Hi there I have a reseller account and now thinking of expanding. I have gathered some information on DP, and now ready to find out more about comparing them all. I want to know when to transition from one to the other? Here is my basic layout: 1. Reseller hosting (START-UPS) 2. VPS/Dedicated Server (EXPANDING THE BUSINESS) 3. Co located server (DATA CENTER FOR OUTSTANDING SECURITY BUT COSTLY) I think that's the easy way to put it. Does anyone have a better layout or structure? Please feel free to add on or comment. Many thanks in advance CHEERS
There's no hard and fast rules about this - it depends on your needs at the time (I'm not being vague here....honest!). As your business expands you will reach a point when you need to move from standard reseller/shared hosting over to a more powerful solution, but doing this can be a shock. With a reseller plan everything you need to run a hosting business - web site (obviously), email, DNS, FTP, Databases, backup, server admin, security, control panel - are all provided as part of the package from the host. When you move to a VPS or dedicated server you get hardware and an operating system. You're then responsible for setting up, configuring, and managing all these other systems. Sometimes a host will offer management and set these up for you, but you then have a problem where running all these on a VPS or dedicated server can require more a more powerful set-up than your VPS/Dedicated server budget was expecting. That's just something to be aware of. A VPS will be cheaper than a dedicated server. One good thing about VPSs is that it might be cheaper to operate 2 or 3 VPSs for the price of a single Dedicated Server. Then (considering the above) it might actually be a better solution because you can run - for instance - web sites on one VPS, your DB on another VPS, and email on another. The other good thing about VPSs is that things like clustering is usually much easier with a VPS set-up (well, it is with Windows Hyper-V R2) than it would be with a dedicated server. Also, VPSs are easier to upgrade the hardware on (get more CPUs, more Ram, or more Disk Space) without any downtime or issues. Also, if the host hardware is struggling it's easy to move your VPS to better host hardware with minimal downtime. VPS is a brilliant technology and much more flexible than a single dedicated server could ever be. When you transition from reseller to VPS/Dedicated can happen because resource usage forces you to, or you feel it's time to get a little more control over your set-up assuming you have the skills to manage it, or you know business is growing and you want to make the move and be in control rather than the host switching your sites off because of some spurious Terms violation. There's no real hard & fast rule about WHEN, but by thinking about it now you're a step ahead of many people and hopefully you'll be prepared for when you do need to move. You may never make the transition to co-located. Colocation is a whole different ball game. It can work out cheaper than renting a dedicated/VPS but it carries a lot more responsibility. Since it's your hardware you are responsible for it. Anything goes wrong and it's up to you to sort it. Unless you live very close to a datacentre offering co-location then it might not be a good way to go. A good host will help you out, and when your business has grown to the point of needing multiple VPSs or dedicated servers you should have a good relationship with your host, so renting dedicated servers from them, and letting them take care of the hardware for you can be a big help. From my own experience, in the datacentres that we use, the vast majority of co-located customers live within a 90-minute radius of the datacentre. That's because they have to. Being any further away would make things like drive replacement an expedition rather than a quick trip. The majority of companies I know with multiple servers tend to rent them from a hosting company. Hosting companies can (sometimes) get better hardware pricing due to their volume and can actually provide a server of a certain specification at a much cheaper cost than you could. Also, by renting them you're spreading the cost. So rather than have to splash out $6000 on a decent server you might be able to rent it for $300 per month (made-up figures, don't take it as gospel) which is a good thing for a growing business as you don't need to tie-up a lot of your capital when you're trying to grow. You should also consider that hardware power/price ratio is always increasing. Buying your own servers means that it's getting "old" within 12 months, but by renting a dedicated you can get better hardware without having to splash out on new servers and writing off your older purchases, and continue to pay only a small proportion of the server cost each month. If you think it's getting near the time to move to a VPS or Dedicated, this would be a good time - if the budget allows - to rent a VPS and get some experience of using it. There are tons of articles on managing servers, securing servers, and installing software on servers. Get some practice in now, get a feel for what you need to learn to do, so that when you make the move you'll know what to expect. At the end of the day you might decide that it's not for you....nothing wrong with that....but then you'll know that when you make the move a managed solution is going to be the choice to make. As I've already said, there's no hard and fast rules about when you do it, but be sure you're prepared before you outgrow your reseller plan as you don't want your site to stop working suddenly when your host shuts you down. Hopefully some of what I've mentioned will help you be aware of some of the issues you'll come accross and the decisions you'll need to make.
Yeah that the correct way. But you need to use reliable reseller hosting because if your site is down frequently then it will spoilt your image.
Yes, the steps are right, but success of the first step is the most important and depends not only on your business skills but on your host. So be careful while choosing reseller solutions
Thanks heaps guys; RonBrown, mentos and Collard, that's exactly what I was looking for. I am getting into a routine of doing backups and will add the rest in strategically. Too easy. CHEERS