Server Technology

[bslama4]

Hello everyone,
I want to develop a server for my company which deals in Online Advertisement Networking. The server should be able to receive advertisement banners and return the number of clicks, impressions,etc. A huge database of publishing sites, advertisement sites and agencies dealing with us.
I am a student and though am equipped with knowledge about servers, I am not able to figure out how to start and what hardware and programming languages I should opt for. Please be generous enough to help me a way out.

[kstatefan40]

By developing a server, do you mean building a server and setting it up for web services AND / OR building the web services alone?

If you mean building a server as well as building the web services, please let me know and we'll work with you on that portion - its alot of work to get that information together, so I'll await your reply before I write a bunch on the topic. There is a lot to consider.

If there is already a server in place, and you are just going to be developing the services, the first question you need to ask yourself is: do they have any of the infrastructure in place already? If it is an established business, there will likely be information already in a database. It may be easier to work with what they already have set up, and base your track off of that. If the infrastructure is not in place, I would recommend going for a LAMP model - Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. PHP would be the programming language, MySQL is the database software, Apache runs the web services, and Linux is the base operating system. The advantages to this approach are enormous - they are all free, widely supported, and (relatively) easy to learn.

Any web server will be capable of the things you listed.

Some more questions to consider:
- Would you like hardware as well? If so, what is your budget?
- How much traffic do you have?
- Will your network support the additional load?
- What other purposes may this server fulfill in the future?

[bslama4]

Right now our company is using Atlas Admanager and we do have a lot of information embedded in the system. I want to make it clear that we do not have our own server, we are using it and paying for it to the vendor. We want to develop our own server capable of performing most of the operations of the Admanager, if not all. So its about developing a whole new server system capable of web services and not about working on an existing one.
Hardware also needs to be installed for sure and regarding the budget, the management is willing to shell out considerable amount of cash for the product.Since the business is about online advertisement, the traffic is huge at times, we may need to keep track of thousands of clicks at an instance. Also the database of all advertising, publishing, agencies as well as administrators need to be maintained.
At present we are focussing only on the ad-serving aspect of it and we are likely to stick to it, so other options are not in our minds right now.

[kstatefan40]

Okay, thank you for the clarification. A few more important questions.

Do you care if it is rack-mountable or a standard ATX-type server?

Do you know what database system the ad manager is running? MySQL? Oracle? That might determine the OS you would want to put on there, and in turn, will also determine the server I recommend.

Also, you're going to want to have a great connection locally if you intend to host it yourself. I'm not talking DSL or cable for that amount of traffic. It is just as important that your server has an appropriate network infrastructure to handle such a load as it is for the server itself to handle it. Obviously, the server is limited by the speed of the connection it is on. A high powered server is great, but only as far as the connection it is on allows it to be.

Do you have any experience with managing servers or Linux systems?

Thank you for your patience. I'm happy to help, but I need all the information first

[bslama4]

Thanks for your reply.
It doesn't matter whether its an ATX type or Rack mountable server but I think may be a Rack Mountable one would have a slight edge over the former. AdManager users Oracle for managing Database but I don't it'll be a problem if we switch on to MySQL. I am not that experienced but am on the learning process and I guess by the end of this project I'll find myself a more experienced and matured professional.