I originally used SliceHost which was acquired and integrated into Rackspace for cloud hosting since 2010. The services is easy use and rock solid with many advanced features. But then again it is a premium service and cost prohibitive.

Gen 2 Self-Serve Virtual Hosting

In Feb 2012 I spent some time to look for cheaper alternatives. At the time, I was already spoiled by Rackspace and so Amazon's cloud service lack of usability did not cut it with me.

Main criteria,

• 1024GB of memory
• Allow Ubuntu OS Custom Install
• Decent bandwidth 2GB or higher / month
• Allow adding additional IPs
• Console access
• Hypervisor based
• Nice to have ability to do full image backups and restores

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