I'm starting a business, and I'd like to know what you guys think the optimum number of admins to server ratio is for financial modeling reasons. Or if there's a better metric to use? I come from an embedded programming background so this is an area that I'm pretty squishy on knowledge-wise. : \
Additional Info:
There will be a lot of servers.
Mainly Linux boxes, with about 10% Windows boxes.
Thanks in advance!
Updates from Comments
All I'm asking for is a ballpark figure. It needs to be very high availability, but luckily the system lends itself to spares/replicas.
Three database clusters (two cassandra, one sql) with around a million rows each. About 200 Linux boxes running a custom protocol (but is ultimately just a proxy for the datbases), two SANs with about a petabyte a piece, about 200 Linux boxes as basically video encoding appliances, about 50 windows boxes running the same custom proxy software.
And pay competitively. I'd rather have a few good admins than a lot of bad ones. Any more info needed?