OT: Running software off of a server

[nitanee123]

I am looking into software for a business and I've been given a few options from the software company. I can either (a.) purchase a web version that will allow me to access the software from a number of computer and will back-up the data constantly, or (b.) run a stand-alone version on my desktop which will NOT back-up automatically and will only be accessible to on that particular computer. The price on the standalone software is $1000. The price on the web version is $150/month.

I was speaking with somebody and they mentioned that I could purchase server space on Amazon or Rackspace for $30/month and then run the software off the server. This would essentially be akin to running the web version only much cheaper.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

 

[psute]

Have you considered installing it on an external hard drive that you could carry with you?

 

[Obliviax]

The challenge you have with renting server capacity, like Rackspace, is that you still have the responsibility for backup and any other kind of due diligence. Essentially, you are taking the legal liability if data is lost or stolen. At $30/month, the delta is $120/month versus $1,000 up front. If that legal liability isn't a problem, it is worth of additional consideration.

Some other things to consider are Service Level Agreements or "SLA's". Here you can nail down response time minimums and maximums, down time maximums, penalties, periods between backups, disaster recovery failover times. etc. Also, insurance and liability indemnifications should be considered as well. Finally, how do you extract the data or convert over to a new provide should you choose to terminate the services?

Another thought that comes to mind is the notion of accessing the data if your web access is down (through no fault of the hosted service provider). To me it comes down to control of the data. I'd go to the Cloud provider and tell them $150 is too much and tell them you'd do it for, say, $100 and see what happens. Show them the numbers.

 

[rem524]

The challenge you have with renting server capacity, like Rackspace, is that you still have the responsibility for backup and any other kind of due diligence. Essentially, you are taking the legal liability if data is lost or stolen. At $30/month, the delta is $120/month versus $1,000 up front. If that legal liability isn't a problem, it is worth of additional consideration.

Some other things to consider are Service Level Agreements or "SLA's". Here you can nail down response time minimums and maximums, down time maximums, penalties, periods between backups, disaster recovery failover times. etc. Also, insurance and liability indemnifications should be considered as well. Finally, how do you extract the data or convert over to a new provide should you choose to terminate the services?

Another thought that comes to mind is the notion of accessing the data if your web access is down (through no fault of the hosted service provider). To me it comes down to control of the data. I'd go to the Cloud provider and tell them $150 is too much and tell them you'd do it for, say, $100 and see what happens. Show them the numbers.

I go along with everything Obliviax said here and have a couple of additional thoughts. Obliviax mentioned that you are taking on the legal liability for lost or stolen data. You are also taking on the responsibility for recovering from a system failure if you host it yourself (at Rackspace or on a local system). If you have been doing backups, you have the data but you will still need to fix whatever went wrong with the system and restore the data from backup. That may not be all that hard but you may not want that responsibility. You can think of the extra $37/month ([$150/mo hosted] compared to [$83/mo (paid up front) + $30/mo]) as insurance. The type of software you are running may make a difference here (is this software critical to your business?).

Another potential factor is the installation of upgrades during the year. Some software providers update their hosted systems frequently. Will the version of the software you can install yourself be up-to-date compared to the hosted version? If there are updates to the software and you are running on your own server (hosted or local), you will need to do that upgrade.

Obliviax mentioned to make sure you can get your data if terminating the service. If you know that you will be happy with the software, once you have purchased a $1000 copy you can continue to run that version as long as it works on your system. The hosted option will cost you money every month basically for as long as you use the software. On the other hand, if you use the hosted version for a couple months and find that it doesn't work for you, you may be able to terminate the service and save money there.

Lastly, you didn't mention if the $1000 price included customer support and updates to the software. If you will need to buy upgrades or pay additional for technical support on one of the options, that will change the price differential between the two options.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[pmjoe]

I think the issues have mostly been covered by other posts. The tradeoffs mostly boil down to this:

1. Hosting your own server is probably cheaper, but you will have to spend your time (or pay someone) to provide backups and other services that would come with a hosted solution (and there are questions here about having the knowledge to do proper backups of the software, which is non-trivial if the vendor doesn't provide tools for it).
   
