I would like to ditch the servers at my small business. Is VPS a viable alternative?
March 9, 2009 1:40 PM Subscribe
I would like to ditch the servers at my small business. Is VPS a viable alternative?
My company fluctuates between 10 and 12 employees. We are not particularly data-intensive -- almost exclusively creating documents in MS Office and using email. I would like to get rid of my servers/server room which simply seems to be snake bitten in the past few months.
I believe we have an email solution, but was looking for some way that I can out-source/off-source the server that stores documents/templates/forms; we would keep our existing desktops and laptops. Ability to remote-in would seem to be a given but, if not, would be necessary.
Security is my biggest concern; stability and longevity would be right behind it. Have you had a good or bad experience? Is there a standard vendor that everyone (but me) knows (I was looking at apptix if that helps)? Thank you very much for your input.
My company fluctuates between 10 and 12 employees. We are not particularly data-intensive -- almost exclusively creating documents in MS Office and using email. I would like to get rid of my servers/server room which simply seems to be snake bitten in the past few months.
I believe we have an email solution, but was looking for some way that I can out-source/off-source the server that stores documents/templates/forms; we would keep our existing desktops and laptops. Ability to remote-in would seem to be a given but, if not, would be necessary.
Security is my biggest concern; stability and longevity would be right behind it. Have you had a good or bad experience? Is there a standard vendor that everyone (but me) knows (I was looking at apptix if that helps)? Thank you very much for your input.
Google Mail for your domain works very well. You get IMAP and POP access in addition to web and get excellent spam filtering. All you need is a domain name.
I believe it's free as long as you have under 50 (or is it 100?) accounts.
posted by zippy at 1:51 PM on March 9, 2009
I believe it's free as long as you have under 50 (or is it 100?) accounts.
posted by zippy at 1:51 PM on March 9, 2009
Sorry, I now see you have a mail solution. Google Docs is pretty good - my organization uses it. We treat it as a Wiki that has a decent Word UI for non-techies. It's fine for editing simple word docs and spreadsheets, though I wouldn't want to do a complex document in it. It also lets you store and share PDFs.
posted by zippy at 1:53 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by zippy at 1:53 PM on March 9, 2009
You could set up a wiki on just about any $5 or $10 a month hosting plan and use it to store your documents. You'll be getting daily backups done that way too if you go with a reputable company. Google Apps would provide pretty much the same service.
posted by COD at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by COD at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2009
an Amazon EC2 instance only costs about $90 a month to run full time, and it's pretty easy to setup now that they built a GUI for it.
posted by delmoi at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by delmoi at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2009
If you want to go the way of a VPS I'd suggest moving everything over to a single debian server onsite first, make sure that it works, and then transfer all the config etc over to the vps at a datasenter nearby. Linode and slicehost are both well regarded services. I use a different smaller provider because I want a machine in a data centre closer to my country.
posted by singingfish at 2:40 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by singingfish at 2:40 PM on March 9, 2009
I personally suggest linode over slicehost, but if you are used to having big beefy machines in your closet, the RAM limitations might be a bit of a PITA.
posted by Freen at 2:53 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by Freen at 2:53 PM on March 9, 2009
I second and third the suggestions above. Set this up on a Debian/Ubuntu LTS/Redhat box onsite. Make sure you're OK with this for a few months. If you're 100% certain this is fine, grab a VPS from Linode or Slicehost. (I use Linode, find them to be awesome. Haven't used Slicehost, but if Linode decided they were going to retire tomorrow, I'd be ordering half a dozen Slicehost VPSes.)
posted by Brian Puccio at 3:58 PM on March 9, 2009
posted by Brian Puccio at 3:58 PM on March 9, 2009
If all you want is a Unix VPS (with your choice of Centos, RHEL4, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora), I highly recommend Rimuhosting.
They have data centers in Dallas, London, New York, and Australia, and their service and prices are very good.
You could easily run a corporate webserver (internal or public) and file server, as long as you're comfortable admining a Unix box. Rimuhosting takes care of the hardware and gives you root access and a web console where you can reboot the machine and add storage or RAM to your instance.
However, I'd also recommend looking into a Network-Attached Storage (NAS, a fileserver in a box) if all you want is a place to store and share documents on your intranet. A NAS is a low-maintance dedicated device where you typically: a) plug in ethernet, and optionally b) attach hard drive via USB.
This might be a reasonable choice for low-cost, low-maintenance office file-sharing.
posted by zippy at 6:09 PM on March 9, 2009
They have data centers in Dallas, London, New York, and Australia, and their service and prices are very good.
You could easily run a corporate webserver (internal or public) and file server, as long as you're comfortable admining a Unix box. Rimuhosting takes care of the hardware and gives you root access and a web console where you can reboot the machine and add storage or RAM to your instance.
However, I'd also recommend looking into a Network-Attached Storage (NAS, a fileserver in a box) if all you want is a place to store and share documents on your intranet. A NAS is a low-maintance dedicated device where you typically: a) plug in ethernet, and optionally b) attach hard drive via USB.
This might be a reasonable choice for low-cost, low-maintenance office file-sharing.
posted by zippy at 6:09 PM on March 9, 2009
Best answer: I Am Not An IT Person, but I do use a VPS for some stuff currently, and I actually ran a setup with 30 VPSs as a side job for a few months.
I don't think a VPS is what you need. If you want to do Windows filesharing between your clients and your VPS, you'll need a virtual private network connecting your systems to your server -- this is a significant hassle to configure in itself. You'll need to get used to administering the server without really being there, which can be annoying when you really need to reboot or reinstall the OS. You may have to learn Linux since Windows VPSs are harder to find.
Then what happens if your own Internet connection drops out for a day, and you can't access any of your own files? What happens if the company you decided to go with goes bankrupt, or their server farm is hit by a hurricane? What if you've been paying them to back up your files, but they haven't actually been doing it? If you handle any confidential information, a VPS may be breaking privacy agreements you have with your customers. A VPS introduces a whole lot of uncertainty into running your business, without really simplifying anything.
That said, a VPS is wonderful as a Web server, since you can install whatever you like at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server. I personally use Unixshell, though mostly because I was grandfathered in on a very low price deal a couple of years ago.
Go with one of the pre-configured NAS boxes you can buy for very cheap, it'll save you time and money.
posted by miyabo at 10:50 AM on March 10, 2009
I don't think a VPS is what you need. If you want to do Windows filesharing between your clients and your VPS, you'll need a virtual private network connecting your systems to your server -- this is a significant hassle to configure in itself. You'll need to get used to administering the server without really being there, which can be annoying when you really need to reboot or reinstall the OS. You may have to learn Linux since Windows VPSs are harder to find.
Then what happens if your own Internet connection drops out for a day, and you can't access any of your own files? What happens if the company you decided to go with goes bankrupt, or their server farm is hit by a hurricane? What if you've been paying them to back up your files, but they haven't actually been doing it? If you handle any confidential information, a VPS may be breaking privacy agreements you have with your customers. A VPS introduces a whole lot of uncertainty into running your business, without really simplifying anything.
That said, a VPS is wonderful as a Web server, since you can install whatever you like at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server. I personally use Unixshell, though mostly because I was grandfathered in on a very low price deal a couple of years ago.
Go with one of the pre-configured NAS boxes you can buy for very cheap, it'll save you time and money.
posted by miyabo at 10:50 AM on March 10, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 1:43 PM on March 9, 2009