NetFirms Hosting?

Anyone got an opinion on NetFirms hosting? I'm asking because they offer clustered hosting and this could come in handy in the future.

I have no experience with them myself, I do know that HFW offers clustered hosting when needed also.

Most any hosting service provider offers cluster hosting. of course you dont get cluster hosting with a shared environment, that would be done across multiple servers and a clustered DNS Zone.

Some Research, and this is just about on the lines of my thoughts on this.

Resource: http://www.v7n.com/forums/dedicated-servers/37875-dedicated-server-vs-cluster-based-hosting.html

We have been offering clustered hosting solutions for years (in fact, we were one of the first to do so in the shared hosting space).

Clustered Hosting is not and cannot, on its own, be a replacement for a dedicated server. In some situations, it can offer benefits over a dedicated server - however, the logic used here is still incorrect. You cannot expect to pay $10-$100 for a clustered hosting package offering 100 GB of disk space and 1TB of transfer and expect to receive the same or more raw resources as you would receive from a dedicated server.

Clustering offers unique advantages in that services are spread across multiple, specialized servers - making them easier to protect, optimize, manage and restore. You can then load balance various servers to receive further hardware redundancy and resiliency (ie what many are calling - and incorrectly may I add - "grid" hosting). Having said this, "grid" hosting has not yet been able to deliver on its promise of 100% uptime - and the reason is simple really - the #1 cause of downtime in a shared hosting environment is not hardware failure - the #1 cause is actually the websites hosted in that environment - as such, increasing hardware redundancy while also drastically increasing the number of sites sharing that environment will not and cannot increase uptime, rather, it will demonstrate a decrease in uptime - as has been witnessed by the various systems that have gone into production.

To the original poster here - you simply cannot expect to get a dedicated server worth of resources for less then the cost of a dedicated server - try not to be confused by the various marketing gimmicks out there - take a minute to actually read the fine print - a providers terms of service will show you alot of holes in their marketing promises.

A shared services cluster will dramatically increase the reliability of shared hosting if done correctly - but, this will almost always increase the price of hosting, not decrease. If you truely need a dedicated server worth of resources, then get a dedicated server or get a specialized shared clustered plan (if you need other benefits of clustering) - but, the price tag will be approximately the same if you are looking for the same or better reliability and performance...

Regards,

DosDawg

Thanks you guys for the quick response.

I am with HFW at the moment but am about to launch my site that I've put a lot of time and work into and I don't want users to have a terribly slow or problematic experience. Dosdawg, I am seriously considering moving to Terabyte once my traffic picks up and I know what (as far as resources go) I'm going to need. I already use your RMS and am happy with it.

Cpittman,

thank you very much for the consideration of moving to Terabyte Hosting Solutions, and thank you for the kind words on the RMS Solutions we provide you. You can start with the smaller of the packages and move up completely seamlessly from one shared environment to the next. The catchy thing is when you move from VPDS to Dedicated. We can put you on a decent build of a dedicated most times for less than what others are throwing VPS at you for. just let us know what we can do for you, and much appreciated.

Regards,

DosDawg