Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : VPS Hosting : High Performance Windows VPS

[robinet]

Hello,

We are looking for a reliable, high performance, windows VPS with the following specs:

Two (2) virtual private servers

- Min 2 VCPU
- Min 4 GB RAM
- Min 80 GB HD
- 1000 GB BW
- (Only for one of the servers) Aspemail/Aspupload/DynamicPDF
- (Only for one of the servers) SSL Certificate

Other requirements:
- Backup (and easy disaster recovery)
- Proactive monitoring
- Windows 2008 R2
- SQL Server 2008 for one of the VPS boxes
- Affordable software installation/troubleshooting fees
- A big plus would be: FRENCH speaking technical staff
- A big plus would be: SLA

We can spend around EUR 800/month, other setups/options/suggestions are welcome, but since this is a business critical application we need a VERY PROFESSIONAL, RESPONSIVE and RELIABLE hosting company.

We are currently hosting at internet-fr, which is kind of a rip-off for the price tag, and everything goes at "French pace" if you know what I mean. Plus, sometimes we have connectivity problems, and upgrading our dedicated servers is a hassle (hence our preference for VPS).

UPTIME is a must, as it is RESPONSIVENESS... Anyone?

Regards,

Rob

[Softsys Hosting]

Rob,

You have a very good budget and you should be able to find a hosting company matching your requirements within your budget. I'd recommend you to go for Hyper-V based VPS since it provides best performance with dedicated RAM. With regards to your ASP components, I'd recommend you to purchase them outright and get them installed on your VPS (or you can have your host to get this done for you).

Good luck!

[Douglas]

As SoftSys said, your budget is extremely reasonable, and agreed on purchasing the components yourself. You should also check with each potential hosting provider to find out how much they'll support third party components/applications/software.

Are the systems going to be clustered to work together as a single unit? If so, you should also talk to any potential hosting providers to see if they have first hand knowledge and capabilities to support that.

Good luck with your hosting search, Rob!

[robinet]

More info...

Our current setup at internet-fr is the following:

CONSTRUCTEUR: DELL
MODÈLE: 1950
PROCESSEUR(S): 1 x 1,6 Ghz (Xéon 5110)
MÉMOIRE: 4096 Mo RAM

CONSTRUCTEUR: DELL
MODÈLE: 2850
PROCESSEUR(S): 1 x 3.20 Ghz (Xéon)
MÉMOIRE: 4096 Mo RAM

Both are Windows 2003 servers, connected through a switch, and the second one has SQL Server 2000 (500 MB database size).

This is an old and huge classic ASP website which we are going to migrate to ASP.Net (framework version 4). The migration should be ready around the end of the year (HOPEFULLY!). So the ASP components wouldn't be a requirement if we switch to another hosting company by them. However... why wait so long if we can get a better service now? The only problem would be the compatibility issues of ASPEmail, etc. on Windows 2008 (I didn't really check yet). We don't want to take chances here, as I said, this website MUST be online 24/7

The website is connected and synchronized to Microsoft Dynamics Nav 5 (we coded this, no sweat), but we are running Microsoft Dynamics Nav in a little village in France (2 Mbps SDSL internet access, the most we could get here)... so the website must be available in France at all times and at a decent speed rate.

We have an local MS Exchange Server routed through ovh.net so e-email is not a requirement for this setup.

We haven't evaluated a clustered setup, but it is definitely an option... if we get support on this matter.

Support in French language is a big plus because the IT guy over here doesn't speak English fluently. I came here to assess the overall IT infraestructure and provide some advice, but I'll be leaving France tomorrow. I will still be around after leaving, and I have authorization to contact hosting providers directly... but this guy over here must be able to communicate with someone on the other side of the line somehow (by writing, by phone, chat, whatever)... otherwise it will be hell for me and my head will be on the line.

Anyone can <<reply here>>... it's very likely that I won't be able to reply until Monday however.

Please, make sure we get SUPPORT, money is not such a problem over here...

Thanks so much,

Rob

[Softsys Hosting]

Rob,

If you are really looking for French support, it will be best for you to find a local provider since I'm not aware of any US provider with French support. Also, if you think that you'll need good amount of support hands for managing server, I'll recommend you to consider "fully managed" option since self managed will most generally include troubleshooting host machine and network issues only.

Thanks!