We are getting ready to launch a new product suite designed for PHP intenstive applications.

We expect php sites and most other sites to be speed up by 25% to 200%

We are going to be using a mixture of Zend Cache and a special caching, compression, load balancing appliance.

How much would you pay for this plan:

200 Megs
10 Gigs
Unlimited pop
5 Mysql
php 4.0.6
Zend Cache
Caching appliance
Hosting on High Speed Sun Ultra Sparc Servers

i voted for 30/mo since people looking for small account packages like the one above would generally be low traffic/lite sites and wouldn't really appreciate the value of a load balanced, zend cache enabled server..

It would be different for higher featured package plans though i guess

What i find alot of posting saying about there VB boards is that they are slow under load or on a shared server they can get really slow. This is intended for the more heavily used VB boards and php sites to be be very very very fast. $30 a month will just cover the costs of the hosting bascially, you are not counting the cost per site for the Zend Cache and the Caching appliance. There will be NOTICABLE speed improvement.

actually vBulletins tend to be slow on shared hosting for a number of reasons and PHP isn't as high up on the list as one might think if the server specs are sufficient :)

#1 reason is mysql related and not PHP.
- incorrectly configured mysql settings or running on mysql's default settings is inadequate for mysql intensive apps like vBs especially when there's heaps of shared sites running vbs and other mysql based apps

i have personally helped some large dedicated server hosted vb forums drop they cpu loads from 10 - 140 averages to under 1 - 4 averages just by fine tuning their mysql settings - majority of the time it's because they are running on mysql's default variables/settings and an inadequate table_cache setting and other times it's just the cpu can't take the load or they're running something like a classified cgi script or adcycle :)

- how mysql is compiled affects speed and performace

nice info http://www.mysql.com/doc/O/p/Optimizing_the_Server.html

- mysql loves lots of memory and fast scsi disks :)

- kernel 2.4.x vs 2.2.x issues - http://www.mysql.com/doc/L/i/Linux.html. Alot of hosts still use rh 6.2 and the earlier kernel

- for shared hosted servers turning off persistent connections to mysql in php.ini by default would save alot of hosts and clients the hassles for being warned about cpu spikes in usage alot of the times or when the dread 'Too many connections' errors comes up :rolleyes:

i'd rather split into 2 servers - webserver + mysql database server probably both

Dual P3 Tualatins 1.26ghz w/512k L2 caches
4gb ram
3 or 4 x 36 GB SCSI 15k hdds raided
running RH 7.1 with 2.4.x kernel and nice stuff mentioned here http://www.mysql.com/doc/L/i/Linux.html :D

don't get me wrong if i had money for Zend cache (and the servers :o ) i'd get it since i did run the Zend cache trial on my vBulletin forum which get's 1,500 - 2,200 new posts/day and between 250 - 580 users at once and there is definitely an improvement - then again so is splitting the workload

That is what I am saying we have a "sudo" site license for zend cache. So any dedicated servers or shared accounts that want can get it for a minimal monthly fee.

ah i see :D

hmmm any host tried offering a dedicated mysql server to plug into their potential and existing clients' dedicated colocated boxes for a monthly fee? :)

wonder if that would be feasible ?

So this is it? Zend Cache Shared Server - http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-cache-shared.php

does it work with PHP 4.06 or only 4.04?

it werks with php 4.0.6