Plexi Hosting - great gem of a thread here!

With much experienced in outsourced support and with a staff abroad, let me lend my two cents of information. I can't get in that much information right now because this cybercafe in India is just about to close.

First of all, shared personnel-based hosting support Just Doesn't Work. It may seem to work at the very beginning but you can be sure that, somewhere down the line, you become a number and play tug-of-war with the other clients for the tech's attention.

A real outsourcing strategy involved hiring personnel that works just for you - and no other hosting company. Personnel should be treated like people - even if they are remote. It's easy to brush off personnel as just some service offering provided by one person. However, once the tech knows your systems inside out and understands your policies like the back of their hand, they are particularly valuable. A good outsourcing company can find you two or three support techs at around $500 to $600 each (so expect to pay that much) and will have you sign an SLA (and reciprocate as well). You should be able to shell out about $1500 to $1800 to get every hour covered in the day (save 24 hours a week). Make sure that, in the SLA, sharing the techs (by the provider) is strictly prohibited.

I do not recommend freelancing techs in any capacity - especially in India. They will eventually negotiate a pay raise and you will lose a bundle of money and time (and eventually faith) in the idea that there's great cheap talent out there. Domestic-though-remote talent may not do such a thing. However, they may surprise you with a sudden resignation notice leaving you with a gaping hole in your support delivery model.

More later...

Roj