[TYPO3-UG US] any recommendations for a dedicated hosting provider?

[Floyd Arguello]

Hi Manos,

I sent you a message offline; please read it and reply if you think you 
can help.

Manos Sifakis wrote:

> First of all I would like to thank Greg for the plug :)

I don't know Greg personally, but from his posts he seems to be a very 
good guy, as does Michael from Cannonbose.

>> CustomIT looks good, too; but they didn't provide much information on 
>> their site, and I prefer not to speak with sales unless absolutely 
>> necessary.
> 
> 
> My company does not sell hosting to the masses. That is why we don't 
> have a lot of information posted online or an e-commerce solution for 
> accepting new customers. For most cases we sell hosting to people we 
> know and have a business relationship with.

Good answer.

>>> In the end though, I'm of the same frame of mind as Greg, pay more  
>>> for reliability and security. One bad day of hosting is all you need  
>>> to ruin your reputation for a couple of years. Sadly, I learned the  
>>> hard way when a disk array crashed taking my live and backup hard  
>>> drives with them.
> 
> What you pay is definitely what you get.

I'm not sure if you read my post TYPO3 & IP Addresses in the English NG, 
but my servers with them are among the most expensive in the industry. 
Their technical support is superb - very intelligent and conscientious. 
The failed me in two ways:

1. Not understanding the nature of my business - or any business for 
that matter.
2. They guaranteed that this wouldn't happen again, but could not 
explain how it happened??? They actually said they would probably never 
know.

Needless to say, my client was very upset. He verified that he lost 
business (cancellations due to no-confidence), and I provide a 99% 
uptime guarantee. It took 2 days to resolve the issue. And if the 
provider does not know how the error occurred, I no longer feel that I 
can provide that kind of guarantee. I also feel that they could have 
compensated me for lost time and revenue (I had to reimburse my 
customer) by waiving my hosting fees for a short period, but they 
refused to do so. If I make money, they make money - and now they will 
lose my business completely, so whatever money they saved in the short 
term they lose in the long run.

>> For sites local to Phoenix, I will colo a server at a data-center I 
>> found here. I don't suppose anyone knows where I can purchase a server 
>> at a good price? I know I can google it, but too many hacks manage to 
>> get good search engine rankings.
> 
> 
> I would recommend the official HP Refurbished Division. We are using 
> them exclusively for most of our server/workstation needs and they have 
> been a pleasure to work with. I believe that they are one of the best 
> server solutions in the market today.
> 
> http://www.hp.com/go/refurbished

I have already made the purchase - thanks! They had a great deal going.

Best regards,
Floyd