I Want to Open a Company That Provides Cloud Server Services. Is There Any Knowledgeable Guy Who Can Give Me Some Advice?

Lguanzheng wu on 01/05/2024 - 23:55
Last edited 02/05/2024 - 17:21

I prefer collecting airdrops in the Web3 field! I have participated in many trending projects, such as the Taiko node, the Avail light node, the Ore mining project on the Sol chain, and others!

I think my wrong expression may have caused misunderstanding to everyone.

I currently run about 20 virtual machines (using EXSI) in my home network environment. Then I formed many groups to discuss new projects in web3. I would originally recommend them to buy a contabo or hosting server to run nodes, but many brothers are not very technical (pure rookies), so they want to ask me to help them set up nodes. So I had an idea: Can I set up multiple servers myself and help them run nodes? By the way, you can also bring some income to yourself… .

I am currently in college, pursuing a master's degree in cyber security. So some ideas may be immature, I hope you can understand.

Internet Cloud Storage

Comments

  • Hybroid on 02/05/2024 - 00:07
    +10

    Why have you frog jumped over renting a dedicated server for peanuts, straight to wanting to start an entire cloud server company for this hobby project? What's your business case?

    Trawl https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-au/ for the offerings available and see where you think you can compete.

    • jv on 02/05/2024 - 00:12
      +7

      What's your business case?

      This is mine in case it helps the OP…

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 02:13

      I have used vps from many different companies, but the prices are all very high… Costs are difficult to control.

      • freefall101 on 02/05/2024 - 12:58

        The whole reason people use cloud services is they can get a service agreement on costs. Rolling your own basically means the costs (and time) you need to contribute is a massive unknown.

        What happens the first outage you have, from the half dozen points of failure that are there? Or the first security issue? Or the first time someone doesn't pay an invoice?

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 02:20
      -1

      The price/performance ratio of ovhcloud is too low. ssd storage is too low. If I can solve the commercial broadband problem, I can even sell 4 cores + 8 memory + 400g storage for only $20 to $30

      • Pikaloo on 02/05/2024 - 07:40
        +30

        Your servers vs OVH are not the same. Your servers do not offer redundancy - Do you have multiple power supplies per system? Do you have a power generator to sustain power outages? Do you have multiple hard drives running in raid? Do you offer server grade memory? Do you offer server grade SSDs? Do you have server grade networking hardware? Do you have multiple ISPs so that if 1 ISP goes traffic can just be routed to another? Do you have IT security? Do you have network security? Do you have business grade networking hardware?

        This is what OVH offers that you probably don't. This is why these cloud providers demand a high price.

        Business grade internet is much more expensive than residential. Furthermore, people can commit illegal activities on these machines, are you aware of your responsibilities as a service provider?

        • apsilon on 02/05/2024 - 07:56
          +7

          I'd upvote this to infinity if I could. OP clearly doesn't have a clue about server infrastructure and data centres. They're looking at what they could get the base server hardware for and comparing it to what a professional operation is charging. Classic case of "they're ripping me off, it doesn't cost anywhere near what they're charging" without understanding all the behind the scenes stuff.

          • mskeggs on 02/05/2024 - 08:50
            +3

            @apsilon: Every teenager looks at hosting prices and says, " hey, I can run Linux on the PC Dad bought me to host a hundred sites. Power and cooling is free in my bedroom, all I need to work out is the broadband."

            Then they meet someone working in the industry who just lols.
            For the people who don't have experience, the biggest issue these days is power and cooling. You can jam 40kW of servers into a rack, but how do you power and cool a roomful?

        • Sal in SA on 02/05/2024 - 09:49
          +2

          And that is not even touching the business side..

      • Sal in SA on 02/05/2024 - 09:47
        +2

        Please stop…just ..stop

      • Gareth on 02/05/2024 - 11:47

        If you're not going to an existing datacentre, you're going to want redundant fibre and let's not forget the generator for redundant power.

        As previously advised airconditioning costs aren't going to be minimal - and if you're serious you'd need to make sure you have a backup in case of failure.

        A recent quote for a new (separate path) fibre to our workplace (not too far from the CBD) was nearing the mid-six-figure range. I'm sure when you amortise that over your 100 VMs, it won't be significant :-(.

        • Chaddy on 04/05/2024 - 16:07

          Yeah redundant fibre links are not cheap by any stretch.
          Oh not to mention things like switches can add up in costs as well and they need to be replaced on a regular basis.

  • Pcosmic on 02/05/2024 - 00:08
    +21

    If you have to ask, you're probably not ready

      • Slippery Fish on 02/05/2024 - 07:52
        +3

        If you have to ask ozbargain the questions you have think hard before you jump sir.

      • geekcohen on 02/05/2024 - 08:29

        The main limitation at present is broadband.

