Options Explained
What does it mean for you?
Are you ready to purchase one or more servers for your organization, and you're not quite sure which packages suit you? Do you need a more in-depth description of the features that we offer before you make your choice? Can you achieve the same results with a more consolidated approach? We put up the following glossary of terms to explain the services and features we are offering. If you need more information, feel free to contact us about our support and professional services.
Virtual CPU
Each one of our virtual servers comes with Virtual CPUs available to be used. This means you may use up to a certain number of CPU cores concurrently on your machine. The bare minimum is one (1) CPU, but it is recommended that you use at least two (2) in order to ensure a responsive server environment. You can add or remove CPUs at any time by contacting our support staff.
Dedicated Virtual CPU
In a situation where a client requires a dedicated CPU, we can offer the exclusive use of one or more of our CPU cores available in our servers. We strive to share resources sparsely among our servers, but every once in a while our clients find that a dedicted core will suit their needs. If you think you will be using a good amount of processing power, you are encouraged to explore this option with our sales staff.
Memory/RAM
One of the important configuration options that we offer our clients is the amount of RAM their server can use. We offer up to 16GB (16384 MB) Virutal Servers geared mainly towards database or high capacity mail processing, and as small as 1GB virtual servers. This is the memory space in which your server resides, and we recommend a 1GB minimum for all servers. We recommend that high capacity web servers which host ASP.NET or PHP applications realize this using a 2GB or higher configuration. For any database over 10GBs or which actively uses the system we recommend a minimum of 4GB of RAM, but we offer up to 16GBs to fit your needs.
Hard Drive Storage Space
Storage space is the amount of disk space needed to maintain your running system. We have standard sized Virtual Servers that have 50GB, 75GB, or 100GB partitions, and we will provide any configuration you see reasonable to fit your needs. Our standard offering is hosting on RAID 5 or 6 arrays using 7200RPM SATA 2 (300MB/s) hard disk drives. However, we offer you the option of high performance RAID 1+0 on 10000 RPM or 15000 RPM SAS disk drives, or the option of high-risk low-priced risky storage on single high capacity 7200RPM SATA drives.
Bandwidth/Network Transfer
A key aspect of any internet-hosted application is the amount of bandwidth it will use. We offer the cheapest bandwidth we can find, and offer it to our clients. We bill you on a 95th percentile method using in-line traffic monitoring, and we can provide usage charts upon request. We encourage administrators to monitor bandwidth usage on their machines, and set up notifications for situations where bandwidth usage may grow out of control. As always, you can consult our Professional Services team regarding setting up bandwidth monitoring, information on finding a sister-site for redundant operations and topographical load balancing, and the availability of higher link-speeds for bandwidth intensive applications. We welcome bandwidth intensive applications, and ask that you address our sales team regarding your target usage in order for our network abuse specialists to be able to work with your bandwidth requirements.
Remote Management
Windows Servers allow remote Administrators to perform administrative operations on their machines using the Remote Desktop services built into the operating system. Linux servers are set up with the ssh (Secure Shell) services. We encourage you to use the highest level of encryption possible, and will help you set up access to each server so you work in the most secure environment possible. Additionally, at your request, our Professional Services team will be able to help you with software installation and hardware configurations through these administrative means. You may install whichever remote administration software you deem necessary as part of your configuration.
Backups
We understand your need to have secure storage, and go beyond the use of RAID fault-tolerance to offer you a back-up solution. We will provide a networked location for your back-up needs, and can accommodate live back-ups from within your installation using Volume Shadow Copy under Windows, or any of your choices of free tools under Linux. If you are interested in a back-up solution that requires no setup on your part, you can participate in our offline backup solution which powers down your server for regular maintenance at a regular time, and backs up your server on a faul tollerant array. This solution offers near-instant restore times, whereas live back-up requires a one (1) hour to three (3) hour window.
Snapshots
In addition to backups of your important data, and fault tolerance using RAID arrays, we offer you the ultimate roll-back tool for system configuration. Snapshots allow you to take an instant mage of your hard drive for system rollback. This effectively means you can make any desired change to one of your servers, and should the server become "unrecoverable" due to any unforseen circumstances you will be able to fully restore to your snapshot point. Snapshots require no downtime to take, and are ideal for risky configuration settings, although they can be taxing on disk IO operations to modified areas of storage. Find out more from our Professional Services or Support teams, or contact support to schedule a snapshot today.
Maintenance Schedules
We offer our customers advance notice of any system interruption due to forseeable circumstances. In addition, we schedule a weekly maintenance time with our customers to insure that our systems continue to function for you. As such, we request that the server Administrator contact us with back-up plans and update schedules, and we will do our best to minimize the impact on all customers accordingly. Contact us to find out our maintenance schedule, and find out how we can accomodate your need to minimize the impact on your server.