>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

>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.