Ask YC: Outsourced sysadmin?

[groovyone]

Hi there

We're a small team and whilst we know a little about the server-side of things we're struggling a bit to look after our servers. We want to concentrate on building our apps and not managing the servers all the time so wondering if anyone has suggestions for outsourcing our server management? We've had some issues with load past few days and our own knowledge was exhausted. We installed nginx instead of Apache, added a caching app but we're sure a good sysadmin would have pinpointed our problems sooner and suggested ways to improve things quicker. We don't have the funds to employ someone full-time, so any suggestions here would be appreciated.

[pierrefar]

Something needs to be said: You will need to give the sysadmin the ability to suggest changes to your app's architecture. That's where real scalability and availability start.

All I'm saying is that sysadmin for apps is not just installing the right kind of software.

[fub4r]

Have you considered partnering with someone who does managed hosting? It's not unheard of for startups to get a contra deal.

[ScottWhigham]

Google "managed server" and you might what you need. Probably cost you between $250 and $600 a month depending on what you want (which is wayyyyy cheaper than an in-house sysadmin).