Has anyone been chosen to be a Beta Tester? It sounds way too good to be true.

Certainly does look interesting.

Well if it is anything they claim it to be, it will completely change the landscape of the hosting industry.

What is this "hosting system"? Where can read about? I don't see anything on their site... :confused:

http://thesystembeatstheserver.com/index.php

the banners gave been on WHt on some time :)/

Originally posted by kufel
http://thesystembeatstheserver.com/index.php

the banners gave been on WHt on some time :)/

Looks interesting. I don't pay attention to ads. :P

Originally posted by roccol
Well if it is anything they claim it to be, it will completely change the landscape of the hosting industry.

For what reason do you think it will do that? What part of this new system is so appealing to everyone? Isn't this already being done at http://fasthosts.com/Resellers/?

I don't see anything special about it. It's all marketing hype, this kind of stuff has been done for years, offering it to resellers is a different story though.

Originally posted by dg_ak
I don't see anything special about it. It's all marketing hype, this kind of stuff has been done for years, offering it to resellers is a different story though.

exactly! marketing hype done well.

I think the part that is unique is that it's a complete system. Not just a load balanced hosting platform, it also includes billing, and support.

Hmmm... That link appears to not be responding as I have tried a few times this evening... Would be interesting if they are using this hosting system to host that site. ;)

I was chosen to be a Beta Tester !!!! YAY

Originally posted by RBooth
I was chosen to be a Beta Tester !!!! YAY

You will have to tell us how it goes, to see if it really is the dogs b****cks that Rackspace are claiming it is. :D

Is http://thesystembeatstheserver.com/ using Hsphere?

Im also a beta tester, we start testing next week i believe.

Originally posted by jolly
Is http://thesystembeatstheserver.com/ using Hsphere?
They used H-Sphere for quite a while. It seems rackspace took it upon themselves to just copy the entire system ;)

I don't see anything in their hype, that doesn't come with H-Sphere. However, I see a *LOT* that comes with H-Sphere, but isn't in the hyped up Rackspace system.

You can only sell the sizzle for so long...

I spoke to Freddy Garcia @ Rackspace for quite a while a few month's ago - he blatantly admitted that Rackspace didn't have the technicians that could handle H-Sphere.

Keep in mind:
Everything they are advertising as "ground breaking" has been in the H-Sphere system long before Rackspace's failed attempt at supporting it.

Simon

Originally posted by RBooth
I was chosen to be a Beta Tester !!!! YAY

same here :D

their site is down? :/
for me - whole day...

huh

Originally posted by IHSL
They used H-Sphere for quite a while. It seems rackspace took it upon themselves to just copy the entire system ;)

I don't see anything in their hype, that doesn't come with H-Sphere. However, I see a *LOT* that comes with H-Sphere, but isn't in the hyped up Rackspace system.


just what I thought... H-sphere is a complete system. And I can't really see what's so new about this..

Fasthosts - that has to be a joke :)

What are your impressions of the system then if you have tested it?

MCPAA, did you get a confirmational e-mail?

Last time we spoke to them, they said they have no plans to develop the system and currently are using plesk on linux servers

Originally posted by unclesam
Last time we spoke to them, they said they have no plans to develop the system and currently are using plesk on linux servers
So they have dropped the idea?

That would explain the website being down for 24+ hours, I guess.


Simon

Yes they are more focused on managed services and Intensive hosting services are doing well...

Originally posted by unclesam
Yes they are more focused on managed services and Intensive hosting services are doing well...
Them doing well, wasn't the point of the thread :)

It was to discuss the now (apparently) defunct "The System Beats The Server".

It seems strange that they hyped this so much, then dropped it so quickly..

Simon

Very quickly. I received my email about being accepted into the beta program on Friday.

Hmm. I just wanted to see for myself what all the hype was about. It appears that that's all there was to it - hype.

Oh well.

You would have thought that they'd have emailed the beta testers to say it had been scrapped. Has anyone actually received confirmation of such, and do you know why?

I was about to post that I had applied to be a beta tester, but since I haven't recieved an email, I'm guessing I didn't get picked.

...But, it would appear that they have given up on the idea :-( Has anyone recieved an officla notice from Rackspace about them droping the project?

This is what I would like to know as well. Has any one got a official notice?

As of right now, nope, no notice.

Did anyone get some screenshots of the site before it went down? There were a couple of creative elements I'd like to have a copy of, but I didn't think the site would be gone so quickly.

Brandon

Try using archive.net.

The site is up again...

Well it seems similar to Hsphere inarchitecture, but this is not what I was inquiring about. If it is like Hsphere with load balancing and the rackspace network, it would be tough to beat.

I was selected as a beta tester, there's supposed to be an online seminar explaining the system next week.

any news from the seminar?