2. Often buying the software to host yourself only includes limited software updates (sometimes for a year, and then you pay for service ). Clarify the terms for this before buying, and note that you'll have to install updates yourself (or pay someone to do it). I'll note that we're dealing with an issue related to this where I currently work in that the host yourself software version is lagging slightly behind the company's hosted solution.

I've been an advocate hosting things myself (or with the company I host for) for a long time. But at my current position, we just don't have enough system admin cycles to maintain all the servers we need, so we need to make the best use of our system admin time, which means using hosted solutions where it is more efficient to do so.

 

[Obliviax]

I think the issues have mostly been covered by other posts. The tradeoffs mostly boil down to this:

1. Hosting your own server is probably cheaper, but you will have to spend your time (or pay someone) to provide backups and other services that would come with a hosted solution (and there are questions here about having the knowledge to do proper backups of the software, which is non-trivial if the vendor doesn't provide tools for it).
   
2. Often buying the software to host yourself only includes limited software updates (sometimes for a year, and then you pay for service ). Clarify the terms for this before buying, and note that you'll have to install updates yourself (or pay someone to do it). I'll note that we're dealing with an issue related to this where I currently work in that the host yourself software version is lagging slightly behind the company's hosted solution.

I've been an advocate hosting things myself (or with the company I host for) for a long time. But at my current position, we just don't have enough system admin cycles to maintain all the servers we need, so we need to make the best use of our system admin time, which means using hosted solutions where it is more efficient to do so.

Good points. So, does the software come with its own DB or does that have to be licensed separately? How about malware and other security software?

 

[Cruising Route 66]

I am looking into software for a business and I've been given a few options from the software company. I can either (a.) purchase a web version that will allow me to access the software from a number of computer and will back-up the data constantly, or (b.) run a stand-alone version on my desktop which will NOT back-up automatically and will only be accessible to on that particular computer. The price on the standalone software is $1000. The price on the web version is $150/month.

I was speaking with somebody and they mentioned that I could purchase server space on Amazon or Rackspace for $30/month and then run the software off the server. This would essentially be akin to running the web version only much cheaper.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?

Aside from the data backup question, If option A provides a platform that includes free automatic software upgrades/patches and option B does not, then A would appear to be the better choice.

 

[NYNY]

I am looking into software for a business and I've been given a few options from the software company. I can either (a.) purchase a web version that will allow me to access the software from a number of computer and will back-up the data constantly, or (b.) run a stand-alone version on my desktop which will NOT back-up automatically and will only be accessible to on that particular computer. The price on the standalone software is $1000. The price on the web version is $150/month.

I was speaking with somebody and they mentioned that I could purchase server space on Amazon or Rackspace for $30/month and then run the software off the server. This would essentially be akin to running the web version only much cheaper.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?my iPhone

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Stay in control and gain remote access: Spend the $1000.00; install an economical NAS (netgear nas 102) into your network and ‘share-out’ the user and software’s “common” folder to other computers in the same work group using the NAS software and on the PC where the ‘stand-alone version resides. Then schedule back-ups using the Network Attached Storage Device… Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients.

 

[psu1969a]

I am looking into software for a business and I've been given a few options from the software company. I can either (a.) purchase a web version that will allow me to access the software from a number of computer and will back-up the data constantly, or (b.) run a stand-alone version on my desktop which will NOT back-up automatically and will only be accessible to on that particular computer. The price on the standalone software is $1000. The price on the web version is $150/month.

I was speaking with somebody and they mentioned that I could purchase server space on Amazon or Rackspace for $30/month and then run the software off the server. This would essentially be akin to running the web version only much cheaper.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this?my iPhone

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Stay in control and gain remote access: Spend the $1000.00; install an economical NAS (netgear nas 102) into your network and ‘share-out’ the user and software’s “common” folder to other computers in the same work group using the NAS software and on the PC where the ‘stand-alone version resides. Then schedule back-ups using the Network Attached Storage Device… Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients.

Assumes some additional knowledge and time.