SugarCRM Deployment Options

[lmoreau]

I'm a bit confused with this. It says it can be deployed in the cloud, on an on prem server, on a cloud like rackspace and I think one other option. Is there a difference in the pricing with that? If I don't care about my data being in the cloud etc, then what benefit is there to having it on my own server versus on the Sugar cloud, and is it more expensive one way or the other?

It says Rackspace as well which I think is a better option if I wanted to host it myself vs by Sugar, but just wondering the beenfits of that, and what hardware requirements the server would need as I can't seem to find that. Curious on the best options?

[Angel]

Check out this post on my blog, it speaks to this very matter:

Angel's Blog: SugarCRM 101: Non-Commercial vs. Commercial Hosting

In a nutshell, it is only of relevance if you want a commercial version of Sugar. If your intention is to use Community Edition, your only choice is your own server or a private hosting account of some kind, like the Rackspace one that you mentioned.

As a side note, you do not gain any functionality by having your installation hosted on Sugar's servers.

[lmoreau]

Just thought of one more question after using the trial some more. Are there any limitations to have Sugar host my system (or in my case a partner like BrainSell since I have only 3 users, not sure if it's them hosting it or stilL Sugar). I notice a lot of SugarForge addons say things like install by placing the file in this folder and edit this or that php file and so on. Just wondering if I have access to do that if it's hosted, or if that's more of a benefit to having it myself?

Also if I do it myself, I can't seem to find anywhere that it shows system requirements. I see requirements like OS and PHP versions but not ram or CPU. If I use Rackspace for example, for the system to run as fast as Salesforce does for around 3-5 users I'm just wondering how much memory I'd actually need?

[Angel]

Can't speak to your question in relation to BrainSell as I am not familiar with their hosting environment and hosting environments can vary greatly.

However, one of the benefits of having it on your own system is that you would have access to the file system and you could more easily accomplish tasks like placing files in a certain folder, etc. I want to stress that it is possible to do it on platforms such as Sugar's OnDemand servers as well, it is just that the process becomes more complicated. For example, to place a file in a specific folder in said environment, you'd either have to create a manifest file and module package of your own that does it, or submit a ticket to support to request it be done for you. Point being, you don't have access to doing it directly in a quick manner, but in the end, you would still get the same functionality.

As for system requirements, take a look at this page as a starting point:

Supported Platform Components for Sugar 6.3.x | Open Source Business & Social CRM - SugarCRM

For 3 - 5 users, you'd be more than fine for some time with 2 GB of RAM.