I'd like to hear your opinions on this business idea.

Start a business managing other people's servers....you would be able to be contacted 24/7 and you would do whatever was in the contract for you to do. The customer would pay something like $50 a month, and you would be there to do any patches, upgrades, or any other maintenance stuff they might need on their server. You would "partner" with dedicated hosting companies and "learn" how they run things and how to contact them so if a client's server went down with ABC Hosting, you would know how to login and fix the problem or you would know how to contact them for a full reboot.

Are there any companies now that do this? The reason why I thought of it is because I would love to move into my own dedicated server, but I don't know *anything* about server administration and if something went down on the server, I wouldn't have a clue what to do.

I've seen hosting companies offer managed services for their clients, but never have I seen them for another hosting companies' clients.

Just one of those ideas you come up with when your bored......I hope the above made sense.

well, $50 is somewhat low.... I guess you will be charged more for this type of service (unless the company can automate the process very much.... but minuses again..). $100....$250 would be a perfect spot :) --apollo

I have seen a few guys on some mailing lists that do this, but they charge 150-200.

If you want, I will try and wade through the lists and see if I can find their info.

Originally posted by emoore
I have seen a few guys on some mailing lists that do this, but they charge 150-200.

If you want, I will try and wade through the lists and see if I can find their info.

If you could any, that would be great.

I had never heard of any company that did *just* server managing. It seems like it could be a lot like a hosting package with different features and things like that. It seems like it would be a perfect job for people that know a lot about how servers work, but can't get a job around locally (because there *are* no jobs). It wouldn't require 24/7 support from 1 person, but you could have several people that would receive notification somehow of when a new ticket was submitted and then the first one to it would do it.

Anyway, I'll be quiet now....

sounds like a really good idea , 50 dollars is pretty good price for a tech , only thing i would do is make sure you're bonded in case something unforseen happens

$50 bucks sounds too cheap for a *nix sysadmin.

Are you insured/bonded? What credentials do you offer?

Also, ponder these scenarios...

What happens when you wipe a drive clean and the customer has no backup?

What happens when the server is hacked and the company balmes the sysadmin(you)? All the credit card info is stolen.

What happens when you do a security update and sendmail stops working? What if the company does most of it's business via email.

I've thought of doing this, but there seems to be too many pitfalls...

I've done quite a few "projects" on the side, but have decided to incorporate and start this as an actual business.. Its not official yet, but should be soon.. :) More to come later..

I too have thought about the above concerns.. however with the people/businesses I've worked with, noone has suffered any data loss or unexpected downtime. I know s**t happens, but that is why "leveling" with the customer is important. Get to know exactly what they expect and develop a written contract detailing it. This is standard for any business.. disagreements arise when parties are misinformed or misled. That can be averted.

Just thought I'd chime in..
Laterz,
palmtree

Would you want to manage someone's server for $50?

I would pay them for the hours that they work, $50/hour sounds more like it. :D

OK...lol. Maybe $50 was the wrong amount to put, but you get the idea.

It would be almost like how a hosting company is now. People pay $10/month for a hosting package. When they need support they send in a support ticket. A support staff answers the ticket and moves onto the next ticket.

It seems like a tech would be able to do any maintenance needs fairly quickly without spending hours on 1 client. or maybe I'm just crazy. I don't know anything about system admin on servers, so I don't even know what could go wrong with a server.

Seems like all you'd need would be a couple willing, reliable, remote techs, and some information about each hosting company that you're managing servers for (and of course some contracts for your customers).

I dunno.

palmtree, good luck to you. I really think that a business like that could work. I guess that's why I keep rambling on about all this. :D

We do run servers for our customers but only if they are in our colo.
Pricing starts at $100.00/mo. for a fixed number of hours.
What you need is credibility. Simply advertising sysadmin services may be a tough way to attract clientele.

Tom

Originally posted by tom.oneil
What you need is credibility.

I think the concept interesting, but it's not easy to implement... I agree that credibility is the key.

Because in that kind of business, it supposes that you give full rights to the person who will manage your server. I am confident that the people who provide my dedicated server will do it properly, because they know their servers, and they know that if something really bad happens, I might not be a customer for long.

In the case you suggest, I would need to give you full rights on my server, but I have no guarantees that you are "serious", you could be a potential hacker or spammer (not that I think this of YOU, I am just speaking generally). Imagine a hacker launching that kind of business... great!

So I think you would need to build this business really, really gradually, until your name is known around and people are confident enough to let you access their servers.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41935

As to this as a business, check out www.***************.com


Apparently that company has been naughty here before.

The idea is cool. But it's already used by those who provide managed servers.

So if you have to pay $100 extra on a $100 box, why not just get a managed server for $200? :)

My 0.02$ :stickout

Yes it is, but it's your provider who provides the service. If I understood well, in the case suggested, it's a completely external company which would provide the "management" service

Originally posted by WebmastTroy
I'd like to hear your opinions on this business idea.

Start a business managing other people's servers....you would be able to be contacted 24/7 and you would do whatever was in the contract for you to do. The customer would pay something like $50 a month, and you would be there to do any patches, upgrades, or any other maintenance stuff they might need on their server. You would "partner" with dedicated hosting companies and "learn" how they run things and how to contact them so if a client's server went down with ABC Hosting, you would know how to login and fix the problem or you would know how to contact them for a full reboot.

Are there any companies now that do this? The reason why I thought of it is because I would love to move into my own dedicated server, but I don't know *anything* about server administration and if something went down on the server, I wouldn't have a clue what to do.

I've seen hosting companies offer managed services for their clients, but never have I seen them for another hosting companies' clients.

Just one of those ideas you come up with when your bored......I hope the above made sense.

How do you plan to break even with prices like that? Let's say you get stuck doing five hours of work for a client, suddenly you're clocking no more than the kid taking your order at the drive through.

Originally posted by manmythlgnd
How do you plan to break even with prices like that? Let's say you get stuck doing five hours of work for a client, suddenly you're clocking no more than the kid taking your order at the drive through.

Originally posted by WebmastTroy
OK...lol. Maybe $50 was the wrong amount to put, but you get the idea.

It would be almost like how a hosting company is now. People pay $10/month for a hosting package. When they need support they send in a support ticket. A support staff answers the ticket and moves onto the next ticket.

It seems like a tech would be able to do any maintenance needs fairly quickly without spending hours on 1 client. or maybe I'm just crazy. I don't know anything about system admin on servers, so I don't even know what could go wrong with a server.