From:	Mike Elkins <MikeE@*********.COM>
Subject:	Server Prices (was Re: Hacking Security Tallies)
Date:	Tue, 26 May 1998 15:33:15 -0500

>Depends. You can get a kick butt multi-cpu intel based system for what
>$2000 or so. I think the Alpha 500 Mhz is probably in the $5000 range
>(somebody check me on that), and IBM's SP-2's are considerably more
>expensive (Into the 100,000's) depending on how much memory they
>have and when you bought them.
>As far as mainframes go, I have no idea.

Well, you get what you pay for. $2000 gets you a PC. If you try to run
server software on a PC it sort of works, but if you push the load on it
up towards the maximum, it starts getting very flakey.

Essentially there are 3 things that make a server a server, and not all
servers have all three, but that it what to aim for:
1) Reliability. You can expect a server to run 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, for months or years at a time. Expect to pay at least $10,000 for
a PC with this kind of reliability.
2) Capacity: The ability to add lots and lots of disk space, RAM, CPUs
etc. You can add these to a PC, but expect to hit limits.
3) Speed: The least important of these, in some ways. Similar to
Capacity.

I haven't priced a mainframe lately, but my last company's mainframe
cost $3.5 Mil, and it was a small one.

Here would be my rule of thumb: Base cost: 1-3 users: $8000
4-10 users $15000, 10-50 users $40,000, 50-100 users: $100,000

Excellant Reliability: price x 5
Rock-Solid Reliability: price x 15-25

Security: Green System: price x 1.5
Orange System: price x 6
Red System: price x 15
Black System: GM's call

Add some more money for higher system ratings, too.

All of this is off the top of my head, and IMHO.

Sanity Check: An Orange system for a small research group (25-50
people), mission critical work: $40k*20*6 = $4.8 million. Yup, I can live
with that.

Double-Domed Mike