RE: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Peter Edwards]

Matt Trout wrote:
>> Rackspace is immensely popular, but I'm worried that people are just 
>> comparing them to crap hosts that put cPanel on a white box and call 
>> that managed.  I trust you guys/gals and your experiences a great deal 
>> more than a forum like WHT!
>
>Rackspace are, in my experience of clients using them, a complete pain.
>
>The supported OS is a customised RHEL4. It goes downhill from there.

Rackspace are okay. I've used them (mainly for credibility) and when a
customer team lead wanted Debian they (grudgingly) offered it - without full
support. They can also be bargained down a long way off their high initial
price. I've no problem with RHEL because that's what many corporates want
and expect.

TBH if I had a budget for "fanatically managed support" I would go with
Shadowcat Systems since you guys already support an ISP and I *know* you
know what you're doing.

Internally we've used 1and1.co.uk and sysadmin the boxes ourselves because
I've a background as a sysadmin. As you amusingly pointed out, they're cheap
and "their support is as crap as everyone else's". Heh ;^)

Regards, Peter
http://perl.dragonstaff.co.uk


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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Matt S Trout]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 03:29:49PM -0600, Brian Kirkbride wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> I'd be interested in hearing opinions from the Catalyst community on 
> the best managed hosting.  We run a Catalyst-based web service and are 
> currently on several self-managed dedicated hosts at SoftLayer.  I 
> can't praise SoftLayer enough, but in the interest of sanity we'd like 
> to move to a fully, Fully, *FULLY* managed setup so that we can focus 
> on our App instead of routine sysadmin stuff.
> 
> Searching the list archives for "hosting" comes up with a lot of links 
> to the best shared or VPS plans under $50/month.  We're talking more 
> like $1000+/month for our needs.  At this point, it's all about the 
> quality and reliability of service - not price.
> 
> So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that 
> let's you sleep at night?  I'm talking pro-active monitoring, 
> upgrades, patches, backups, redundancy setup, architecture planning 
> and growth.  Everything you might need.  Staff that understands why 
> you'd need Nginx or Lighttpd in front and what FastCGI is.  People 
> that can handle tuning Postgres instead of just slapping MySQL with a 
> stock config on your box.
> 
> Rackspace is immensely popular, but I'm worried that people are just 
> comparing them to crap hosts that put cPanel on a white box and call 
> that managed.  I trust you guys/gals and your experiences a great deal 
> more than a forum like WHT!

Rackspace are, in my experience of clients using them, a complete pain.

The supported OS is a customised RHEL4. It goes downhill from there.

-- 
  Matt S Trout   Need help with your Catalyst or DBIx::Class project?
   Technical Directorhttp://www.shadowcat.co.uk/catalyst/
 Shadowcat Systems Ltd.  Want a managed development or deployment platform?
http://chainsawblues.vox.com/http://www.shadowcat.co.uk/servers/

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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Brian Kirkbride]

Michele Beltrame wrote:

Hi!


So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that
let's you sleep at night?


I think pair Networks would perfectly do: http://www.pair.com - look into the
"Dedicated" section.

Talk to you soon,
Michele.




Thanks Michele, I have heard many good things about PAIR... I will 
look into their offerings.


Best,
Brian

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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Brian Kirkbride]

Charlie Garrison wrote:

Good afternoon,

On 24/2/08 at 3:29 PM -0600, Brian Kirkbride 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that 
let's you sleep at night?  I'm talking pro-active monitoring, 
upgrades, patches, backups, redundancy setup, architecture planning 
and growth.  Everything you might need.  Staff that understands why 
you'd need Nginx or Lighttpd in front and what FastCGI is.  People 
that can handle tuning Postgres instead of just slapping MySQL with a 
stock config on your box.


I would recommend Make-Tracks Secure Hosting, but I'm biased (I work 
there).




We use a co-lo facility in Sydney, but have access data to centres 
around the world. And we are a small company but we focus on customer 
requirements and quality service rather than just trying to fill the racks.


We started as a shared hosting provider, but most of our customers have 
outgrown that and our focus has been moving to managed hosting. If you 
want to know more, feel free to contact me at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.



Charlie




Thanks Charlie, we'll keep you in mind!

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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Michele Beltrame]

Hi!

> So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that
> let's you sleep at night?

I think pair Networks would perfectly do: http://www.pair.com - look into the
"Dedicated" section.

Talk to you soon,
Michele.

