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how are rackspace UK ?
| Posted by Bodeba, 08-23-2007, 01:18 PM |
| start work with a new firm in october as an ecommerce director, they currently use some outsourced managed shopping cart similar to yahoo stores
first thing ineed to do is lease a server, im thinking rackspace uk ?
anyone on here used them can you give me some advice please
thanks
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| Posted by jhadley, 08-23-2007, 01:39 PM |
| Their sales people aren't great (see my other post in this section). I can't speak for their support since I haven't deal with them.
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| Posted by richy, 08-23-2007, 01:45 PM |
| do you definately need a uk based provider? theres only a fraction of a second to the other side of the pond and it gives you a wider pool of companies to consider.
Personally I would suggest servint as their support has always been insanely good to me. They are us based but they pick up the phone very fast 24 7 and you get through to a real tec not a phone operator. The pricing is mid field between budget and extremely expensive.
I haven't used rackspace so I couldnt comment on the quality of their service. However, watch out for contract lengths, its fair for a company to ask for a minimum term if they are bringing in custom hardware for you but if it is off the shelf and mid to low range then I would question why they would feel the need to tie you in. The quality of service should keep you there not a contract. Especially since they can resell the servers.
I would reccomend you draw up a list of your requirements for bandwidth and storage as a minimum. Then I would look at what you need the server to do and what volume of traffic you will have to deal with. Having a store running already you will have an idea of the volume. Next consider what features would be nice to have, i.e. raid for redundant storage, a second webserver behind a load balance to give some redundancy and scaleability etc.
If you are starting from a relatively modest scale you could also consider a vps as you would gain some big price features for a much smaller outlay such as redundant storage and nightly backups, and the vps can scale with demand at short notice to full server levels.
Once you know what you want physically work out what level of service you require and your see if your budget can stretch to the companies you would like to use. Narrow it down to three or so and compare them. Ask them to justify why you should use them and search the forums for customers experiences.
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| Posted by iHubNet-Matt, 08-24-2007, 05:12 AM |
| Make an estimate of the bandwidth and disk space your account will consume and based on that fix your budget. That will help you in finding the correct plan. Rack space has got good reputation.
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| Posted by iHubNet, 08-25-2007, 12:20 PM |
| Hi,
Is there any reason that you are thinking/choosing rackspace uk?
does server has to be in UK?
what kind of ecommerce this will be?
thanks
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| Posted by samon, 09-01-2007, 02:38 PM |
| i guess he is looking for an off shore hosting! i thought rackspace is american.
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| Posted by AL-Benjamin, 09-01-2007, 03:53 PM |
| Just as a point of record for those that have posted about there being no difference. There is, you get about 30ms responses in the UK from UK servers. You're looking at circa 100ms for most USA servers from the UK. Its noticeable.
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| Posted by kjawaid, 09-01-2007, 06:52 PM |
| rackspace have data center in UK too
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| Posted by eming, 09-01-2007, 09:46 PM |
| only hear good stuff about rackspace in UK
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| Posted by dkitchen, 09-02-2007, 04:42 AM |
| The Data Protection Act has particular parts which restricts where personal information can be stored (i.e. not outside of the EEC), therefore without obtaining permission, a UK company holding customer details on a US server would be against the law.
To get back to the original question, yes Rackspace are good and host a number of very large websites. They also have a very good marketing department, which unfortunately does tend to big things up. For example, in the past we have challenged Rackspace's constant adverts about uptime with the ASA. RS were claiming they have had 100% uptime for 4 years when they hadn't (they had an extended outage to their UK facility when their single fibre link was cut).
To cut a long story short there are a lot of providers which are usually cheaper and provide just as good a service as RS. What cart is it you're looking at using? It would probably be worth looking for a hosting company that has experience with your cart software...
Good luck,
Dan
Last edited by dkitchen; 09-02-2007 at 04:47 AM.
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| Posted by richy, 09-02-2007, 05:47 AM |
| There is virtually no difference, for customers browsing a website they would not notice a difference. There is a mild lag when working at the bash prompt but nothing serious. There are also advantages to hosting in the states, economies of scale and more diverse choice.
