Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Trying to find a good hybrid (dedicated + cloud) host

[XedBluesummer]

Morning,

So in the few pauses between development of my app, and the huge list of unrealistic demands every day I've been searching for a great hosting company. This is for a business.

What I need: A hybrid infrastructure of cloud and dedicated servers.

I currently plan to have a dedicated webserver and a dedicated postgresql server. I won't get into specific details of the server because every host offers competitive hardware at competitive rates.

The cloud may be used if the load gets to high on the webserver, and for a scalable storage solution. I don't know how much space I need, but I want it to increase as I need it. Would be nice for the webserver and db server to communicate at 1 gigbit.


I've already talked to several companies and will give my impression on some of the ones I talked to:

GoGrid or ServePath
Currently, the one host that seems to suite my needs perfectly. They seem to be inexpensive, have a decent SLA, and can do almost everything that I need. Their sales team seems to be bending over backward to get my business. My greatest concern is their repuation. Almost every single review I've read about them is telling me to stay way. Any thoughts?

RackspaceCloud
The sales department seems to be great, but they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING. For example: If I want to link the cloud files to my web server I would have to pay for internal network bandwidth to and from the server. So if a user uploads a file within my app, I am charged for the inbound traffic to my web server, then from the web server I'm charged to place the file on the "CloudFiles", then I will be charged for all the downloads. If this file has to bounce back through the webserver, I'll be charged for that as well. This seems to be a recipe for disaster when your developing an app that allows user uploads. So for me to store user files I'll be charged like 2x or 3x times for it. Reviews for this are decent. Also they don't offer a hybrid infrastructure.

LiquidWeb
I would first like to congratulate this company for their garbage sales team. I've talked to roughly about 20 web hosting companies in the past week and these guys were by far the worse. My first experience with them was using the chat. I would as the question and the representative would just link me to their site. I don't talk to someone unless I can't find the information presented to me. Every link the guy sent me was useless.

A few days later I decided to give them another try. I asked the representative to send me an invoice of what we discussed and here is the answer I got:

liquidwebBret: This chat is to answer questions on it. But if you need a formal quote. Then storm is not for you.

Never in my B2B experience has anyone ever refused to give me a quote. Not only that, he said the service he sales is not for me. I understand the difficulty of quoting a cloud, however, he knew I was soley asking for a quote for multiple dedicated servers. The sad thing is LiquidWeb has almost everything I would need. I will never give them business though, so I didn't read any reviews.

I currently have already talked to Joyent and EC2, These option seem to pricey. I don't have time to elaborate on my experience with them; however, when I have time I'm going to come back and update this post.

-Sam

[LiquidWebTravis]

Originally Posted by XedBluesummer

I currently have already talked to Joyent and EC2, These option seem to pricey. I don't have time to elaborate on my experience with them; however, when I have time I'm going to come back and update this post.

-Sam

I'm curious, did Amazon EC2 provide you a quote?

Providing a quotation on a hourly product is rather difficult. I would be happy to provide you an estimate based on our pricing page but an exact quote is going to be very challenging given that your bandwidth, backup and usage could change. It should also be noted that, unlike many hosts, we make it easier by providing both hourly & monthly pricing as well as bandwidth bundles. You can see more here: http://stormondemand.com/cloud-hosting/pricing/

[XedBluesummer]

I asked for a quote based on dedicated servers. This would not change much, and you can include the bandwidth charge like every other quote I have gotten: $ 0.20 per gig of bandwidth.

This isn't rocket science.

And yes Amazon EC2 did provide me a quote using:

The Calculator found on their website. I can effectively calculate how much everything is going to cost.

Now that I answered your question, answer mine:

As a service based business, do you believe that your representatives should tell me that their services are not for my company simply because I request a quote?

-Sam

[LiquidWebTravis]

Originally Posted by XedBluesummer

I asked for a quote based on dedicated servers. This would not change much, and you can include the bandwidth charge like every other quote I have gotten: $ 0.20 per gig of bandwidth.

This isn't rocket science.

And yes Amazon EC2 did provide me a quote using:

The Calculator found on their website. I can effectively calculate how much everything is going to cost.

Now that I answered your question, answer mine:

As a service based business, do you believe that your representatives should tell me that their services are not for my company simply because I request a quote?

-Sam

You are misunderstanding what was said by our sales representative on a live chat. We can provide you a scope of pricing, but because it is a hourly utility style product, we can not guarantee your monthly cost. (This is what he thought you meant when you asked for a "quote") This is what the salesman was attempting to convey to you. I apologize that it gave you the impression that we did not want to do business with you, this is obviously not the case.

