[nwilkens]

I see this too many times.. and have read about this more than once on HN in recent memory.

Hire a proper system administration company early to work with you on these types of things. There are many companies out there that do this. I happen to run a company that does this, so I know that you can add an expert admin to your team for $100-200/mo.

[Brandon0]

That is actually surprisingly cheap. Care if I ask what types of services one would get at those rates?

You're absolutely right though, for a company like OP's, if they are so short on cash, it makes a lot of sense to get someone in even if just for the week to address these types of fundamental problems.

[nwilkens]

For a monthly service, you generally receive an initial: - System architecture review - Backup strategy / DR review - Security scan, and detailed review - System monitoring design, and implementation

and on-going: - 24x7 monitoring, and response to outages - Server patch management - Ad-hoc system admin time available to be used on-demand

Many more details, and capabilities, but you get the idea ;)

[rorrr2]

> you can add an expert admin to your team for $100-200/mo

Hahaha.

[nwilkens]

It's what we do -- so I laugh with you ;)

[toomuchtodo]

Expert admins are in the $100-150/hr range when they're consulting, and $100K+ salary range when hired. $100-200/month? Oh lord.

[nwilkens]

Agreed with the consulting price point, and we charge this. But we also let you get in the door for a few hours a month at a reasonable rate. It's been working for many years now.

[toomuchtodo]

You're also based on Michigan a little south of Detroit, so I'm sure you can get away with a lower base rate based on the cost of living there.

[nwilkens]

Sorta, except we generally hire where the talent is available -- Anywhere USA.

[rorrr2]

Good luck with your below-the-minimum-wage admin.

[nwilkens]

I can understand with those numbers why you may think that. These numbers are generally per server and fit a small shop pretty well. We also work with many companies that have hundreds of servers, and the rate is multiplied by each server. I could have been clearer in my initial post.

Additionally, for clarification about your wage comment -- we pay above average US sysadmin wages, and just posted a job for our 7th full-time admin.

[rorrr2]

> These numbers are generally per server

Well, that's a quite important detail you had omitted. If you start dividing salaries by the number of servers, all kinds of crazy numbers come up.