For almost 10 years now, I've bought my own servers (with Domino on it), and hosted them at my home office. What do I use it for:

  • running my own business (some notes apps, website, blog, traveler, imap)
  • development and test server (I know, I should use a different server, but that's expensive)
  • running apps and websites for a couple of small customers, who can't or won't afford their own server, but pay me a small hosting fee
  • running BLUG (website, apps)
  • running websites for e.g. some wine-clubs
Overall, nothing heavy.
I bought a Windows server (every 3 years), a UPS, a backup device; invested in a fixed IP internet connection for which I pay 75 EUR a month, with average bandwidth.
When I was on holiday in Egypt my server was down for over 6 days (partly due to my extended stay because of the volcanic ashes). No wonder my customers (and other users) where a bit upset, and I was feeling miserable too. There was nothing I could do remotely. What happened was that the UPS software decided it was time for a complete check: it ran empty and the server just shut down :-( !

Time for another approach !
I'm not a networking guy; I'm a basic Domino administrator. I just want a stable, highly available, good speed solution for my needs, that allows me to run my own Domino server.
So what are my options (note that I'm not familiar with 'hosting' terminology):
  • Keep doing what I do now, maybe invest in a secondary clustered/failover server
  • Invest in a Foundation server (I just fear I don't have enough control), and keep hosting it myself
  • 'Rent' a physical server in a data center (this is what someone proposed, about 100 EUR per month)
  • Rent a Virtual server (where?)
  • Go for Amazon EC2 (I have no idea if this allows me enough freedom)
The list above is just my limited idea of what I can do. I'm sure there are other solutions, I'm not aware of.
What would you suggest ? I need to make a decision soon.

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  | TechnoratiTechnorati: , ,