Web Hosting - Next Steps, Options & Recommendations

[tvr_rich]

We've been running our own ecommerce websites and a number of static/brochure style client websites (20-30 sites in total) on a Webfusion dedicated server for just under 3 years now.

Business has grown significantly, traffic levels, bandwidth usage etc. so we're looking into upgrading our systems and separating some of our main websites on to their own dedicated servers or VPS.

As we've grown, we've become a target for the usual unauthorised access/hacking attempts, so we've learnt a lot about web security, firewalls, IP address banning, controlling outgoing emails etc. We've realised that our main websites need to be "ring-fenced" so they are not affected by other projects and minimising the risk for the sites which generate the most revenue.

Just after some general advice and recommendations as to the best way forward.

We're happy with Webfusion, we've had minimal downtime and their support is great (24/7 and no extra cost), so I'll be going back to them for a quote but would be interested in hearing anyone else's experiences with other hosts.

[tvr_rich]

Cheers Andy.

Had a look at the HEG group of companies, Heart Internet look like a good option but assume that they would use the same systems as Webfusion?

[tvr_rich]

Yes, would prefer a managed solution. We've got a good understanding of hosting but would need a level of support to fall back on.

Anyone else have any recommendations for managed, dedicated servers offering similar levels of support and spec as Webfusion and Heart Internet?

[tvr_rich]

Looked into Rackspace before but were too expensive at the time, not so much of an issue now.

If we went with Rackspace, would we be able to partition up x1 dedicated server to allocate resources to separate groups of IP addresses/websites?

Looking at their prices, we would be looking at x1 server to cover all of our needs, although that goes against my original idea of a mix of approx 4-5 dedicated servers and VPS, to spread the risk across our own network of sites and customer projects.

[tvr_rich]

I see what you mean and we would be more comfortable with a more traditional host, is there anyone else worth talking to along these lines? Planning to speak to:

Webfusion
Heart Internet
Fasthosts

[tvr_rich]

Agreed, would be very expensive, I was looking at a mix of dedicated and VPS to reduce costs. The website in my profile is quite slow to load, it should be running quicker, code needs tweaking but as you say, a server upgrade alone could solve this. Also agree that any increase in spend on hosting would easily be justified with reduced bounce rates, which I'm sure it would contribute to.

We have x5 main ecommerce sites and x4 smaller ecommerce sites which ideally need to be hosted on their own dedicated server or suitable VPS.

We need another dedicated/VPS for x1 website with the same/similar spec as the server above, for a new website which should generate the same levels of traffic as all of our ecommerce websites combined.

Another server for a smaller web projects which needs to be separate from our other online businesses.

Then finally, another server for a group of smaller projects (not ecommerce) and customer websites.

[tvr_rich]

Some great advice here and thanks for the feedback about the site speed. The site in my profile does need work, it should be running more efficiently, even with the 4000+ products listed. We have looked into using CDNs, definitely needs investigating, as always, all down to time and resources, it's not our main source of revenue though and our other sites on our server load far more quickly, for example www.bin-shop.co.uk

Timico are local to us, so will definitely give them a call. UKFast look like another suitable option, thanks for the recommendation.

We're building a list of requirements for the new servers today, things like; support, uptime, root level access etc. are key features for us. We've collated all the server stats for the last few months, so we've got a clear idea of our current usage levels. We do have a good level of expertise in house but we're not hosting experts, so feel more comfortable with a managed server.

We currently have a managed dedicated Linux CentOs server with these specs:

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31230 @ 3.20GHz - Quad Core
4GB Ram
Plesk - 100 license
1TB SATA drive
Unmetered bandwidth

What specs should we be focusing on for our new dedicated server, to increase site speed and reliability?

For our smaller projects, where only a VPS would be required, what key features should we be looking for?

[tvr_rich]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there. CPU usage is generally low, 10-20% even at peak times but memory usage is consistently around 3GB of the 4GB available.

I think we also have only one instance of MySQL serving all of the sites and we currently have 77 databases! Each site is setup as a vhost in Apache, so again, looks like we're stretching our resources too far.

Thanks for the advice, really helpful.

[tvr_rich]

Thanks for advice, all very helpful.

Webfusion are putting a proposal together now based on our new requirements and the points I've highlighted from this thread. They're getting their sysadmin people to have a look as well, as people have mentioned here, just throwing resources at this could be costly and unnecessary.

[tvr_rich]

That's a good point, we initially went for a dedicated server, as we had plans to build 50-100 websites and required separate IP addresses for each one for SSL certificates. At the time, we found that with most VPS/basic hosting packages there were limits on the amount of websites we could host and restrictions which we couldn't work around.

We've now scaled back those plans and decided to focus on a smaller group of websites/projects, so maybe we should be looking at it from a different angle.

Looking at the standard web hosting and VPS packages from Heart Internet, Memset etc. looks like we might need to consider a simple solution.

[tvr_rich]

Thanks for the advice Andy, all taken on board and very helpful.

Webfusion have come back with a proposal, massive overkill, almost x10 times our current costs! Not happy, as they said they would look at our sites and take into consideration our current usage levels. They also can't offer an enhanced support package and with our support tickets taking on average 24 hours to be responded to, think it's time to move!

[tvr_rich]

Also, based on the comments about the speed of the site in my profile, we've spent some time tweaking the code and it's now running considerable quicker! Rolled out the same changes to our whole network of sites. Thanks to all for highlighting this and proves the point made by others that a higher spec server isn't going to solve all of our problems.

[tvr_rich]

Just a quick update on this, after everyone's recommendations we transferred over our sites to TSOHOST.

I contacted x3 other hosting companies who offered comparable services but TSOHOST were the best fit. We needed a managed solution and after speaking to one of their directors, they suggested separate virtual servers for our main sites and cloud hosting for our smaller projects. The main difference was that they listened to our requirements and didn't push us down the route of expensive powerful dedicated servers, with more resources than we need.

So far the service has been fantastic and our websites are running very smoothly, would highly recommend them.

[tvr_rich]

6 weeks?! How complex is the site?

Glad we did the migration ourselves!