I currently use Rackspace originally used SliceHost which was acquired and integrated into Rackspace for cloud hosting . Have had absolutely no issues. since 2010. The services is easy use and rock solid , easy to use, with many advanced features. But then again it is a premium service and cost prohibitive.
As such I am also looking at cheaper alternatives.
My main criteria areIn 2010 I switched to KVM based hosting using vServer Center and still use it today.
Recently, though I still have vServer Center because of the great cost factor, I have started using Microsoft Azure Cloud hosting.
Gen 3 Cloud
Currently (Dec 2016) evaluating cloud services and techniques,
- Microsoft Azure
- Amazon Cloud
- Google Cloud
The key advantage of the cloud services is infrastructure as code, but let's start with just the minimal hardware, bandwidth requirements. Note I've upped the memory requirements having switched to LXC and also now have a sense of bandwidth utilization (but noting that BonsaiFramework is not searchable yet).
| Comparison Point | Amazon Cloud | Google Cloud | Microsoft Azure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product Name | t2.small EC2 Reserved Instance Descriptions very unclear. | Virtual Machine Baisc | ||
| Calculator Website | Useful Links: | Useful Links: | ||
| 2 GB of Memory | 2 GB | 1.75GB | ||
| 1 CPU | ||||
| 50 GB of Disk Space (currently at 33GB) | None must buy EBS (Elastic Storage Blocks) but adding 50GB of General SDD did not seem to increase price | 70 GB | ||
| Bandwidth ~7 GB/Month UnMetered | $0.09 / GB past 1GB = $0.54 | 7 GB/Month without Exposing BonsaFramework website to search engines. | ||
| Download at 20mbps | ||||
| Static IP Address | IP4 | |||
| Monthly | $13.14 | $31.66 (in West Central US) | ||
| Yearly Upfront | $151 |
Gen 2 Self-Serve Virtual Hosting
Log
Aug 2018
Lots of Low End Box, and there are more - I have not looked closely yet.
Note these often use OpenVZ ... which previously had trouble with Java now (Aug 2019) it's better and depends on the hosting provider setting limits on memory / not overselling too. Also restricted to Ubuntu supported by OpenVZ base image which is 16.x at the moment.
Container technology and Docker does not work due to older kernel.
Here are the offers:
2GB-SSD-VPS
| 3GB-SSD-VPS
| 6GB-SSD-VPS
|
These are very inexpensive prices and there's further discount if you pay for the full year up front! However, keep in mind this is VPS hosting which can end up oversubscribing resulting in a very slow system.
Feb 2012
I spent some time to look for cheaper alternatives. This is still best bang for the buck despite Gen 3 Cloud services.
Main criteria,
- 1024GB of memory
- Allow Ubuntu OS Custom Install
- Decent bandwidth 2GB or higher / month
- Allow adding more additional IPs
- Provide console Console access
- Preferably hypervisor Hypervisor based
- Nice to have ability to do full image backups and restores
Selected Virtual Private Server
vServer Center
http://www.vservercenter.com/
web management: https://vcp.vservercenter.com
support email: support@cybercon.net
KVM hosting $29.95/Month with life-time discount code WHTVDSKV20A (used Feb 2015) reduced to $9.95/Month,
- 2 GB of Memory
- Ubuntu OS
- UnMetered 20mbps bandwidth
- 50 GB Hard Disk
- One dedicated IPv4 IP Address
- Web Terminal
- Allow Custom Installation of number of Linux OS including Ubuntu
Purchased additional IP for $1/Month.
To allow install of your own OS, during purchase select,
| Panel |
|---|
Operation System Installation Type: Custom Self Install via vServer Center Control Panel (free) |
Pros,
- Allows full OS install from scratch!
- Console has bandwidth graph.
Some cons found so far,
- No self-serve image backup and restore ability. You must contact support and they will sell you cloud space and you have to call every time for manual backups. When I spoke to the support rep he said they would look into this in the future.
- No DNS Servers (not a big con, most domain registrars provide this).
Virtualization Technologies
...
The following chart outlines the top level pros and cons,
| Technology | Pros | Cons |
|---|
| Implementations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hypervisor |
|
| Xen, KVM and VMWare |
| Container |
|
| OpenVZ, Virtuozzo (based on OpenVZ), Solaris Zones and recently LXC |
| Ephemeral Container (better name find) | Docker |
Java with Container Based Virtualization
...
