
Show HN: I started a low cost dedicated server host, Exelion - DiabloD3
https://www.exelion.net/
======
primitivesuave
Is there any assurance that someone can't just break into whatever facility
you're housing these machines in, and walk off with all my data? Do I even
know that you're going to be in business in 5 years? What happens if someone
DDOSes your infrastructure? There is hardly any information on the landing
page, let alone answers to questions like these.

There's really nothing differentiating this service other than metrics, and I
wouldn't show this as a hosting option to my clients because of how little
information there is about it. I'm not trying to put you down, just giving
some real-world perspective on what your potential users are looking for.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Is there any assurance that someone can't just break into whatever facility
> you're housing these machines in, and walk off with all my data? Do I even
> know that you're going to be in business in 5 years? What happens if someone
> DDOSes your infrastructure?

You receive no such assurances from Rackspace, OVH, Hetzner, Softlayer, etc.
They could all go out of business, anybody could walk out with your data, and
if you're getting DDOSed, well, as always you're getting your checkbook out to
mitigate it unless you have a very large team (in which case, why are you
going with a hosting company anyway?).

OP is going for the Digital Ocean of physical machines. Treat it as such. If
someone wanted assurances, they're going to pay out the nose and go with an
established provider.

~~~
mildtrepidation
Is there a reason to dismiss the question like this? It's a matter of
probability: This site just appeared out of thin air as far as most of us are
concerned. Yeah, Rackspace could go out of business tomorrow. But that's a
hell of a lot less likely -- and more likely to happen with some sort of
warning -- than a brand new provider going under (since we all know what the
odds are for new businesses).

If the OP is "going for the Digital Ocean of physical machines," perhaps he
should be clearer about his intentions. I personally don't think that's a
reasonable assumption based on the information he's provided.

~~~
toomuchtodo
> Is there a reason to dismiss the question like this?

I'm not dismissing your questions. I'm arguing that listing information on
your website doesn't mean you're any more or less capable at handling the
issues you're described.

I've seen <10 people startups succeed against destructive technical
challenges, and I've seen +$500 million companies completely fail on the most
simple problems. QA/FAQs aren't the deciding factor (although they provide
signaling to clients, both current and potential).

~~~
primitivesuave
I have to agree with you here as you make an excellent point about QA/FAQs.
It's entirely possible that the people behind this know exactly what they're
doing, but from a client perspective it is a bit sketchy that there is no
information other than server specs.

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mildtrepidation
Not to be critical right out of the gate, but the site doesn't suggest any
differentiation... rather than asking people to shop around just to figure out
what your value proposition is, it seems to me it'd make sense to actually
state that somewhere.

Why or in what circumstances people should choose you over, for example,
Rackspace or cloud vendors like EC2 might be a good place to start.

~~~
300bps
Anyone who has evaluated Rackspace for pricing would instantly see that
Exelion is a tiny fraction of the price for high-end hardware.

Exelion's Basic model includes an incredibly fast Xeon processor, 16 GB of
RAM, RAID 1 storage and a gigabit port for $99 per month ($66 per month with 5
year commitment).

Compare that to Rackspace which I'm guessing would charge about $1 billion per
month for the same thing although I haven't checked their prices lately. In
all seriousness - Rackspace can't come close to their pricing.

Other than that, there are still some open questions - where are they located,
how can we be sure they'll still be in business a year from now, or hey, what
operating systems they support, etc.

~~~
ruffyen
[http://i.imgur.com/3fpmImY.png](http://i.imgur.com/3fpmImY.png) \-- Rackspace
for a 15GB RAM server is actually around $500 a month. And to be quite honest
the service there is fantastic. If you are going to run a production server
you need assurances. Assurances that the linked vendor does not provide.

~~~
esw
I think you're showing VPS pricing (not dedicated servers).

~~~
ErrantX
We have a rackspace 32GB dedicated machine which costs $750/mo. Just for a
firm datapoint.

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greenyoda
I couldn't find a contact form or phone number anywhere on the site, so
there's no way to ask about the service before signing up. (All I could find
was a support e-mail address buried in the copyright section of the TOS.) This
doesn't inspire confidence. If someone's business depends on one of these
servers, they're going to want to know that the hosting company is reachable,
and that impression starts with the initial contact with the company.

Also, who is going to commit to a five year contract with a company that has
no track record? Maybe there should be a one-year discount instead of a 5-year
discount?

~~~
DiabloD3
We don't have a 1-800 number setup yet. AT&T's business division (the only
phone company that has working cell phone towers locally that has business
cell plans; Verizon, Sprint don't) seems to not want to do businesses with
single owner LLCs.

I'm going to have to look at other ways of dealing with this.

Also, there are already discounts at one year.

~~~
LearnAndBurn
Why not use something like [http://grasshopper.com/](http://grasshopper.com/)
?

~~~
tonyhb
Yeah, or Twilio and set it up yourself?

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apenney
I'm unconvinced by the low cost aspect. Low cost is the listing at
[http://www.soyoustart.com/us/offers.xml](http://www.soyoustart.com/us/offers.xml).
You're cheaper than a lot of the premium hosters, but not the budget and low
cost ones.

~~~
binarytrees
Any others that are like this? I like this price!

~~~
nkurz
Hetzner has good prices on Haswell servers (1 € == 1.4 USD):

[http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/produktmatrix/rootserver-
pr...](http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/produktmatrix/rootserver-
produktmatrix-ex)

As well as lots of inexpensive older models:

[http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/produkte_rootserver/serverb...](http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/produkte_rootserver/serverboerse)

~~~
apenney
I've been using Hetzner for my development machine for a while now and they
have been fantastic. Great support, great price. It sucks a little to SSH from
here to Germany but it's definitely something I can tolerate for the price.

~~~
cmer
Try using Mosh. It makes ssh much less painful for high latency connections.

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alcari
It seems a bit disingenuous to advertise "RAID 1" on the main page, when it's
only software RAID. If I want software RAID, I'll install it myself.
Advertising RAID implies (to me, at least), that there's a hardware RAID card
in the box.

Also, you claim to have "a state of the art Denial of Service (DoS) mitigation
system", but don't provide any details as to what it is. Is it Arbor TMS or
something along those lines?

It'd also be good to detail what, if any, remote management options are
available (IPMI?).

~~~
welterde
> It seems a bit disingenuous to advertise "RAID 1" on the main page, when
> it's only software RAID.

Is hardware RAID for RAID 1 really worth it? Because in my experience the
performance advantage is not really there.

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jdubs
I don't understand the graphic. How are you a predator?

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rdl
This looks good from a tech perspective. Could you talk somewhat about who you
are, the company, previous projects, or whatever else will build confidence in
the service?

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vangale
This looks interesting to me, but your website leaves many unanswered
questions such as: can I get remote console access? how does the ddos
protection work?

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stahlkopf
Interesting offer, initial landing page could use some work.

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bluedino
5 years? Craziness.

~~~
DiabloD3
Believe it or not, it was requested.

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seunosewa
No SSD option?

~~~
DiabloD3
Yes, we offer SSD as well.

