server requirements

[imaginarynumber]

Hi all

My brother is about to go solo and has been getting quotes for a VPS.
I am still trying to pin him down on his requirements so that I can try to advise him as per his needs. The problem is that I don't think that he really knows what he actually needs.

At start up there will a team of three, he intends to expand but I don't know how fast that will happen.

He is under the impression that he needs 3 seats for Win 2008 with exchange, remote destops and sage line 50 (I guess that is sage 50 accounts?). I believe that he will also be hosting his site on the server as well. Finally he will need CRM software such as this http://www.troysoft.com/te.aspx (not sure which version though). Oh and SSL etc.

I appreciate that the above is vague.

What would you anticpate his server requirements would be?

He has sent me one price that he received- struck me as being pretty high and the ToCs were not particularly favourable.

The monthly charge is £483.62 !!!

And consists of

£360 Managed virtual 2008 server (1 cpu, 8gb ram, 40gb storage, 1 Mps CDR, full back ups)
£50 Shared firewall
£20.19 for 3 hosted exchange mailboxes
£9.01 for 3 remote desktops SAL
£9.40 for 3 windows server SAL
£35.02 for office 2010 pro plus

On top of that there are
£150 SSL for remote desktop (annual)
£632.22 Sage Line 50 Licence
(free server config/setup if he signs up for 3 years)

The above sounds expensive to me but, hey I run one of my magento stores on VPSVille at £20pm

I am happy to accept PMs from members that want to contact him via me but please outline you proposals as fully as possible

In my limited capacity I am inclined to recommend that he massively scales things back- at least for the first year (ie whilst he earns virtually nothing). For example, using the free sage from Lloyds (run locally and available via remote desktop), office 365, an alternative CRm that can be hosted on the same server as the web site.

Any suggestions

Thanks

 

[webhostuk]

Are you looking for Magento store hosting?

 

[SparkMediaIndustries]

Hi all

My brother is about to go solo and has been getting quotes for a VPS.
I am still trying to pin him down on his requirements so that I can try to advise him as per his needs. The problem is that I don't think that he really knows what he actually needs.

At start up there will a team of three, he intends to expand but I don't know how fast that will happen.

He is under the impression that he needs 3 seats for Win 2008 with exchange, remote destops and sage line 50 (I guess that is sage 50 accounts?). I believe that he will also be hosting his site on the server as well. Finally he will need CRM software such as this http://www.troysoft.com/te.aspx (not sure which version though). Oh and SSL etc.

I appreciate that the above is vague.

What would you anticpate his server requirements would be?

He has sent me one price that he received- struck me as being pretty high and the ToCs were not particularly favourable.

The monthly charge is £483.62 !!!

And consists of

£360 Managed virtual 2008 server (1 cpu, 8gb ram, 40gb storage, 1 Mps CDR, full back ups)
£50 Shared firewall
£20.19 for 3 hosted exchange mailboxes
£9.01 for 3 remote desktops SAL
£9.40 for 3 windows server SAL
£35.02 for office 2010 pro plus

On top of that there are
£150 SSL for remote desktop (annual)
£632.22 Sage Line 50 Licence
(free server config/setup if he signs up for 3 years)

The above sounds expensive to me but, hey I run one of my magento stores on VPSVille at £20pm

I am happy to accept PMs from members that want to contact him via me but please outline you proposals as fully as possible

In my limited capacity I am inclined to recommend that he massively scales things back- at least for the first year (ie whilst he earns virtually nothing). For example, using the free sage from Lloyds (run locally and available via remote desktop), office 365, an alternative CRm that can be hosted on the same server as the web site.

Any suggestions

Thanks

We do Servers with easy upgrade options, If you would like some options pm over to you then drop me a pm yourself or give me a call on 0151 486 8036.

 

[imaginarynumber]

Are you looking for Magento store hosting?

Hi WebhostUK

I have magento already but no, he doesn't need magento, he will be working as a headhunter.

 

[KM-Tiger]

IMHO, rather than looking at pricing of solutions, your brother should take a step back and approach some IT companies with requirements, and let those companies propose solutions.

This is an ideal case for application of MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Would).

If he is starting up, and budget is tight, then start with the Musts, but with an eye on adding the Woulds later.

 

[SparkMediaIndustries]

I have sent you a pm.

 

[Jim2k]

Would he be interested in a local server at his office for Sage and the CRM (aswell as file store, print sharing, security etc) and then have hosted exchange and a seperate web host for his site.

If I was jsut starting up I wouldn't even consider nearly £500 a month for a hosted server when you can buy your own for not much more than this.

We have installed 3 new offices recently with a combination of local server and hosted services and all clients are happy at with the service and definately happy with the price. Happy to discuss with your brother if you would like.

 

[BoxLimited]

we too have sent you a PM.
Thanks

 

[bediwin]

£438/month - that's £5246/year.

You could buy a perfectly capable server complete with some sort of backup media for half that. And a business with three people does NOT need a server with 8GB of RAM.

Your brother's been talking to a salesman who saw him coming.

 

[chip_y2kuk]

£438/month - that's £5246/year.

