5 replies to this topic

[indian]

Hi

This might sound very basic...but definitely i need answers :)

What is CLOUD Hosting ?

Currently iam a reseller and plan to move to VPS.

Should I move to CLOUD hosting ? What are the benefits of this - for me and then the end user >?

Indian

[CH-Dave S.]

indian,

There really isn't a "correct" answer for this. The answer is based solely upon your requirements or the type of hosting environment it relates to.

For instance those on a reseller plan can spread their accounts across multiple purpose built servers for all services and multiple hosting environments. You of course are in a shared environment and as long as your websites hosted do not require resources/settings outside of a typical shared environment this can be the "right" environment for you. This also provides 30 restore points utilizing R1Soft backups.

A VPS allows a completely isolated environment and can be configured to your needs. This also allows for the control panel of your choice and we can provide SSH access to you. This of course is a single platform hosting environment of your choice. Our managed VPS offerings provide 15 restore points of your data. Currently it is scalable for disk, CPU, and RAM etcetera by moving up to the next plan or requesting additional resources via support/sales. Depending on the OS platform and control panel chosen, you may be required to run "all" services you require (control panel if required, web, mail, database) on your VPS.

Our managed VPS offerings include:

• Managed Switch and Firewall (with custom security settings for your requirements - constant development of firewall rules)
  
• 24x7x365 proactive monitoring of all services and hardware and instantaneous response by a technician to an alarm
  
• 24x7x365 telephone and helpdesk support
  
• Predictive failure analysis of all hardware and services so that we are made aware of potential problems before any failures
  
• Bandwidth is billed as average usage
  
• All server side upgrades and patches are scheduled and handled by Cartika staff when required (this includes operating systems, control panels, services like PHP, MySQL etc)
  
• Managed backups utilizing Continuous Data Protection (CDP) technology.
  
• You would have access to the backup system and can restore any file or any database via a web GUI. We keep 15 restore points of all of your data. You can run backups once per day (default) or several times per day if you choose. CDP also allows us to bare metal restore a server in case of total disaster recovery within hours (1-3) vs the traditional days required to restore in case of complete disaster.
  
• AV scanning and response to any infections

The new cloud offerings are very similar to above, yet completely different. This has been explained pretty thoroughly at http://cartikaforum....474&postcount=2. In a nutshell they offer you all the benefits of being in an isolated environment of the VPS along with on-demand scalability and "self-healing" capability. This allows you to adjust your resources to handle your current resource requirements.

It is really hard to say what the best solution is as these are all completely different offerings and again, are based solely on your requirements/needs. We have had many customers on high-level reseller accounts move a site or two that requires either an isolated environment for resource usage or server configuration needs to a VPS. In turn this allowed them to offset the cost by reducing their reseller plan to a much lower level/cost. If you have any questions you can certainly put in a ticket to sales and we can take a look at what may work best for your particular needs.

Edited by CH-Dave S., 26 January 2010 - 07:08 AM.

[indian]

Thanks for the reply..

My point is :

Already we have shared hosting, resller hosting, vps hosting, semi-dedicated hosting, dedicated servers and what the real thing this CLOUD stuff is going to bring in for my customers and myself?

As a reseller now, should I move to a VPS (regular) or CLOUD VPS ?

Simple can't understand this CLOUD STUFF..

FYI, i attended a CLOUD Computing seminar lastweek and it made me MORE MAD
The guy who spoke only talked about his company (salesxxxxce.com)

Some one please explain me this stuff before my kid asks me..... :)

[CH-Dave S.]

indian,

Quote

Already we have shared hosting, resller hosting, vps hosting, semi-dedicated hosting, dedicated servers and what the real thing this CLOUD stuff is going to bring in for my customers and myself?

Well, all of the hosting offerings have their place based upon the site being hosted and it's requirements and/or the site owners wishes. In my opinion there is no such thing as "semi-dedicated" hosting and this is often pushed by some of the budget hosts that overload their servers to begin with. This is simply like the host saying "Trust me, we will not overload the server".

