SFF server platform

[David Bandel]

On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 03:28:58 -0800, Tony Alfrey
<tonyalfrey at earthlink.net> wrote:
> David Bandel wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> > Yep.  $125 install, $45/mo rental.  No worries (that's my job, along
> > with keeping it up to date).  These folks like the price (I like them
> > capitalizing my company).  Less than $400 in my hands.  What I sell
> > them is expertise in Firewalls (I don't even mention the OS).
> 
> What I was getting at is that $400 didn't seem like much to just buy
> outright.  And in a year or two, the box is kinda out-of-date (?) and
> then you have paid-for-but-old boxes piling up in a couple years.  But
> if they keep it for more than a year, it's gravy.  Presumably you don't
> have to fuss with their system too much?  My experience with working for
> places with networks is that the servers (albeit with windoze) are
> always crashing and the system administrator (if not on-site) is always
> getting hassled.  So does your rental fee include this "repair", is that
> extra or is repair just not necessary?

You're missing the point.

$400 isn't much for me to invest when the return is less than a year. 
These systems should last not less than 3 years.  In fact, every
firewall I've ever installed has seen not less than 3 years in
service, some much more (obviously I'm not counting firewalls
installed within the past 2 years, but they seem to be proving out as
well).

So my company is capitalized by $400 for every system I put in
service, plus a meager monthly income.  Most of these companies have
other systems (mail/DNS/etc servers) I maintain as well.

Most of my current servers have well over 3 years in service.  One
Dell 2500 is a 300MHz system about 6 years old (maybe more).  But it's
running low on disk space and uses lots of watts.  Its book value is
zip, but it continues to run several small web sites and pananix.com's
mail service.

As for systems crashing.  I just don't have those problems.  I'm not
stupid enough to take a contract on a Windoze system.  My most
problematic client calls on average twice a month (usually a problem
they have, such as a rampant virus eating all their bandwidth, etc.). 
I have several clients that haven't called me in over a year (except
to discuss anticipated rate hikes for their budgeting purposes). 
Linux and sendmail/DNS/DHCP/iptables just work.  Their admins don't
touch the systems, and my contract excludes hardware repair except at
extra cost (one disk failure, one smoked sound card preventing bootup
in the past 3 years).  I'm not overworked.

> Not trying to go into business doing this myself, just always interested
> in the logistics of small businesses.

For me, it's all about cash flow and reinvesting some of it.  Nothing more.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
            - Nemesis Air Racing Team motto