You could buy a perfectly capable server complete with some sort of backup media for half that. And a business with three people does NOT need a server with 8GB of RAM.

Your brother's been talking to a salesman who saw him coming.

i was about to say the same thing!.

your brother's been seen miles away by a salesman (probably on commission) who's going to be earning nicely on your brother's monthly amount.

for his 1st year it's going to be expensive anyway with the company having no money and having made no money but spending lots (accountants feel free to chime in and correct me if im wrong!)

does he need exchange? what about an open source alternative?
does he need his own server or would high end shared hosting do?

my image would be something like high end shared hosting (or a linux VPS)
Cpanel, Feng office (or something similar), Vtiger CRM or sugar CRM.

that setup would give you...

web based e-mail file sharing, calendar task's with feng office
customer relations management and a self service portal with Vtiger (which is based on sugar CRM)
cpanel would allow him to setup e-mail accounts/sub domains manage dns etc for his websites.

costing probably what he's been quoted for a month a year.

joe

 

[bediwin]

Tell you what, Google Apps for Business would be perfect. He can start with the free version and move up as and when the business expands appropriately, he'll get all of that for nothing. He can send me the £438/month instead if he likes!

 

[imaginarynumber]

Would he be interested in a local server at his office for Sage and the CRM (aswell as file store, print sharing, security etc) and then have hosted exchange and a seperate web host for his site.

If I was jsut starting up I wouldn't even consider nearly £500 a month for a hosted server when you can buy your own for not much more than this.

We have installed 3 new offices recently with a combination of local server and hosted services and all clients are happy at with the service and definately happy with the price. Happy to discuss with your brother if you would like.

I did suggest something similar.

Unfortunately he thinks that this won't be an option for him. He will be working from home and if his (domestic) BB goes down or he gets burgled he (and the others) will be stuffed.

 

[imaginarynumber]

my image would be something like high end shared hosting (or a linux VPS)
Cpanel, Feng office (or something similar), Vtiger CRM or sugar CRM.

that setup would give you...

web based e-mail file sharing, calendar task's with feng office
customer relations management and a self service portal with Vtiger (which is based on sugar CRM)
cpanel would allow him to setup e-mail accounts/sub domains manage dns etc for his websites.

costing probably what he's been quoted for a month a year.

joe

Hi Joe

Having spoken to him last night- one of the main influencing factors seems to be the CRM software- he is not willing to consider any other CRM packages. He is familiar his choice and does not want to have to be divirted from sales to familiarise himself with a different package.

The less than ten user version of the software will run on any windows machine running outlook 2002 onwards, it uses the outlook jet engine and stores the info in an MS Access db. The enterprise version will require a db MsSQL, MySQL etc) server.

So I guess that given the requirements of the CRM and the need for outlook and sage he is looking at a windows server.

I have only ever played with linux servers and thus have no idea about licencing costs. Does one pay for each remote desktop user and each outlook exchange account?

Is it legal to install the bog standard version of sage (and how does one do that- do you just convert software to ISO images and run virtual cd type software on the server?

How much ram would he need?

Ideally he would be going for the lower specs and then have the freedom to upgrade them without punitive charges.

 

[imaginarynumber]

We do Servers with easy upgrade options, If you would like some options pm over to you then drop me a pm yourself or give me a call on 0151 486 8036.

Thanks will pm back once I understand what he needs.

 

[imaginarynumber]

we too have sent you a PM.
Thanks

Thanks will pm back later

 

[chip_y2kuk]

Hi Joe

Having spoken to him last night- one of the main influencing factors seems to be the CRM software- he is not willing to consider any other CRM packages. He is familiar his choice and does not want to have to be divirted from sales to familiarise himself with a different package.

The less than ten user version of the software will run on any windows machine running outlook 2002 onwards, it uses the outlook jet engine and stores the info in an MS Access db. The enterprise version will require a db MsSQL, MySQL etc) server.

So I guess that given the requirements of the CRM and the need for outlook and sage he is looking at a windows server.

I have only ever played with linux servers and thus have no idea about licencing costs. Does one pay for each remote desktop user and each outlook exchange account?

Is it legal to install the bog standard version of sage (and how does one do that- do you just convert software to ISO images and run virtual cd type software on the server?

How much ram would he need?

Ideally he would be going for the lower specs and then have the freedom to upgrade them without punitive charges.

With Sage being windows only software i'm afraid linux is out of the question which is where alot of the cost's will be coming from.

virtualizing windows means XEN, Hyper-V or Vmware on the node server for the vps's.

windows need's to be licenced on the VPS as well.

then you have firewalling the VPS with a hardware firewall (software would do but if the vps is zombied it's a pain for the provider)

then you have licences for your software sage, Microsoft stuff

i completely understand he's used to sage but trying to stick all of that on a vps he's probabaly going to need about 2 maybe 4 GB of ram.

disk size would be dependant on operating system but take 10GB as an average (with updates and such) plus the other software and with exchange you will need mailbox space and swap.

bandwidth if your going to be using it all day and it's going to control mail and such then the more bandwidth the better (and remote desktop connections chew bandwidth pretty well)

it's not going to be a cheap affair so a few hundred a month would do it

joe