I have full-time job that would offer me plenty of time to offer support to customers, and I'm considering starting a no-frills dedicated hosting business. It will offer win2k dedicated servers (In my real job I am a webmaster and ASP/VB developer) at a good price. I will offer a Win2k Server with Terminal Services Admin installed, Latest Service packs and hotfixes. I will apply hotfixes the day they are released, and be UP FRONT that I don't offer much else, except hardware failure support, and paid upgrades. I'll offer an APC masterswitch to remote reboot.

I'd like to host 20-40 servers, and keep 2 to resell cheap web space on. This SHOULD evolve into full time, but I want to scale correctly, not wasting any bandwidth $$$. By this I mean I'll buy a T-1 first, and make SURE it gets utilized effeciently before multilinking another T-1, etc.

Any estimates on support demands for that type business, and opinions of running this part-time?

Nik Martin

You're probably better off colocating somewhere or even reselling dedicated boxes.. that way if something happens, and you're at your regular job, you can call up someone and have them reboot, etc.. Once you get about 20 servers, you'll have enough capital so as to not worry about bandwidth costs.

As with any thing part time, start small, dream large, and you'll get there. At least that way, you wont lose your shirt and pants doing it if something doesnt turn out the way you wanted it to.

As with any thing part time, start small, dream large, and you'll get there.

That's my plan. Thanks for the reinforcement.

Originally posted by anantatman
You're probably better off colocating somewhere or even reselling dedicated boxes.. that way if something happens, and you're at your regular job, you can call up someone and have them reboot, etc.. Once you get about 20 servers, you'll have enough capital so as to not worry about bandwidth costs.

As with any thing part time, start small, dream large, and you'll get there. At least that way, you wont lose your shirt and pants doing it if something doesnt turn out the way you wanted it to.

Here's my list of musts (if you want to do it right the first time IMO), assuming you don't resell:

- Colo w/ good remote hands.
- Cell, pager, RIM (RIM/blackberry is key for answering those customer emails on the go). Maybe use a locator service that will ring you on multiple numbers.
- Dialup for out-of band. Since you say you are doing W2k, I would suggest some sort of cheap terminal server for doing dialup so you do not have to worry about another W2k machine breaking. Run PC anywhere/vnc on the W2k boxes, access via TCP/IP. Maybe piggyback it on a W2k server since you're starting small.
- Layer 3 capable switch for provisioning those VLANs for customers. Don't be daunted by high price tags. The secondary market for these things is pretty ripe right about now.

It's not as bad as it sounds. :)

of course its not bad as it sounds.. hehe know from experience..
blackberry? damn i wish i had one of those.