Thread

I have been kicking around the idea of getting a managed server for about 6 months now. I have a shared hosting account that allows me to host various domains quite easily. But I probably have 8 or so of these accounts and probably host 20+ websites among them. I really don’t know if this is an expense that I want to take on though. The managed servers that I have seen cost 100+ per month and for reputable companies it can be upwards of 300$ per month.

So what do you all do? Do any of you have managed or unmanaged servers? and if so with whom? How have they done?

Thanks!
M.

Do you actually need to change, is there a reason or problem on the shared account?

A managed server would be a dream for 20+ sites, lots of resouurces and probably much faster. However you might want to consider VPS (Virtual Private Server) which would give you all the facilities but cost a lot less.

And therein lies the problem. Would it be nice? Yeah. Is it a necessity? No. The flexibility and the speed is what I crave. What I don’t crave is time lost managing a server. But I have some things in the works that could mean a lot more hosting and i just wonder how long I can continue sharing shared hosting… I guess I could just keep adding shared hosting accounts. But I wonder at what point in time does the headaches of managing multiple shared hosting accounts bypass the headaches involved in managing a single server…

I have to admit that there is something tempting/sexy in my mind about having my own server….

M.

Ah if it’s speed you want then Dedicated or VPS is the way to go I reckon. Yep you can still add shared hosting accounts and even use a reseller account but you’re still sharing with everyone else.

I don’t know if the headache goes away width going Dedicated - you still have to manage lots of sites, even if they are your own, but you could share a single FTP login across all your sites if you wanted to I suppose.

A dedicated server does sound sexy, I may get there one day, probably via a VPS!

If you have the budget for it and it doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket each month I’d go for it, it’s what you want isn’t it!

Speed and ease of use. I cannot tell you how many FTP usernames and account usernames I have to remember… geesh.. I am getting old.. Where did I put my ginko biloba…

Anyone else out there have their own server? Was thinking about media temple but they are getting bashed in another thread.

M.

I can quite happily recommend United Hosting for dedicated (fully managed) servers. Their service is A++.

Speaking from someone who use to run a hosting company I can tell you, there are two great ways to do dedicated servers.

1. Managed servers are nice. You don’t have any headaches, no daily concerns. However, they are not like people think sometimes. Just because a server is managed doesn’t mean that someone is sitting there working with the machine all the time. Usually it means things like updates done for you, intrusion detection and hardening the server. But for daily bumps you’ll still need to recognize them and submit tickets for them getting fixed, then wait for a resolution.

There’s also a very wide variety of packages and interpretations of ‘managed server’. So if that’s the route you go, understand what the company’s responsibility will be.

2. Unmanaged servers are wonderful too. YOu can (and should) get a control panel which minimizes the required technical ability to manage the server. Once a server is hardened (pay a company 30 bucks or so to do this initially) and if you don’t tweak under the hood every couple days, they can and usually are very self supporting. I’ve got a personal server I use to play with sites. Not the blog and script site I run but I use it to manage about 50 websites. I haven’t had to do anything on this server for 6 months. I use automatic scheduled updates so packages are updated. The only manual thing i do is kernal updates which require reboots.

If you decide to go this rate, I HIGHLY recomend going to softlayer. They have fantastic support, great prices, and offer the best option I’ve ever seen for people wanting dedicated servers unmanaged but still want support. If you have a problem, you can pay 3.00 and their admins will manage your issue. If you’re going to be keeping things pretty simple with minimal server tweaking, my suggestion would be an unmanaged server at softlayer (get something like a small dual core machine, should be less than 200 and that includes a control panel, of which I highly recomment Plesk) and use their 3.00 admin tickets for tweaks and small fixes. If you run into big problems? hire a company (they have lists of them in their private forums) that will, for a small fee, help you.

Bottom line, managed and unamanged servers are so cheap now it’s hard to find a better way. You don’t have to mess with a virtual private server which still shared resources with other sites, and you are completely separated from everyone else. Pick up a small backup service, configure your server to do daily backups and you’re set.

Since bandwidth is dirt cheap you’ll get around 2 terabytes per month for use. Which is WAY more than you’d need unless you’ve got some really busy sites.

A server that I mentioned above could easily run 200 websites. Just make sure you get 2 gb ram and a dual core CPU and you’re set.

Just my 0.02

If they are as good as you say they are then they have some great prices. I just checked their site and I like their features. Thanks for the tip!

M.

You bet, and they are definitely as good as it gets.

Thanks Jack but I need US based hosting. But your link might prove useful to those in our community in the UK.

M.