Internal vs External Moodle Host (Pro's & Cons)

Internal vs External Moodle Host (Pro's & Cons)

by Chris Delaney -
Number of replies: 2
I'm keen to begin a discussion around internal vs external hosting. I've read some thoughts on the web, but most are now a few years old.

Internal Hosting
  1. Speed of connection while at school, course backups, file transfer etc would be much quicker
  2. Single sign on/login (I don't see this as a big problem, kids have logins for facebook, twitter, mail clients.........)
  3. Initially more expensive to set up (costs associated with server) but maybe cheaper in the long term, although hosting services are now reasonably priced
  4. Adds to the burden of IT support staff, time to set up and maintain server
  5. Some people have suggested problems accessing internally hosted servers from home (this would be a big problem, considering 24/7 access is one of the main reasons an educational institution would be using Moodle)
  6. I doubt schools are prepared to spend the big $$$ associated with having state of the art server's and associated hardware. Let the experts do there job and teachers focus on building courses.
External Hosting
  1. ? Better security with no external access to school server
  2. Relies on a fast internet connection/bandwidth while at school
  3. ? More reliable, less downtime for those accessing from home
  4. 24/7 Support with general hosting problems (depending on company, may not be Moodle experts)
  5. Cheaper to set up, but ongoing costs.
  6. Privacy issues with some student data being kept off site (although limited information is kept within Moodle)
I'd love to hear your thoughts, ideas and experiences

Cheers

Chris
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Chris Delaney

Re: Internal vs External Moodle Host (Pro's & Cons)

by David Mark Weiss -
We have just completed a study I am sorry to say, but... it depends.

Single server course demands can go either way. However, when you need to scale, you need the benefits of custom cluster performance. Nothing will drive kids away from the class faster than dog slow performance.

We are switching from an external host single server, to MoodleRooms. It is pricey, but I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have someone who can actually trouble shoot stuff quickly. They live and breath Moodle. Having an external host who can do that for you, frees you up for focus on the quality of instruction. Quality of instruction reflects more positively or negatively on Moodle as an open source project than about anything. (And BB I might add)

Single sign on can be a problem, when you have a registration system that is proprietary. However, that can be overcome by working with your host and communicating between the two in a secure fashion. I know that MR is hosting LSU's courses. It may be that they have a link between systems. I would imagine they do.

IT support is a mixed bag. Sometimes, like LSU has, they have a dedicated guy or two and they move quickly. However if you IT support is shared, I am feeling like the response you get is going to be mixed.

I have come to believe in your #6 above. But everyone has to begin somewhere and a single server, cheap hosting option may be that place.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Chris Delaney

Re: Internal vs External Moodle Host (Pro's & Cons)

by Jon Witts -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
We went for internally hosted at our school and have not looked back. We didn't really investigate the hosted option so I can not give any advice / thoughts on those points.

An additional benefit to internally hosted is the ability to use the SMB Web client block. This gives students and staff access to their home drives from anywhere in the world.

We have never had any issues with external access - it has always worked fine.

UK schools have been given a large amount of funding by the government that was origianlly intended only to be spent on IT hardware to implement learning platforms and home access to learning materials. Perfect for purchasing dedicated Moodle servers wink .

If your IT support department are any good the extra burden should not matter.

In terms of down-time; we have seen very little. The greatest was one week, but that involved a completely new server being bought, installed and backups restored to. Other than that we have maybe had a ten minute downtime once a term.

Jon
Average of ratings: -