-- 
Michele Beltrame
http://www.cattlegrid.info/
ICQ 76660101 - MSN [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Charlie Garrison]

Good afternoon,

On 24/2/08 at 3:29 PM -0600, Brian Kirkbride 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof 
hosting that let's you sleep at night?  I'm talking pro-active 
monitoring, upgrades, patches, backups, redundancy setup, 
architecture planning and growth.  Everything you might need.  
Staff that understands why you'd need Nginx or Lighttpd in 
front and what FastCGI is.  People that can handle tuning 
Postgres instead of just slapping MySQL with a stock config on 
your box.


I would recommend Make-Tracks Secure Hosting, but I'm biased (I 
work there).




We use a co-lo facility in Sydney, but have access data to 
centres around the world. And we are a small company but we 
focus on customer requirements and quality service rather than 
just trying to fill the racks.


We started as a shared hosting provider, but most of our 
customers have outgrown that and our focus has been moving to 
managed hosting. If you want to know more, feel free to contact 
me at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.



Charlie

--
   Charlie Garrison  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
   PO Box 141, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia

O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop html mail - www.asciiribbon.org
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

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Re: [Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Joe Landman]

Hi Brian:

Brian Kirkbride wrote:

Hello all,

I'd be interested in hearing opinions from the Catalyst community on the 
best managed hosting.  We run a Catalyst-based web service and are 
currently on several self-managed dedicated hosts at SoftLayer.  I can't 
praise SoftLayer enough, but in the interest of sanity we'd like to move 
to a fully, Fully, *FULLY* managed setup so that we can focus on our App 
instead of routine sysadmin stuff.


[...]

Searching the list archives for "hosting" comes up with a lot of links 
to the best shared or VPS plans under $50/month.  We're talking more 
like $1000+/month for our needs.  At this point, it's all about the 
quality and reliability of service - not price.


Hmmm  be careful saying this aloud, as some will happily put 
lipstick on a pig and call it something else.


So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that 
let's you sleep at night?  I'm talking pro-active monitoring, upgrades, 
patches, backups, redundancy setup, architecture planning and growth.  
Everything you might need.  Staff that understands why you'd need Nginx 
or Lighttpd in front and what FastCGI is.  People that can handle tuning 
Postgres instead of just slapping MySQL with a stock config on your box.


Well, on the hardware side, this is generally not hard, though 
enterprise class folks will charge you significantly for this.  We were 
looking to host linux clusters for some of our customers (with our 
Catalyst app atop it), and simply wanted good monitoring/support.  Local 
to us (Midwest USA) is Secure-24 (www.secure-24.com).  I met their CEO 
and toured their facility.  Haven't seen them in support action, and we 
haven't placed anything at their site yet, but it does look promising, 
and we are pointing some of our customers to them.


On the software side, there are lots of folks who do take the "easy" way 
out.  I am not sure most of the companies will grasp the whats/whys of 
this.  As long as you lay out your plan, and give them sensible marching 
orders, they don't have to drink the koolaid, just pour it for you, and 
make sure it keeps flowing.


--
Joe Landman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://scalableinformatics.com

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[Catalyst] OT: Recommendations for big-time hosting

[Brian Kirkbride]

Hello all,

I'd be interested in hearing opinions from the Catalyst community on 
the best managed hosting.  We run a Catalyst-based web service and are 
currently on several self-managed dedicated hosts at SoftLayer.  I 
can't praise SoftLayer enough, but in the interest of sanity we'd like 
to move to a fully, Fully, *FULLY* managed setup so that we can focus 
on our App instead of routine sysadmin stuff.


Searching the list archives for "hosting" comes up with a lot of links 
to the best shared or VPS plans under $50/month.  We're talking more 
like $1000+/month for our needs.  At this point, it's all about the 
quality and reliability of service - not price.


So what's you recommendation for absolutely bullet-proof hosting that 
let's you sleep at night?  I'm talking pro-active monitoring, 
upgrades, patches, backups, redundancy setup, architecture planning 
and growth.  Everything you might need.  Staff that understands why 
you'd need Nginx or Lighttpd in front and what FastCGI is.  People 
that can handle tuning Postgres instead of just slapping MySQL with a 
stock config on your box.


Rackspace is immensely popular, but I'm worried that people are just 
comparing them to crap hosts that put cPanel on a white box and call 
that managed.  I trust you guys/gals and your experiences a great deal 
more than a forum like WHT!


Retaining a 3rd-party, 24/7/365 management service is a possibility 
too.  Any recommendations on those?  Matt, do you guys offer that sort 
of setup at Shadowcat?


Thanks in advance,
Brian

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