UK Dedicated Server

[retired_member34]

I have had a dedicated server with 1&1 for the last 7 years, with no great problems. A few things have made me decide to look elsewhere though; A recent minor spat over ownership of a .co.uk (1&1 use their own info and ignore Nominet it seems), wanting to use MS Websitespark, and wanting to try a UK IP address.

Rackspace appear very good, but you certainly have to pay for it and they are not part of Websitespark.

I've been around long enough to see small outfits come and go, so want someone big enough with their own UK data centre, and good reliability and speed. Other than that my requirements are pretty low. Only around 20 sites (each on own IP preferably, but need a minimum of 6), 30Gb month bw, good backup. Looking to spend around £100-150 per month.

Could anyone recommend a good provider? Some possibles:

Fasthosts
Rapidhost
Netcetera

Currently favouring Netcetera, if any has any experience of them? Would be grateful for any feedback.

 

[jimm]

You do know fasthosts == 1und1?

 

[TinkyWinky]

Depends on how important your business is to you to be online 99.99% of the time with fast access and how technical you are to sort problems out if/when they occur?

I have tried a lot of hosters in the UK and am currently with 3 different hosters - one UK and two in the US.

The only one I really have any time for is Rackspace. They don't come within your budget though for dedicated. They weren't in mine really until I sat back and worked out how much hassle i really wanted from a hoster if something went wrong.

I also wanted a managed service to help sort out DNS or router issues, firewalls and services like email, domain forwarding etc etc.

And that's the crux of it - what they do if and when things go wrong or you need urgent assistance.

Every other provider without exception I have had some sort of hassles on a server level - servers down, slow reboots, viruses getting through firewalls, DoS attacks la la la.... or I have found them too slow if you need more banal requests like DNS settings, MX records to be set up etc.

All the communication that you do in trying to sort out the problems remember is billable time - yours (along with the server being down or too slow for users to be able to use)

Rackspace have always been right at the top in terms of uptime and support.

You can call them anytime or set up trouble ticket and they always respond within 30 mins - most of the time handling things within a 2 hour window if it requires more than just a reboot.

Put it this way - in 4 years we have had about 2 hours downtime during our early am (i.e. 2-4 am UK time) - and that was due to the whole data centre in Dallas being offline due to massive electrical cut which then blew the routers. Even during this peiord they updated every 20 mins or so via blog and trouble ticket.

So work out how much your business is actually worth to be online (ie. if your business is down 24 hours due to a virus/DoS will you lose £1000 say?) then factor that in to your budget.

That way you will be able to select the right hosting package with the right priorities in mind.

Actually - you coudl always try their Cloud services as we do run our adservers off them and not had any problems.

Hope that helps - good luck and remember don't skimp and save on what is the most important part of your business - it really isn't worth the hassle or loss of money.

TW

(p.s. I don't have any affiliation with Rackspace or work for them )

 

[retired_member34]

You do know fasthosts == 1und1?

Thanks. Yes I was aware, but Fasthosts have a UK data centre (I know there are many arguments to say this doesn't matter anymore, but I am curious to try) and are part of Websitespark.

Depends on how important your business is to you to be online 99.99% of the time with fast access and how technical you are to sort problems out if/when they occur?

I have tried a lot of hosters in the UK and am currently with 3 different hosters - one UK and two in the US.

The only one I really have any time for is Rackspace. They don't come within your budget though for dedicated. They weren't in mine really until I sat back and worked out how much hassle i really wanted from a hoster if something went wrong.

I also wanted a managed service to help sort out DNS or router issues, firewalls and services like email, domain forwarding etc etc.

And that's the crux of it - what they do if and when things go wrong or you need urgent assistance.

Every other provider without exception I have had some sort of hassles on a server level - servers down, slow reboots, viruses getting through firewalls, DoS attacks la la la.... or I have found them too slow if you need more banal requests like DNS settings, MX records to be set up etc.

All the communication that you do in trying to sort out the problems remember is billable time - yours (along with the server being down or too slow for users to be able to use)

Rackspace have always been right at the top in terms of uptime and support.

You can call them anytime or set up trouble ticket and they always respond within 30 mins - most of the time handling things within a 2 hour window if it requires more than just a reboot.

Put it this way - in 4 years we have had about 2 hours downtime during our early am (i.e. 2-4 am UK time) - and that was due to the whole data centre in Dallas being offline due to massive electrical cut which then blew the routers. Even during this peiord they updated every 20 mins or so via blog and trouble ticket.

