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Business hosting?

  
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:03 / 08.10.02
My employer is currently pondering ways to alter the function of his business for the better. One possibility is to move the data currently on our server to a "server farm", and then access it through a VPN or similar arrangement, so it can be basically accessed through the Interwebnet, and have a web-based email thing happening as well, so we don't have to bugger about having our own hard drives filled up with random worky stuff and invitations from Sonny Abacha's widow to makke $$$$$ fast while increasing our penis size with HGH.

So, yes. Anyone have any thoughts, hints, recommendations or bright ideas?
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
08:15 / 08.10.02
Don't mention the penis thing in meetings with clients.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
08:19 / 08.10.02
That's going to put a real crimp in business.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
08:42 / 08.10.02
My experience with web-based apps is that they can be incredibly slow to access/update/whatever. Which may or may not be a problem, but is still a consideration...
 
 
Cat Chant
11:50 / 08.10.02
a "server farm"

Who the fuck do you work for? Agent Smith out of The Matrix? Mutoids, Inc? This is all profoundly disturbing. I'm going home to my quill & inkwell.

Um... good luck with the server farm.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
12:36 / 08.10.02
Yeah, but they're *nice* mutoids. All the servers on the server farm are allowed to roam freely. Along their runnels. It's like the mouse organ in there...
 
 
Persephone
13:23 / 08.10.02
My HTML teacher that was, his web design and hosting business is all run from a server farm in Florida. The principals of the business all live in the same apartment building, which is equipped with a T1 line; so they all do their work in their own apartments in the PJs presumably, and for client meetings they rent out a room at the yacht club. I think the main advantage was that the server farm takes care of security, climate control, uninterruptible power supply, that sort of thing.

Deva: there was an excellent creepy article about server farms in the New Yorker, apparently whole dilapidated-looking Manhattan buildings chock full of floor upon floor of humming servers...
 
 
Bad Horse
14:19 / 08.10.02
Our firm is looking at getting all our data back from the scum that are hosting it to run it on some nice servers in house where we can see them, control them, keep them running and stop paying those rip off bastards so much for looking after it for us. Get off site backup in case some git flies a plane into your building. As for the e-mail thing, get a mail server, get a big one, dont get Exchange (nor Shiny metal .net wiz bang M$ thang that is going to replace it neither), back it up off site for the same reason as above. That is all.

Server farm is a misnomer, it's not like a real farm, more a battery farm. Have you seen how much space those servers have? They live a terrible life knowing they may be 'hot swapped' at any moment. Botcot server farms use free range servers instead.
 
 
Cat Chant
14:22 / 08.10.02
the server farm takes care of security, climate control, uninterruptible power supply, that sort of thing.

Climate control????

Haus, you know perfectly well that you cannot take over the server farm. Its power will corrupt you. The only thing you can do is destroy Star One... er, the server farm...
 
 
Fist Fun
14:37 / 08.10.02
Need more information. What are your goals? This would be a good idea if you need flexible access to your data from any machine inside and outside the office. Good for hot desking and dialing in from home.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
14:45 / 08.10.02
The plan is basically that the office is pooey, and involves getting up early in the morning and commuting, and also that it will be easier to abolish it than clean the kitchen. Fuck that noise. Also, I work best in pyjamas. I think I have a bit of a thing about pyjamas.

(A friend of mine got a junk email entitled GO TO WORK IN A ROBE! He was quite excited until he found out that it was aimed at Americans, and thus meant "work from home in your dressing gown", not "be a bishop")

So, the aim is to have it accessible at least from our home computers and a couple of laptops, and possibly broaden access from there. The idea is, further, to get broadband connections for the aforementioned computers, so we can handle big data transfer. So far have found lots of places offering web space, but no real content hosting for business offers...
 
 
Rev. Orr
15:06 / 08.10.02
Why not just wear your pyjama to work?
 
 
Tryphena Absent
15:13 / 08.10.02
I think that would ruin them, they'd get all grimy by the time you were there, then you'd be sad and might have to cry in the loo.
 
 
Rev. Orr
15:22 / 08.10.02
...but making him cry in the toilets is a good thing...
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
15:25 / 08.10.02
Not the way you do it, monkeyboy.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
15:31 / 08.10.02
You two sure are sizzling today.
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
15:36 / 08.10.02
Yes; who was it who wanted an example of non-het flirting derailing a thread again...?
 
 
Rev. Orr
15:36 / 08.10.02
Naw, Haus only goes for the undead. Kinda ironic, after Deadboy an' all but he's not been the same since his latest death.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
15:48 / 08.10.02
(sings)

There was no pain,
No fear or doubt,
Till they pulled me out,
of Heeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaven.

So that's my refrain,
I live in Hell,
Becasue of Orr's smell,
Unleeeeeeeaaaaavened.

(/sings)

Anyway, I'm the one who is trying to find things out, and he is the one who is rotting the thread, So ner.
 
 
Fist Fun
18:43 / 08.10.02
I've always done this kind of thing in-house so I couldn't really point you towards any good third-parties. It is a good idea if you need flexibility. Much easier for back ups. Home working can be a bit of a two edge sword though. How do you know when work stops and home starts, etc...
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
20:47 / 08.10.02
Silly question. Work stops when I go to bed. It's just that if I am working from home bed is a lovely iron bed, rather than three sofa cushions on the floor.

Natch.
 
 
Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero
17:52 / 09.10.02
there was an excellent creepy article about server farms in the New Yorker, apparently whole dilapidated-looking Manhattan buildings chock full of floor upon floor of humming servers...

How weird it would be to deliver a pizza to a building like that. Imagine the door opening on it's own, and the address is for a room on the third floor (which is also full of humming servers), where a little junk robot takes the pizza and hands over the cash and tells you to beat it. "good lord!" you would think. "They've achieved sentience! They know how to order pizza! They like canandian bacon!" You would have no choice but to run and jump through a third-story window while screaming.

Working from home sounds like a great deal. I wish I could do it.
 
  
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