Storage/Backup accounts

[Azariatech]

I would like to see and account specifically for storage and backups. Specifically I'd like to see something I could use for an offsite backup of computers. I currently sell my clients an onsite backup solution consisting of Backup Exec System Recovery (basically a backup software using drive imaging techniques) and a [series of] external HD.

I would need HD space and bandwidth (mostly inbound to HG) but relatively little CPU resource as this would be primarily ftp'ing or rsyncing the backup images to storage. I'm aware that a tremendous amount of files is an issue of some sort (hence the current 50,000 inode limit). This would never exceed that limit since the images are like a big .zip file. In my strategy I split the files at 4.5gb so a typical computer w/ a 500gb drive is roughly 10 files. Adding incrementals to that w/ a weekly base backup I need to keep probably 50-100 files (inodes). This is also probably about 1TB of storage.

I see that the hosting accounts have "unlimited" storage but the TOS does not permit using them for "storage" so I'm not sure what purpose "unlimited" HD space serves. In any case, I'd be fine w/ a metered approach to this and it can certainly be a shared server.

This is something I could resell in conjunction with the backup solutions I provide. Thinking aloud, perhaps I could "buy" 1 or 2TB "blocks" of storage for a fixed fee a month (I'm thinking in the $8-$15/mo range).
This alleviates HG from needing to develop any kind of software for backups and alleviates the support of end users since it's a reseller type situation.

Afai can tell, storage space is relatively cheap so it might not be too big a deal to offer this.

Any body else agree? Thoughts?


J.

[bananaki]

I usually backup my sites on my own
Like go to phpmyadmin and do mySQL backup
or use FTP client to backup files
But you are a resseler (i think), so this is a little hard
Your idea is good
Backup techniques are always good

[skeetr]

Originally Posted by Azariatech

I would like to see and account specifically for storage and backups. Specifically I'd like to see something I could use for an offsite backup of computers. I currently sell my clients an onsite backup solution consisting of Backup Exec System Recovery (basically a backup software using drive imaging techniques) and a [series of] external HD.

I would need HD space and bandwidth (mostly inbound to HG) but relatively little CPU resource as this would be primarily ftp'ing or rsyncing the backup images to storage. I'm aware that a tremendous amount of files is an issue of some sort (hence the current 50,000 inode limit). This would never exceed that limit since the images are like a big .zip file. In my strategy I split the files at 4.5gb so a typical computer w/ a 500gb drive is roughly 10 files. Adding incrementals to that w/ a weekly base backup I need to keep probably 50-100 files (inodes). This is also probably about 1TB of storage.

I see that the hosting accounts have "unlimited" storage but the TOS does not permit using them for "storage" so I'm not sure what purpose "unlimited" HD space serves. In any case, I'd be fine w/ a metered approach to this and it can certainly be a shared server.

This is something I could resell in conjunction with the backup solutions I provide. Thinking aloud, perhaps I could "buy" 1 or 2TB "blocks" of storage for a fixed fee a month (I'm thinking in the $8-$15/mo range).
This alleviates HG from needing to develop any kind of software for backups and alleviates the support of end users since it's a reseller type situation.

Afai can tell, storage space is relatively cheap so it might not be too big a deal to offer this.

Any body else agree? Thoughts?


J.

You wouldnt have any of the restriction problems if you did this on a dedicated server. I know the price is higher than what you are looking for, but if you want to turn it into a business, then dedicated would be the way to go for you anyways.

[Azariatech]

This wouldn't work on a dedicated for a few reasons, cost primarily.
Storage costs for a dedi are far from cheap. This would limit the size of the backups substantially and is not cost effective.

otoh, for HG to add storage capacity to their SANs or whatever they're using for their shared servers would be [relatively] substantially cheaper.

Also there is no reason to have a dedi sitting there idle, probably 90% + of the time, using electricity, generating heat in the datacenter, etc. It's just plain wasteful.

The idea was a for a unique [for HG] type of shared that has access to large amounts of storage (eg. thru SAN or FC array or whatever is most economical w/ decent performance) that could be sold to us for use and/or resell.

Considering the size of todays drives (eg. on a typ. home PC) one could expect 500+ Gb of backup which is just not practical on a dedi at a reasonable cost.

Anyway it was a thought and I was fishing for feelings on it. I still think it's a potentially good idea and I'd still like to hear other's thoughts on it.

[WisTex]

Sounds like a neat service, but I think it would require special setup.

I see that the hosting accounts have "unlimited" storage but the TOS does not permit using them for "storage" so I'm not sure what purpose "unlimited" HD space serves.

It really is not "unlimited" space. There is no such thing. They are overselling and are counting on people not actually using an infinite amount of space. It's a marketing ploy. Most websites do not use gigabytes of hard drive space.

It's like an all-you-can eat buffet. On average, most people eat only a certain amount of food. A couple may eat more than average, but it still averages out and the amount of food on average per person can be estimated.

They say unlimited knowing that on average, most sites will use less than 1 GB of hard drive space each.

I wonder how much a a hard drive or hard drive array with infinite storage would cost.