Cost of SQL server, software, etc?

[OrbitzXT]

My boss is doing some business with some people and asked me if this cost sounded right to him. I wasn't sure so I thought I'd ask here. Here's what was written in the email:

The SQL server which will require a server tower, a copy of Windows Small Business Server and a copy of SQL server. The exact costs of the equipment and licensing needs to be determined, but the server, licensing and labor should not cost more than 4,000

If you ignore the labor which they'll determine, how much do the other items cost roughly?

 

[Fourstaff]

Friend thinks its a bit pricey, he can use MySQL which is free, and some consumer grade stuff it should be about half the price, depending on components. He also said consider standard server edition, rather SBS edition.

Not sure how accurate his views might be, but he has some experience with maintaining servers so I wouldn't ignore his views.

 

[brandonwh64]

Do you have network racks with UPSes? If so then pickup a rack mounted case and a cheap MOBO/RAM/CPU combo, then maybe 4x1TB drives for storage. Install free MySQL and setup for your network. DONE

 

[yogurt_21]

depending on your install the base price of the server 2008 R2 64-bit and SQL Server R2 64-bit Enterprise should be in the range of 8000$ for typical small business licensing. (handful of SQL licenses, 1-2 servers) It could be less depending on what you're using it for, if you can get away with less licenses, and if you're business can apply for any discount. Since my work does online learning and has charter schools we use the education pricing.

This is why for small businesses it's more typical to see a MySQL setup on a linux server. But this of course requires someone more familiar with linux.

In the end the quote is a quote. It will be far more accurate than any advice on here becuase they'll know your specifications and what you need it for. Get several and compare them. Any good purchaser would.


edit: to be clear the cost sounds low to me, make sure you're getting quality hardware and correct licensing for what you need. But then again you could be looking for bare minimum and 4000$ would be that.

 

[Easy Rhino]

like others said, scrap M$

get yourself a free copy of Centos6, and load up MySQL 5.6 on it with phpmyadmin. stick on any decent quad core and you've got yourself a small business database for cheap.

 

[OrbitzXT]

Thanks all for the information. I'm not sure if this is contractual work he's doing where specifications say he must use the M$ options, or if it's something personal where he can do as he pleases. I'll ask him about it and present the options that were given here.

 

[Disparia]

MySQL is good. SQL Express is also good and free, just to be fair to MS

Being quoted for SBS? My thought is that this build is not just to host an SQL server but perhaps a domain controller and other roles?

 

[Easy Rhino]

MySQL is good. SQL Express is also good and free, just to be fair to MS

Being quoted for SBS? My thought is that this build is not just to host an SQL server but perhaps a domain controller and other roles?

maybe, but hopefully he should know that putting a sql server on the same host as a domain controller is certainly not best practice.

they should setup a nice dual quad machine with 32 gigs of ram on a windows server 2008 R2 license since they must have it. then get the windows hyper-v and create a domain vm, an AD vm and a sql server vm. you could then also setup a few development vms to test upgrades before putting them in production.

 

[Disparia]

Normally true.

I believe that's partially why SBS gets such a bad rap. Some may have legitimate reasons for their dislike of SBS, but many times I see judgement made before understanding SBS. It doesn't follow the standard best practices and has been tailored to be domain-in-a-box value solution for small businesses. And not all of them, just ones would take advantage of a majority of the bundled features.

My thinking is that the consultant went with SBS for a reason instead of Foundation or Standard. We'll have to see after Orbitz talks with the boss man.