This woman had a long-term account with RackSpace, so RackSpace was willing to show some flexibility.
To clarify, this was a lot more than a single dedicated server. As I recall, the setup was more like a 6 servers, one was a dedicated database, then there were 4 web servers, plus one server that was dedicated just to SFTP, and then there was a firewall and a load balancer. I think the monthly bill was around $3,000 or $4,000. The $18,000 figure included a large amount of custom programming done by Rackspace. As I recall, at that time, Rackspace charged $150 an hour for custom programming, so it was easy to run up a big bill with them, if you weren't careful.
The woman had relied on Rackspace for a lot of custom programming, and then she got the bill, that she realized that her business had reached the point where it made sense to hire her own team of programmers. Like a lot of people who are expanding their business online, she had started out thinking that she only need to make a few small tweaks to her site, and she might as well leave that to Rackspace, since the people there knew what they were doing. But a few small tweaks evolved into much more. So at that point she hired her own team of programmers. Which is how I got involved.
To clarify, this was a lot more than a single dedicated server. As I recall, the setup was more like a 6 servers, one was a dedicated database, then there were 4 web servers, plus one server that was dedicated just to SFTP, and then there was a firewall and a load balancer. I think the monthly bill was around $3,000 or $4,000. The $18,000 figure included a large amount of custom programming done by Rackspace. As I recall, at that time, Rackspace charged $150 an hour for custom programming, so it was easy to run up a big bill with them, if you weren't careful.
The woman had relied on Rackspace for a lot of custom programming, and then she got the bill, that she realized that her business had reached the point where it made sense to hire her own team of programmers. Like a lot of people who are expanding their business online, she had started out thinking that she only need to make a few small tweaks to her site, and she might as well leave that to Rackspace, since the people there knew what they were doing. But a few small tweaks evolved into much more. So at that point she hired her own team of programmers. Which is how I got involved.