Reliable Hosting

[Spearball]

How is cloud computing versus say a dedicated server with a 1Gbps line connected to a hosting company's backbone. I heard that I was better off using cloud computing as loads are completely balanced, as where on a dedicated server, vps, or even shared hosting, the load is all on the same machine. Obviously i can see that reliability is greater in a cloud of servers, but how does bandwidth hold up with users when you have around 5000 visitors or a bit more daily?

How does Rackforces's cloud computing services seem to anyone?
https://www.rackforce.com/index.html

Thanks

[yawningdog]

I like cloud computing in general just because it's cost effective, but it depends on the service. I think if you're hosting your own website then you ought to have your head examined. But when it comes to things like mail and FTP, I would prefer a private bastion host.

[Variable]

Rackforce is just a virtual farm, so instead of a dedicated machine you have virtual machines, those virtual machines run off a pool of resources from multiple physical machines and a SAN. It is cheaper to do it that way in the long run and a better way to use expensive resources more completely. Costs a lot up front though.

I would say your idea of multiple web servers for your site is probably wrong... What it means to you is, if there is a problem, it can be corrected quickly. Whether the server is virtual or physical is the only difference. Some of what they say leaves a bunch out, like they say Hyper V but you can't dynamically allocate RAM with Hyper V. So it is true, but assumes VMware. But I am being nit picky. You don't understand what a "Cloud" is but that is not surprising. Didn't you have a post about cloud computing a few weeks or a month ago? Someone did.

As for you with a web site, shared hosting is fine. 5000 visits to a normal website a day is trivial. You could run it on a 1 mb connection on a home built box. Web traffic is not bandwidth intensive unless your visitors are downloading large files from you. You would be surprised if you saw what was actually running some of the sites you have visited. Trust me on this, If you have questions ask.

Before you spend a bunch of money on things you don't need, why don't you get a simple hosted site up and running and then look at your traffic... Spend your effort making a good web site, you can move a site to any place you want at any time you want - so don't get to worried about where your files are served at the beginning.