[BUGS] IT Support Business with FreeBSD servers

[Brad Rushworth]

Hi all,

I've been on this mailing list for a while, and I see many of you are 
probably exposed to using FreeBSD in the commercial world...

I was after a bit of feedback / discussion about a business idea I am 
pursuing... I would really appreciate positive *and* negative feedback 
as well as suggestions, if you guys find the time.

I live in Newcastle NSW and in about 12 months time, I am hoping to 
start an IT support business. I currently look after a few FreeBSD 
installs for a few smallish companies around town, outside of my normal 
day job. I've been doing it on and off for 6-7 years.

I have a degree in Software Engineering and currently work as an 
engineer for a large company. I have a mate (or two) that has a similar 
background to go into partnership with.

Apart from software development and web development type work, I would 
like to focus on supplying rock solid IT infrastructure including 
FreeBSD servers for mail, files, database, etc.

I am targeting businesses with say 5-50 employees. For example, the 
manufacturing industry.

I am thinking of charging as a fixed price monthly fee where we pretty 
much take care of IT issues for the business so they don't need an 
internal person to be responsible for IT. Hopefully less end-user type 
stuff and more infrastructure/server work, depending on whether we can 
find some guys from TAFE or something to man a help desk.

We would offer standard sort of installs and software, automatic offsite 
backups, network monitoring, remote access, etc. We would include the 
hardware in the price as a rental, so all the hardware we work with is 
suitable. Probably use second-hand HP/Compaq servers.

I am thinking that one technician can maintain 15-20 servers. Doing the 
sums, it seems a good price would total about $1000/month for the 
average spend. That's $12,000/year for one server, which I think is 
reasonable for a quality hands-off hassle-free installation that just 
works (as far as the customer is concerned). Employing someone from TAFE 
etc to do the same job would be far more expensive and be worse quality.

I've done a google search for competitors and found a couple with 
quality services, but not many in Newcastle. And many seem to prefer 
Microsoft Small Business Server, which I see the advantages, but if I 
manage FreeBSD professionally for the business, FreeBSD will be a better 
choice (in my opinion).

So, I was wondering if you guys could share your wisdom with me...

Brad