Hi,

I am hoping some one could give me some advice regarding hosting.

I am currently using a VPS server with 1and1 in the UK. I need to upgrade as my package is old: (Windows 2003, .500g RAM Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2352 AMD64 Family 16 Model 2 Stepping 3 ~2110MHz)

The content I am serving is media rich (currently rich with processor hungry Flash, large high quality JPEGS and video pulled in from AWS Cloudfront.

The content I am building isn't designed to be viewed by a large quantity of users at any one time and is not eCommerce/Retail.

My concern is that I want to give all my audience the best advantage when viewing my content from my end (my server). I know I can't do anything regards their bandwidth and processors, so my question boils down to what is the best solution would be best to ensure my content is delivered at the highest speeds possible. I am confused by RAM versus processors etc. Can anybody suggest what I should upgrade to? Windows 2008. Linux, what RAM etc, VPS, dedicated, Cloud? If you would like to see an example of my content, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Matt

PS I am hosting around 4 personal sites at the moment, 2 wordpress with databases set up, so upgrading with 1and1 might be easier, though would be prepared to switch.

As vps accounts are created on a server with good specs but I suspect how much vps accounts resides on the same server your account is. As the server is still shared you can not speak about processor, so the only option remains of upgrading the RAM. I would recommend you to discuss this with the support staff of your hosting provider and ask them for better possible resources.

Agreed, you need to burst your RAM and see how performance would change

As you say that the site contains flash and HQ images, continuing to host over a VPS wouldn't be the right choice for sure. Moreover, you've also hosted a couple of other domains onto the same server, which makes the account busier. IMHO. you should either choose to upgrade to a high-end VPS or an auto-scalable Cloud platform depending upon your budget. If hosted on a Cloud, you'd not longer have to bother about the resources, the site should perform at optimum levels at any given time.

Though, if budget if not a constraint, then what can be anything better than a dedicated server

I come from another angle on this issue;

Depending on the operating system or virtulization technology being used, the hosting company CAN limit the CPU and Memory in such a way that you're guaranteed that amount each time. Memory is usually one of the biggest factors in gaining some quick speed. Here's a quite anology on Memory;

Your website is a bathtub full of water, an empty bucket, and an empty bathtub. The bigger bucket you get, the faster you can move the water from one tub to the other.

The tub with water is your site, the bucket is memory, and the empty tub is your connection out to the web (and then to client). So if you have a 5 gallon bucket, you can move water (data) faster than if you had a 1 gallon bucket. But don't go crazy and think you can use a 20 gallon bucket as you're going to be limited by how much you can physically carry yourself (this would be the CPU).

So, back to the server;
Having a server with more memory is good, but don't go getting a server with 12GB of memory and an underpowered CPU - the server would kill itself trying to keep up, or just not use all the memory.

There's a balancing act that you need to find somewhere in the middle. Usually 1-2GB of memory on a VPS is about the mark you want to be at. Definitely going from 0.5GB memory to 1GB of memory you should see a speed increase.

Now, since you're dealing with a media rich site, have you considered a CDN (Content Delivery Network)? There are some inexpensive places like www.maxcdn.com which can provide up to 1TB of bandwidth for $40 (not $40/year, $40 per 1 TB. If it takes you 12 months to use all that space, then you only pay the $40). I use CDN on my sites all the time. Faster delivery for the clients as the content is stored at remote servers closer to the clients.

If you're dealing with media rich sites, a CDN is something that you should definitely consider. It'll save the processing power of the CPU trying to dump out bandwidth etc on your existing VPS. And since you're using Wordpress too, they're also compatible with many CDN's too.

It all depends on what your current limitations are with the CPU assigned to the server right now. I'm guesing you don't have access to the entire CPU amount (or do you?). What kind of load is generated on your container? What is the bandwidth being used currently? Disk space needed? Free memory? Stability?

There's lots of factors, and it's entirely possible that just putting more memory into the existing machine is all you need. What are your reasons for wanting to upgrade/move right now? Are things slow, or you're just looking at the age of things?

I would look into upgrading your Ram, and maybe even switching company. Some company's limit stuff on their VPS's too much, which would might cause other issues.

Hi Everyone and thanks for all the great advice. I didn't see the solution regarding CDN's, but will look into that.

I upgraded to this dedicated Linux option in the end: Processor Intel® Xeon® E3-1220 Speed 4 Cores x 3.1 GHz (3.4 Turbo Boost) RAM 12 GB DDR3 ECC Hard-disk space 1,000 GB (2 x 1,000 SATA) RAID Software RAID 1

Can't say I've noticed a difference really, but I've got a pretty fast Mac. I just hope I've improved the whole experience for those looking at my content.

If anyone knows any way to validate what my hosts are promising (ie the specs laid out above, and performance monitoring, I would be grateful to find out).

Again, thanks for the advice.

Matt

Maybe you need to change your host if they can't validate what they promised.

If the host doesn't commit its obligations, it must be changed.

I wonder what the OP has decided to do?