Equipment needed to start web hosting...

[CWoolmer]

Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of help. Im looking into getting the equipment for web hosting and I want a few of your ideas. basically I want to offer dedicated-servers. I'd like to know some of the equipment I'd need (other than a fast internet connection) and the cost (in English money please) of the components I'd need and whats the best to go for. The kind of server range offered would be personal, small business web servers, medium range web servers, large, corporate and enterprise servers. What kind of specifications would each of these categorys be?

Thanks for any help any one can give me,

Craig Woolmer

 

[slackware1995]

<< Hi all,

I'm looking for a bit of help. Im looking into getting the equipment for web hosting and I want a few of your ideas. basically I want to offer dedicated-servers. I'd like to know some of the equipment I'd need (other than a fast internet connection) and the cost (in English money please) of the components I'd need and whats the best to go for. The kind of server range offered would be personal, small business web servers, medium range web servers, large, corporate and enterprise servers. What kind of specifications would each of these categorys be?

Thanks for any help any one can give me,

Craig Woolmer >>



Just my 2 cents worth of garbage for you to consider.

If you don't have any idea on what you need, you probably shouldn't be considering this. The marketplace for web hosting is extremely saturated and you'll have a hard time getting enough market share to pay for itself, especially looking to cover such a huge range of markets.

 

[Daniel]

You are thinking of doing this in your house/apt? Do you have experience running something like this already?

Not to try to be mean here or anything but if you don't have loads of experience doing this sort of thing, and a lot of money to sink into equipment you are asking for trouble. Have you considered maybe a reseller account through an already established web host first?

 

[Garion]

Most colos have a startup budget of $5-$10 million. This would build the data center (redundant UPS, redundant AC, raised floor, cage space, etc.) a network, a highly-available Internet connection, a NOC, some marketing, etc.

Even companies with the money to do it right (i.e. Exodus) are failing left and right. I'd be very hesitant to try to get into the business unless you can do it right. If you DO, go for personal and small business servers and don't aim for large corporate business.

I work for a large bank and whenever we do a colo, we do a physical verification of the space to make sure it's up to our specs. Anything less than a full enterprise-class data center doesn't pass muster.

Assuming you had the facilities - Cabling, AC, power, the data center itself, etc. I'd assume your investment in network hardware would be somewhere around $130K. Depending on the "scope" you might get away with $50K, but it wouldn't be as good.

- G

 

[N11]

CWoolmer,

What these gentlement are discussing are for a more serious entrepreneurial experience for an organization that has probably sought VC or substantial private funding.

For you I would recommend a solution that quite a few hosts provide these days. It is called reselling.

 

[CWoolmer]

 

[CWoolmer]

Right, lets put things into perspective. I already do reselling. I know a substantial amount about networking, web hosting and many other related subjects. I asked because I want to know how much space Im going to need to move to dedicated hosting because I have two large bedrooms free in my house and I thought now would be a good time to move from non-dedicated web hosting. I already have a lot of the equipment needed, I was just looking for ideas from some computer wizards. All Ive learned from you lot is put things into perspective first. Thanks a lot for your help, I think I assumed too much.

Craig:|:Q:disgust:

 

[spidey07]

Alright smartass....

Two racks - .75 rack for commgear - router, switches cabling
.25 rack for backup robot
1.0 racks for servers, SAN, disk and managment/monitoring/alarms

cost = 250K
power = 2x30 amp 240 volt NEMA 10-30 outlets

Double if you want redundancy

There you go.

Now if you want actual customers you'll need a little more.

 

[Workin']

Here's the main thing to ask yourself - if you were an enterprise, would you colocate a server in somebody's spare bedroom?

 

[CWoolmer]

Thanks spidey, helpful, and workin ive decided to go with the advice of garion and to keep to small business and personal servers.

Thanks a lot,

Craig

 

[WDCentral]

You're lucky you didn't post this to webhosting talk.. I can just see their reactions...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Dont forget a *NICE* UPS or two, and a generator. I dont know how many times Ive sighed in relief at the sound of a generator kicking on...

 

[CWoolmer]

Generators sorted,but looking for UPSs, probably gona go for Belkin or APC.

Craig