Its today...

I got notice of the seminar too, I tried to make it but couldn't get there in time both times. But I don't recall being told I was selected for the beta program. Does this mean I was not? Or is this all others got too?

Thanks,

Neofree

I attended 3PM seminar and even got a few screen grabs :D This should be converted to web format soon by Rackspace, but for those of you interested, here are the points that I found interesting:

$89/mo:
Unlimited web sites
50MB SAN storage each
3 GB bandwidth each
Add space/bandwidth for a small fee

$189/mo:
Unlimited web sites
25GB SAN storage
100GB bandwidth
You manage resource distribution

I'll mention my thoughts on this in a second. Other interesting features:

Managed Billing:
$1.50/domain/mo.
Select all domains or specific domains
No merchant account required
Reseller is paid monthly profits

Full End-User Support:
$3.00/domain/mo.
Select all domains or specific domains
24 hr phone & chat support
Phone reps site side by side w/ sys admins

Beta Program:
100 beta customers selected
each can provision up to 10 sites
sites don't have to be "live" sites (I'd hope not for a beta program)
more accounts added as possible
more events open to everyone

And Finally:
Launch delayed to allow for improved flexibility
Beta will launch Q1 2005
Resources coming on-line to get you ready

Notes (thoughts indicated by brackets):
1. Accounts cannot have individual IP provisioning as a result of hosting system. [A solution for SSL will be provided, but the mechanism wasn't clear.] GeoTrust certs to be offered. [I'd like to see Verisign or Thawte certs available for an enterprise-grade solution.]
2. Control panel is custom. API possible, but not planned for early availability. [This is really critical if the custom solution is to replace others like cPanel for automated provisioning].
3. SLA of 99.9% - 99.99% [The actual words used were "we're currently comfortable with 3-4 nines and have seen nearly 100% up-time in the past 6 months." Honestly, for the kind of redundancy and scalability that is supposed to be built into system, I want to see a minimum of 4 9's and preferably 5 9's for a RackSpace solution!]
4. Java not supported
5. No shell access.

Thoughts on pricing:
1. It's not clear to me how scalability is built into the pricing scheme. $89/mo is supposed to include unlimited accounts w/ 3GB bandwidth and 50MB disk space. Unlimited accounts sound pretty good (if this is true), but then 3GB B/W & 50 MB D/S isn't a very compelling plan either. We'll see what happens if you want to offer a 6GB bandwidth and 100MB storage package. $189/mo for the equivalent of a managed server doesn't sound so bad, but I don't think this is going to be as flexible as a traditional managed server due to the underlying infrastructure.

At this stage, I'm not sure this is a threat to hosting companies offering reasonably priced packages, good up-time, and flexible options. The most compelling item, in my opinion, is the support option. and knowing it's RackSpace providing the support. -Matt

I know people who can actually sell 300-500 accounts using the package below..

$189/mo:
Unlimited web sites
25GB SAN storage
100GB bandwidth
You manage resource distribution

Unlimited could be a problem for the long run.....

Yes, I think the $189/mo. plan is compelling when you throw in tech support. My concern is that these services based on their "infinitely scalable hosting platform" are not going to include the same SLA that comes with their other services, or are going to be feature-limited. There's also the issue of API integration. Then again, this is RackSpace and they deserve some credit. I'll certainly be watching (and beta testing) to see how their services pan out.

-Matt

Do the math $3support per domain per month for

300 * 3 = 900 per month support cost

you can get outsourced support for a lot less than that - thats not compelling to me

None of those services appear to be very well considered and nothing a reseller cannot do from a good supplier

No indication of Nameservers or DNS management
No IP addresses
No SSL certs
No store carts mentioned with secure ordering
No Localisation (US or UK or JAP)

Overall I wasn't impressed

PS only 25 people at the first online seminar not very many that!

Thanks for all the great info. It certainly clears some things up. Sounds like a Hostopia variation to me. I do not like Hostopia :)

Originally posted by neofree
I got notice of the seminar too, I tried to make it but couldn't get there in time both times. But I don't recall being told I was selected for the beta program. Does this mean I was not? Or is this all others got too?

Thanks,

Neofree

If your email included a link to a sign-up page where you entered a username and password for the beta then you were selected. If you're not certain you can email them and they will confirm your status.

roccol: I know little about Hostopia, why don't you like it? Just curious.

Originally posted by neofree
roccol: I know little about Hostopia, why don't you like it? Just curious.

Look forward to your response.

Franc

The webpage on thesystembeatstheserver.com now has a mosso.com logo. Does anyone know if this is Rackspace or is it something else? I can't believe its the same thing after all this time.

Major hint: Look at the footer on the homepage ;)

What's the status on this? Is anybody actually using this service?