Well,
I am afraid its the old VDI vs Alabanza or whoever else question!

Up until now I have been running as a reseller, but with a few differences.

I resell for various hosts and have arrangements with them to provide all the support myself with engineering requests going in fully diagnosed as instructions rather than queries.
This is working out fine. My average costs are running at about $7 per site per month (smaller packages are obviously a lot less than that).

But I have decided to do the calculations again to see if I could make more profit by having my own box.

Ideally I would need two identical servers. One in the UK and one in the US running the same control panel software.

I just got a quote from a UK NOC who want $500 per month for the server, excluding bandwidth. I would then need something like Cpanel3 (around $300 per month).
the bandwdith costs are likely to be catastrophic and the UK rules are very strict on IP allocations. I am waiting on answers to these questions at the moment. This is why hosting over here is so expensive.

On the US side I have looked at VDI themselves and have requested a price update from Alabanza.
VDI seems to be around $600 per month with the control panel software and 100GB.

Assuming I put 300 sites on the first box that would be $2 per month costs (excluding any additional bandwidth etc).
Alabanza is likely to be more than this.

I am still fairly loyal to Alabanza because I know their system (I have been using it for about 18 months) and it would be a seamless transition really as I have already got support systems in place based on their CP.

If you had a free choice between Alabanza, VDI or a third party solution which would you choose?

Is Alabanza worth the extra money it is likely to cost, or is it worth it to get the "peace of mind" factor?

Would going for a third party solution be a real support nightmare if anything went wrong?

Gordon

Gordon, I think you are going to be faced with more of a personal preference. This thread will most likely generate three responses:

1) People who still think Alabanza is one of the better solutions out there.

2) People who think VDI is just as good and at a lower price.

3) People who swear by Rackspace or another provider and think persons #1 & #2 would be better off there.

man... chicken?! i was going to post for #1 but you took my main arguement?!

what am i going to talk about now?

:) nothing, just as you did ;)

I'm pretty much a number 2 guy. I think VDI and UltraSpeed are both better than Alabanza. Alabanza has better software and automation at least right now :), but VDI's will soon be much better I'm sure. If I could choose, I'll say go with UltraSpeedUSA and UltraSpeedUK...

well, i wouldn't mind talking about lego...

does anyone like lego?

Well there are other options now, with VDI releasing http://www.cpanel3.com. you can select who you want to host with, and control your cost, support and of course "reliable connection"

hey who knows you can go start up your own data center with Cpanel3, but at least you have more options instead of DI, Alabanza, Ultraspeed and VDI.

While being hosting at VDI "is slightly cheaper then the others, doesn`t mean less support or such". of course you can get the same support from the Clients that we host.

Once the auto-Billing is completed, i`m assuming that there will be a lot of flying around, and new places to land your Business.

Thanks for that


Well there are other options now, with VDI releasing http://www.cpanel3.com. you can select who you want to host with, and control your cost, support and of course "reliable connection"

hey who knows you can go start up your own data center with Cpanel3, but at least you have more options instead of DI, Alabanza, Ultraspeed and VDI.


Yes, my gut feeling is to buy software and host independently, but the cost of Cpanel3 makes it cheaper to have the server at VDI as well.

I will need to llok at ultraspeed, especially if they have a UK NOC as well.

Gordon

GordonH:

The cost is fixed rate, Unlimited clients per server, you can always get a Duel Proceser to gain more clients on a machine. Also the Cpanel is always improving, you may decide to look at a local host, since locality is not as important for Virtual host and resellers, but being the owner of your servers, you may want to be 10 mins from getting to your server.

The Freedom of choice is important in this business, if $249.00 a month is a burden to your business, then you can always "host within the VDI network till you are ready to leave the nest, whether it`s one of our clients or Direct.

Just remember this, It`s the Control panel features that will keep your client base, server control, resellers and set the path to your success, "thats why we have to add features week to week. The Better you do, the more licenses you would need to buy.

Yep CPanel is always on the move and will soon be much better than the Alabanza CP. I personally favour Ultraspeed now over Alabanza.

As for lego - i couldn't get enough of it when I was younger, I loved Lego Technic - I'm still tempted to go in the atic and get it out again.

Gordon,

Another thought ...

Make sure that who you choose you stay with. Customers will become very comfortable with whatever CP you choose and would not look favorably on having to be forced to learn a new one. In their eyes they are the ones paying you therefore, you shouldn;t change something unless you tell them to.

