ANST - Second-Guessing

[Pug Bainter]

Galen W. Bevel (galenbv at ix.netcom.com) said something that sounded like:
> Let me play a little devils advocate here and look at this in another way.

Certainly.

> But...all of that aside, what would happen if we _didn't_ budget such
> things?  Lets say we just bought the server for $2000.00 and then let it go,
> strictly with Pug's care to keep it running.  How long could we count on it?

This is why I am advocating a *new* system with a 3 year on-site warranty.
We will be able to count on it for 3 years at it's released capacity for
3 years.

> Would it be safe to say, barring disasters, a year? 

Barring true disaster, it *should* be 3 years.

> Would there be
> significant costs/effort involved in dropping the server if we could no
> longer maintain it?

The only costs/effort would be in finding a new location for the Kingdom
website and those officers that need webpages. We would be able to
revert back to the old methods of doing things.

> If not, then we get a year of server use for $2000.00,
> what would that same service cost if outsourced? Answer that question, and
> you know whether buying the server would be worthwhile.

>From a reputable ISP, just webspace for a low-traffic "commercial"
organization with CGI capability, the cost is $200 activation and $150
per month. This only gives 50M of disk storage.

Each additional mailbox after the first is $10 activation and $7 per
month. The proposal I am making is to have the Greater and Lesser
Officers of State, as well as the Regional and Local officers in time.
Although not all of these may be used, if we look at about 1/3 of these
officers taking advantage of this ability, it would be roughly 100
people I *think*. That is of course

You can have the activation charges reduced or waived for longer contracts
than 12 months.

As for colocation costs of our own server with services not adding up to
what I am providing, it would cost $1000 activation and $350 per month.
At minimum this would not provide backup service, off-site backup storage
nor firewall protection.

Yes we *might* be able to get some of these services donated or reduced
in price, but *I* am not the type of person to be able to do that. I'm
not good at Sales.

> Basically, if the
> extreme worst case (but still within the realms of planning) scenario still
> provides value, then the deal is a good one.

I've never thought in that manner. I would never justify something based
on what the worst case is. Although this may be a consdieration, you
need to decide first if there is enough benefit to the Kingdom for the
money being put out.

Ciao,

-- 
Phelim "Pug" Gervase  | "I want to be called. COTTONTIPS. There is something 
Barony of Bryn Gwlad  |  graceful about that lady. A young woman bursting with 
House Flaming Dog     |  vigor. She blinked at the sudden light. She writes
pug at pug.net           |  beautiful poems. When ever shall we meet again?"
  Note: The views do not reflect the SCA nor the Kingdom of Ansteorra.
============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.