@rebeccacohen Years ago, I ran my small business from my home and I upgraded my internet service to Comcast Business which allowed me to host loads of web services for clients. I ran multiple load balanced Apache servers, email server, FTP server, DNS server, Oracle/MySQL databases, and a slew of other features and functionality. The basement of my home looked like an IT shop. It was a wonderful learning experience and I worked hard to keep it all running. 

But its much, much more cost effective to simply subscribe to existing services that are available cheaply. With all the cloud-based companies, you’d be crazy to do this yourself. 

I created a bunch of Java web applications including SSL account registration and email validation, online shopping cart, integration with PayPal, and custom database reports. I chucked it all after a few years but I certainly learned valuable technology.

What are your priorities or goals? 

Thanks Rob. I appreciate what you have shared and yes, it’s a lot of work. I agree there is a lot out there these days with cloud.
It does sound like you learned a lot in the process so definitely one has to  weigh whether they’d be crazy enough to do it.
Thanks so much again!
@robmitchell

Rural internet:   http://www.hughesnet.com  

@rebeccacohen Look at your other rural options–see if there are any other carriers, including wireless high speed. We had Hughesnet, and it’s expensive, particularly if you want or need to stream audio or video. We used to get put in their “penalty box” which essentially means your inernet gets unusable for 24 hours (slower than dialup). BUT, where we lived at the time, it was the only option, as thre were too many hills and trees for the wireless, and we were too secluded for cable. It was better than dialup, but frustrating for work purposes.

@joanmuschampfagnani
Thanks Joan. Yes, I have heard about those with some providers getting put in the penalty box.
I have satellite and other options so do alright with what I have but am looking to improve in a major way. Especially since not planning to move my location any time soon.
I appreciate all options and what’s available out there!

@rebeccacohen Just a quick reply out of my own experience – you definetely have to be aware of safety/malware/virus issues. I guess you are, but that’s what I thought until I started some testdrive with a self hosted server environment. It costs a huge amount of time to keep your system crisp and clean once you don’t have a company backing up that issue for you. In a nutshell, I agree with the others here. There’s good services out there providing extensive help. I am partially running on bluehost.com, they have a quite impressive range of addon services.

@rich-brooks
Thank you, Rich. Appreciate your input. I definitely want to learn this end of things and have the know how but want the IT guys to work on this more than myself. I definitely am looking at hosting as well but again, have some IT folk willing to work with me. Still a big leap and really have to consider all options.

@dfriesland  Thanks, I am checking out hughesnet.com and it’s impressive. I am especially liking the private network aspect as well.

@joanmuschampfagnani  Joan it looks like an individual can pay more and not be in the penalty box so to speak.

I have to do satellite and don’t need another company that doesn’t do what it promises. I will be as careful as I can this time.

I do understand money is going to be involved and no way around it to stay connected.

@dfriesland
Thanks for the link http://www.apple.com/macosx/server/
I am checking it out now!

@deairby
I do think I have many options available and just deciding on best course of action as I do some planning.
Thank you.

We used to run our own webserver (except for the ecommerce part of our site, that we outsourced). We’re a 40 year old business with our own IT department, so we were already equipped to do our own hosting. We’re located in a large city, so we have easy access to high speed connections with plenty of bandwidth.

However, our fast Internet access still represented a single point of failure. When we were hosting our own web server, we experienced several episodes of downtime, one lasting almost two days when a road construction crew severed the main cable that serviced our area. Signing up for a second provider of Internet access just to keep our site online in case the first one fell over would have resulted in more expense than management wanted to incur.

We also had power glitches and outright power failure, including another time when we were down for most of a day because a car took out a telephone pole that held the power lines for our entire neighborhood. We had a UPS for our web server, but it only provided enough power for us to keep going for 15-20 minutes before we had to shut down. It didn’t make financial sense for us invest the time and money to purchase, maintain and periodically test a generator just for those odd times when power was interrupted — but it was also undesirable to have our site off line for extended periods of time.

Eventually we decided our focus is on running a business, not becoming a hosting company.

We were already hosting our ecommerce site with an outside company. The IT manager and I realized an ecommerce server is a big ol’ target for hackers looking for credit card info. Having someone else host that part of the site meant we could sleep at night without worrying so much that the bad guys were attacking at 3am.

So we moved all our domains and sites to the external host, and life has been easier — for me and our IT department — ever since.

There are things a web server needs to stay happy and healthy — physical security, server management, automated backups, redundant Internet connections, software installation and upgrades, backup power, etc. — that a hosting company can offer us at a very cost-effective price point (because they can spread the cost over many customers) but which in our experience were very difficult and/or NOT cost-effective for us to provide for ourselves.

We’re using pairNetworks at the moment, so far very happy with their reliability and stability.

@dianeaull
Hi Diane,
I must have missed your post when I had originally asked for input and apologize.
I appreciate your sharing your experience and all your company did and learning as well as making wise choices with less headaches and expense.
I am still doing my research and haven’t made a final decision yet, so may check out pairNetworks as well.
Thank you again!