[WEB4LIB] Lobbying for a dedicated web server

[Michael J. Dargan]

Andrew Darby wrote:

>Hello, all.  I'm at a smallish academic library, and currently we have a
>little folder on the university's web server, without access to
>goodies/basic human necessities like PHP and MySQL.  As such, we are
>about to lobby for our own web server, presumably to be hosted by campus 
>in their climate controlled room.
>
>My question, then, is:  What sort of resistance should I expect?  What
>sorts of concerns are likely to be voiced (and what are reasonable
>countering arguments)?
>  
>
You can get the above services from a commercial site for a fee that 
would be negligible compared to the cost of buying, feeding, and 
watering your own box.  What could you do on an aging (yes, once you buy 
them, they start growing old) box that sits in the campus server room 
that you could not do with space on box that sits someplace else?  Maybe 
in a land far, far, away where barefoot children making pennies a day 
manage the updates, backups, and replacement of failed power supplies 
and controller cards?

--mike

>Perhaps I am wrong, but if the IT folks
>
>1. do the initial setup of a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) environment,
>with the security to their liking
>
>and 2. integrate this box into their backup routine (i believe they do a
>middle of the night chron job)
>
>there should be little or no overhead on their part.  By gum, it would
>be one less thing for them to worry about! My recollection from a
>previous incarnation, is that Apache servers are pretty stable, and
>don't require much (if any) maintenance . . .
>
>And as a bonus, in the unlikely event we do something stupid and crash
>the server, the campus at large is insulated.  (We currently have full
>access to the library folder on the existing server.)
>
>Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Andrew Darby
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>


-- 
Michael J. Dargan                         |  voice 391 291 4496
Technical Services Librarian              |  fax   319 291 6736
Waterloo and Cedar Falls Public Libraries |  www.wplwloo.lib.ia.us