4 ms·

24/7 sys admin service. I often wondered why no-one is doing this, I expect because it would be rather expensive to staff, but the sys admin tools are so advanc

by marquis 14y ago

24/7 sys admin service. I often wondered why no-one is doing this, I expect because it would be rather expensive to staff, but the sys admin tools are so advanced these days: get an SMS that a server component is down, fix it somehow. If you're not part of a larger company, what do you do if you're on a plane and you're having server issues? If you do this please let me know: I know quite a few people who would sign up if it were priced for startups.

mryan 14y ago
I have thought about doing something like this - providing a sysadmin service to companies who don't necessarily need a full-time sysadmin, but do need e.g. emergency response to system failures. I see two main challenges to making this profitable: ) Knowledge of client applications. To fix something in a timely manner, you need to know the application/architecture. If the client does not have documentation (or, as is more likely, they have outdated documentation), learning the architecture could mean a large upfront time investment. ) Bursty nature of support requests. This could be mitigated by doing consultancy/project work in the same market. Particularly in early startups, the infrastructure tends to grow organically. Having an outsider help document the infrastructure and processes could be quite useful. If anyone wants to discuss this idea more, my email is in my profile. I think there is a market out there for such a service - I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks it might be useful to them.
- marquis 14y ago
  >large upfront time investment A per-server setup fee and a fee on any sys changes is reasonable, as is having the onus on the user to work with the sys admin service to test failovers etc. You could provide add-on services, like scaling advice and implementation etc. Since a lot of sys-admin is doing nothing (thanks to so brilliantly setting things up in the first place, right!) that time is billable to clients for services. That covers your second problem. This is the kind of idea I'll feel sad about for not having a crack at myself, but I'd be happy to see it out in the wild.
- chefsurfing 14y ago
  I pitched "sysadmin as a service" to a sysadmin friend and he was totally against it. He said we don't need more sysadmins, we need better developers who understand sysadmin fundamentals and know how to build stable systems. How about taking both and synthesize them? Sysadmin-as-a-service + training and education service. Hire the consultant for the bandaid fix of the immediate problem and to train and help educate the internal team on the sysadmin fundamentals they are missing.
  - vermasque 14y ago
    What are these fundamentals that devs should know?
  - alpine 14y ago
    I guess your friend isn't an entrepreneur, otherwise he would conclude there is clearly an opportunity for this service, with money to be made.
alpine 14y ago
I would pay serious money for this. Maybe $100 for a single 'call out' on the assumption that it would be an infrequent happening. Ferriss' 4HWW logically demands this, I guess. --Supplemental-- Before anyone accuses me of being cheap, I'd be happy to pay $100 per hour, assuming the 'call out' would most likely be short in duration since it would be part of the deal that I supply a detailed wiki of the software under support.
ohashi 14y ago
I use managed hosting which sort of acts like this. They proactively watch my server and fix things when they go wrong (with server stuff, not my code).
- marquis 14y ago
  The problem with managed hosting is that it's not preventative, at least not anywhere I've found. We use Linode a lot which lets us know when CPU/disk reads are going crazy but that can just be a false trigger. I'd like a service that's more fine-grained than that, and can spin up servers when needed etc. With the right tools it could be quite marvellous.

by marquis 14y ago

mryan 14y ago

I have thought about doing something like this - providing a sysadmin service to companies who don't necessarily need a full-time sysadmin, but do need e.g. emergency response to system failures. I see two main challenges to making this profitable: ) Knowledge of client applications. To fix something in a timely manner, you need to know the application/architecture. If the client does not have documentation (or, as is more likely, they have outdated documentation), learning the architecture could mean a large upfront time investment. ) Bursty nature of support requests. This could be mitigated by doing consultancy/project work in the same market. Particularly in early startups, the infrastructure tends to grow organically. Having an outsider help document the infrastructure and processes could be quite useful. If anyone wants to discuss this idea more, my email is in my profile. I think there is a market out there for such a service - I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks it might be useful to them.

marquis 14y ago
>large upfront time investment A per-server setup fee and a fee on any sys changes is reasonable, as is having the onus on the user to work with the sys admin service to test failovers etc. You could provide add-on services, like scaling advice and implementation etc. Since a lot of sys-admin is doing nothing (thanks to so brilliantly setting things up in the first place, right!) that time is billable to clients for services. That covers your second problem. This is the kind of idea I'll feel sad about for not having a crack at myself, but I'd be happy to see it out in the wild.
chefsurfing 14y ago
I pitched "sysadmin as a service" to a sysadmin friend and he was totally against it. He said we don't need more sysadmins, we need better developers who understand sysadmin fundamentals and know how to build stable systems. How about taking both and synthesize them? Sysadmin-as-a-service + training and education service. Hire the consultant for the bandaid fix of the immediate problem and to train and help educate the internal team on the sysadmin fundamentals they are missing.
- vermasque 14y ago
  What are these fundamentals that devs should know?
- alpine 14y ago
  I guess your friend isn't an entrepreneur, otherwise he would conclude there is clearly an opportunity for this service, with money to be made.

alpine 14y ago

I would pay serious money for this. Maybe $100 for a single 'call out' on the assumption that it would be an infrequent happening. Ferriss' 4HWW logically demands this, I guess. --Supplemental-- Before anyone accuses me of being cheap, I'd be happy to pay $100 per hour, assuming the 'call out' would most likely be short in duration since it would be part of the deal that I supply a detailed wiki of the software under support.

ohashi 14y ago

I use managed hosting which sort of acts like this. They proactively watch my server and fix things when they go wrong (with server stuff, not my code).

marquis 14y ago
The problem with managed hosting is that it's not preventative, at least not anywhere I've found. We use Linode a lot which lets us know when CPU/disk reads are going crazy but that can just be a false trigger. I'd like a service that's more fine-grained than that, and can spin up servers when needed etc. With the right tools it could be quite marvellous.