IT infrastructure strategies for startups

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468133

3 3 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

If you have a bunch of developers and designers all hacking away on their laptops, what are the different options and pros/cons for backups, shared file storage, etc? Is it better to set up your own file servers, version control servers, email servers, implement backup strategies on your own servers, etc. or does it make more sense to use things such as Confluence to share knowledge and files, Dropbox, GitHub and so on?

mweil• 15 years ago

Build as little as you can get away with on your own. Focus on the core value of your business and not the incidentals, if you can help it. Use Dropbox or Box.net for file sharing, Github for version control, Google Apps for calendaring/email/contacts, and use S3 to backup your EC2 servers nightly. We also use the Github wiki for our various projects.

Of course, you can make your own choices in all of the above tech. I was just providing a list for the sake of examples. The point is, each of these things is the core value of these other businesses and they do them better than you will be able to. It's absolutely worth the small fees they charge to keep you focused on your core product.

Joyfield• 15 years ago

And backup OFFSITE. S3 is onsite if you use EC2.

xxqs• 15 years ago

what I do for myself, is a local Synology NAS in RAID1 configuration for synchronizing all business documentation, such as offers, invoices, salary statements, etc.

Every night the NAS compresses and encrypts the whole archive and pushes a copy to a VPS at the provider site. This way I am sure I have a relatively recent off-site copy, and it is secured enough, so that even the VPS provider is unable to read it.

I use GoodSync for synchronizing my documents folder with the NAS. Also NAS is reachable from the public internet over HTTPS, and I can synchronize my files when I'm at the customer site.

Also I use another VPS (extremely cheap one from http://www.buildyourvps.com/ -- a bit slow, but fine for these needs) as my Git storage. I use Gitolite to organize my Git repositories, and basically create a new repository for every set of scripts or configuration files that I do for my clients.

For public and open-source code, I use Github.

A third VPS is used as a virtual PBX where I organize hotline service for those of my customers which need support with an SLA. You can see some technical details in my blog (http://txlab.wordpress.com/tag/dvop-net/). Also an instance of RT: Request Tracker is running on it.

IT infrastructure strategies for startups

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