However, if you move to a CP with a bundle of new features I doubt you will see them complain. :)

Just to clarify things (although rather pointless), the public release of cpanel will be cpanel4, not cpanel3. I'm slowly working my way to version 4.. cpanel3 is now at version 3.6.0 (just got a shopping cart+phpmyadmin integrated). If anybody really cares, the changelog is at http://cpanel4.net/ChangeLog.cgi



Nick
DarkORB Communications Inc.
Head Cpanel developer.

All message received and understood.

Could someone tell me if the built in CGI scripts listed in some VDI control panels are a standard feature of CPanel3 ?

Having read up on it I am more convinced that it would work reliably outside the VDI NOC.

Yes, I have been trying a local facility for my UK server on the basis that I could go round and hit them with a big stick if something went seriously wrong, but Ideally the server should be in London.

Anyway I am off to visit Ultraspeed's web site.

Gordon

Gordon,

Yes, the cgi scripts are a standard feature of Cpanel3.

It seems like there are new features added to the Cpanel3 or WebHost Manager every few days, and they work.

Originally posted by UnitedTec
...and they work.

Some might see this as a bonus :)

Chicken,

It is a bonus. That's one thing I have to say about VDI. They have some programmers that know what they are doing. Whenever they add a new feature, all of the bugs have been worked out before the release.

Yes, there are quite a few files, heh.

What's curious to me is that people seem to think that there are only a couple of options out there, as far as management tools go...

Care to list all you know?

Has anyone here recently used Alabanza and used VDI or Ultraspeed USA? Any advice?

Y. Bandy
http://www.hosting24-7.com
Reseller Plans Starting at $3.95
No Set-up Fees

get a dedicated server through site5.com (VDI) they give you cpanel for free! And they start at around $250 per month on your dedicated box! Also they have a better release of cpanel if you use there build over VDI's (vdi liked it so much they want to licence it)

best wishes.

"Whenever they add a new feature, all of the bugs have been worked out before the release."

How I wish this was the case:)

I think that you should go with #2 VDIs control panel very nice and #3 rackspace has the best network and support there is. At least that is what I do. It is working out perfect for me.

Lego Technic - Technics - Can you tell i'm a big lego fan (=.

I deleted my comment to Jordan (didn't realise William's post)

[Edited by CRego3D on 12-09-2000 at 12:39 PM]

Having started this thread and listened to the opinions I have been doing my homework on all the options.
Here are the outcomes:

Alabanza
--------
Don't reply to my e-mails.
I even tried the e-mail link for one of there sales people from their ad page on recellar.com and it came back as undeliverable.
Unfortunately they have ruled themselves out.

VDI
---
Currently waiting for a final quote from them, but they have been very helpful.


Ultraspeed USA
--------------
The strength here is that they can give me identical set ups in the UK and the USA which is important form me. The support also seems to be good.


It will really boil down to the difference in cost between Ultraspeed and going to VDI directly.
If there is not much of a difference then I will probably opt for Ultraspeed USA.

I feel quite sad about Alabanza because they have a good product, but I get the real impression they don't want my business.

Gordon

I signed up with Ultraspeed 2 weeks ago and I've been very, very happy.

You won't go wrong by choosing them.

GodonH

The strength here is that they ( Ultraspeedusa ) can give me identical set ups in the UK and the USA which is important for me.

I have to say that I'm a bit confused. As far as I know they only co-locate with VDI.

Originally posted by tabernack


You won't go wrong by choosing them.


Hmmmm........that's EXACTLY what you all said to me about Alabanza just before I signed up with them....

Not from me Greg!

Hello
Ultraspeed USA are starting a colocation facility in London in the New Year which is why they can offer both locations now.

Out of the blue I got a response from Alabanza last night after weeks of trying.

The difference between VDI and Ultraspeed sofar is that for a similar amount Ultraspeed are offering a better spec server.

Gordon

We had an account with Ultraspeed and had extreme problems: control panel not working etc. etc.

Luckily I only live an hour away from their 'offices' and so went in person to complain about their poor level service. Guess what?

Ultraspeed UK is just a 16 year old boy working from his apartment! No kidding. Don't be fooled by impressive-looking website like we were.

We have lost so much time and money because of this one-man 'company'. So beware before you think of buying from a 16 year old boy.

FYI, we host on UltraSpeed USA and have had no problems so far. We're very happy with their service.

I have been informed by both Jordan and Daniel that the matter was long resolved, so I have decided that the thread should be closed. If people wish to air their views on UltraSpeedUSA, please open a new thread in the future.

Thread locked.