Moodle, pros and cons of self hosting v using a commercial hosting service

[kennysarmy]

Moodle, pros and cons of self hosting v using a commercial hosting service
just wondered what NM's views were on this!
thanks.

[CyberNerd]

If you have the skills onsite then self host.
moodle isn't very time consuming, and it's nice to not have any limits in its configuration. If you don't have the skills onsite then outsource it.

[Edu-IT]

If you host it yourself then you're also not having to use the internet to access the installation.

[kesomir]

Superfast internal access if hosted yourself - ability to backup large amounts of data etc.

[FN-GM]

The fact that your in full control and not relying on others is a big plus.

[beeswax]

I'm not an NM, but I run our Moodle on site, everything from seeing that it runs smoothly to working with teachers to produce work for it. In fact I'm now timetabled two days a week specifically for this reason. If all you're doing is managing it, seeing that it runs smoothly, you have to ask yourself, "Can you do it?" and "Do I have the time?" Emergencies aside, can you fit it into a normal school day?
Being able to go to the Moodle server and drag and drop 473Mb of info into a folder is a great plus. I can also edit the css files to get the site looking how I want it, and don't have to wait on other peoples' convenience.
I should add, from a personal perspective, that the advent of BSF, and for our LEA, single status, which for us will mean a cut of between 20% - 30% according to informed sources, that a lot of goodwill is going to be lost. The things you do out of a sense of helping the school community, sometimes in your own time. Attitudes are hardening.

[nstone]

Hi - long time lurker first time poster
Two links that may be useful
1. nstoneit.com E-learning Experiences Blog Archive Hosting your VLE - internal hosting vs external hosting a blog post I wrote describing our school decision making process.


2. A discussion on the same topic on effectiveict- Internal vs. External Moodle - EffectiveICT.co.uk forum

[W.Peterson]

alway a fan of Moodle. we know that, the advantages of open source system. commercial hosting service is only the solution when we cannot achieve some technical points. Unless a whole school need an outsource & reliable service, I recommend the use of Moodle to expand more capabilities as the eductors want. certainly it needs a little more time and energy to do self management

William Peterson
Senior eLearning Consultant

[pete]

We host Moodle externally and our hosting provider is very good. We chose to host externally as our rbc-provided connection was going through a period of unreliability, plus the attitude that because it's the school holidays/weekend it's acceptable to carry out connectivity changes during the working day, rather than the early hours.