[Babase] Hosting v.s. buying
Jeanne Altmann
babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Mon, 31 Jan 2005 16:23:29 -0500
I'm comfortable with a decision to buy for the first round, especially
given the strong preference there,
j
At 02:31 PM 1/31/2005 -0500, you 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.
>
>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?
>
>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
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>--
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Susan Alberts, Associate Professor Department of Biology, Duke University,
>Box 90338, Durham NC 27708 phone 919-660-7272 fax 919-660-7293
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