Forum OpenACS Q&A: OpenACS hosting interest?

Posted by Unmesh Laddha on 09/27/00 10:34 AM

Hi All,

Actually I am a frequent visitor of this forum but never had chance to
post any message here so never registered before, but here it goes...
Folks lurking on Web/Db forum of aD may find this repeating..

Since this is apperent that the ACS community interest is growing into
having a web hosting service for ACS developers which includes RH
Linux/AOLserver/PostgreSQL/OpenACS combination. It seems like the
major problem is with the constant support it would require in terms
of skilled ACS personnel's time. I would like to propose a solution
for this.

We are doing ACS development for some time in India and have a team of
professionals working round the clock and provide 24/7 support to our
clients.
Currently we are maintaining 3 servers with Oracle/Linux/ACS/AOLserver
combination for our clients. If there is sufficient interest in ACS
community,
i.e. say at least 10 users who may want developer account, we can add
one more server in our existing set up which will be running
Linux/AOLserver/OpenACS/postgreSQL and provide the same support which
we are providing to our clients. The charge for this would be
$100/month per user and email support will be available 24/7. This
price can be reduced substantially if there is more demand .

Please send me an email if you are interested and want to know more
technical details.

Thanks,

Unmesh Laddha

2: Response to OpenACS hosting interest? (response to 1)

Posted by Bob OConnor on 09/27/00 01:08 PM

I would encourage you to post more technical details here. I am interested how accessible your sites are with respect to speed and bandwidth and ping times from the USA. And the server specs including hard drives -- Raid level....etc.

Thank you. -Bob

3: Response to OpenACS hosting interest? (response to 1)

Posted by Unmesh Laddha on 09/27/00 02:33 PM

Bob,

All our servers are hosted in Dallas, USA and the technical details are below.

We are using currently following configuration which can be same for the developer's machine.

Base System Processor - Dual Pentuim III 800
Memory 512MB
Hard Disk #1 9.7GB HotPlug SCSI2 (10,000RPM)
Hard Disk #2 9.7GB HotPlug SCSI2 (10,000RPM)
Tape Backup
Software Options:
Operating System RedHat Linux 6.2
AOLserver 3.0 , PostgreSQL , OpenACS
Secure Server - No

Each developer account gets 1 GB of hard disk initially and each additional GB would require extra charge of 10$ per month.
Bandwidth Transfer: Currently the total capacity of bandwidth transfer is 40 GB which will be divided evenly in no. of total accounts on the system. Considering total max. no. of accounts on one system is 20, I would say 2 GB transfer is initially allowed to each developer. Additional cost is another 150$ per 40 GB transfer which will be divided evenly in no. of developers.
IP Addresses : 1 for each account each additional IP address would require extra 8$ per month.

Alongwith this, you will also get Professional Services , 24x7 Server Monitoring, System Administration, 24/7 email support. Also our engineers are on icq for almost 10 hrs. a day which can help you get going..

We are co-locating our server with a provider connected to a multi-homed backbone via 10/100 MBps ethernet. which is other advantage.All systems include site wide UPS (5 hour battery) plus onsite back-up power generator service.
All systems are monitored '24x7' at the Network Operations Center.

We are hosting site at this provider with only one single problem from Jan 2000 to date. So service is excellent in terms of technical support as well as responsiveness.

This is just an attempt to fulfill a need of the ACS community in partial manner. Let's see whether it will take shape.

As for the domains hosted on our server , here are few you can look at.

www.tecnozone.com
www.thinking-minds.com
http://216.234.242.83

Also there are few more but they are under development for our client which I can't show you until you sign NDA with us.

HTH,

Unmesh

4: why $100/month? (response to 1)

Posted by Seth Gordon on 09/27/00 05:10 PM

Ustinet includes Zope with its basic ($10/month) Web-hosting package. The ColdFusion Developer's Journal carries ads for various site-hosting services that provide ColdFusion, with the cheapest advertised price being $15/month from SiteHosting.net.

Is OpenACS hosting more expensive simply because it has so few customers, and therefore the sysadmins' work would be divided among a smaller group of people? Does maintaining an OpenACS site require substantially more sysadmin work per customer than maintaining a Zope or ColdFusion site? Or is $100/month simply the price that the market will bear at this point?

Obviously, the folks who provide this service have the right to charge whatever they want; I'm just curious about the economics here.

5: Response to OpenACS hosting interest? (response to 1)

Posted by Unmesh Laddha on 09/27/00 05:32 PM

The price $100/month is based on a fact that there are not that many developers who would want this service. I don't know about
the Zope hosting or ColdFusion hosting prices, but if you read my messages carefully, you would have seen I had mentioned that
the price would go substantially low if there is more interest and more no. of developers wants to use the service. The sysadmin
work does not make much difference whether it is very few or many accounts, but the cost to be beared by us for the
configuration of the server makes such a difference. The price is based on the configuration, time to be devoted for support and
the quality of service we are providing.

Thanks,

Unmesh

6: Response to OpenACS hosting interest? (response to 1)

Posted by good bye on 09/27/00 07:25 PM

What is the name of the co-location service you are using in Dallas?

In response to concerns over the cost: as someone who kept sites up
at ArsDigita for a year and a half, I would say that $100 a month
is a very reasonable price for hosting an OpenACS site. In comparison, A cell phone bill for a busy consultant is going to be more than $100 a month. A typical hosting contract for an Oracle based ACS installation could cost between $10,000 and $300,000 a month, depending on the level of service.

7: Response to OpenACS hosting interest? (response to 1)

Posted by Unmesh Laddha on 09/27/00 07:43 PM

We are using www.theplanet.com as our co_location facility.

Unmesh