[XedBluesummer]

This is me asking for the quote:

you: Alright, can you quote me for:
you: Intel Xeon X3440 2533 MHz 1 CPUs 4 Total 8.0GB 2 Disks 919GB SATA RAID 1 $200/mon
you: and
you: Intel Xeon E5506 2133 MHz 2 CPUs 8 Total 4.0GB 2 Disks 453GB SATA RAID 1 $235/mon
you: 1 tb bandwidth
you: do you offer cloud based storage that is scalable?
you: btw send the quote to xxx@xx.xxx AND cc xxx@xxx.xxx
you: be back in ten minutes
liquidwebBret: yes
liquidwebBret: (link to pricing page)
info: Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

he did even wait for me to come back (I was actually gone less than five minutes, and terminated the session):

so I reconnected and said:

liquidwebBret: How may I help you today?
you: back
you: the pricing plan page you sent me has no information on scaling storage.
liquidwebBret: sorry. The storage is based on whast listed
liquidwebBret: you would have to upgrade the package to the larger drives
liquidwebBret: there is no scaling of just disk space
you: Alright.
you: Send me a quote with what I asked to the e-mail. My company requires an official quote before I choose my host.
liquidwebBret: sadly we do not quote storm.
liquidwebBret: there is no quoting system as we don't sell it. It's all done automatically in our dash board
liquidwebBret: no human touches it.
liquidwebBret: because you simply select what you like.
you: those were for the bare metal server.
liquidwebBret: This chat is to answer questions on it. But if you need a formal quote. Then storm is not for you.



That was pretty much half of my experience. The rest I was asking question about bandwidth etc. All I he gave me was links to the pages I've already browsed before I even started the chat.

I told him to quote me on your dedicated servers.

You said:

"I apologize that it gave you the impression that we did not want to do business with you, this is obviously not the case."

Obviously this is the case:

Your Rep said:

But if you need a formal quote. Then storm is not for you.

I personally don't believe the misunderstanding was on my part. I clearly asked him to quote for dedicated servers. Perhaps I should not have asked him about the scalable storage afterward which may have caused the misunderstanding. But your unwillingness to send a customer a simple document is frankly disappointing. I have many quotes sitting in my inbox, from several cloud and dedicated providers. Most sent the quotes within an hour. If your company won't even do this for me to get my business I wonder how much you will do to keep my business?

I really have already wasted too much time on discussing my experience with your company. If you have any actual real feedback on the initial topic please feel free to post; however, if your just going to attempt to defend your company send it through the PM or pull my e-mail from your DB.

I've wasted too much time already with your company. I put the chat transcript up, let the world be the judge.

Anyone have any suggestion for other hosting companies that offer the features for what I'm looking for?

-Samir Mirani

[Coolraul]

2 sides to everyting.

I totally get the need to get a formal quote. I really don't understand why a quote cannot be given that just lists the each flexible cost item and perhaps gives a scenario. That is all that is needed. Corporate quoting doesn't have to be it is exactly $xxxx no more no less. You can certainly provide the items that are fixed and the ones that are variable but it is typical that a quote is provided to prove internally you did your due diligence.

That being said i think the OP is a bit aggresive about what was said. It is completely fair for a business to say hey we are not for you. It won't be a good fit. In fact you should respect that from a business if they don't want to twist themselves around to fit your desires as it is outside their business model. These situations do work sometimes but also just don't work sometimes.

Anyway just my 2cents.

[LiquidWebTravis]

Originally Posted by XedBluesummer

If your company won't even do this for me to get my business I wonder how much you will do to keep my business?

I stated very clearly that we would be willing to provide you a quote. Simply email me if you are interested.

[XedBluesummer]

Originally Posted by Coolraul

2 sides to everyting.

I totally get the need to get a formal quote. I really don't understand why a quote cannot be given that just lists the each flexible cost item and perhaps gives a scenario. That is all that is needed. Corporate quoting doesn't have to be it is exactly $xxxx no more no less. You can certainly provide the items that are fixed and the ones that are variable but it is typical that a quote is provided to prove internally you did your due diligence.

That being said i think the OP is a bit aggresive about what was said. It is completely fair for a business to say hey we are not for you. It won't be a good fit. In fact you should respect that from a business if they don't want to twist themselves around to fit your desires as it is outside their business model. These situations do work sometimes but also just don't work sometimes.

Anyway just my 2cents.

Agreed, might have been a little aggressive. I was upset at the customer service I received which caused me my aggressive stance.