6 ms·

I was puzzeled over that number too, as putting up a site like that, even if you are buying the servers from scratch and hire a first rate web dev, shouldn't co

I was puzzeled over that number too, as putting up a site like that, even if you are buying the servers from scratch and hire a first rate web dev, shouldn't cost more than 10-20k$. I went through to the linked artice, and appeareantly, most of it went for consultants. I mean there are consultants out there that are worth their money, and I bet the site is kai-zen optimized very nicely, even though I can't tell, but 327 million $ is quite a hump for that website. The main problem seems to be that government contracting is not a regular market, else joe's jquerry shack would have ourrun and outpaced accenture in both cost and quality.

gte910h 13y ago
I am also guessing there is a backend component that isn't on yet? Additionally, gov't is traditionally entirely unwilling to agree to strict requirements, so require vast overbidding
- solistice 13y ago
  i guess there is a backend there that isn't accounted for yet. I went with 5k for web design and 15k for 3 pretty average servers (using jeff atwoods specs as a general number, where he comes out to $2,750 for raw server cost without allocation), but in retrospect, 3 average servers could be somewhat small for a site like that.
jshen 13y ago
"if you are buying the servers from scratch and hire a first rate web dev, shouldn't cost more than 10-20k$" this number is just as absurd as the $327 million.
- tjr 13y ago
  At $125/hour and $5000 for servers, $10-20k could be spent up in a couple weeks or so. That seems pretty reasonable, and certainly not as absurd as $327 million, which would amount to about 1200 years of FTE effort.
  - jshen 13y ago
    If you were the government or a big company with a reputation would you call up 1 guy and say "you've got a few weeks and 120/hr, make a site and well run it in our data enter"? Think of all the things that can go wrong! Security, PII, etc.
    - tjr 13y ago
      Ah, I thought your remark was suggesting that it should be even cheaper than $10-20k.
numo16 13y ago
> The main problem seems to be that government contracting is not a regular market I have to wonder if it would be come a more regular market if companies weren't required to drug-test all of their employees in order to do more than $100,000 of Federal contract work [1]. I'm sure their are companies out there that would prefer not to compromise their employees' privacy for the sake of work they might not need. [1]: http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=54845 http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-it...

gte910h 13y ago

I am also guessing there is a backend component that isn't on yet? Additionally, gov't is traditionally entirely unwilling to agree to strict requirements, so require vast overbidding

solistice 13y ago
i guess there is a backend there that isn't accounted for yet. I went with 5k for web design and 15k for 3 pretty average servers (using jeff atwoods specs as a general number, where he comes out to $2,750 for raw server cost without allocation), but in retrospect, 3 average servers could be somewhat small for a site like that.

jshen 13y ago

"if you are buying the servers from scratch and hire a first rate web dev, shouldn't cost more than 10-20k$" this number is just as absurd as the $327 million.

tjr 13y ago
At $125/hour and $5000 for servers, $10-20k could be spent up in a couple weeks or so. That seems pretty reasonable, and certainly not as absurd as $327 million, which would amount to about 1200 years of FTE effort.
- jshen 13y ago
  If you were the government or a big company with a reputation would you call up 1 guy and say "you've got a few weeks and 120/hr, make a site and well run it in our data enter"? Think of all the things that can go wrong! Security, PII, etc.
  - tjr 13y ago
    Ah, I thought your remark was suggesting that it should be even cheaper than $10-20k.

numo16 13y ago

> The main problem seems to be that government contracting is not a regular market I have to wonder if it would be come a more regular market if companies weren't required to drug-test all of their employees in order to do more than $100,000 of Federal contract work [1]. I'm sure their are companies out there that would prefer not to compromise their employees' privacy for the sake of work they might not need. [1]: http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=54845 http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-it...