

Ask HN: Managed dedicated hosting recommendations - midnightmonster

I'm an avid user of linode-type virtual dedicated servers, but I have a client who wants a fully managed and supported option. Virtualization is fine, but it needs to be able to pass a basic PCI remote scan and questionnaire (not actually storing card data--that's outsourced to Braintree). App is PHP and MySQL based and currently could use some speed improvements. Business is good, so spending money for uptime and peace of mind is fine.<p>I'm usually more hands-on, so I don't know who to recommend for managed. Any experience?<p>(I prefer to work with Ubuntu systems, but I can live with alternatives. A distribution without recent PHP is not ok.)
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swalberg
I once worked as the sysadmin for a blogging network. We used Logicworks.net
for quite some time. They managed the servers and helped out when things were
going bad, but would also stand back if we wanted to do anything ourselves.

I can't speak highly enough about the guys I dealt with there.

~~~
ten7
I'd also recommend Logicworks -- they helped us setup a distributed app across
two different parts of the country, and it worked well. And it always helps to
know a person there too. Give Steve Zeller a call, he'll take care of you and
let him know Ivan sent you: szeller@logicworks.net,
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenlzeller>

------
ninjastar99
If security is a priority, I would recommend FireHost
(<http://www.firehost.com>) without hesitation. They have been great for us to
work with. I also recommend Wiredtree - which has been flawless for us over
the past 2 years.

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pavs
Hostgator <http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated.shtml>

They are a bit on the expensive side, but they are fully managed and support
is awesome. Besides thats the only managed dedicated service I had experience
with.

True story (a bit off-topic). Couple of years ago when I had HG Dedicated
Elite Account with them for about 1 year. I think they charged me for one
month or so after that there was a bug on the system and they didn't auto
charge me every month (and I didn't check, I assumed they charged). After
about 1 year, they found out the problem and they contacted me and explained
the situation (I checked my bank account and verified). They gave me an option
and told me that I don't have to pay for their mistake (~3k I owed them), but
if I continue to use their service I will have to pay. I decided to leave. I
was particularly going through a hard time financially during that time and I
thought it was unfair situation for me to be put in a place where I have to
pay a lumpsum amount to keep using their service when it wasn't my fault.
Anyways, I wasn't necessarily proud of myself for not paying them. However I
would highly recommend them simply because of their excellent customer service
and their reputation.

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jread
Here are a few cloud providers I'm aware of that offer "fully managed" or
advanced support options:

EC2 (with premium support - pricey)

Storm on Demand

SoftLayer

Storm on Demand is a new IaaS platform backed by Liquid Web. Pricing is
reasonable, support is good, and they really know what they are doing. I've
been using their service for about 3 months now with no issues or downtime.

~~~
Skyline
+1 for SoftLayer. We've been using them for about 3 years now and we've been
very happy with them.

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thefahim
I've been using WiredTree for CurrentHipHop for the past 2 months. They're
cheap, managed and great support so far.

~~~
TrevorBurnham
Another thumbs-up for WiredTree. Reasonably priced given the level of support
you get (even low-priority tickets typically get responses within minutes).
Nice control panel, too.

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callmeed
If you want managed, I think Rackspace is still the best. They have gotten us
out of plenty of jams. Fastest response times, great monitoring, phone
support, etc.

~~~
culturestate
Completely agree. The only issue I've run into with rackspace is that they are
sometimes _too_ proactive - they locked a subcontractor out of one of our
development boxes a couple weeks ago because they didn't recognize the user.

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nwilkens
I am the co-founder of a pro-active server management company, MNX Solutions
(<http://www.mnxsolutions.com>). So I have a bit of a bias.

The best dedicated server provider that we have worked with to date, hands
down, is Softlayer.com.

Couple the best server provider, with the best server administrators and you
will be heading in the right direction.

~~~
benreyes
Glad to see SoftLayer are still on top of things. I used them when they first
launched and the guys from The Planet moved over as I used to run a shared web
hosting business.

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patrickgzill
Actually getting the basic PCI scan passed should be quite easy, especially if
you do not store the card data.

~~~
midnightmonster
Yes, it is pretty easy. Just a baseline requirement for the hosting.

~~~
lsc
this is relevant to my interests, well, sortof. do you have a link?

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dnsworks
You might check out a company that I used to own, BitPusher.com. They host
and/or manage infrastructure for dozens of startups, including a few YC
startups (Wufoo, Meteor solutions (I think), and am pretty sure they're
working with Posterous now).

It's a cool setup, we built it with the idea of replacing systems
administrators in a start-up, becoming part of their change management
process, providing architectural guidance, and proactive management of
customer infrastructure. They do dedicated servers in their own datacenter, as
well as having great pricing with SoftLayer due to a pretty strong
relationship there.

My old business partner, Daniel Lieberman, still runs BitPusher. Tell him
Michael sent you.