        Then you need a data centre space.

  • jv on 02/05/2024 - 00:47

    I Want to Open a Company That Provides Cloud Server Services

    What will you name the Company?

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 02:16

      i am not sure! The main problem now is to solve the problem of broadband

      • jv on 02/05/2024 - 09:22
        +1

        I think you need to re-evaluate your priorities.

  • Cave Fire on 02/05/2024 - 01:10

    You completed Avail? was trying to get into that but missed out.

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 02:17

      yes! The airdrop will be sent soon

  • Tricon on 02/05/2024 - 06:56
    +1

    If you are quick this could be a brave starting point.

  • mskeggs on 02/05/2024 - 07:29
    +1

    You coulda made millions with this idea back in the 1990s.

    Call your isp, mine gives me a permanent ip for a $200 refundable deposit. My web host charges about $1 a week.
    If those costs are too high, how are you going to afford to pay for technical advice?

    • Pikaloo on 02/05/2024 - 07:47
      +2

      Ozbargain might change their hosting providers if it's just $20 and offering all the capabilities of a $100 server.

      • mskeggs on 02/05/2024 - 08:44

        That is just the add-on for a dedicated IP address, rather than carrier Nat.

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 17:01
      -1

      In fact, you don’t need too many public network IPs. It can also be achieved through intranet penetration hahaha

      • mskeggs on 02/05/2024 - 17:06

        Sounds like you don't need any help from us if you can use intranet penetration.

  • GordonD on 02/05/2024 - 09:45

    I share the view of many of you that anyone who's got to come to someone like OzBargain to find out the answer to big technical questions doesn't have the expertise to do what they trying to do. They don't know enough about the subject to know what they don't know.

    But, that said, I've worked in b-i-g corporate IT, and its obvious that that's not where things are done most cost effectively. Its a culture thing. They employ experts, and those experts get to dictate all the things in their area of expertise, and they come up with a long list of things that the product has to do, half of which cost more than they are worth in benefit to the product. They see their job as doing as much as is technically possible, rather than just what is worth doing. Paying for it is someone else's problem. The technical term for it featuritis.

    Small shops take short-cuts to save costs, and its a risk to depend on them.

    Big shops do heaps of things that push the cost up more than they are worth.

    You usually get the best price and balance of risk from middle-sized organisations.

    • iDroid on 02/05/2024 - 11:50
      +2

      Everyone knows that experts use YouTube and Reddit.

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 11:57

      In fact, my business is not socially oriented. Just for users in the group, just like a service within an organization. Affected by home bandwidth, it is difficult to support excessive network load.

  • pharkurnell on 02/05/2024 - 10:56
    +4

    I want to open a company that prints money and doesn't cost anything to setup/run/etc or any ongoing costs.

    • jv on 02/05/2024 - 11:23

      #MeToo

  • lachhelix on 02/05/2024 - 11:50
    +3

    This whirlwind of a post reminds me of the time I had a scheme with my neighbour to build an aeroplane from scratch using instructions from a PDF I found on the internet and fly around the world in it.

    Side note: I was 12 years old

    • guanzheng wu on 02/05/2024 - 17:00

      In fact, I just want to enable my broadband to drive more virtual machines…

      • Chaddy on 02/05/2024 - 20:13
        +2

        You Can't run a commercial hosting service on home broadband or even on business NBN its not designed for it.
        Even Enterprise NBN isn't good enough to run commercial hosting services on its only 1GBPS and NBN Co limit the upload speed and the download speed to under 1GBPS and its not redundant.
        You would need two NBNEE connections at least at a cost of over $1000 a month and even then its not as redundant as it could be as NBNCo do maintainence without telling people half the time.
        Plus you need redundant power and cooling.
        Not to mention Cpanel licenses and the other licenses such as WHMCS are expensive and all account based now a days as in based on the number of accounts so can be expensive.
        Oh not to mention commercial grade servers are $5000 each if you are only buying a small amount of them you need to be spending huge amounts to get volume discounts.
        Not to mention the likes of VMWare pricing is going to increase a lot.
        Sure you can get open source alternatives but if your asking about setting up a hosting company on Ozbargain chances are you don't have a clue.
        Oh also setting up a company in Au isn't cheap either.
        Oh did we mention power prices they will be through the roof for a commercial operation.

  • Chiyoko on 03/05/2024 - 15:36

    Setup something small and advertise on lowendbox. That is the way for you to start.

    • Chaddy on 04/05/2024 - 16:03

      I doubt the OP has the skills to secure anything web facing so setting up anything low end will end in disaster.
      Most of those cheap VMs are on dedicated servers with redundant power and cooling housed in one of the major DataCentres.
      So cost would be over $1000 per month just for colocation alone. Not to mention commercial grade servers are not cheap.

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