Although it is not uncommon for school districts to host their school sites on a Web server managed by their IT Department, there are some compelling reasons to consider outsourcing this to the experts in this area:

Hardware and Software Expense

• With the rapid change in technology it becomes increasingly difficult to keep servers up-to-date and secure. Due to constant upgrades, and the expenses involved with those upgrades, it can save the district money and the IT staff time by leaving this to companies where this is their core competency.

 

Staff Workloads & Skill Levels

• Your IT staff has their hands full with technology issues. Expecting them to be designers, writers, Public Relations savvy, and to seek out and manage your Web site content on an ongoing basis, is often unrealistic.
• Someone skilled as a dedicated webmaster (programming, writing, graphic design) is a significant expense. The range for a full-time webmaster can range from $50,000 to $80,000 annually. Letting School Webmasters manage your hosting, updates, and design eliminates the need for an in-house webmaster. You also eliminate the problem with staff turnover and inconsistency in upkeep and style preference.

• Our Web servers are housed in a Tier 1, 24-hour manned data center with redundant connections that allow for 99% up time and unlimited bandwidth.
• Backups are handled with BLT tape backups, drive mirroring, and hot failover servers with live data.
• Servers are Enterprise Class Compaq Proliant Quad Xeon Rack Mount. Each server is connected to two separate power circuits (all servers are power redundant DL380 Compaq servers).
• Our Disk sub-systems are Raid 5 - 72 Gig Disk Arrays of 10K RPM 10.2 Gig Hot Swap Drives.
• Windows 2000 or Red Hat Linux 7.0 Operating System.
• MS SQL database backends on all Web sites.
• Cold Fusion Application Server runs the system.

 

Our full-service hosting includes improvements, updates, and other graphic and content revisions or additions that are necessary to keep your Web site fresh, informative, and accurate for the duration of the hosting agreement.

E-rate Eligible

And, don't forget that the hosting portion of your Web site qualifies for e-rate reimbursement. >>Learn more