that we don't have the skills to cope with but my mind is at
> rest about the major concerns I had -- hardware and the most
> important basic set of software. I'll talk with jeanne about this
> when she arrives in Kenya in a few days but I don't think there will
> be a problem with us getting a server.
Before purchase we should experiment with the one we've got and
determine
the necessary hardware requirements.
I would also ally your fears about renting a host from a 3rd party.
Such rental is
a _huge_ business and services a broad swath of the online business
market.
It is highly competitive and uptime as well as other sorts of guarentees
are common. We can get our own server and have as much (or more)
control
than we could get at Duke. I mention this as this was your concern.
However, I can't say a 3rd party rental is the best solution. Just
worth
a conversational gander. What appeals to me is the ability of rental to
defer purchase -- as you know hardware costs continually drop and the
large hosting providers purchase thousands of machines and are in a
position
to take advantage of price drops in a way that Duke is not. The hosting
market is rapidly becoming commoditized just like the dial-up Internet
service market and other computer related markets. $5-$10/month
hosting is not
uncommon, although that would not provide us the degree of control we
require. Just as Universities are getting out of the dial-up ISP
business
whenever they see it is foolish to compete with commerical ISPs, the
same is bound to happen in regards host rental. It is a question of
when.
Karl <kop@meme.com>
Free Software: "You don't pay back, you pay forward."
-- Robert A. Heinlein