Server Hosting Costs - Commercial Sites, This Right?

[CoolerUK]

Hi all,

 

this is not really my area so I wanted to ask some for some advice about whether or not these costs are about right because I have been asked to research if we can get a better deal.

 

As it stands the client has 3 commercial websites which combined make about 30-50 transactions a month (steadily growing), product catalogue of about 160 items across the 3 sites

 

Cost breakdown is as follows

 

Web/application server - ?350 a month

Database server - ?350 a month

Image server - ?350 a month

Bandwidth Provision - ?180 per month for 10mb/s

Firewall and Snapshot Back Ups - inclusive

 

total - ?1230 per month

 

3 virtual machines implemended to support all the sites

 

 

Basically I have been tasked at trying to find a better deal and wondered if we are being 'rinsed' at the moment or if that figure looks reasonable?

 

Many thanks in advance.

[Kami-]

Absolutely rinsed is all I can say.

[sh4hb4z]

I think you've been rinsed - its way overpriced. 30 - 50 transactions a month? How busy is your site that you need three separate servers at ?350 each? Do they have the same spec? Why would you need the same spec for all three if one is just an image server?

 

?180 for bandwidth? Really? How much are you transferring?

 

You've seriously been ripped off.

[philcruicks]

Yeah, take a look at Azure or other cloud offerings, nice thing with them if the business is growing is that you can easily scale the servers up as they grow.

[1ON]

Two recommendations,

 

A company like Exponential-e, http://www.exponential-e.com/. Cloud offering is UK based, VMware, HP Blade, EMC storage.

 

Or,

 

Microsoft Azure

 

PM me if you have any questions.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Having built and hosted a major UK website that took well over 300 transactions per day - someone is making of money off of you :(

[game_over]

Transactions don't really mean anything in regards to performance and bandwidth.. how many hits does it get? how many concurrent users? how many hits do you want or are you aiming for? (i.e how scalable do you need it to be?)

 

How big are the sites? wtf is an image server? and why does it require ?350/month you could get on a CDN for a fraction of the cost and serve images from there...

 

Your not being rinsed, you are being absolutely and completely ripped off and anyone who has recommended this to you needs shooting, if the guy/company your paying recommended this to you this then say no more... always seek independent advice when there is this much money up in the air.

 

To put things into perspective for you: i have a website with over 25,000 hits month, in it's peak days it was getting 50,000 hits month, i run it on a ?85/month server.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Transactions don't really mean anything in regards to performance and bandwidth

 

Agree and disagree.  number of transactions can often be scaled up (assuming per x visits = 1 sale) to hits.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

Those prices are nuts you can even setup your own high end servers for these prices and rent a place at a server park and that would be probably cheaper lol

[primexx]

well the thing that really jumps out is why the heck do you need three separate servers for that?

[Kami-]

Those prices are nuts you can even setup your own high end servers for these prices and rent a place at a server park and that would be probably cheaper lol

Off-topic: lol at 'server park', totally had a mental image of an amusement park based on servers; I think the term you meant to use was 'Data Center' but I won't hold it against you!

[game_over]

Server park is definitely more fun, lets stick with that.

[threetonesun]

If 30 - 50 is shorthand for 30,000 - 50,000, you're still getting hosed.

[Seahorsepip Veteran]

Off-topic: lol at 'server park', totally had a mental image of an amusement park based on servers; I think the term you meant to use was 'Data Center' but I won't hold it against you!

haha  :rofl:

[ShadowMajestic]

You are being completely ripped off.

Even if you get 50.000 hits, you don't need a 350USD server, not by far.

Just a simple search at a good hoster has servers capable of handling well over 50.000 hits per day for as low as 80bucks a month.

Get 5 of em, just for the hell of it and you're still far cheaper then this rip off solution you've been offered.

[wrack]

A $10/month good quality hosting like Arvixe.com can do the job just fine at the load. If you have to have a virtual hosting that is still ripping you off.

 

Can you tell the virtual machine specs?

[Kami-]

A $10/month good quality hosting like Arvixe.com can do the job just fine at the load. If you have to have a virtual hosting that is still ripping you off.

 

Can you tell the virtual machine specs?

 

Not quite, but nice try.

[ashpowell]

Put it this way.. I run about 150 websites on a server that costs me ?120 a month, and is barely under load.

[wrack]

Not quite, but nice try.

Wasn't trying to sell. Just stating the facts the way OP explained.

 

Please tell me why "not quite"? No need to kill a mosquito with a bazooka.

[Kami-]

Wasn't trying to sell. Just stating the facts the way OP explained.

 

Please tell me why "not quite"? No need to kill a mosquito with a bazooka.

You'd want dedicated/VPS server for a business site of scale he has, not 'shared hosting'.

[wrack]

You'd want dedicated/VPS server for a business site of scale he has, not 'shared hosting'.

Yeah I understand the reasons but the amount of traffic that was mentioned didn't warrant a dedicated/VPS hosting?

[Kami-]

Yeah I understand the reasons but the amount of traffic that was mentioned didn't warrant a dedicated/VPS hosting?

Not just traffic to consider, there are a multitude of other considerations.

[wrack]

Not just traffic to consider, there are a multitude of other considerations.

Again true but the OP hasn't given any specific information on the other factors so I gave that answer based on the initial information. I am sure with a better requirements we all can suggest him/her something better suited to the needs.

[Kami-]

Again true but the OP hasn't given any specific information on the other factors so I gave that answer based on the initial information. I am sure with a better requirements we all can suggest him/her something better suited to the needs.

Well on that basis, why are you stating outright that a cheap $10/month service will suit his needs if you don't know the requirements?

 

Besides, anything remotely business transaction related shouldn't live on shared hosting, at all, ever.

[Reb0ot]

Hi all,

 

this is not really my area so I wanted to ask some for some advice about whether or not these costs are about right because I have been asked to research if we can get a better deal.

 

As it stands the client has 3 commercial websites which combined make about 30-50 transactions a month (steadily growing), product catalogue of about 160 items across the 3 sites

 

Cost breakdown is as follows

 

Web/application server - ?350 a month

Database server - ?350 a month

Image server - ?350 a month

Bandwidth Provision - ?180 per month for 10mb/s

Firewall and Snapshot Back Ups - inclusive

 

total - ?1230 per month

 

3 virtual machines implemended to support all the sites

 

 

Basically I have been tasked at trying to find a better deal and wondered if we are being 'rinsed' at the moment or if that figure looks reasonable?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

It depends on the amount of traffic going through.

If its low traffic then have both the DB and the web server on the same server. You would save ?350/month on this.

 

If it was me though I would just have it on a VPS platform that would include automatic backups/images, pay max ?100/month for each VPS you need and have more RAM on the DB server than the web server.

 

Contact me directly if you need more help.

[CoolerUK]

Thanks everyone, seems the costs from when a previous brand was at its peak has carried over, in the process of cutting this back considerably now, so  thanks again for all your input.