I was recently asked to do research on PowerSchool hosting solutions. Here’s the information I found and what I have gathered so far. Please feel free to add to the conversation below. Our international school has 1,100 students at elementary, middle, and high.
PowerSchool Recommended Specs
Combined Application Node and Database:
- Processor: (2) Six-Core CPUs
- RAM: 16 GB
- Disk: 100 GB 15k Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) (OS, Tomcat); 250 GB 15k Serial-Attach SCSI (SAS) (Oracle Database)
- RAID: RAID 1 (OS, Tomcat) and RAID 10 (1 plus 0) (Oracle Database)
Comparison Table
| Self-Hosted (On-site) | Self-Hosted Cloud (GCP/Rockspace) | Self-Hosted Cloud (AWS/Rockspace) |
PowerSchool Hosted (Rackspace) | |
| Costs | Hardware Server Costs: $8,000 per 5 years | Hosting: $720/Monthly
SSD Storage: $60/Monthly |
Hosting:
$1290/Monthly SSD: $45/Monthly $1240/Monthly |
$3,850/year Hosting Fee: $3.50 /per student @ 1,100 students |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 License | 440,000 KRW (Education price) | OS Licensing. $351/Monthly | N/A | N/A |
| SSL Price | $20/year | $20/year | $20/year | $400/year |
| Migration | N/A | Inhouse migration | Inhouse migration | Additional $1,000 one time for migration |
| Hardware Management | Managed Inhouse | Managed by Google/Rockspace | Managed by Amazon/Rockspace | Managed by PowerSchool |
| Hardware Location | Seoul International School | Cloud | Cloud (Seoul) | Cloud (USA) |
| Software Management | Managed Inhouse | Managed Inhouse | Managed Inhouse | Managed by PowerSchool |
| Network Speed | Onsite speed fast connection | Cloud – Unknown Speed | Cloud Korea – fast | Cloud – Slower Speed |
| Security | Purchase separate firewall/ Managed Inhouse | Builtin / Managed Inhouse | Builtin / Managed Inhouse | Managed by PowerSchool |
| Notes |
Definitions:
GCP – Google Cloud Platform
AWS – Amazon Web Services
