Dedicated Hosting with Expertise

[Bl1ng]

Hi all,

My business is looking at leasing hosting space for some apps we need to run along with VPN and secure network connectivity.

The applications are for integration with other systems and therefore must not exposed to the public internet.

We need to guarantee the availability of the applications and their connectivity.

Would dedicated servers be the answer or does cloud hosting provide equal reliability, uptime and security ?

In addition, we need a provider that has the relevant expertise to configure the servers, network and firewalls. Rackspace comes to mind but happy to look at smaller providers that can offer a more personal, better value service as long as their infrastructure is robust.

Any recommendations ?

 

[Jason Mageehan]

Sounds like perhaps AWS could be your answer, it's easily scale-able , but I'd suggest that you find a suitable freelance sysadmin that you can use to keep your system in place - and start learning about it so that eventually you can do simple tasks yourself.

 

[soundengineeruk]

AWS, azure etc... Does seem like the option as you would be control of hosting, cost, access etc...

With AWS you schedule virtual servers (EC2) to stop and start. So if only needed between 9 to 5 reducing host cost..

A VPN can be set up between an office and AWS - VPN cost is a $0.05 per hour (approx. $438 per year) really needs be constantly running..

Rackspace offer dedicated AWS support team, but you are effectively paying for their support to push buttons..

 

[webhostuk]

It completely depends on your application requirement and budget . Things can be started with dedicated server and even a cluster or onapp cloud Setup can work if require high end service.

 

[Alan]

AWS, azure etc...

the etc not mentioned is Google Cloud

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vpn/overview

p.s. everything you need, delivered by a technology company rather than an online shopping company

In either instance you will need either an AWS partner or Google Cloud partner unless you want to get involved in the technology, from your original post 'personal service' is important so hence look for 'partner' ( sysadmin ) to provides personal service

 

[webhostuk]

Google I doubt about them .. most of there new concepts/ products (google wallet , google plus , google glasses and many more) are flop and they just shut down things, I would believe in google other than gmail and search engine. We had bad experience with google wallet. Its not easy to move setup when such decision to discontinue any product occurs. In that case the only stable solution left is AWS when we talk about cloud.

 

[Alan]

Google I doubt about them .

Google Cloud is not some sort of beta product, it is the third biggest public cloud provider ( AWS, Micros**t Azure, Google Cloud in that order at the moment )

 

[webhostuk]

Agreed even google plus ( or was it Orkut , which was bigger than FB) was suppose to do some big change but having history to shut down big project, that's my personal option about them.

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

the etc not mentioned is Google Cloud

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vpn/overview

p.s. everything you need, delivered by a technology company rather than an online shopping company

In either instance you will need either an AWS partner or Google Cloud partner unless you want to get involved in the technology, from your original post 'personal service' is important so hence look for 'partner' ( sysadmin ) to provides personal service

Amazon is DEFINITELY a technology company, an impressive one too.

Question is, how much of the pie do you want to give them? They already have 90%

Neither G Cloud or AWS are bad but there are some smaller, friendlier alternatives that treat you as a real customer and partner, not just another number...

 

[Bl1ng]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am aware of AWS and cloud services and they may be a good option but I guess my main need is a good freelance Sys Admin that can maybe also advise on the best route to go down give teh system spec and requirements.

Does anyone know of some good people/companies that can provide independent advice as well as the skills to configure the infrastructure and setup the application. May need a combination of network and server skills.

 

[soundengineeruk]

www.nordcloud.com, head good things about these guys..

Feel free to PM me for any free advice; happy to help where I can.. I just don't have the bandwidth to take on any migration projects.

 

[KM-Tiger]

Would dedicated servers be the answer or does cloud hosting provide equal reliability, uptime and security ?

If your requirement is high availability then a single dedicated server would be a single point of failure, and so would not meet requirements for redundancy.

Using a cloud provider would give you redundancy, but there are other ways.

VPNs come in many flavours, it will come down to how secure you want it to be.

Happy to discuss further if you want to.

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

Thanks for the feedback.

I am aware of AWS and cloud services and they may be a good option but I guess my main need is a good freelance Sys Admin that can maybe also advise on the best route to go down give teh system spec and requirements.

Does anyone know of some good people/companies that can provide independent advice as well as the skills to configure the infrastructure and setup the application. May need a combination of network and server skills.

There's plenty of IT "consultants" about but the good ones tend to be rather expensive

 

[KM-Tiger]

the good ones tend to be rather expensive

Some of us are quite reasonable ....

 

[Jolt.co.uk]

Some of us are quite reasonable ....

Your site looks impressive too!

 

[Bl1ng]

Thanks to everyone for their helpful responses.

Essentially, I am looking for two things, although I imagine some companies/service providers will bundle them:

1) Private Cloud hosting an application server and a replicated database server connected via VPN to a third party system. The systems will need to be close to 100% available during the day, 7 days a week but 24/7 is not needed

2) Admin services to setup, configure and then monitor and manage the systems

I understand that the hosting element will depend on server specifications etc but I was wondering, how much should I be looking to budget for the setup and management services ? What are the typical costs or range the cost would be in ?

 

[Bl1ng]

Nord Cloud, head good things about these guys..

Feel free to PM me for any free advice; happy to help where I can.. I just don't have the bandwidth to take on any migration projects.

Thanks for the offer. There is no option to PM you

 

[soundengineeruk]

Apologies, missed the update on this one..

Essentially, I am looking for two things, although I imagine some companies/service providers will bundle them:

It would make sense a provider who is from the first step to grow with your business and the your application; this means they would have knowledge of your application that probably missed in any kind of documentation.. You could get one company to set it up and another to manage it..

1) Private Cloud hosting an application server and a replicated database server connected via VPN to a third party system. The systems will need to be close to 100% available during the day, 7 days a week but 24/7 is not needed

You would probably need to find a company to design and build it that would usually be a daily rate. This could range from £800 (solo contractor) to £x,xxx per day for company. From your initial outline probably looking at 3 days to setup and 2 days documentation.

2) Admin services to setup, configure and then monitor and manage the systems

This would depend on what is required to be done on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. If something that is minimal maintenance (weekly and monthly) would be cheaper to that something constant attention. I can see additional cost depending on what is required for your application & database servers..

Rough top of the head estimate, probably looking at £10K min per year for support services, with additional costing for change management.

 

[soundengineeruk]

Thanks for the offer. There is no option to PM you

Click on my name and click start a conversation; not clearly labelled as being private message.. lol

 

[webhostuk]

If security is your concern you can create private cloud cluster formation with load balancer to make things working quick and keep it private as well.

 

[EmC007]

It does sound like you need some good old fashion advice that helps you to get where you want to be. My company has a Hyperconverged cloud platform that allows you build out your applications. If you would like find out more send me a PM.

 

[Marc Christensen]

Hi - we are ISO27001 accredited and have our own DC for hosting and cloud services..as we own our own DC we can be very competitive against third party providers who then rent space of the likes of Rackspace and Iomart.

Please get in touch if you wish to discuss.

Thanks
Marc

 

[serverwala]

Hosting complete depends on your budget, "what is the need after looks budget". choose established web hosting company they fgive better support in minimum price.