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  1. #1

    Lightbulb I just dont get it..

    I'm still researching...and researching....about starting a small web hosting company..and there’s one thing..That I certainly don’t understand..

    There are hundreds of threads on how difficult it is (especially a one man operation) to manage your own, dedicated server. Not to mention the costs involved. Sure, you can get a fully managed server..I mean..fully...managed..from $450 and up (monthly) possibly...

    but why do this..why lease a dedicated server with a 70-80 g hardrive...when you could simply lease a vp server for 35 bucks monthly..

    from what ive seen so far, there are many companies offering virtual dedicated servers with up to 30 gigs of space and 250+ in bandwidth...and some of these companies have had some really great reviews here on WHT..So my point is..Why not just build your own little hosting empire based on having multiple virtual dedicated accounts..this would allow you to start out small, and have a business plan that would "grow with you"...

    Seeing that most decent VP servers being offered today are of course, fully managed..They are upgraded, security patched etc...Which leaves you with more time to grow your business and support your customers...and VP server account usually offer 3 times the amount of space and bandwth than just your average little reseller account..

    If you have say 4 different VP accounts (maybe even with 4 different companies.) that would also limit the downtime for your customers if one of the servers was to go down..seeing that your customer base would be on diff networks..

    Am I missing something here? There's so much talk on here from so many people wanting their own server, when they don’t have the slightest clue how to manage one. A semi dedicated server account seems like a much safer and smarter bet if you ask me..Cant you still build a nice, profitable business using VP accounts alone?

    Comments?

    Thanx

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
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    United States
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    1,435
    Well, that is a route that many do take. The idea way to start out is to get a reseller account, then move onto a VPS, and then as your company grows, move onto a dedicated server, and then, should things be profitable and stable, move onto purchased severs and colocation.

    The problem with having multiple VP accounts is that in the long run it's not cost effective because what if it goes down, or the company goes defunct for some reason? Then you're out an account and all the accounts on that. This business does take a certain level of risk, but those risks should be taken with extreme caution.

    You would save more by having multiple dedicated servers than having multiple VP accounts because you would have more room for customer growth. This of course is over a period of time, as any host will tell you, time creates growth, if you do things right.

    Granted, the level of management provided by the provider is definitely a groundbreaker for getting into managed servers. The situation is though, if you're serious about this business, you will either learn as you go along or learn before you even think about getting a dedicated server.

    WHT is full of people wanting unlimited space and bandwidth, not to mention people like you've mentioned, those looking for a dedicated server without any real knowledge of how to run a server. Those people are often looking for the cheapest solution with the most amount of space and bandwidth so they can make "thousands." Those who are serious will invest the time and resources necessary to either learn these technologies or hire people who know what they're doing.

    Regards,
    Waylon

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Singapore
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    Well for starters the more you out-source your stuff the more money you may end up paying but you get lesser headache.
    the more you keep in-house the lesser you have to pay ( in terms of resources ) but of course the management could kill you....

    Here are some reference that you may like to ponder about.
    1) Virtual Sites ( Low Bandwidth, little space, inflexible, Controlled by Hosting company to the MAX.) However you only manage the virtual resources and nothing else
    2) Virtual Reseller Accounts ( Lots of Bandwidth and Space, still very INFLEXIBLE.... as you are tied to the Hosting Company )
    3) Deciated Server ( Mostly rented ... You have control over the server and everything else. The company can manage for you the hardware as the machine is theirs, But the internal Software you have to maintain yourself... Still the other things are managed by them, eg. Air-Con, Electricity... )
    4) Co-Location ( Same as Deciated but you have to buy your own server and mainatin it yourself. Not recommended if you are located a considerable distance from the Hosting Company or you have a lot of servers. Cheaper than Deciated but you have to buy a server.... )
    5) Owning the Network ( Now... this is a killer... You have no support what-so-ever... You manage the rental of the lines, electricity, UPS blah blah blah.... A real headache but very flexible and expandable )

    So all in all, how BIG you want to expand?
    If its small keep to Deciated or Co-Locate.
    If you are thinking of expanding BIG, go for Co-Locate first than shift to your own network after your business expands.
    Unless you are adventurous.... Start your own Network Could be a killer but the flexibility is unmeasurable

    Personally I own a few domains and my own Network line. Give me the flexibility to expand as and when I choose.... BUT when there is some thing wrong, you would see me running around like a bunch of ants to solve the outbreak
    -=- GQ Hong -=-
    GalacNet WebMaster

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Motorcity
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    If you have any questions I would be happy to try and answer

    Private message me on msn would be happy to answer any questions

    Like the rest of the threads its budget. When you start out with the reseller and vps you can host, you however will not be able to resell and if you can you wouldnt be able to sell many large packages with out overselling and the competition has that locked up. Hard to compete in hosting thats for sure boils down to support and uptime. So might even have a server but if you cant provide support your gonna be out of luck. Im coming from design in to hosting the last 3 months. I have fully managed server monitoring and security and its in the area of $275 a month purshased seperatly but 1100 GB bandwidth which is like $0.18 cents wholesale and root acess, I went thru problems with first server admin not doing what was needed in a timely fashion. i then went with another group and work was performed overnight on my server completly setup, configured, fantastico installed, extra software installed, ssl setup, done overnight $99 initial setup then $75 a month after that for administration and they have proven to be a very good choice

    http://serverwizards.com

  5. #5
    Originally posted by Velostream
    The problem with having multiple VP accounts is that in the long run it's not cost effective because what if it goes down, or the company goes defunct for some reason? Then you're out an account and all the accounts on that. This business does take a certain level of risk, but those risks should be taken with extreme caution.
    [/B]
    This logic applies to any 3rd party hosting. If you use a 3rd party to host a shared account, a VPS, a dedicated server or provide colo space and they go down or go defunct then you have the same issue.

