Hey,

A friend and I were thinking of quitting our deadend jobs and starting a hosting/design/consultancy... I was trying to plan and see what costs would be involved in an endeavor like this.

I've come up with the following items:

Connection - Big Ticket Item - Anyone know the cost of a T3?
Servers
Domain Names
Misc Equipment like generator and UPS's and switch...
We won't have any other employees besides ourselves...

So what am I missing?

to tell u the truth it take more then you think i had that idea too but it will be too much. a t3 can run u anywhere from 12000-22000 per month and you will need more then one also you think you can do it just u and a friend well ull need to start getting people. i think you can do it but start as a reseller first or get a dedicated server or even co locate at first. get a couple hundred customers enough for you to pay all the bills that will come in like connection, phone, electric, insurance, ect. then think about moving up.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22999

also check out that thread i started that and i got a couple of people that really gave an idea of price and things some went a little to high on their pricing but it will give you an idea

Hi there,

Here's my theory on how to tell if you're ready to start your own NOC:

You don't have to ask other people what you need; you have enough experience (either on your own or within your organization) to know exactly what's involved, what your requirements are, and what the cost will be.

That's just my opinion. Seems logical enough, no? ;)

Matt

Thanks guys for the replies.

one_web: Thanks for the link to your thread, it was helpful in thinking things through. I do plan to start out small... Like Collocating a server and building a client base and then trying to in-house it at some later date.

Matt: I realize that I am in no way ready to start my own NOC. This is pre-pre-planning for me. Like I said in my post, I'm not looking to get rich or make this my retirement fund. I just want something that pays for a fat pipe and gives me something to do. If I can make a living on it... great... if I break even... thats good with me because I can make money doing webdesign and other services.

Thanks again to both of you.

Oh yeah...

one_web: Tell me how your setup goes. I want to collocate, but I like the idea of paying based on transfer instead of a flat fee. Tera-byte offers $2.50/GB + IP costs for collocation. There are no other fees involved (no rackmount fees, everything is included in the transfer cost) and that is the best deal I can find right now. So I was going to start by collocating with them (unless someone knows a better deal somewhere else) and then maybe someday build my own infastructure. But back to the point... one_web: tell me if you go through with your plan... I would love to learn from it!

Xichekolas,
I think it goes beyond that: what Matt means, or what I would mean anyway, is that you'll know you're ready to start your own NOC the day you know the basics about NOCs without having to do anymore search.
This is why I'd like to stress out that you should start smaller than that; a dedicated server seems to be the right size.
A friend of mine started his web business a few years ago with a friend, he spent a lot of money on his project, then eventually realized he couldn't make the damn thing work and had to file for bankrupcy. He still owes various friends more than $50,000.
Unless you're a multimillionaire or backed up by a big company, don't think too big.

-Chris.

Exactly...

Like I said... I wasn't planning to start a NOC tomorrow, next month, or even within a year or two. I just wanted some idea of what was involved so I could think about it. And besides... I also wanted to know the average price of a T3...