Move over dedicated server…

  I found comparable bells and whistles hiding in a VPS cloud

...at a fraction of the cost!

I loved my dedicated server, may it rest in peace. I found this love only lasted during uptime. The dark down times found me sweating feverishly looking for an answer to why it went down in the first place.

Of course another dedicated server ready for deployment when needed was completely out of the question. I’m not so big that I need two of those beasts anyway. Besides, there were times managing one server seemed overwhelming. Two would only distract me from what I really should be doing. But dedicated servers provide the flexibility I require.

Ever been told NO from a system administrator at a hosting provider? It happened several times to me before I switched to a dedicated solution. Nothing against all those wonderful hosting providers out there, they all do a great job managing shared environments. Most are offering virtual private servers and the VPS is likely the best thing since reseller accounts. The drawback is environment limitations set by the host.

Enter VPS hosting on the cloud! The what? The cloud? Yes the cloud. An old term used to describe the way internet resources were pooled to provide a kind of super computer, or distributed computing, has found new meaning in the 21st century.

A cloud in the sky is amorphous – it has no specific shape or form, it lacks definition. Internet technology uses the analogy too describe a way of increasing capacity or adding resources whenever needed; an on the fly adjustment for a server when required. The key benefit to hosting on a cloud is the user can scale their account as needed without investing in new infrastructure.

This completely changes the game folks

Need to upgrade your server so that it handles an enormous amount of traffic this afternoon? Push a button. That is the beauty of cloud hosting vs. dedicated servers.

When traffic scales back to normal in a few days after that new launch or big sale push a button and rid your server of the unneeded resources. It’s that easy.

Scalability is possible through the purchase of additional nodes. Each VPS is made up of one or more units called nodes. A node is allocated a guaranteed share of CPU and RAM resources as well as SAN storage space and monthly bandwidth. The more nodes you assign to a VPS, the more physical resources will be dedicated to your system. Unlike many other providers nodes are never oversold or share any resources between machines. They are truly yours and only yours.

Need more resources ?, add a node, need to quickly test a new app sandbox but lack the funds for extra nodes ?, simple !, remove a node from your exiting VPS and build a new one, when done, return it to the original VPS .. yes, it's that cool.
Additional nodes are purchased at a daily rate of $1 per node.

A node is broken down as follows:

• Dedicated CPU:     0.4GHz
• RAM                    256MB
• Storage               10GB
• Bandwidth           250GB

A single node on the cloud is quite powerful and can accommodate a single site quite comfortably. The ecommerce sites we develop here at eCartSuccess.com using Drupal and Ubercart on two nodes handle all installed modules with 15 simultaneous users clicking every five seconds before sputtering. Perfect for small businesses that desire fast load times but do not expect hundreds of visitors per hour.

With other VPS providers you simply buy a feature set VPS, with our service you buy nodes in the cloud then use them to build your VPS to your own specs, not the provider's.

One of the most powerful, but easiest to use, server management control panels in the market is ISPmanager Pro, usually a $34 per month cost, it's completely FREE for our customers.

You can completely administer your server with ISPmanager, from creating domains, email users, databases and much more, to providing individual user and reseller accounts, it would be a steal at $34, but it's daylight robbery at $0. cPanel/WHM liscence at only $10/mo per VPS.

When you build a cloud, no ordinary DNS server will do, it needs to be resilient and above all reliable.
Our geographically redundant DNS is replicated over 3 data centers and Anycast to the closest location, it can scale to millions of records, couple with our easy to use web interface, it's simply the best DNS service you can have ... and above all, it's FREE to our customers.

Deploy your custom VPS in under five minutes!

How it works:

By allowing multiple destinations to share the same IP address, Anycast DNS routing permits DNS registration information to be mirrored on server clusters either locally, regionally, or globally. Requests for the IP address are routed to the closest destination with the highest availability, preventing requests from being routed to a server that is unavailable or experiencing unusually heavy traffic.

Key advantages include:

• Service Continuity — helps maintain uptime in the event of service interruptions
• Network Protection — provides a comprehensive network failover solution
• Disaster Recovery — allows critical services to be continuously maintained

Don’t let your webhost dictate your deployment schedule. From conception to execution, your cloud is ready to use in under five minutes. Stop twiddling your thumbs and start developing. There is an array of Linux distributions and pre‐configured application stacks ready to go. Feel free to browse the template library below.

A 99% uptime guarantee still leaves you 1% vulnerable. Your content shouldn’t have a point of failure. Our VPS cloud architecture is designed from the ground up with redundancy at its core. A traditional server always has a single point of failure; a hard drive, a power supply, a power outage. Our virtual private server cloud uses a RAID 10 SAN system, powered by Cisco‐network hardware. Your content is disseminated across nodes over multiple servers in our cutting edge datacenters, ensuring you are protected against the inevitable.