Here is a good article that explains the challenges and offers a possible solution..
This looks like it has working solutions http://forum.openvz.org/index.php?t=msg&goto=7057.
...
Considered
vServer Center
Interserver
$8/month per KVM slice 25GB HD, 1GB RAM, 1TB Transfer
http://www.vservercenterinterserver.com/
web management: https://vcp.vservercenter.com
This looks too good to be true.
KVM hosting at $29.95/Month with life-time discount using net/vps/
OS is a scripted install looks to be minimal install
RAM HOST
Experienced performance issues with server.
http://www.webhostingtalkramhost.comus/showthread.php?t=1102906 FRMVDSKV20 and it goes down to $9.95/Month. It looks to be real. I just purchased,
$9.95/month for KVM with Mem = 1GB, BW = Unmetered at 10mbps = 1000GB, Space = 20GB
Using wget downloaded at 1.28M/s grabbing a Confluence download.
Using browser to download from Apache same file averaged 1.2M/s.
Purchased it and one nice feature was ability to install your OS.
Pros,
- Allows full OS install from scratch!
- Console has bandwidth graph
Some cons found so far,
...
$15.99/month for container OpenVZ with Mem = 1024, BW = 1000GB, Space = 25GB
BuyVM
$12.95/month for container OpenVZ with Mem = 1024/2048, BW = 3000GB, Space = 60GB
$20.00/month for Hypervisor KVM with 1024MB, 3000GB and 60GB, 2 Core
Only issue seems to be stock.
Positive reviews - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1107446
Comparison reviews - http://www.
...
...
YardVPS
discussion/1238/picking-a-vps...-hostigation-vs.-secure-dragon-vs.-buyvm
JaguarPC
JaguarPC is recommend by one of the review sites hostcult.
$29 for VPS hosting with,
- 50 GB Disk Space
- 3,000 GB Bandwidth
- 1024 MB RAM
- 2048 MBBurst RAM
- Equal CPU (1 core min.)
Rejected
YardVPS
| Panel | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Purchased a server. Got no email notification that the server was setup. The console was very confusing, booted and got error. Not bothering as the console was not very good. |
This one also looks good with a fast connection speed. Normally $15.95 but with the discount code yardvps it drops down to $12.76. They have a 100Mbit connection,
...
March 4, 2012 - So far not impressed. After fiddling around I found that the system did not notify me it was ready. I booted the system, but so far it's not trivial to get going.
RAM HOST
http://www.ramhost.us/?page=vps/kvm-los-angeles-west
$15.99/month for container OpenVZ with Mem = 1024, BW = 1000GB, Space = 25GB
BuyVM
$12.95/month for container OpenVZ with Mem = 1024/2048, BW = 3000GB, Space = 60GB
$20.00/month for Hypervisor KVM with 1024MB, 3000GB and 60GB, 2 Core
Only issue seems to be stock.
Positive reviews - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1107446
Comparison reviews - http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/1238/picking-a-vps...-hostigation-vs.-secure-dragon-vs.-buyvm
JaguarPC
JaguarPC is recommend by one of the review sites hostcult.
$29 for VPS hosting with,
- 50 GB Disk Space
- 3,000 GB Bandwidth
- 1024 MB RAM
- 2048 MBBurst RAM
- Equal CPU (1 core min.)
Rejected
Virpus Networks - Rejected
...
Web chatted with a customer support rep who was quite knowledgeable. Here are the highlights of the conversation,
| Panel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
You can add more bandwidth at $7/mo per 1TB. $.10 per GB if you went over your max. cPanel is the more popular option and is feature rich, but uses more memory than DirectAdmin. DirectAdmin uses less memory, however is slightly harder to navigate through. They generally have the same features however. Can I use directadmin to do a full image backup? Kenneth O [agent] Yes, I believe this is possible - probably on a per account basis It will not do a full VPS image backup But you can use the Quick Backup function which will do this. |
Very negative review - http://www.the-best-web-hosting-service.com/virpus-review.php - Virpus wiped their system no backups, downtime.
Another negative review - http://www.hostcult.com/2010/03/review-virpus-hosting.html - Downtime
Consolidated Reviews of Hosting Sites
...