Affordable Dedicated Servers and Cloud Offerings
LuxSci has a history of helping businesses with mission-critical needs by providing highly customized solutions on dedicated server(s) at Rackspace. These are fully-outsourced, high performing, reliable, and private instances of LuxSci’s email and web services, managed and supported by LuxSci. Recently, the premium Rackspace server has grown out of the price range of our customers whose situation and/or budget require a dedicated environment.
In response, LuxSci has expanded its dedicated server offerings to include ones that are significantly less expensive. We now have 3 types of dedicated server offerings, starting from $179/mo and with no long-term contract:
- Dedicated Cloud Servers, hosted in Rackspace’s server cloud,
- Basic Dedicated Servers, hosted at ServerBeach,
- Premium Dedicated Servers, hosted with Rackspace and Peer1
Prices include:
- Hardware: The server hardware available through the Server Provider
- Software: The license fees for running LuxSci software and frequent software updates.
- Maintenance: Server monitoring and management by LuxSci
- Support: Technical support by LuxSci
Cloud Servers
Cloud servers in the Rackspace cloud are ideal because they are:
- The least expensive server offering available
- Can be up and running in the shortest amount of time
- Have the shortest possible contract terms — you can have a server for a month or a few weeks if needed.
- Are easily and quickly upgradeable; you can start small and grow as needed.
The down side of cloud servers is that their SLA is good, but not on par with a Premium Server, they cannot be used for bulk emailing of any kind, support and monitoring are not as robust as with premium servers, and they are not amenable to complex or very large configurations.
Basic Dedicated Servers
The Basic Dedicated Server is one that is hosted at ServerBeach. These servers are an attractive choice because:
- They are very affordable and very configurable
- Include lots of bandwidth (1-2TB+/month)
- Offer a monthly contract term — no long term contract required
- Support legitimate bulk emailing, as per our High Volume outbound email service.
The down sides of basic servers include a slower hardware replacement SLA; server support and monitoring are significantly better with Premium Servers, and complex and very large server configurations are not supported.
Premium Dedicated Servers
With Cloud Servers and Basic Dedicated Servers as options, where does that leave Premium Servers? These are the most expensive hardware and are recommended if:
- You need maximum reliability and performance
- You need very large disk arrays, load balancers, SANs, or other premium configurations
- You want a Dedicated Server in close physical proximity to your Cloud Server.
What are the the Differences and Do I Need Dedicated?
To compare the differences between these various dedicated server offerings and to contrast them to what you would get with shared (non-dedicated) email or web services with LuxSci, see:
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September 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
[...] the reasons above are not attractive enough to make your interested in going dedicated, perhaps our new pricing model will be. There are three kinds of dedicated servers available — Cloud Servers in the [...]
September 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
[...] of distributed, abstracted computers. LuxSci now also offers the option of server(s) running on dedicated servers in the cloud, in addition to the more common options of running on shared server(s) and on real dedicated [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 4:46 am
While buying a server hosting plan, the buyer should find out whether the plan is un-managed server or fully managed server since an unmanaged server greatly reduces the overhead cost of a dedicated server provider and it comes with low price tags.
The buyers should know exactly what is covered under managed services. Here is a guide for the buyers, but remember this list is not exhaustive as many times buyers’ need are different:
* Kernel Upgrades, OS patches, System pre installed services updates.
* Custom DNS configuration
* Software Firewall Installation and Configuration
* Backups and restoration help if needed
* Control panel Updates
* DLL setup Assistance
* Assistance in, creating, deleting, setting up email
* Assistance in system alerts or warnings
* Mysql updates, Database corruption assistance
* SSL configuration and installation
* Email/FTP troubleshooting
* High Server Load troubleshooting
* Bandwidth monitoring & management
* Hardware Replacement as per SLA
* Server Recovery on failure
* Failed Drive service restoration
* Hands on help with preinstall system settings