If you have an online business, you’ll need a server.

And we know servers can be expensive to own an operate. But are you spending more than you really need to?

The reality is that many server owners lose money due to unnecessary hardware redundancy, unoptimized services, and more.

Today, we’ll take a look at the visible and hidden costs of maintaining a server, and how to cut down the costs.

What are the costs of owning a server?

For the purpose of this article, let’s assume that you want to host an eCommerce website and run an email server for your business.

The most popular solution for this requirement is to use a 4-core, 4 GB server either as a VPS, dedicated server or a cloud instance.

Now, let’s see how much this will cost you every month.

1. Hardware costs

There are 3 ways in which you can get a server:

• On-premise servers which you’ll put in your office with all associated facilities like A/C, security, etc.
• Buy a server, and put it a co-located facility, where the space will be provided by a data center.
• Rent a server, and forget about hardware replacements, power usage, etc.

Most business owners choose the 3rd option and rent a server.

This can range anywhere from $150 to $250 depending on your configuration (RAID, SSD, IPs, etc.).

Let’s take the average value, that is $200/month.

This cost will include utility expenses such as electricity, bandwidth, space, etc. If you use a co-located server, you’ll have to pay $150/month for those facilities on top of the cost of your server amortized over several months.

2. Software licenses

Software licenses can cost most than hardware itself.

For instance, SQL servers can cost you $7500/year or $619 per month.

If we get into proprietary software licenses, there would be no end to the cost calculations, as licensing is quite complex in many of these software suits.

So, we’ll stick to open source software for the most part.

Even so, you’ll probably buy an administration suit and an anti-virus subscription, which can cost up to $50/month.

Of course, there are always completely free and open source alternatives which you can get it setup for $89.99 one time cost using Bobcares server administration services.

3. Server monitoring & management

From malware infections to hardware errors, there are a lot that can go wrong in a server.

To prevent it, you’ll need to monitor your servers 24/7 and make timely updates and patches.

Here you have many options:

• Automated server monitoring starting at $10/month – You’ll get alerts, and you need to check and fix each alert on your own.
• Expert server monitoring starting at $24.99/month – Experts will monitor your servers, and bring back failed services.
• Full server management starting at $79.99/month – The servers will be kept updated, optimized and patched so that it’ll remain fast & secure.
• Unlimited server management for $124.99/month – If you have multiple servers & you only need a few things done routinely (eg. monitoring & updates), you may need this.

Let’s assume you have only 1 server, and need 24/7 monitoring, updates & regular optimization.

Then your management cost will be $80/month.

Total cost per month

That will take the total nominal server maintenance cost to $330/month.

This is the basic minimum you need to run an eCommerce shop using open source software as much as possible.

Based on your workload, business type and kind of software used, this estimate can go well beyond $5000/server/month. But the split up given here can serve as a basis for estimating your server maintenance cost.

If you need help identifying the most economical server solution, it is always best to consult an independent server management company such as Bobcares that’s not associated with any hardware or software vendors.

In that way, you can be sure that the solution will be unbiased and professional. Click here to talk to our server expert.

Hidden costs of owning a server

Hardware, software and server management costs are very “visible” costs. It’s easy to imagine the need for them, and account them into your budget.

But there are other costs which become visible only when you run your business with your server.

Some of them are:

Lost revenue due to server stability or reputation issues

Many server owners underestimate the importance of keeping the servers upgraded, patched and optimized. Unoptimized servers often end up being infected with malware or contract severe performance issues.

Such issues can take days, if not weeks to be resolved, and in the process, the business suffers client loss, poor reviews, slow sales and more.

A single hack incident can cause a dent of thousands of dollars in current and prospective income.

Fortunately, the solution is easy. For as low as $99/month, you can get full server maintenance services that can protect your server from hacks, performance issues and more.

Hardware replacement or upgrade costs

Your memory and hard disk may need to be upgraded or replaced as the server grows older.

It can range from as little as $30/month (for memory upgrades) to several hundred dollars per month for RAID systems or HA solutions.

If you are not careful, data centers can (and will) sell you expensive hardware solutions (like firewall), or unnecessary upgrades which have easy (and less expensive) software alternatives.

We’ve seen several instances where data centers recommend a memory upgrade ($30/month), where we solved the memory errors with a one time $60 database fix.

That is why it is important to have an independent server management company analyze your server needs and give you the most cost-effective solution.

Here at Bobcares, we help our customers minimize their expenses by (1) keeping their servers lean and mean, (2) by using open-source solutions for their business, and (3) by replacing expensive upgrades with equally effective software solutions.

If you feel you are overpaying for your server, click here to talk to our server expert. We’ll give you the most optimized solution.

Money lost in redundant hardware or software

It is not always easy for a business owner to know where to cut costs.

We’ve seen cases where people use separate servers for App services, Website/Mail and Backups, whereas all of that could be done in one server using virtualization and NAS.

Ignorance of architecture alternatives when you scale up business can lead to needless expense of thousands of dollars per year.

Now, let’s see how to minimize your server maintenance cost.

How to reduce your Server Maintenance Cost

Some companies require proprietary software and expensive servers to run their business work load.

But a good majority of online service providers spend more than what’s actually needed in terms of hardware, software and services.

Here are a few ways by which we help our customers reduce server maintenance costs.

1. Use open source software – Every proprietary software out there either has its roots in open source software or has an equally good free alternative. We help companies deliver reliable, business grade services using open source software, thereby helping them save thousands of dollars in software licensing costs.
2. Consolidate and virtualize – We use open source virtualization and service optimization to make sure your business services run reliably in minimum needed hardware. We resolve server capacity issues through optimization, and use hardware upgrade only as a last resort. This helps our customers cut cost on hardware.
3. Rock solid server management – We do not let our customers lose business due to security or performance issues. We periodically audit the servers, update services, harden the servers and optimize the services so that customer base and revenue is never affected.

Conclusion

Putting a cost on Server ownership is not always straight forward. There are visible costs like hardware, software and management, and hidden costs like outages, upgrades and un-optimized scaling. Today, we’ve seen how to find your Server Maintenance Cost, and what can be done to minimize the expenses.