Re: Repository services and budget

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

Dave Crocker allegedly said:
> 
> At 9:04 AM -0800 1/4/97, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
[...]
> 
> 	I'd guess that 60-$100K would suffice.  What do other folks think
> about this?

The registry software I have implemented doesn't require a database 
at all, and is relatively resilient to failure -- complete 
obliteration of the machine and all its stored state just requires 
waiting a defined short period for pending "live" DNS update 
certificates to be exercised before bringing a new machine online.

In this model, the performance issue isn't redundancy and
ultra-reliability -- it's the computational cost of doing public key
operations.  These operations are O(frequency of domain creation) -- 
for a registry creating under a thousand domains a day a high end 
pentium machine should be more than adequate.  Something that could 
run in a closet at ISI.

> >Is a secretary necessary?  There will be much admin work that needs to be
> >done so I would assume so.
> 
> 	Remember this this is a back-end organization.  It's "customers"
> are the member registrars.  Initially, that is a very small number.  After
> two years, it's still only around 40-50.  My guess is that technical
> support staff are going to be more important than a purely
> adminitrative/receptionis kind of person.

The workload is probably more a function of the number of domains
being created than the number of registrars, and it will probably be
rather sporadic, with maybe some spikes -- for example, if a registrar
goes belly-up there may be some work moving customers around.  But 
most operations should be automatic.  Except for the spikes, I hope 
it will be a part-time effort for one person.

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com,kc@llnl.gov		the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   5A 16 DA 04 31 33 40 1E  87 DA 29 02 97 A3 46 2F