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Hum. I’m in the process of starting up a Wireless ISP in Europe. I was looking at using a large piece of management software provided by a Canadian company, hos

Hum. I’m in the process of starting up a Wireless ISP in Europe. I was looking at using a large piece of management software provided by a Canadian company, hosted in the US. This is starting to feel like a bit of a bad idea. I was already unimpressed with their “no one has ever asked us about GDPR” response. I can totally see an ISP getting heavier regulation in this regard too, given it is providing infrastructure. Maybe I’ll code it all up myself while I wait for the dedicated fibre to come through.

dx034 6y ago
Any reason why it has to be hosted in the US? Hosting is so standardized, it's hard to argue why it can't be moved to the EU.
- adamcharnock 6y ago
  It is a SaaS product and I guess that was just what made sense to them at the time. They say they have a lot of EU customers, but something doesn't add up. Either they don't have a lot of EU customers, or their EU customers are ignoring GDPR, hosting locations, and (in my case) regulations on invoicing software. Maybe those customers are just saying, "ah, it'll be fine, let's not worry about it." Which probably isn't a bad approach for small companies. I suppose my choice comes down to: Do I want something off the shelf, slick, a bit expensive, and may or may not screw me in known ways. Or do I want something custom, slow to build, a bit clunkly, can adapt to my needs at the cost of my time, and won't screw me in known ways. Of course, both may screw me in unknown ways :-) Anyway, thanks for listening. This is mostly me just thinking this though.
  - m4rtink 6y ago
    SaaS management system for WISP seems weird to me. From what I know from the local WISPs their internal systems need to be very robust and independent from internet connectivity, so when the network or Internet connectivity goes down, they are still available to quickly resolve the issue.
    - adamcharnock 6y ago
      Yes, I can totally see how that makes a lot of sense.
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
I'm sure that if you ask nicely you can get a hosted version of said management software; software is not bound to a country of residence.
belorn 6y ago
If you are coding it up yourself I would just host it on any old hardware laying around. The upgrade path I would use is to grab what ever old gaming pc that the founder already owns. Once everything is up and working, money is coming in, you have customers, then start considering upgrading to an actually dedicated server with redundant power supply and ups. Once that is starting to get old or the company management software has outgrown such setup you have enough data to know what kind of demands you want to apply to a cloud company in terms of reliability, scaling, support and legal.

dx034 6y ago

Any reason why it has to be hosted in the US? Hosting is so standardized, it's hard to argue why it can't be moved to the EU.

adamcharnock 6y ago
It is a SaaS product and I guess that was just what made sense to them at the time. They say they have a lot of EU customers, but something doesn't add up. Either they don't have a lot of EU customers, or their EU customers are ignoring GDPR, hosting locations, and (in my case) regulations on invoicing software. Maybe those customers are just saying, "ah, it'll be fine, let's not worry about it." Which probably isn't a bad approach for small companies. I suppose my choice comes down to: Do I want something off the shelf, slick, a bit expensive, and may or may not screw me in known ways. Or do I want something custom, slow to build, a bit clunkly, can adapt to my needs at the cost of my time, and won't screw me in known ways. Of course, both may screw me in unknown ways :-) Anyway, thanks for listening. This is mostly me just thinking this though.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  SaaS management system for WISP seems weird to me. From what I know from the local WISPs their internal systems need to be very robust and independent from internet connectivity, so when the network or Internet connectivity goes down, they are still available to quickly resolve the issue.
  - adamcharnock 6y ago
    Yes, I can totally see how that makes a lot of sense.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

I'm sure that if you ask nicely you can get a hosted version of said management software; software is not bound to a country of residence.

belorn 6y ago

If you are coding it up yourself I would just host it on any old hardware laying around. The upgrade path I would use is to grab what ever old gaming pc that the founder already owns. Once everything is up and working, money is coming in, you have customers, then start considering upgrading to an actually dedicated server with redundant power supply and ups. Once that is starting to get old or the company management software has outgrown such setup you have enough data to know what kind of demands you want to apply to a cloud company in terms of reliability, scaling, support and legal.