To improve the uptime availability of our web sites, we have decided to switch from our current shared environment at Intermedia.net to a dedicated server at Intermedia or possibly another host.

We use ColdFusion to power our sites, so this limits some of our available choices.

We currently are on Windows 2000 servers. I am considering moving to Unix for better uptime, but am reluctant since most of my admin experience is with Windows.

What hosting companies are best for:
- Cold Fusion support
- dedicated server (managed)
- solid technical support 24x7

We are also looking at redundancy options, either by adding a second server or setting up accounts at two hosting companies, and adjusting our DNS so that the second would pick up if the first company failed. Is this a good strategy to insure maximum uptime.?

Thank you.

Hi,

If your admin experience is with Windows, then i would recommend staying with windows. At least you know what you are doing :)

Are you looking at managed or unmanaged solutions? If managed, RackMy.com is the company to go.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=90364

http://www.rackmy.com/dedicated/default.asp

They are currently celebrating their 24th month of 100% Network Uptime and are offering all new customers a 500% increase in bandwidth. Good time to grab.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=93344

This offer, I'm not sure if it is a managed solution.

If unmanaged, FastServers.net is the company to go.

Hope i point you in the right direction.

Good luck

You could also take a look at www.rackspace.com

They are a bit expensive but I hear they are definitely worth the money :)

Good luck in your search.

Yes, we had seriously considered RackSpace, but they do not support ColdFusion. We are now looking at Verio. Would they be a good alternative?

Carolina Networks -- http://www.carolina.net

They have some very attractive dedicated plans with ColdFusion, which may be what you're looking for. Priced well with good options.

I've hosted one site or another with them, including their starter dedicated machine, for about four years now and they've always provided great service and a very fast pipe. They do a good deal of DSL, so I guess they have to have a lot of bandwidth.

I'd stay away from Verio. Their technical support is very very unresponsive and very unhelpful.

Originally posted by aarong
I'd stay away from Verio. Their technical support is very very unresponsive and very unhelpful.

Are you trying to telepath support requests to Verio?

I've been with Verio for almost 4 years now. And other than the high prices for the amount of space recieved, I'm reluctant to leave them for a cheaper deal because of the excellent support, network and uptime.

I will admit that their service isnt what it used to be, but even on their worst day, they are better than some companies i've seen on their best.

We have had some enlightening conversations with Verio, Intermedia, and RackMy during the past few days. Seems like there are many issues to consider - items that I've never had to worry about that may now become my responsibility, e.g.

mail server administration
web based mail access
DNS
cold fusion administration

Most of these issues have either been handled by our current shared hosting company, or have been made easier thru a web based interface. In a dedicated environment, much of this will be handled differently. Seems like to be able to maintain the benefits of a shared environment with higher availability, I will need to make sure we select a host that provides managed sevices.

Does anyone have any experiences with the companies we've spoken to re: this criteria?. As the sole technology person in my organization, web server admin is only one of the tasks I handle so it would be great to have the hosting company continue to handle most of the back end administration of our server.