I'm currently developing for two business websites and I update and maintain under contract eight more. Starting to think about adding virtual hosting to my services and am most interested in everyones input toward costs.

Business line, server and backup systems specifically. I currently (last two + years) run Apple OS X servers, MySQL, WebObjects and Apache at my day job so I thought I might translate my good experiences with those to my side business.

Alternatively, the Solaris server has always fascinated me but I don't believe I have the business to pay for this much server yet. Ideas?

I can put $5K into a system from my reserves or if necessay double that with a loan but I'm trying to keep this a lean and mean enterprise. I net about $1200 a month on my website contracts and about another $2k a month on development.

Not much I admit but it makes me think I could do more if I picked up the other end of the business. My goal would be to net an additional $2k from the hosting side.

Sounds like you just need a managed or unmanaged dedicated server from any one of the hundreds of suppliers. A good server will set you back around $300/mth.

You also might want to think about a Reseller account where you can setup and manage your domains under 1 account. This would cost around $30/mth for maybe 20GB data transfer/mth etc..

Would I be able to use the tools I am currently using? The WebObjects seems to be the sticking point for most. Though I'll grant you only one of these sites actually uses the WO server.

Why not find a mac host?

I am a huge mac fan and starting a web solutions business and am looking for a mac host and have found some.

You can also purchase a xserve yourself and put in on a collocation facility. I think some of the people here would be willing to spend time and effort helping you out if you coloed at their facilities.

Anyway, for mac hosts check out:

- Digital Forest (http://www.digitalforest.net/)
- MacHost (http://www.machost.com/)
- MacDock (http://www.macdock.com/)

If I find more i'll post them here.

There is also xserverack (http://www.xserverack.com) which I read will be opening business shortly.

Also, check some of the topics I posted on the subject:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55454

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52606

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=52609

Feel free to PM me if you need or post here.

Regarding webobjects, you have deployment versions for os X, solaris and windows 2000.

I think you can even use it on a linux box that has a J2EE, java 2 enterprise edition, server, as you can see at http://www.apple.com/webobjects/.

You can find a free J2EE server at www.jboss.org.

I knew I had seen this somewhere...

For the webobjects site, you might want to check out http://www.objectwarehouse.com/we_are.html

Why not host the webobjects site somewhere and have a dedicated server or reseller plan for the other sites?

Being a reseller is going to be the best option for low-cost entry. Most of your costs will come in marketing expenses as opposed to operational ones.