So work out how much your business is actually worth to be online (ie. if your business is down 24 hours due to a virus/DoS will you lose £1000 say?) then factor that in to your budget.

That way you will be able to select the right hosting package with the right priorities in mind.

Actually - you coudl always try their Cloud services as we do run our adservers off them and not had any problems.

Hope that helps - good luck and remember don't skimp and save on what is the most important part of your business - it really isn't worth the hassle or loss of money.

TW

(p.s. I don't have any affiliation with Rackspace or work for them )

Thanks for the feedback on Rackspace. Everything I read states that Rackspace are the best for management and assistance when there is a problem, but it is a big leap in cost. The server itself is £400pm rather than £150, so £3K pa. before I add in the circa £5K's worth (to me) of software under Websitespark.

Guess I'm not ready to make that leap - which of course I may regret!

 

[mally]

Can I suggest http://www.totalwebdevelopment.co.uk/ - they manage my dedicated server for me, I received a price list yesterday and should match your requirements.

 

[jimm]

Thanks. Yes I was aware, but Fasthosts have a UK data centre (I know there are many arguments to say this doesn't matter anymore, but I am curious to try) and are part of Websitespark.

Jolly Good
I quite agree keeping it within the UK!

Thanks for the feedback on Rackspace. Everything I read states that Rackspace are the best for management and assistance when there is a problem, but it is a big leap in cost. The server itself is £400pm rather than £150, so £3K pa. before I add in the circa £5K's worth (to me) of software under Websitespark.

Guess I'm not ready to make that leap - which of course I may regret!
Rackspace are good but certainly not worth their money in my experience. You can get the same or better service for cheaper (still not cheap mind).

Rackspace are good, but in my opinion they are not worth the step up (especially when you dig into the hardware they sell for the price).
There are many smaller providers who do a similar or better job for less. They just dont spend the same huge figure on marketing.
Alas the people I know are not anywhere near as large as you want.

 

[monaghan]

Can I suggest Total Web Development - Low cost business web design and development in Manchester

I've known Tony for a number of years on other forums, I've not had business dealings, but would suggest from my experience that he's one of the good guys.

 

[retired_member34]

Thanks for the suggestions and feeback. It seems I am going to be stuck - as soon as the companies get large enough then it seems the support declines.

Cheers all.

 

[monaghan]

I always favour the "little guy" on the grounds of support. 1 customer to a little company is worth far more than the same customer to a faceless large company and quality of service generally is better if you are valued. Don't go too little though.

 

[TWD-Tony]

I think the problem you are going to have is finding someone that ticks "all" the box's - not many UK hosts that I know are a member of websitespark for example...

Is websitespark a very important factor in choosing a hosting company for you? I take it that you would need Windows Server? (which rules me out as I only deal with Linux servers)

As Monaghan says... Large companies can be very hard to deal with at times, yes they have the infrastructure and a large number of employees but the vast majority of those employees are just that - they clock on and clock off... They won't care that your website is down once it's time to clock off!

Smaller companies are usually better to deal with but have an increased risk of going under (but I don't think any size business is more or less at risk at the moment!)

There is another solution of course, it's not the cheapest and doesnt include websitespark but it combines the best of both worlds.... PM me for more info

 

[retired_member34]

I think the problem you are going to have is finding someone that ticks "all" the box's - not many UK hosts that I know are a member of websitespark for example...

Is websitespark a very important factor in choosing a hosting company for you? I take it that you would need Windows Server? (which rules me out as I only deal with Linux servers)

As Monaghan says... Large companies can be very hard to deal with at times, yes they have the infrastructure and a large number of employees but the vast majority of those employees are just that - they clock on and clock off... They won't care that your website is down once it's time to clock off!

Smaller companies are usually better to deal with but have an increased risk of going under (but I don't think any size business is more or less at risk at the moment!)

There is another solution of course, it's not the cheapest and doesnt include websitespark but it combines the best of both worlds.... PM me for more info

As a small outfit using MS the Websitespark is just too good to miss. For $100 we get Visual Studio Professional (3 users), Expression Studio 3 (1 user), Expression Web 3 (2 users), Windows Web Server 2008 R2 (4 proc) and SQL Server 2008 Web Edition (4 proc).

 

[TWD-Tony]

Well in that case then your best bet is going to the websitespark website, I think they have a full list of hosting companies who are part of the scheme...

It is a good deal indeed, although don't they put some restrictions on it such as you HAVE to produce x number of websites using the software every x months or something?

 

[retired_member34]

don't they put some restrictions on it such as you HAVE to produce x number of websites using the software every x months or something?

Yes, 1 in the first 6 months.