Dugg. Slashdotted. Druged. Nothing makes content more irrelevant than inaccessibility. Don’t let your 15 minutes turn into 15 seconds. It only takes a few of seconds on the front page of Digg to bring a normal server to its knees. Our virtual private server clouds are instantly scalable, giving you the ability to increase your capacity when you need it and scale back when you don’t.

Flexibility is the name of the game. Cloud Computing Architecture gives you the strategic and amorphous ability to dynamically control where your content is at any one time.

Covering two major industrial time zones, our clouds deliver your content simultaneously from both the United Kingdom and United States. Notice a geographical shift in your customer base? Simply alter your node configuration to meet the growing demand and keep your content delivered in real time.

Administer your cloud with a clear and concise web management interface. Assigning new VPS nodes, restoring backups, keeping track of your statistics, direct console control – all just one click away.

Liberate yourself from normal business hours. It’s Friday, your product launches to a huge customer response, your server is overloaded and you need to expand. The technicians are gone until Monday, your customers are starting to turn sour, and you need to upgrade now. Our web management interface gives you the power to customize your virtual private server on the fly. Expanding the power and capacity of your content is as easy as a click and drag.

Your content is always at your fingertips. Lose a file? Did a client send you bad data? Hit the wrong key and sent everything to the Great Trash Can In The Sky? One click restores your content so you can get back on track. Our Automated Backup System creates complete data redundancy in the form of Daily, Weekly, and Monthly backups. A simple “Restore This Backup” button resets your VPS nodes to where you want them, negating any effects of intrusion, corrupting client data, or a mistakenly clicked Delete button.

Got a new newsletter going out Friday ?, need some extra resources then ?, No Problem !
Our "Schedule Upgrades" feature, unique to our service, allows you to schedule a permanent or temporary burst of nodes for your VPS, it has never been so easy to prepare for that extra traffic influx, "use only what you need, pay only for what you use" is not just a dream, with us it's a reality!

Deploy your custom VPS in under five minutes!

Template Library

Ubuntu 8.04 x64
    Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64-bit Basic Installation
    Ubuntu 8.04 x64 Lamp Installation – Popular
    Ubuntu 8.04 x64 with MySQL Database Server
    Ubuntu 8.04 x64 with Postfix Mail Server
    Ubuntu 8.04 x64 with Apache Web Server

CentOS 5.2 x64
    CentOS 5.2 x64 Basic Installation
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with MySQL Database Server
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with LAMP Installation – Popular
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with HAProxy Load Balancer
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with Postfix Mail Server
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with Varnish HTTP Accelerator
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with Shoutcast
    CentOS 5.2 x64 with Apache Web Server
    Clean cPanel + WHM Installation

Gentoo 2008.0 x64
    Gentoo 2008.0 x64 Basic Installation

Debian 5.0 (Lenny) x64
    Debian 5.0 (Lenny) x64 Basic Installation – Popular

Turnkey Linux Images

Currently all TurnKey Linux software appliances are based on Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS and packaged as a deployable image that can be running within minutes.
Each software appliance is different, but they are all carefully built from the ground up with the minimum components needed to serve a specific role.

FAQ's

How much technical knowledge do I need?

VPS systems with VPS.net are very easy to get up and running with pre-installed software and require very little experience to get started. However, remember that this is not a managed service, so you will be responsible for maintaining your server. We therefore recommend that you take the time to gain a basic understanding of Linux administration.
 
What can I do with my VPS?

You can host any services you like from your VPS, including web hosting, Rails applications, or even an Asterisk voice over IP system. You will have root access to your VPS so there's no limit to what you can run, as long as it doesn't violate our terms of service.
 
How much can I host from my VPS?

There is no limit to how many services, domains, or applications you can run from a VPS.net server. However, you need to make sure you allocate enough resources to deal with the services you expect to provide.
 
How do you back up data?

Once backups are enabled on your system, it will automatically be backed up every day, and archived every week and every month, so you will always have the opportunity to roll back your VPS in case something goes wrong.
 
What if I break my VPS?

If you break your system, you can quickly get it running again, either by restoring a recent backup, or by deleting it and creating a new VM with a clean installation.
 
What if I want to change my OS?

At any time you can create a new VPS from any of our templates.
 
How secure is my data?

All data is stored on a RAID10 SAN, and if you have backups enabled for your system these will be stored away from the primary data store.
 
How many IPs do I get?

All systems come automatically configured with 1 dedicated IP address. Additional IP addresses are charged at $1 per month
 
Do you provide MySQL DBs?

We do not provide centralised database servers, however creating a MySQL VPS is quick and simple, giving you full control over your database.
 
Can I firewall my server?

Absolutely. We recommend configuring iptables on all VPSs, as well as keeping up-to-date with patches to keep your systems secure.
 
Are Windows VPSs available?

Unfortunately our VPS platform does not currently support Windows Server.
 
How do you bill?

All charges are monthly and will be automatically paid from paypal, and services can be cancelled at any time. Invoices are available through the web interface.

Deploy your custom VPS in under five minutes!