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Looking for new host and need some direction
| Posted by slpcinc, 02-10-2004, 03:25 PM |
| I apologize right up front as I'm sure this has been asked a million times. I did skim through the forums and found some valuable info. I'm thinking, at this point, that servermatrix.com may be my best solution. But I thought I'd run this by you guys anyway in case you think there is a better solution for me.
Here's what I currently have:
10 resold accounts through one host and about 25 through another. Basically, the two hosts I am using right now charge me per account instead of one bulk fee every month. However, there is no limit on how many accounts I can resell. The nicest part about them is that my customers do not know I am a reseller, it MUST stay this way. The only two downfalls that I currently experience are:
1. They do not provide 24/7 phone support and it takes 24 hours to get questions/issues answered.
2. They do not allow root access to the Linux boxes (which is understandable because they're shared servers) and their dedicated server plans are extremely expensive.
What I need:
The web hosting portion of my company grew by itself, pretty much by word of mouth. It has never been the money making side of our business. However, over the last year it is now making us a nice amount of cash every month, so we are now looking to market that side of the business as well and will be
taking it more seriously. Our customers host with us because they trust us, we're not some huge multi-million dollar corporation; if our customers have a problem, we have a problem. So the things I need from a new host are:
1. Same things our current hosts provide (i.e., unrestricted amount of resold accounts, or at least reasonable plans that allow easy upgradability if more accounts are needed, a 'ghost presence' so that our customers have no idea we're resellers, etc.)
2. 24/7 365 support. This support needs to happen when the issues occur, none of this 'we'll get back to you within 24 hours crap' (this is the main reason we will be dumping our current hosts; when our customers call us with a problem, and we call our host to figure out what's up with the servers and it takes them 24 hours to get back to us, it reflects poorly on us).
3. Root Access to the servers. This one is up in the air, we don't HAVE to have root access as long as the host doesn't mind us bugging them everytime a file/directory gets changed to root ownership and we need it changed back to our user. As long as we can contact the host and have something as easy as file
ownership change within a couple hours time, we're happy with paying much better rates on a virtual server instead of a dedicated one with root access.
4. Managed Hosting. I see that 'managed hosting' means a lot of different things to different hosts. So, basically, we will not have the time to sit there and monitor the server or install software, etc. So we'll need the hosting company to set it up for us.
We will be rolling out a marketing campaign come early summer, so we'd like to be at the point where we can transfer over about 10 of our domains before that point to see how we like what the new host can provide for us. If things go well throughout the summer, we'll cancel the other host and roll over the rest of
the domains.
Thanx for any direction you guys might be able to provide!
Regards,
Shane Parker
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Last edited by choon; 02-10-2004 at 05:06 PM.
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| Posted by CPQIS, 02-10-2004, 03:54 PM |
| I say go with servermatrix.
Good luck
Last edited by Odd Fact; 02-10-2004 at 04:59 PM.
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| Posted by IceCell, 02-10-2004, 05:15 PM |
| so are you looking for a Reseller Hosting Account or a Dedicated hosting account?
from reading through your post, it sounds as though your looking for a company that has 24/7 PHONE support, does most tasks for you, and resloves problems quickly..
if that's the case, ServerMatrix isn't even in the league your looking for... they specialize in "unmanaged" dedicated solutions.. they only thing they take responsiblity for is the SERVER itself (hardware, network connectivity, etc.).. they do not do any hosting support whatsoever.
If your needs require a Dedicated solution, you should be looking into a company like RackSpace (http://www.rackspace.com ), who will essentially run your business for you, and thus why they charge so much..
It will be VERY hard to find a quality hosting company that offers 24/7 PHONE support, and will "hand-hold".. if you are able to find one, they will be VERY expensive.. do to the level of service you require..
also, are you looking at Cpanel based hosts? or are you doing everything manually? most of the things you talked about can be done through Cpanel/WHM, without any need to contact your host..
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| Posted by slpcinc, 02-10-2004, 05:18 PM |
| Well, it would be very nice to be able to do everything through cpanel. I don't want to have to do everything manually. Will servermatrix provide cp access? Or do they just hand you a server and say "have at it"?
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| Posted by cartika-andrew, 02-10-2004, 08:39 PM |
| I would look at a VPS solution vs a reseller account.
The number of accounts you could host would only be limited by the resources you have allocated to your VPS - You would be given greater control (someone correct me if Im wrong), by having root access on your VPS - Gain the benefits of a dedicated server, while not taking on all the responsibilities.
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| Posted by Str, 02-10-2004, 09:23 PM |
| Agrees wholeheartedly.
Btw, there are other companies who are more reasonabley priced than rackspace and would be perfect solution for your needs but don't expect to find them at costs similar to unmanaged servers and he's very right in stating that servermatrix isn't even on the same table. My advice..look around a little more.
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