If you're telling me you can notice 70 ms when browsing a website then I think you need less coffee
The beauty of the internet is that it is so damn fast and if you are in the UK and don't want servers for gaming you have the USA and western Europe to choose from as well. To put it into perspective, with a ping of 100ms data can get from the uk to the usa and back again 10 times per second. If your application is latency sensitive then sure look in the UK, if it isnt i.e. normal hosting then sure get the best deal. The dollar is rock bottom right now so you get a decent amount for your money. There are more US providers then UK providers. The UK market is great and a hell of a lot better then it used to be, but it would be foolish not to check out other markets as well.
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| Posted by richy, 09-02-2007, 05:54 AM |
| Countries outside the EEC without adequate protection.
Whether the USA has adequate protection is another issue.
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| Posted by PeterVerrill, 09-02-2007, 09:36 AM |
| From where I live in the UK I can ping most UK based website in 10-20ms.
UK websites often load like they are local.
While an extra +70ms to the US Isn't a lot. It is noticable. For example:
0ms > Request DNS
90ms> DNS found
90ms> Request Website
180ms> Initial data received
180ms> request CSS, JPGs, Media...
270ms> (assuming on same server else +70ms for DNS) CSS... Received
Or UK:
0ms > Request DNS
20ms> DNS found
20ms> Request Website
40ms> Initial data received
40ms> request CSS, JPGs, Media...
60ms> (assuming on same server else +70ms for DNS) CSS... Received
Now this all assumes everything happens instantly once a request is received and that data transfers is instant. In reality it takes longer.
Also US <> UK bandwidth isn't usually that fast unless using multiple connections. I can usually get 300-400KB/s from my home to the US or 1500-2000KB/s to the UK.
Although I haven't dealt with RackSpace (since hosting our own servers) they are a solid company and won't be going anywhere soon. They have a good reputation and host a fair few household name brands.
However for a small firm, with a budget you can probably find a smaller company with a more personal service at a resonable price.
It really depends what you require.
Kind Regards,
Last edited by writespeak; 09-02-2007 at 02:27 PM.
Reason: Edited by request
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| Posted by PeterVerrill, 09-02-2007, 09:39 AM |
| Also,
While most managed companies will have someone you can deal with 24/7, it usually helps and is cheaper for them to be based in the same timezone and country as you.
Hosting your server closer to your audience also reduces a critical point of failure and will be SEO beneficial.
UK bandwidth is usually higher quality and often cheaper than US.
Regards,
Last edited by writespeak; 09-02-2007 at 02:28 PM.
Reason: Edited by request
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| Posted by richy, 09-02-2007, 11:01 AM |
| Is that from the standpoint of a UK based server provider? I would think it unlikely you would slate your own product. Its often considered good form to remove your sig in a post like this to avoid anybody thinking you are just blatantly advertising
With regard to support, its a valid point, however, my experience with servint is that if I call during their out of hours I tend to get an even quicker response as their techs aren't dealing with the majority of their customers who live in their timezone. Of course its important to pick a company with serious 24 7 coverage rather than one man bands just reselling.
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| Posted by PeterVerrill, 09-02-2007, 11:08 AM |
| I don't see how that was slating myself or other UK providers?
I'll try and remove my SIG, though we aren't quite in the management game yet.
Peter
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| Posted by richy, 09-02-2007, 11:38 AM |
| I was stating that your advice was unlikely to be impartial given that your sig clearly states you are a uk provider. In all honesty from a customers viewpoint it tends to put me off when I see comments like that from providers, especially when they leave their sig on the comment. It just tends to look like an advert.
Both market places have their advantages and disadvantages as Im sure you're aware. The US market has a greater number of competitors and fierce competition. I found, having servers on both sides of the pond, that US based servers for general hosting have some advantages over most UK servers for a given price. With the dollar so cheap as well you can get a lot of quality for your pound which is why I though that unless the OP has some specific technical reason to host in the UK then they could consider further afield.
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| Posted by PeterVerrill, 09-02-2007, 11:46 AM |
| Fair enough. Though I recently suggested here that someone based in Australia used US based servers over UK for the exact same reasons.
From a 'normal' web users point of view, a US based server would be cheaper and therefore probably better.
From a more technical web users point of view, a UK based server could be better suited to them and their requirements.
Really depends on the user...
I've requested my sig be removed and a minor typo (using wrong Companies name) corrected.
Peter
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