
How to host the startup server? - tuukkah

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petercooper
Depends on your budget, right? But if it's not non-existent, then I'd
recommend SoftLayer (just Google for 'softlayer'). They're formed out of the
ashes of the old, and great, management team from The Planet (before it kinda
went 'eh') and are good value and really progressive (extremely customizable
machines, cheap upgrades, virtual private LAN for all users, KVM for most
servers, IPMI logins, open API to control your servers, etc). I moved to them
from EV1 several months ago and am totally in love. It's amazing for startups
because they offer datacenter level options for dedicated hosting money (it's
worth it for private LAN alone, I save tons of bandwidth).

If you want more general comments, rather than specific vendors, then...
unless your site is entirely local/regional, then always host in the US.
Always go for something that's not the cheapest, but not the most expensive.
Always search WebHostingTalk.com for reviews of the company you consider.

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run4yourlives
I wouldn't necessarily opt to host in the US. I wouldn't host in Poland, but
certainly Canada is an option. As a Canadian myself, I've been trying to avoid
the US actually, since I'd rather not have my systems be subject to the
PATRIOT act.

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falsestprophet
If your server isn't in the States, it is easier for the USA to spy on you.
They don't need the PATRIOT act; they don't need to ask at all.

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tuukkah
Now that I need hosting for an application, I don't even know whether to go
with the cheapest virtual hosting or try to go directly for some better-grade
setup.

Amazon S3 can be used for most of the storage needs, but I'd need a lot of RAM
for good price. Server Axis virtual servers seem good this far.

What about service-level agreements and terms of service of various providers,
all I've seen would seem to leave a lot to be desired?

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antirez
IMHO the best thing to do is to take a cheap housing. Here in Italy where
prices are much higher than in the USA you can get a decent host with a big
disk, few GB of ram, 1Mbit of guaranteed bandwidth for 100 EUR / month,
including the price to hire the server.

It's very important to have a good Linux distribution like Debian or Ubuntu
where you can install/upgrade things in few seconds with apt-get.

Also it's important to have root to be able to install different apache
modules, install cron jobs, be able to manage the firewalling in case of
attacks (I saved myself from a DOS thanks to a Tcl script + iptables one week
ago).

Virtual servers are cheap but the performance may not be bright.

p.s. I suggest to use a very low TTL for your DNS records so you can switch
ASAP if there are problems. Also to try to "packetize" your application is
important in order to make sure you can install without too much problems your
code in a different host in little time.

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sabat
Scritti inglese molto bene! Complimenti.

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antirez
grazie ;) ma parlo molto male.

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sabat
Allora, deve abitare in America, Britania, Canada, etc. se vuoi parlara bene.
E' troppo difficile imparare da solo. Ma se pua scrivere bene, va bene cosi'.

Btw, you can see that I write like a child. "Scritti"? Scrivi! :-(

~~~
antirez
Mi ci vorrebbe una vacanza per girare un po' il mondo infatti ;)

Btw, your Italian is fine!

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rami
<http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=11687>

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tuukkah
Thanks, there we've got several suggestions wrt. vendors.

Now, I still hope to get more comments on what to keep in mind when choosing
the hosting.

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tx
Get yourself a decent no-name 1U box ($900-$1500), stick it into a friendly
colocation service near you. $120-200/mo your mileage may vary. This should be
enough to test the waters.

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gerry
That's a crazy idea when you can same performance from a VPS with no capital
costs and cheaper hosting AND better reliability. Read my findings here:
<http://www.productcriticblog.com/2007/02/startup-lessons-from-productcritic-
save.html>

~~~
tx
I disagree with your findings. Sure it's cheap, but hosting companies tend to
oversell this virtual boxes to people and performance is _not_ the same,
especially when it comes to disk I/O (any kind of I/O) and handling sudden CPU
usage spikes.

$1,200-$1,600 for a server is not expensive. If you are trying to start up a
company and you're an engineer yourself, that money is what? Your half week
salary? Or we're talking about running things from a dorm room here?

You make very good point about reliability though.

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jdavid
Find another local startup and share the cost.

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sabat
Anyone know anything about the forthcoming Amazon EC2 public beta? Coming
anytime soon? Private beta testers are happy enough? Seem worth pursuing?

~~~
jamesbritt
I signed up to get a second beta account, but have heard nothing other than
"We'll let you know."

