Debunking the 6 Myths of DIY Hosting

Do-it yourself hosting remains the most popular way of operating servers.  More applications are hosted in-house or self-managed via colocation facilities than are run in the Cloud.  The sense of value in what some call server hugging is hard to shake, because there are so many natural, common beliefs that make it feel so right.   This article challenges these beliefs and offers alternative viewpoints on some of the typical reasons why IT professionals cling to DIY hosting.

Myth #6: “It’s Better For My Career”

This is perhaps the greatest myth of all.

Many IT professionals believe this statement: If a limited number of employees know how to operate critical systems, they become nearly bulletproof in terms of job security. That may be true, but here’s the nasty catch: better for your career and keeping you in the same job are not the same thing.

Managing servers limits your upward mobility.  If you want to stay in an admin role for the rest of your life, finagling the situation to where you have the business by the cajones when it comes to critical IT systems might get it done.  If you aspire for something more, if you want to move along the path to greater responsibilities and the benefits ($$$) that go with them, server hugging is going to hurt you rather than help.

Look at the job description for a CTO at a large company.  Where in there does it say personally manage the servers?  It doesn’t.  Why?  Because CTOs make sure server management gets done, but they generally do not do it.  Sounds just like outsourcing server management doesn’t it?  CTOs have bigger fish to fry than managing servers themselves, like dealing with budgets and roadmaps.  They evaluate and select the right platforms, but they don’t operate them personally.  If that is a level you aspire to, a good way to get there is to start acting like a CTO today and outsourcing maintenance activities like hosting so that you can focus on making an impact on the bottom line by supporting revenue-generating activities better.  The right outsourcing partners can help you transform into an IT superstar in the eyes of your company’s management, and that is how you get the big job and the big money.  Companies need to gain these types of efficiencies as they grow, and if the current IT leadership will not help them do it, senior management often will bring in someone from the outside who will.

Conclusion

There are occasions and situations in which DIY hosting makes sense.  In the current IT environment where options like cloud computing and managed hosting exist, those occasions are increasingly few and far between.  It is time to question conventional wisdom and ask whether you can be using new technology to deliver your applications more efficiently.  For most companies currently hosting themselves via collocation or in-house hosting, that means taking a serious look at the Cloud and managed hosting.

In case you missed the other myths of DIY Hosting…

DIY Hosting Myth #1- It’s More Secure to Self Host

DIY Hosting Myth #2- It’s Cheaper to Self Host

DIY Hosting Myth #3- It’s Easier to Self Host

DIY Hosting Myth #4- “I Have More Control”

DIY Hosting Myth #5- It’s More Agile & Flexible to Self Host

This concludes the DIY Hosting myth series, stay tuned for more interesting blog articles!

Debunking the 6 Myths of DIY Hosting

Do-it yourself hosting remains the most popular way of operating servers. More applications are hosted in-house or self-managed via colocation facilities than are run in the Cloud. The sense of value in what some call server hugging is hard to shake, because there are so many natural, common beliefs that make it feel so right. This article challenges these beliefs and offers alternative viewpoints on some of the typical reasons why IT professionals cling to DIY hosting.

Myth #5: “It’s More Agile & Flexible”

In today’s hosting environment, your server commitments can be customized for the agility and the flexibility that you need. If you have a core infrastructure that will need to be online all of the time, make a long term commitment and get the best possible discount on it. For servers that you only need online some of the time, you can take advantage of month-to-month or hour-by-hour pricing for maximum flexibility. This is known as a Hybrid Cloud approach and it is gaining popularity because of the way it marries the benefits of long-term commitments with flexible capacity.

The Cloud can be turned up fast. No waiting for servers to ship from the manufacturer and spending weeks configuring it. Many Cloud systems support cloning VMs. Processes that included hardware purchases and weeks of setup time can now be replicated within mere hours. Even better, you only keep the new servers for as long as you need them. Now that’s agility and flexibility.

On top of this flexibility outsourced hosting brings from a technology perspective, it also gives the business greater flexibility. Cash-flow is a constraint for many growing businesses. Buying servers and network equipment consumes a lot of cash up front. Managed Hosting and Cloud Hosting are operational leases that allow the organization to disperse these potential capital outlays over time while rolling in the cost of services provided on top of them. When comes to financial flexibility, they say cash is king and outsourcing hosting allows you to conserve your cash.

So let’s recap the previous DIY Hosting Myths…

DIY Hosting Myth #1- “It’s More Secure to Self Host”

DIY Hosting Myth #2- “It’s Cheaper to Self Host”

DIY Hosting Myth #3- “It’s Easier to Self Host”

DIY Hosting Myth #4- “I Have More Control”

Tomorrow I will post the last DIY Hosting Myth #6.

Debunking the 6 Myths of DIY Hosting

Do-it yourself hosting remains the most popular way of operating servers.  More applications are hosted in-house or self-managed via colocation facilities than are run in the Cloud.  The sense of value in what some call server hugging is hard to shake, because there are so many natural, common beliefs that make it feel so right.   This article challenges these beliefs and offers alternative viewpoints on some of the typical reasons why IT professionals cling to DIY hosting.

