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I want to start a new business : Online Data Backup (such as Mozy, Carbonite, Sosonlinebackup, etc.)

The software and the web-access application are almost developed.

My questions are :

  1. What type of servers should I use? Dedicated? Cloud servers? Managed or not? etc.
  2. Can you advice me for which provider should I go?
  3. I know that I want to offer an "unlimited bandwidth" plan and extensible storage disk, are there other requirements that are so important and I have to look for?

Thanks a lot for your answers and have a nice day :)

HopelessN00b
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Julien
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  • This is a place to get advice as a server administrator. It's not the place to get other server administrators do write you a startup business plan. Please be considerate of what other administrators are here for. Ask specific questions that are appropriate for a QnA site; don't expect people to research and write custom howtos for things you should be researching and learning. – Caleb Apr 13 '11 at 16:54

1 Answers1

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Re 1: Online backup - your main problem is not processing power but STORAGE. At cloud prices you are dead in the water before you even start moving. What you need is an architecture that allows scalability of your storage to hundreds possibly of terabytes. There are special server cases for that that hold 60 3.5" hard discs, and nexsan has a nice monster, too. if anything requires renting space in a datacenter it is online backup. You also have to figure out how to backup yoru data or not (which has to reflect in the contracts with users). Managed or not is not even a question here - I would assume any maanged offer would be expensive as you dnt use stnadard elements for a hoster anyway.

Re 2: This is not an advice for hosting here. Market information requests are not the scope of the site.

Re 3: This is not a startup advisory forum either.

Voted to close.

splattne
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TomTom
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  • +1, don't do this in a cloud environment and do hire someone who knows what they're doing. – Chopper3 Apr 10 '11 at 10:10
  • Thank you for your answer. What I understand is that I have to host by myself the server (such as Nexsan) on a datacenter ? is it that ? Or I have to look for a "ready" solution englobing all of that (server+datacenter) ? – Julien Apr 10 '11 at 10:39
  • Everyone's familiar with the 'It's just a small matter of programming' fallacy but this is one of those questions where 'It's just a small matter of infrastructure'. – Chris Thorpe Apr 10 '11 at 10:51
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    Mark, everything you've said shows you're out of your depth, you've not even got the basics sorted. – Chopper3 Apr 10 '11 at 11:00
  • @Chopper3: yes I know, that's why I'm trying to get informations about that and asking for help :) I thougt about trying reseller solutions of some ones as mozy etc but after thinking I believe that builidng my own solution may be the...best solution :) For sure I will have to hide for some engineers and experts for that but first, I have to analyses costs, etc. – Julien Apr 10 '11 at 11:07
  • If you're looking for inspiration, check this out: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-how-to-build-cheap-cloud-storage/ – Chris Thorpe Apr 10 '11 at 12:54
  • @Chris Thorpe : Thanks a lot for this link. It seems that Backblaze have done all by them self (hardware, hosting, etc.). Now I think it's more clear for me, I prefer looking for who "offer" this kind of service (server+datacenter) ready to use and not to do it all by myself...is there a chance that I find someting like that ? :) thanks again for your help. – Julien Apr 10 '11 at 13:18
  • Sure there is. Then you are again back on being a reseller. Among many. if that is what you want... Not a question for here, but a core business decision. – TomTom Apr 10 '11 at 13:20
  • I understand that you can't give some links here for publicity. Can you at least tell me where can I get this kind of informations (forums, blogs, websites...) ? Informations that allow me to decied to where direction I have to go...thanks again ! – Julien Apr 10 '11 at 15:33
  • Google. One problem with a link list is that it would be hugh. There are for example hundreds, if not thousands of data centers, and a lot of them are good. – TomTom Apr 10 '11 at 17:04
  • Ok. Do I have to install by myslef my server to the datacenter ? Is there a solution like that: Datacenter rent/sell server, I just purchase from their site and don't have to that all by myself (installation, maintenance, etc.) – Julien Apr 10 '11 at 17:26
  • Ah, yes. Not for speacial cases and it costs. if you are serious you need taff yourself. Datacenters sell you servers, but most just resell Dell etc. - not suitable. Either you get real (setup a company, get someone on staff who can do it), or you will pay a hugh price quite soon for other people you pay by the hour. And no, learning is not an option - would take a year or two plus some time working as admin ;) – TomTom Apr 10 '11 at 17:37