Hwllo -
I've outlined some estimated costs for you below for the two possible
avenues you can take -- acquiring/maintaining equipment yourself, or
contracting with a managed hosting solutions provider.
Self-hosted solutions
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1) How many sub-sites can I reasonably expect to put on a server without
affecting performance noticably? Based on customer traffic to the main
portal, will I need more than one server to handle that? What is the
number of merchants at which I might need to consider multiple servers for
this?
On a 2.8 Ghz dual-core Intel processor, with a couple gigabytes of
RAM, three 73GIG SCSI drives on a RAID 5 setup, you can reasonably
expect to host between 100-150 merchants, easily handling <10 hits/ea
per day(1). Consider another server when you need to service more
merchants than this.
2) What can I expect dedicated rack hosting to cost?
Dell Computer considers the above specs as their "low end" spec at
around $4000. Add $1000 for a medium spec to include tape backup,
twice the RAM, etc. Hewlett Packard is about thousand dollars more.
Add another $1000 for 4-hour on-site hardware response, back-up
software, etc. Robust database software such as SQL will run you
another $4K-$5K per processor (in this case, you'd have just one
initially).
You can possibly begin with a much less expensive setup by buying used
servers for under $1000 (even newer, less-power ones can be cheaper),
older versions or off-brand database software, and in general taking a
minimalist approach, as you can always expand later on as your needs
grow.
To determine leasability of these systems, several factors, including
personal information such as your credit rating, in addition to total
purchase price, and how many years you take the lease, will affect the
cost. If you're not leasing to own, it probably makes more sense to
go with a hosting solutions provider (see below).
With regards to bandwidth, it's entirely possible to have a site with
850 domains and use half of a T1, total for a month (1.5Mbps, which is
hardly anything). Verizon charges about $1500 for 10Mb per month
(about 7 T1's worth). A broadband cable connection to your business,
at around 2 to 4Mb per month, costs about $300 from Verizon, which may
be sufficient to start off with (contact Nevin at 614-481-5435 for
more information on Verizon's offerings).
Managed hosted solutions
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"Managed hosting" solutions providers -- or providers who host and
manage a server for you -- offer a very attractive, highly economical
alternative solution to hosting servers yourself. I spoke to a firm
in New York called "Turnkey Internet", who's exclusive business is
hosting. You could take the capital you were looking to spend on
servers and bandwidth for maintaining equipment yourself, and simply
pay a low fee of between $150-$300/month for a dedicated server at a
dedicated location. The recurring cost is very minimal: over two
_years_ you could look to spend between $2000-$4000. At $150/month,
Turnkey, as an example, provides you a 2.4 GHz system with 80 GB HD
space, 1/2 GB of ram, 250 GB of monthly data transfer, and includes
Linux with Apache web server, MySQL database, integrated mail server,
secure administration panel, and much more. The equipment is owned by
the company, but leased to you by the month, and includes bandwidth,
power, service/support, security, firewall, etc. Alternatively, you
could purchase your own server, and have it administrated by them.
This kind of service will expand with you as your needs grow, and you
avoid the initial investment and ongoing recurring fees of owning and
managing the equipment/software at your location.
See http://www.turnkeyinternet.net/webhosting/dedicated.php
Other providers available here:
http://www.thewhir.com/find/web-hosts/dir/managed.cfm
Keep in mind, advertised prices might not include everything you need,
such as, for example, SQL leasing.
Let me know if you have any additional questions.
Thank you,
jbf777
Researcher
Search strategy/sources:
Dell
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Buy Online or Call 1-800-757-8434 x7958263 (Dan Dwier)
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/tower?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
Gateway
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800-846-2036x55474 (Brent)
HP
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800-888-0262 |
