Forum OpenACS Q&A: Annual cost per user for OpenACS

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1: Annual cost per user for OpenACS
Posted by Shambhunath Borah on 09/26/07 10:07 PM
Hi,

I was looking at the oacsrocks.org site and clicked through to

http://viaro.net/elearn/corporate-hosting/index

which indicates an annual cost of $2-$3 per user.

Is this roughly what one should expect for openacs sites?

Thanks.

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2: Re: Annual cost per user for OpenACS (response to 1)
Posted by Patrick Giagnocavo on 09/26/07 10:34 PM
The answer is, "it depends".

Viaro.Net is one provider that supports OpenACS.

There are many other companies like SolutionGrove.com, ACSPropel.com that also provide OpenACS consulting and hosting.

My company, Zill.Net, provides OpenACS hosting (but not programming), however in our case we charge based on resources used - there is basically a choice between being on a shared server or having a dedicated server.

A shared server could host up to say, 400-2000 users depending on how heavily each uses the system and cost $50 a month ($600 per year).

At the other end of the spectrum, I have a customer with a 16GB RAM customized server dedicated to only their use that could probably host 50,000 or more users at a cost of about $15,000 per year. In such a case, each user would be about 30 US cents per user.

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3: Re: Annual cost per user for OpenACS (response to 2)
Posted by Kenneth Wyrick on 09/26/07 10:47 PM
I've had good luck with Zill.net at the recommendation and support from Solution Grove. I'm trying to break into the K-12 market with .lrn and .folio.

This situation for hosting has worked pretty well for me. Although it has not been an easy sell of the system because what people see when they check the web for .lrn is higher education sites. I have only found I elementary school that said they were using it, but they didn't have much at all.

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4: Re: Annual cost per user for OpenACS (response to 1)
Posted by Tracy Adams on 09/26/07 11:50 PM
You should also make sure you compare apples to apples.

In particular, which of the following mix you want: installation, hosting, bug fixing, user training, new features.

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5: Re: Annual cost per user for OpenACS (response to 3)
Posted by Carl Robert Blesius on 09/26/07 11:53 PM
Let us know how we can make the .LRN site more inclusive Kenneth. If you want to start a section dedicated to .LRN in k12 we would welcome it.