The Simple Server Co

The answer to that very much depends on what you are going to serve and how important the content is to your operation.

If your needs are for no more than an on line business card ie a few pages of static content, then the choice between having your own server and using a hosting company becomes difficult to make as there is not much difference in terms of cost . If you do not already have a broad band connection and would only have one to serve your website  then using a hosting company wouild be the way to go. We offer an inexpensive design and hosting package to satisfy this requirement. Contact us to see how we can help.

If your requirements are a bit more ambitious, fast data base backed applications, E-commerce, mail server etc, then having your own server becomes a sensible option and if you have a several staff then a file server is a must. It keeps all your company data in one secure location with acess control and backup.

From a $$$ point of view a personal private server represents big savings in the long run primarily because there are no monthly fees and as we use Open Source Software there a no licences to pay either, you can have as many users as you want..

A conservative estimate of the life of the server would be 6 years plus with very little maintenance (they are very reliable).

• So if you were to have your site hosted on someone elses facilities you would be paying around NZ$300 per month for six years = $21,600.00. You could get a Virtual Private Server (VPS) a bit cheaper.
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• Our entry level server starts at $450 + gst (depending on your hardware requirements),
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• Add a good modem/firewall/router for added security and future network expansion at about $300.
  
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• Less than $800.00.
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• Add a UPS to give protection from those occasional power outages and to protect phone and data connections at about $160.
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• Less than $1000 total.

Operationally speaking there are a lot of advantages to having physical access to the server. Making changes to the sites content, changing software options, or adding new functionallity are a snap.

The security of your data is also improved as there is now one less entry point. Physical access is now under your control, your SSL private key is now truly private and there is one less server with your data sitting on it.

The above costings assume the server is operating on surlpus bandwidth on your existing connection. Serving web pages does not consume alot of bandwidth, unless your business is the internet (popular social site or sucessful online auctions etc) you would be pushed to use 1Gb in a month.