Hosting Providers

Question

Hosting Providers

charcol

SSC Veteran

Points: 296
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June 13, 2006 at 4:26 pm

#94049

Ok, we're looking into migrating hosting providers soon and exploring some options.
This is a fairly large installation, with 8 servers, a load balancer, firewall, and SAN. Bandwidth is about 4TB/month. We are looking for something in the $15,000 per month range. Location doesn't matter, tho if we had a choice, Washington D.C. / Dulles, VA area is preferred.
I want your feedback on personal experience (both good and bad) for hosting providers.
Thanks!

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Shannara-287736 Grasshopper Points: 15 More actions · Answer 1

The best bet I have found is to post the same post over @ http://www.webhostingtalk.com. Im quite sure you will recieve some hits there that you are looking for

charcol SSC Veteran Points: 296 More actions · Answer 2

charcol

SSC Veteran

Points: 296

June 14, 2006 at 9:54 am

#643700

Thanks Shannara : >

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114532 More actions · Answer 3

Shoot a private mail to Steve Jones. The SSC.com provider I don't believe is in the DC area, but you can get his experiences.

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

charcol SSC Veteran Points: 296 More actions · Answer 4

Thx Brian, will do.

For the rest of you out there, here are a few more details regarding our managed hosting requirements:

The web apps are based on .Net 2.0 (Windows Server 2003) with a SQL Server 2005 database backend. An Active Directory domain is also a requirement. We also have some reporting tools that will be accessed by users from HQ. A high speed VPN connection is a necessity.

As for the hardware, there will be some sort of clustering for the database servers be it an MSFT hardware cluster or a SQL Server 2005 mirroring (which is similar to a software based clustering). I assume most managed host providers offer a SAN installation. Right now this is a requirement for our SQL database enviroment (live and data warehouse db's) as hosting the database on fixed disk is not the current config.

The web servers will be load balanced but likely not clustered (these are issues still in planning). In general, we'll need 2 or 3 64-bit boxes and the rest 32-bit. We're not sure if they'll be AMD or Intel (I assume the provider could provide both options - we're opened to suggestions).

Thanks again.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 728164 More actions · Answer 5

Charcoll,

If you're looking for 8+ servers, I'd look at a complete rack in a colocation facility with you providing the equipment. you can purchase what you want and upgrade when needed. Most of the hosting companies I've worked with in the last couple years will provide load balancing, managed backup, etc. for a fee. However "renting" 8+ servers is likely to be very expensive for what you get.

What's the bandwidth use on a 95% range? 4TB a month can be 5Mbps sustained or much more in peak. We've got a great deal for 5Mbps for SQLServerCentral at a couple thousand. Even factoring in a lease of equipment, I doubt we'd break 6-7k. The managed services aren't that bad.

We use Viawest, out here in CO, CA, UT, but Sungard has some nice services as well. Might check with them.

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