[BUGS] IT Support Business with FreeBSD servers

[Jerahmy Pocott]

On 21/05/2008, at 10:23 PM, Brad Rushworth wrote:

> 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.

That's quite a reasonable price, I charge a similar rate and do NOT  
provide hardware in that cost.. Though I maintain all network  
infrastructure and also design it from the ground up if needed, all  
using FreeBSD servers.


> 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).

Here in is where you face your biggest challenge, most of your clients  
will have never heard of FreeBSD and not really understand what it is  
and can do. They know 'Microsoft' and have some level of trust in the  
product. What is very important is to firstly outline the massive  
difference in cost to the company for a microsoft server compared to a  
FreeBSD one AND that the FreeBSD solution is providing greater  
performance and reliability. Convincing people that a free operating  
system will do a better job than the one that costs big dollars and  
has a name they know can be tricky.

You could offer 'small business servers' and not actually say what  
they run, just say what services they can provide.. Then have a  
technical summary that says you're using FreeBSD, so the people who DO  
know will prefer you.

It's really a marketing thing, do you yell out that you offer FreeBSD  
servers or just that you provide servers.. They target two different  
types of client but you want to get both of them..

I'm actually a software developer/engineer, which is the sort of work  
I prefer doing, but I'v gotten into doing this part of the time  
because I keep getting offered work in networks and servers.. But then  
they expect you to solve their technical problems and I really hate  
tech support >_<