posted noon CST 3.20.2020
This is just not fun for anyone.
The list of event postponements, closures and cancellations has really rocked us all these past few weeks. PauseOnError, Claris Engage, just about every local developer meetup, trade show, convention or public event where we market ourselves has been suspended. Rumors of additional closures and lockdowns are flying like crazy. It’s nuts.
Here at Mandelbrot HQ, we’re moving as fast as we can to try and help our customers adjust. We’re disappointed but we’re not suffering. We’re concerned for our customers and families but we’re not afraid. We’re sitting on a small mountain of canned goods, waiting for the weather to change. Don’t worry about us: our customers and our company will be just fine.
One of our newest customers asked us to take their on-premises solution to the cloud this week in California as their county, then the state invoked a shelter-in-place order. This is going to allow their staff to continue to work and plan for when this is all over in a few months. While we have no doubts they will weather this storm, many companies and non-profits that simply shut down will not.
That got us all thinking here at Mandelbrot HQ, so we’re making several limited time offers for AWS and FileMaker services to the community to try and ease some of those fears.
Before we give you a few examples of how the math works out, let’s get a few things straight about these offers.
- Servers set up on AWS are billed per second, not per year. If you want to turn your AWS server off and go back to 100% on-prem after the COVID crisis is over, you can do so without having to pay up front for a whole year of FileMaker Cloud. If you want to leave it on, go ahead.
- Once your server is up and running, we’re done billing you. You pay AWS monthly for your service and unless you want some sort of upgrade or want to pay us to make a change, you’re not going to hear from us. We’re just not interested in being the world’s largest fully managed FileMaker hosting service.
- Mandelbrot usually charges a minimum of $300 to spin up a cloud server. Some of our competitors have a minimum charge of $750. A base price of $50-250 is unheard of in the FileMaker world.
- At these prices, this program’s availability is VERY limited. We set these up one at a time with a direct, hands on approach and a lot of communication with our customers. That takes time and attention, which limits the number of people we can work with.
- Since this is a pretty steep discount and most organizations have VERY temporary needs, billing is on a 100% up front basis only. We will serve new customers one at a time based upon who’s payment is received first. It’s just not enough money for us to chase people.
- The program ends on or before March 31st. Anyone who has talked to us, scheduled their services and sent in full payment before then will be considered signed up at the lower price. Don’t wait until the 30th to call us; by then we’re probably going to be too busy to talk to you.
- Act now by calling or texting 312.778.8787 or using our contact page.
Here are a few examples of how that prices out:
- A governmental health management service has 14 databases and 94GB of data. They chose to migrate their data on their own. $50 base + $0 data migration + $0 additional data = $50 total
- A local pizza pub has one database and 3GB of data. $100 base + $25 data migration + $0 additional data = $125 total
- A for-profit kitchen remodeler has 7 databases and 28GB of data. $250 base + $50 data migration + $115 additional data = $415 total
- A local park district uses 3 databases and 3GB of data. $150 base + $50 data migration + $0 additional data = $200 total
During this difficult time, it is our intention to try and help everyone shelter in place more effectively without disruption to their businesses. We hope everyone comes together virtually, not physically, so we can move on safely. It is with the greatest of hopes that we can help you stay safe and healthy during this very strange time. This will all be over soon. Please don’t hesitate to call.
– David A Sullivan, Mandelbrot LLC President
*Setting up a FileMaker server on AWS includes provisioning your server using your current FileMaker license and your free AWS account. AWS usage charges are not included. FileMaker licenses and software are sold separately. Ask your representative for details.