I see this too many times.. and have read about this more than once on HN in recent memory.
Hire a proper system administration company early to work with you on these types of things. There are many companies out there that do this. I happen to run a company that does this, so I know that you can add an expert admin to your team for $100-200/mo.
That is actually surprisingly cheap. Care if I ask what types of services one would get at those rates?
You're absolutely right though, for a company like OP's, if they are so short on cash, it makes a lot of sense to get someone in even if just for the week to address these types of fundamental problems.
For a monthly service, you generally receive an initial:
- System architecture review
- Backup strategy / DR review
- Security scan, and detailed review
- System monitoring design, and implementation
and on-going:
- 24x7 monitoring, and response to outages
- Server patch management
- Ad-hoc system admin time available to be used on-demand
Many more details, and capabilities, but you get the idea ;)
Agreed with the consulting price point, and we charge this. But we also let you get in the door for a few hours a month at a reasonable rate. It's been working for many years now.
I can understand with those numbers why you may think that. These numbers are generally per server and fit a small shop pretty well. We also work with many companies that have hundreds of servers, and the rate is multiplied by each server. I could have been clearer in my initial post.
Additionally, for clarification about your wage comment -- we pay above average US sysadmin wages, and just posted a job for our 7th full-time admin.
Comments
I see this too many times.. and have read about this more than once on HN in recent memory.
Hire a proper system administration company early to work with you on these types of things. There are many companies out there that do this. I happen to run a company that does this, so I know that you can add an expert admin to your team for $100-200/mo.
That is actually surprisingly cheap. Care if I ask what types of services one would get at those rates?
You're absolutely right though, for a company like OP's, if they are so short on cash, it makes a lot of sense to get someone in even if just for the week to address these types of fundamental problems.
For a monthly service, you generally receive an initial: - System architecture review - Backup strategy / DR review - Security scan, and detailed review - System monitoring design, and implementation
and on-going: - 24x7 monitoring, and response to outages - Server patch management - Ad-hoc system admin time available to be used on-demand
Many more details, and capabilities, but you get the idea ;)
> you can add an expert admin to your team for $100-200/mo
Hahaha.
It's what we do -- so I laugh with you ;)
Expert admins are in the $100-150/hr range when they're consulting, and $100K+ salary range when hired. $100-200/month? Oh lord.
Agreed with the consulting price point, and we charge this. But we also let you get in the door for a few hours a month at a reasonable rate. It's been working for many years now.
You're also based on Michigan a little south of Detroit, so I'm sure you can get away with a lower base rate based on the cost of living there.
Sorta, except we generally hire where the talent is available -- Anywhere USA.
Good luck with your below-the-minimum-wage admin.
I can understand with those numbers why you may think that. These numbers are generally per server and fit a small shop pretty well. We also work with many companies that have hundreds of servers, and the rate is multiplied by each server. I could have been clearer in my initial post.
Additionally, for clarification about your wage comment -- we pay above average US sysadmin wages, and just posted a job for our 7th full-time admin.
> These numbers are generally per server
Well, that's a quite important detail you had omitted. If you start dividing salaries by the number of servers, all kinds of crazy numbers come up.