As stated, Andrew gave a pretty good explanation of the cloud solutions at http://cartikaforum....474&postcount=2

As a reseller, the VPS plans, Cloud, and Dedicated offerings are simply a tool in your tool chest. There are few things worse in any business than having to tell a customer/potential customer "I'm sorry, but me cannot meet your requirements".

Each solution is very different and should be offered to those that require and/or desire the benefits of each. They are all offered to you as a reseller at a discounted price. In the case of a reseller such as yourself, these are simply additional solutions for you to offer to retain and gain business. I would never personally tell any reseller that a single solution is their best option whether it is a reseller account on shared servers, a VPS, a dedicated/dedicated cluster, or a cloud solution. It is more often than not a combination of the solutions that is required.

Most sites are fine in a quality shared hosting environment. It's when a particular site requires resources, access, and/or configurations that simply cannot be expected in a shared environment that you start looking at VPS, dedicated or cloud solutions.

Quote

As a reseller now, should I move to a VPS (regular) or CLOUD VPS ?

There really isn't a yes/no answer to this question. I doubt very much most resellers should "move" to a single solution such as a VPS, Cloud, or dedicated server/cluster environment. Unless you are a web developer specializing in a particular script, host only sites that require a specific hosting environment and server configuration/access, and desire the isolated environment these solutions offer. You lose the benefits of offering multi-platform hosting and being able to spread sites across multiple servers, services and environments. A reseller will often run into specific sites that require the resources and configurations/access available in VPS, Cloud, or dedicated environments and these should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Edited by CH-Dave S., 27 January 2010 - 06:45 AM.

[CH-Andrew]

indian said:

Thanks for the reply..

My point is :

Already we have shared hosting, resller hosting, vps hosting, semi-dedicated hosting, dedicated servers and what the real thing this CLOUD stuff is going to bring in for my customers and myself?

As a reseller now, should I move to a VPS (regular) or CLOUD VPS ?

Simple can't understand this CLOUD STUFF..

FYI, i attended a CLOUD Computing seminar lastweek and it made me MORE MAD
The guy who spoke only talked about his company (salesxxxxce.com)

Some one please explain me this stuff before my kid asks me..... :)

Hello Indian,

Cloud computing is really a metaphor representing computing as an internet "cloud"

Essentially though, cloud computing allows for redundancy, scalability and per per use billing (ie like a utility).

A typical shared, VPS or dedicated server will have certain resources available for a certain amount of money. In some cases, you are paying for resources you do not need, and then in other cases, you do not have enough resources and cannot easily get more.

A cloud computing model allows you to purchase the hard resources you require (ie CPU, RAM, Disk) and allows you to add more resources, when you need them, for how ever long you need them, and then scale back down so that you have only paid for those resources while needed.

A good example is lets say you have 1 or more websites, which 90% of the time require 1 CPU and 2 GB of ram to function and deal with day to day requirements. But, then lets say these sites are all retail based, and in November and December (ie for the Christmas Season), you require 4 CPUs and 12 GB RAM in order to function properly. With Cloud computing, you can add those resources to your website ondemand and pay for usage while you need them, then, when the Christmas season is over, you can remove those resources and stop paying for them. All automatically, all without any downtime or migrations and completely seamless. Traditionally, customers would need to maintain a big dedicated server for these requirements for the entire year, even though they only needed that dedicated server for 30-45 days.

Another example is lets say you host 100 sites, and 1 day, one of those sites gets featured on digg, or slashdot - or they launch a massive marketing campaign - and although normally, those sites only require 1 CPU and 2 GB of processing power, for those 2-3 days where the marketing campaign kicked in, or when you received a short term, massive burst in traffic, you can go into your control panel, add more CPU and RAM - and when you are done, you can return to normal. In this case, you have paid for extra server resources for just a few days, all the while, your sites have seamlessly maintained service and were not impacted or brought down by large bursts in traffic.

There are of course many more factors which differentiate cloud computing from traditional hosting models, and if you review our cartikacloud.com site, you should be able to see some additional details as well. However, hopefully the examples above gives you a more clear indication of what this trend is all about and why it is important.

[indian]

Thanks Andrew...

that was crystal clear...

I now get the point !