    Like anything you try to minimise your risk. Go with a host with a good reputation. Choose one that isn't charging 'death spiral' prices (e.g. $2/month for 100GB of bandwidth).

    Back to the original post...

    For a lot of people, VPSs offer better bang for your buck compared to an equivalently speced dedicated server. E.g. you're more llikely to have:
    • Managed hosting with a VPS.
    • Web control panel based reboots
    • Good hardware (e.g. dual xeon servers with a ton of RAM).
    • Premium data center facilites
    • Raid arrays to protect your data


    On the other hand VPSs usually won't have the raw performance of a dedicated server (but I find it falls in the 'definitely good enough' category for most folks).

    And if you are a big consumer of disk space, memory or bandwidth then a deidcated server may be the more affordable option for you.

    Ask yourself what you want from your hosting. If a VPS can provide that for a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server, go for it.
    RimuHosting.com - VPS Hosting and Dedicated Server Hosting since 2003
    Pingability.com - Peace of Mind Web Site Monitoring

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Singapore
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    Well there are pros and Cons to let other people manage your servers
    I had came across a few host that actually BAN what you can use on the servers ( if you are on VPS )
    Because some program can actually over load your server ( eg. a free email service that suddenly gets spammed ) We had a very bad experience with SPAM but luckily we have our own connection lines so no one was complaining that the CPU load shot up from 1.0 to 20.0

    Personally I don;t like the idea of being at the "mercy" of the hosting company when it comes to CPU load issues. Thats why its alwasy better to have a deciated Server, Co-Locate or your own connection and IP range.
    -=- GQ Hong -=-
    GalacNet WebMaster

  7. #7
    True VPS is when you have partitioning of the resources of a single, large machine between multiple users in such a way that those users can not interfere with one another.

    As your VPS is fully isolated with minimum and maximum resource guarantees, your CPU load will not effect the performance of the overall server (so it is impossible to overload the server) and so your host has no reason to suspend your account.

    Are you sure you was not just being semi-dedicated hosted on a normal shared hosting environment?
    Charlie Fletcher, Business Development Manager
    http://www.beamhost.co.uk | Affiliate Program
    VPS Specialist - A WebHost You Can Trust!
    contact me for details on a discount

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Well it really depends on how your host configures the machine. Because many web hostiong companies are hosted on those small 1U servers and not those larger machines that you are talking about.
    I have used and still using HiveMail to provide my free email service, there has always been cases of Hosting companies stopping the use of the script because of the excessive take up of processing power.
    -=- GQ Hong -=-
    GalacNet WebMaster

  9. #9
    In a true VPS environment, you should be assigned minimum and maximum resource guarantees. For example you would be guaranteed a minimum (for example 384 MB RAM) and a maximum burst rate (for example 4GB RAM) for both CPU and RAM.

    This way, your VPS load is individual and unique to your partition and your hosting provider should have no excuse to ban your account unless they are overselling the resource allocation.

    I'd strongly advise choosing VPS any day, aslong as you go with a reputable company using reputable technology. In other words, make sure your VPS host is using Virtuozzo for best performance.
    Charlie Fletcher, Business Development Manager
    http://www.beamhost.co.uk | Affiliate Program
    VPS Specialist - A WebHost You Can Trust!
    contact me for details on a discount

  10. #10
    Join Date
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    Singapore
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    That I agree
    But still the fact is true that having a server is always better than having part of it. ( its however the cost..... and how BIG you want to go. )
    -=- GQ Hong -=-
    GalacNet WebMaster

  11. #11
    Greetings:

    Please note that managed VPS is very similar to managed servers in the following:

    1. Managed may only mean the network is managed.

    2. Managed may only mean they provide free technical support to a degree.

    For instance, NTT/Verio has very solid VPS servers but only manage the VPS's in the extent of #1 and #2.

    Thank you.
    ---
    Peter M. Abraham
    LinkedIn Profile

  12. #12
    I disagree.

    A VPS solution allows customers to upgrade from a small plan to a larger plan - with no reconfiguration of the server or files, and no downtime. VPS technology allows us to drag and drop existing active websites running hundreds of live applications from one physical server to another with only a few minutes of planned downtime.

    VPS has all the benefits of shared hosting in regards to monitoring, management and maintenance. As our VPS technology allows us to update all our VPS customers with one click to the latest security updates and O/S patches.

    I'd also argue that a VPS solution gives maximum performance (on a tight budget, compared to shared or dedicated) due to a VPS being able to burst to the maximum available resources (RAM/CPU) of a powerful server.

    Finally, the majority of hosting providers offering VPS are financially stable due to the licensing involed for the right (and proberly the best) technology. VPS accounts require powerful servers mostly with multiple RAID hard drives, giving backup redunduncy for a very low cost.

    I'd strongly recommend VPS any day, unless what is required is the full power of a dedicated server.
    Last edited by .net; 04-26-2004 at 12:52 PM.
    Charlie Fletcher, Business Development Manager
    http://www.beamhost.co.uk | Affiliate Program
    VPS Specialist - A WebHost You Can Trust!
    contact me for details on a discount

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