Myth #4: “I Have More Control”

When I was in the airport coming back from a big healthcare IT expo, I noticed a group of people from the major local healthcare network chatting in the area near the gate for our plane home.  There was one fellow there who was clearly the alpha dog.  The alpha dog had been given a comfortable amount of space by his team, but being the curious type of guy I am I decided to sit right next to him.   After a bit of small talk, I asked him what he did and as expected he explained he was the IT alpha dog at the major local healthcare network.  I already knew they did not outsource, but I decided to learn why.  After getting the expected no to “Would you ever consider outsourced hosting?”,  I probed further as to why not.  For him, it came down to one thing: control.  He wanted full control of everything: people, assets, infrastructure security, you name it. This was not negotiable in his mind.  I appreciated his directness, thanked him and left him to his personal space.

When people talk about control, sometimes they mean security (see Myth #1) and sometimes they mean flexibility (see Myth #5).   One area of control that is not covered by those two myths is people.  A good organization can hire the right people and train them well, but one thing you can’t do is make them stay with you forever.  Most organizations do not have the budget to carry unnecessary staff, so when you lose good people it is a real set back.  You have to hire and train all over again.  It can take a long time to get back to where you were, let alone ahead again.  Meanwhile, day-to-day operations and service to your internal and/or external customers suffer.

A good managed hosting company can be an extension of your IT team.  You can evaluate the hosting company as thoroughly as you evaluate candidates you hire.  You can look for the right business practices: are they doing annual background checks on employees, training employees properly before giving them access to critical systems, maintaining appropriate tracking of who logs into what systems, etc, and are they externally certified by a third party auditing company so you know that they are actually doing what they say they are doing.  Greater security, flexibility and the ability to maintain great performance for your internal and external customers when a systems admin employee leaves is what you gain from working with a good partner. That is because your managed hosting partner is already doing many of the key maintenance activities and they can do more upon request.  If you make sure your partner has all of the right controls in place, you can still maintain the benefits of direct control.

Tomorrow I will post to you the DIY Hosting Myth #5.

Debunking the Myths of DIY Hosting

Do-it yourself hosting remains the most popular way of operating servers.  More applications are hosted in-house or self-managed via colocation facilities than are run in the Cloud.  The sense of value in what some call server hugging is hard to shake, because there are so many natural, common beliefs that make it feel so right.   This article challenges these beliefs and offers alternative viewpoints on some of the typical reasons why IT professionals cling to DIY hosting.

Myth #3: “It’s Easier To Get Started”

In the past, it may have been true that hosting yourself was an easy way to get started if you were a tech-savvy entrepreneur.   While running servers out of your basement/closet/etc off of a soho Internet connection is still a cheap way to get started, it pales in comparison to the benefits of the Cloud.  The Cloud offers a far superior infrastructure in terms of reliability and scalability while still maintaining low costs. One of the great impacts of Cloud hosting on business is that it gives start-ups access to vast computing resources on an as-needed basis without long-term commitments.  No need to buy servers.  Build your app on a basic cloud instance, turn up your capacity for testing, turn it back down when testing is complete and turn it back up again when you are ready to launch.  Once you get off the ground and build a paying customer base, it is an easy transition to a managed hosting or managed cloud solution that lets you transfer the burdens of maintaining production servers to a third party while you focus on your core business.

Look for the DIY hosting myth #4 on Monday.

Debunking the Myths of DIY Hosting

Do-it yourself hosting remains the most popular way of operating servers.  More applications are hosted in-house or self-managed via collocation facilities than are run in the Cloud.  The sense of value in what some call server hugging is hard to shake, because there are so many natural, common beliefs that make it feel so right.   This article challenges these beliefs and offers alternative viewpoints on some of the typical reasons why IT professionals cling to DIY hosting.

Myth #2: “It’s Cheaper”

Another commonly held belief about DIY Hosting is that it simply costs less.  Most of the cost analyses that I have seen produced by IT managers making this argument have been a stacked deck.  In many cases the IT manager has been the plaintiff and the judge wrapped into one, when the possibility of using outsourced server management is on trial (as for why, see Myth #6).  The manager considers the costs of collocation space or building a data center, they consider how much the servers and the network gear cost, and they consider the cost of bandwidth of power.  They leave out the most expensive resource of all: The people to manage all of that stuff on a 24/7/365 basis.

Most IT departments are already spread thin keeping the office operational.  While it might seem like throwing infrastructure management for a serious web application onto the pile is not a big deal, it can create a huge burden.  Serious customer-facing web applications need to be up all the time, and they are accessed much more frequently and by a more demanding audience than the stuff needed to keep the office running.  In many cases the plan to multi-purpose the current IT staff or the Web developers to keep the serious business app’s server farm running is going to fall short, and require hiring additional head count towards an area that is not the company’s core competency.  And there go the “savings.”

A true cost analysis needs to include labor costs, projected consulting fees to supplement your in-house team with outside experts, the costs of audits and certifications and costs for keeping spare equipment on hand.  Just as importantly, it should include opportunity cost – the cost of not focusing internal resources on the company’s core competencies be it investing in development for application improvements or in marketing to drive more sales.

The bottom line tends to be that if your cost analysis shows DIY hosting as cheaper, you may be cutting corners on service levels or, more likely, you failed to account for the true cost to the business.

Tomorrow I will post to you the 3rd myth of DIY hosting.