Let me just go ahead and say right now, that this concerns a for-profit enterprise, so if anybody decides that they don't want to advise me because of that, that's fine.
I understand that some businesses operate by selling usage for a distributed computing network; i. e. they have a series of networked computers and rent usage out to people who want to use them as a render farm, for math processing, what have you.
My question is, would this be feasible to do as a start-up business?
I suppose the initial expedenture and the overhead would be fairly large; around 100 low-end computers and a few high-end ones, a storage area of some sort that you can keep cool (probably an office location initially), networking hardware (gigabit switches/routers, a large-pipe incoming line), licenses for whatever for-pay software you use, salary for the technicians (I assume at least a staff of 5 or so would be necessary, all of whom would need to know how to keep it running, and at least 2 of whom are in the building at any given time that the system's operating)...
The market would probably be for, say, college students who need to render a graphics scene or animation and don't have access to a good render farm at their school (or access there is hard to get and takes a lot of time), for people really serious about contributing to distributed computing, smaller research teams who need to process data quickly and don't have their own DC network or supercomputer, etc.
Profits after overhead and salaries would presumably go primarily towards upgrading as necessary and adding new nodes, and then to advertising and other expenses.
Is there much of a market for this? Is success likely, or does a venture like this seem doomed to fail?
I understand that some businesses operate by selling usage for a distributed computing network; i. e. they have a series of networked computers and rent usage out to people who want to use them as a render farm, for math processing, what have you.
My question is, would this be feasible to do as a start-up business?
I suppose the initial expedenture and the overhead would be fairly large; around 100 low-end computers and a few high-end ones, a storage area of some sort that you can keep cool (probably an office location initially), networking hardware (gigabit switches/routers, a large-pipe incoming line), licenses for whatever for-pay software you use, salary for the technicians (I assume at least a staff of 5 or so would be necessary, all of whom would need to know how to keep it running, and at least 2 of whom are in the building at any given time that the system's operating)...
The market would probably be for, say, college students who need to render a graphics scene or animation and don't have access to a good render farm at their school (or access there is hard to get and takes a lot of time), for people really serious about contributing to distributed computing, smaller research teams who need to process data quickly and don't have their own DC network or supercomputer, etc.
Profits after overhead and salaries would presumably go primarily towards upgrading as necessary and adding new nodes, and then to advertising and other expenses.
Is there much of a market for this? Is success likely, or does a venture like this seem doomed to fail?
