Good Day,

We need some advice.

Our hosting company was initially a subsidiary of our web consulting business. As a result, we thought we would just purchase a reseller account and handle both our clients and maybe the 1 or 2 that would sign up.

However, things got a bit crazy and we ended up with a decent sized client base and so built another website specifically for hosting and purchased a reseller account with a more reputable company that offered both windows and unix.

Now what's happening is that we are seeing that we can lease a dedicated server with a 40 gig hardrive 400 gigs of transfer on a P2 1800...on and on...and so man, we're thinking, we could host an awful lot of people on one server that only costs $99 per month.

The fear however, is that we're not quite sure what's involved...Up until now we've been pampered with hsphere and x amount of licenses (15 for the plan we currently have), a good support team from our reseller etc...I mean, if the hardrive space was high enough for their $99 plan, we'd move up to it.

So I know this is winded, but what exactly is involved..do we have to purchase our own control panels now?...how do we install them?..does the colo that leases the server install them for you once you purchase the licenses?.....How many IP's do we get?..do we have to set that up ourselves...

I guess to make a long story short, I'm sure some of you have transitioned from the reseller situation to leasing your boxes and as a result managing more people at a lower internal cost....

Naturally, you would say to contact several of the companies...I have done so, but it's been 72 hours without a response to questions I posed to two "reputable" companies, and we're about to sign on a designer who has 20+ clients and Im out of hsphere panels, and we need to make a move very soon...

I want to thank those who respond in advance for their knowledge and experiences..

Thanks
Erik Brisson

This may not be what you want to hear, but its my opinion for you :D

It sounds like you are paying for good service with your reseller account. Yes, megabyte for megabyte and gigabyte for gigabyte, you pay them more than you would to Rackshack or anyone for a dedicated server. But, you're getting their expertise in managing the server. The dedicated servers are just unmanaged machines.

My recommendation is stick with what's working for you, unless you want to open up a can and invest some serious time in learning the ins and outs of server administration. I'm assuming you're making a nice profit with your reseller account.. Maybe you could ask for some special prcing from them since you are getting larger and larger.. Or hire a server admin part-time to move you over to some dedicated boxes.

Not sure which company you will be going with for $99/mo, my quess is RackShack.net. Never used and not too fimilar with their services.

However, the best support I have heard of is from http://www.RackSpace.com but you will pay $$$ for their services.

Other companies with great dedicated support include:
http://www.datapipe.com/
http://www.verio.net/powerplatform/hosting/rapidrollout/powerpack/


Now that I look around I see that RackShack.net also has some really good support.

As for your questions:


Yes, some companies include control panels and some don't, I believe that RackShack does.
IPs vary from provider to provider, you will need to ask your host.


Final thoughts, as to some of your questions I see that you are not too experienced with hosting. IMO stick to what you know or get a cheap dedicated box and play with it a bit before you attemp to move over all your clients. Server admin can get very tricky and does require some good bit of expertise.

Good luck!

Thanks to both of you....

And i do see what youre saying in terms of experience etc....

However, the gap is alot wider than you think...

for $99 on a reseller account, we're talking 3 gigs drive space and 100 transfer..

for a $99 on a dedicated box, we're talking 40 gigs and 400 transfer..you do the math....the ROI skyrockets.

Now mind you..while most of us here are software and web developers, I happen to be the most ignorant of the bunch in terms of net admin...

Eventually, we're going to have to make the switch, so better now than when it's panic time...

oh wait, it is panic time :)

Thanks again..anyone else, I'm open to suggestions or anyone from RackShack etc?

Thanks
erik

Since you like the company you are with, I would ask them how much it would be to get a dedicated server through them that they manage like a reseller account. You will probably pay more than $99 (the estimates I got were between $400-$500/month) but that would probably be worth it to you.

When I was in the market, I was in a similar boat. I asked three of the companies I host with if I could get a dedicated through them that they would manage for me and provide me the service and software that they give on their reseller account (just more of it) and each one said yes. So even though it wasn't listed on their site, they were willing to set up a dedicated for me and manage it. It turns out I had to get a dedicated on my own for other reasons, but if not, I would have definitely gone with one of my hosts and would have had them manage it for me.

Good luck!

Red

Thanks Red,

I'll try that as well..although 500 - 600 a month seems fairly high....but i understand what youre saying..they fully support the server and will handle most of the nuances..

If it were entirely up to me, I would prefer to lease a 99.00 box or higher, just place my site on it and work with the environment until i was comfortable...as vhedesigns mentioned...I think overall thus far, that seems to be the most sound advice...

To just keep feeding money to someone else, for the sole reason that there's learning involved is not a practical excuse...

$500 - $600 a month for a managed dedicated server is high... There are some out there for $200, fully managed.

Originally posted by webwired
$500 - $600 a month for a managed dedicated server is high... There are some out there for $200, fully managed.

Such as?

Well there's Rackshack and their $99 servers..Then you have Rackspace that offers theirs for $250 I think fully managed..alot of handholding I found out...great company..

i think United Colo is pretty cheap as well...

You want managed hosting? Your own dedicated server managed by professionals with EVERYTHING you ever wanted at your disposal?

Check out www.ezpublishing.com's managed hosting.


Enjoy!

I think a web host would be willing to manage a dedicated server that is from rackshack for $200. Just ask around different web hosts who you know are with rackshack. Maybe post a request in the web hosting request forums and ask if anyone would like to manage a rackshack server for you for $200.

WebReseller.net was the one I was thinking of.