Startup project on the side
February 21, 2009
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m writing a project on the side, using Domino as the platform.
I just got an initial prototype done, and am thinking about what I would need to launch it into production. The biggest cost is going to be a new Domino license for a production server. I went through the exercise about 2 years ago of trying to buy a Domino license when I’m just a random guy working out of his home. No business partners in town returned my calls. I submitted a request to buy a license on ibm.com. After 4 weeks, I got a phone call from someone at IBM who didn’t know what product I was talking about. They referred me to a business partner who ultimately did send me a quote,but it was higher than the advertised costs on ibm.com, and they seemed annoyed by my desire to purchase software.
I never did buy the license. The product I was looking at launching got delayed, and then we never picked it back up.
So — now that I am contemplating going through this exercise again some time in the next 3-6 months…
Does anyone out there have a hosting option that includes the licensing in the monthly cost? If not, how about a business partner who can give me a good deal? Or even an IBM person who can do so?
(Or even Ed, or someone in his organization — I think free licenses for startups would be a great marketing move. We pay if we become profitable, naturally, but it would remove a barrier to using Domino as a startup platform if we could do so without financial risk. Say a 6 or 12 month license to be come profitable and pay or stop using the server? 
)
The other topic I’m thinking about is backup / DR / etc.
And I thought I’d go see what it would cost were I to use Amazon S3 as a backup solution. Ignoring the time and effort to write the backup system itself… I estimate each user of my system will have an average of no more than 5 MB of data.
Which means 100 users, with a full nightly backup, would cost me a grand total of… $1.68 per month.
Now, I don’t know if any Domino hosting services out there offer free backup… but assuming that I need to pay something, this is looking like a very cost-effective option.
Does anyone out there have any experience trying to do a small startup project on the Domino platform that could offer any additional insights into these infrastructure-type issues?
February 21, 2009 at 2:16 am
It is not very clear what kind of project you would like to star but here are your options:
1. If it is Web based – go for Domino Utility Express license. you are paying here for Process Value Units (PVU) – 50PVUs per CPU core generally.
So if you have 1Quad core it is about 5K Euro.
You can use 4 CPU max with this license.
2. If it is Notes based, for the beginning start with collaboration express license. It is per user – 136 Euros per user and you can install as many as you want servers (just keep them to 2 cpu machines)
The express licenses are not covering some of the enterprise features like clustering and partitioning.
If you need hosting services with backup – just drop me a line.
February 21, 2009 at 8:29 am
Check out prominic.net or connectria.com for hosting. Chris Miller (@idonotes) is the guy at connectria, and he can give you the information you need, or else put you in touch with others who can.
February 22, 2009 at 3:50 am
Goran nailed the pricing, and Duffbert nailed the hosting options.
A final alternative is a foundations server – box and domino server and file+print sharing + backup (via Hard drive in a caddy) solution. Really cheap, really slick.
In BP’s defence, IBM tends only to give leads to HUGE BP’s who can service enterprise customers. The BP’s who are interested in SMB leads such as this NEVER get ANYTHING from IBM whatsoever.
So you got a bored sales person at a hypermarket-style-BP who wont get out of bed for less than $3k in commission.
As you’ve guessed, the IBM Business Partner program has a *cough* few *cough* *cough* issues.
—* Bill
February 22, 2009 at 8:25 am
Domino Hosting + Server license (express) will cost you around 500$ a month, but if you can live with virtual server it can go down to 300$, check wwow.com i’m using them for my of my clients and they are OK.
February 22, 2009 at 9:39 am
Thanks for all the info — I think that gives me what I need to know… I’ll be following up with the various companies in a couple months, then, once I’ve gotten through my pilot test program…
@yuval — is wwow.com using a data center now? I know in their early days, they were running out of a basement and I’ve kind of shied away from them because I wasn’t sure of their own infrastructure…
February 26, 2009 at 2:06 am
Is it worth considering http://www.dominodeveloper.net?
I used them many years ago (as a freebie – unheard of at the time) and found it a useful service.
Andrew
February 28, 2009 at 8:43 am
Drop us a line with more details and let’s see how we can help you out.