A Linux server with PHP & MySQL running would suit my needs pretty nicely. The bigger problem I've had in the past with central hosting is the level of access I was granted. It's essential for me to be able to log in via ssh and do a few things from the command line. I think I could get by without root access if I could "sudo" some commands.

Another issue for me has been cost. Currently there only seem to be two options:

1. Cheap hosting with limited access that inhibits development and configuration.
2. Virtual Server that is $300 per month (when I got a quote two years ago)

The problem is that our department is underwent major budget cuts last year (as I'm sure lots of other departments did). Even though $300 per month probably amounts to a budget rounding error for big programs, it represents a significant expense for our program. I know virtual servers are available for much cheaper outside the University. One of the things I'd like to see is multi-tiered hosting that is more closely aligned with outside providers in terms of cost.

On Jan 21, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Kristofer Layon wrote:

Thanks for mentioning this on the list.  I'm very interested in Concrete5 and have a test environment installed on my Mac, but haven't had time to explore it much yet.

This is exactly the kind of option that would be nice to install to a centrally-hosted environment.

But Drupal and Joomla may be preferred by others, so I think one of the questions for OIT to solve is: can a hosting environment be provided that would accommodate a variety of these kinds of tools?  And if so, would we do the base installs necessary, or is there any efficiency in OIT doing more of that for us?  In other words, what is considered infrastructure, and what is considered part of the customer's responsibility to install and maintain?

And note that these questions, in my case, come from someone with little server-side admin experience: I can use clients to get files onto servers, but ask me to do much more than that and I'm lost.  Though I think there are a lot of us here with design / communications as our background, rather than IT / programming.

Kris


Kristofer D. Layon
Director of Web Design & Online Collaboration
- - - - - - 
Office of the Senior Vice President for System Academic Administration
University of Minnesota Twin Cities

On Jan 21, 2010, at 2:32 PM, Patrick Haggerty wrote:

Hey all,

In response to a side topic of today's meeting, I did about two weeks worth of research on light to medium weight content management systems for some personal projects and found Concrete5:


http://www.concrete5.org/


I've been very happy with it so far, other than the fact that they decided to start charging for some of the more advanced features, like a blog and forums.  It's free, PHP-based, open-source, and has a pretty strong development community behind it.  From a developer's point of view, it's easier to approach than Drupal or Joomla, but I think it doesn't cut features or flexibility to do it.

Thought I'd spread the word since it (kinda) came up in the meeting today.

Pat


-----------------------------------------------------------
Patrick Haggerty

Office of Information Technology
     University of Minnesota    

Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: 612-626-5807