Choosing a Dedicated Hosting Provider
Recently I was faced with finding a new dedicated hosting provider for DNSFilter’s central infrastructure.
We previously used SoftLayer, as I was able to get some startup credits from them. Unfortunately they could not meet our needs for our global anycast network (spoiler alert: They don’t have helpful BGP Community strings).
They’re also ridiculously expensive. So, facing the reality of spending THOUSANDS per month on our dedicated server with them, I embarked on a mission to find an alternative. This would be a case of knowing how the sausage is made. I use to run a hosting company, with many racks in a datacenter. I’ve used dozens of dedicated hosting providers over the years. I’m an active user on the WebHostingTalk forum and I’ve co-located servers in a number of datacenters over the years (including the Frontier Datacenter here in Myrtle Beach, SC).
First, I set out with a requirements list. I needed two dedicated servers, for a core Ruby on Rails API backed by a postgresql database; and another for our InfluxDB / TimeScaleDB Postgresql instance. With the following specs:
- Xeon E3 or E5 CPU (prefer: Higher performing single cores)
- 32–64GB+ of RAM
- SSD drive — 120GB minimum, more the better
- 1gbit uplink
- KVM or IPMI
- Good support (fast response on hardware failure, or routing issues)
- Good peering (Wanted to see good latency and throughput from Myrtle Beach and east coast)
- Bonus: Provider with multiple geographic locations around the US and globe, so as we expand, I don’t have to keep adding vendors.
With that list in mind… I started narrowing down providers. Certainly there are MANY providers out there — just have a look at the WebHostingTalk Dedicated Offers forum. Having spent a lot of time there, I have a feel for who is a budget provider (Dedispec, Delimiter, ReliableHosting) and who are premium providers. For this instance, I wanted to avoid resellers, and focus on premium providers meeting my requirements. I also set a budget goal of ~$150/mo/server.
Here are the providers, in order of preference, with spec details, and notes on why they are where they are on the list:
- NetActuate/HostVirtual/Tranquil Hosting
Not only did they give me a great deal, but we already work with HostVirtual for our global anycast network, so it made sense to keep expanding with an existing vendor, and they have a LOT of global locations (though not necessarily instant-deploy dedicated gear everywhere). They have their own staff on-site in Dallas, where our servers are.
The Hardware (benchmark, passmark):
* Dual Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5–1650 v2 @ 3.50GHz
* 48GB RAM
* 500G SSD + 1TB SATA
* 5 IPs, 1gbps, 10TB
* IPMI
What really took the cake though, was the network performance: Near gigabit performance to Myrtle Beach, NYC, DC, Vultr in Dallas, and Linode in Dallas. Blew me away! - Total Server Solutions
Their offerings came recommended from my friend Joe at RailsPlayground who hosts with them. Much respect to Jason from TSS for taking the time to talk to me on Skype. Their offering was available in multiple datacenters in Central US and East coast. I did network testing from Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago, and it performed well. They were willing to work with me on pricing.
The Hardware:
* Intel Xeon E3–1241-v3 3.5ghz (passmark)
* 32 GB DDR3-ECC-UDIMM
* 2 x 256 GB SSD HD
* 1IP, 1gbps port, 10 TB Bandwidth - Packet.net
I’ve known these guys for a long time (I was a long-time customer of their previous dedicated host provider, Voxel). I love their offerings. Their network rocks! Their new instant-deploy model is very nice, with up-to-date web UI (web-based serial console!), and a powerful API. Their model is based on a small subset of hardware options. This was the only area where it fell short for me, for this use-case. With Tranquil Hosting I was able to get faster per-core performance, more ram, and greater storage, which I would not be able to get in a single server with Packet. We continue to use their Type-0 servers as part of our global anycast network, and look forward to expanding with them. They were willing to work with me on pricing.
The Hardware: Type 1 - PhoenixNAP
I’m a past customer, and they now have 7 datacenters around the globe. Their pricing came in a little high compared to the other offers, so I didn’t proceed with testing. From past experience, I was very pleased with their network and support.
The Hardware:
* Intel Xeon E3–1240v3 (4x 3.4GHz) 2-Bay Chassis
* 32 GB ECC DDR3
* 2x 240 GB SSD
* 5 IPs, 1 Gbps Uplink, 15 TB Transfer
* Location: Ashburn, VA - Psychz
I’ve known of them for years, but considered them a ‘budget’ provider, and I’ve heard tale of various spam and SEO farm bots being operated from their network. They now have a number of datacenter locations, and are working hard to repair their reputation, so I decided to give them a look. The pricing was very competitive, and they offered in Dallas, TX and Asburn, VA.
The Hardware:
* Quad Cores Intel E3–1230vX Series Server
* 32GB ECC DDR3 RAM
* 2x 256GB Pro Solid State Drive
The network performed well, except to Myrtle Beach… both Frontier and HTC couldn’t get more than 200mbps. This is a tough one. We don’t have great peering here (I’m working on it!), so it can be hit-or-miss. This immediately took them out of the running for me; as my every-day will be spent working on and transferring to these servers; and if I’m paying for gigabit fiber at home; I want to be able to use it to my core infrastructure! (Update: Psychz reached out, made some changes to their routing, and now I can get 450mbps) - Tier.net / iWFHosting
With multiple datacenters, one of which is DC74 in Charlotte, NC, I felt they may provide a great local connectivity option. They also have offers on WHT, so the pricing was upfront, and fit in my budget.
Unfortunately, their network connectivity to everywhere I could test rarely exceeded 100mbps (but sufficiently exceeded it to indicate to me that it wasn’t limited by a 100mbit port). Very unfortunate, as I’ve heard good things about DC74, and thought it would be cool to have our servers in the Carolinas — Maybe I’d see them one day! - Turnkey Internet
Upfront pricing, least expensive pricing by far, ticks many of the boxes. Only a single datacenter, and not a lot of paths out of their DC. Really only two: Cogent, and a mixed provider blend. I’m not a big fan of cogent bandwidth. They’re not considered a ‘premium’ bandwidth provider. I may use them for cheap compute in the future, but for customer-facing connectivity, I couldn’t justify having our core infrastructure there. - WattaServer / O’Neil Online
Found them through a WHT offer. They had multiple DCs, but only in the US, Only a few matching my spec requirements, and on the east-coast. Pricing was good, but network performance was poor. Also felt like a reseller of sorts.
You’ll note that I left specific providers pricing out, and what the final price was that I went with. Pricing changes so rapidly, it would immediately date this article. You’ll get much more accurate pricing estimates by just reaching out to any providers of interest from this list, and getting a quote yourself!
I actually considered this a short list, and it took me a little over a week go research all these providers, conduct speedtests, and make a decision. I’m pleased with my decision, but there are a lot of great providers out there!
Quick rant on ‘cloud’ providers, AWS, VMs: For most startups, AWS is cost-prohibitive in terms of pricing, performance, and knowledge overhead. It’s much easier to stand up a dedicated server, and grow with faster CPUs, more RAM, than to re-code your app to scale prematurely. VMs are great: If you know your constraints on performance… But once you start to get too big a VM; you might as well get a faster, more powerful, and dedicated server, where you do not share resources.
