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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. eme
by 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 If the client does not have documentation (or, as is more likely, they have outdated documentation), learning the architecture could mean a large upfront time investment.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 agoI 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.