Choosing a VPS Hosting Provider
We’ve recently moved a large client from an ill performing “Virtual Private Server” hosting provider to a more robust solution at a different vendor. We came up with a generic questionnaire to help future clients plan for a move/new system.
1.) What are your needs? Is it a new deployment or are you dissatisfied with your current hosting provider and are looking for something better? They will directly affect your costs, in both startup costs and the potential downtime you will have if you are currently a site. Migration involves, coordinating downtime with customers, moving mail servers, updating database servers on the new server during a move, ensure mail is working on the new server, setting up the new VPS so it is configured like the previous, etc. Its sometimes easier to hire someone that does this on a regular basis.
2.) Does scalability matter? Do you see yourself needing either dedicated hardware and/or a higher rated VPS solution in the future? Make sure the new VPS company has that ability. Is the storage on the server large enough now AND for the future. Some VPS hosting providers force you to move to a new server, if you run out of room.
Do you see yourself needing dedicated hardware in the future? Does the vendor maintain dedicated servers, thereby easing the move down the road?
3.) Bandwidth costs. Some providers have NO cap on your bandwidth usage, while others give you a set cap amount of GIGs per month, similar to a cellphone internet plan. Could you afford to go over the cap should you experience a seasonal surge? You’ll need your current bandwidth usages to determine if you can afford it.
4.) Architecture. If you are running an intensive database or application, would it make sense to purchase two servers to seperate the load? Some vendors provide both a VPS + external database option (for additional cost), which is cheaper than two VPS servers. Do your homework.
5.) Existing VPS control panel tools. Does the VPS have decent management tools for the VPS servers or are they home grown? If you are comfortable with system administration or have a decent contractor this may be less of an issue.
6.) Referrals, Referrals, and more Referrals. Just like purchasing any large appliance or product, contact business associates, friends, family members, partners, or other contractors to see what hosting providers they would recommend. Never, I repeat, NEVER trust reviews found online.
Most online hosting reviews have hidden agendas and/or are affiliated with the hosting companies that they represent. Use your trust circle to determine the strengths or weaknesses of the hosting service.
Make sure you are talking “Apples to Apples”. Some hosting providers also host just general website and not VPS servers. Some providers have completely different departments to manage both products, so your experience with the small website tech support may differ greatly with the VPS department. Since the website hosting is generally a more “volume” based product than VPS hosting,
7.) Mitigation of risk: If you see yourself potentially needing dedicated hardware in the near future, it may make sense to segment your services to different service providers. So for instance, on a typical VPS server, you would host your webserver, mail server and DNS server. If you want to mitigate downtime and/or risk, host your DNS server on one service, mail server on another and webserver on the new VPS server. That way, if you need to change VPS hosting providers at a later date, you would simply point your webserver name (like: www.silvatechsolutions.com) to the new VPS service provider. Your mail and/or other domain names would continue working without interruption. If your entire mail server were to go down, your website would continue running. If your VPS services suffered a major glitch, you would still have your mail. For smaller companies this is generally not necessary, but if you are dependent on your mail for whatever reason, this is definitely an option to think about.
8.) Be Cautious of the Cloud: Read my other article on Cloud providers.