The Advantages of Cloud Hosting
Cloud Hosting (this page) | Cloud Servers | Cloud Storage
- Why The Cloud?
- How It Works
- Features & Benfits
- Support & SLA
- Plans & Pricing
What is Cloud Hosting?
Cloud Hosting (Computing) is a powerful concept to handle highly dynamic work loads. Due to the fact that virtually unlimited resources are available computational expensive processes can be highly distributed. Moreover, resources are only paid as they are used. This model fits very well with WI (Web Intelligence), as large amounts of Web data can be accessed at the same time. All indiviudal observations are independ and can therefore be processed in parallel. This results in a truly scalable process.
With Cloud Hosting companies are able to host robust applications and other IT services so they can be deployed and scaled rapidly.
Cloud Providers achieve this by investing in a large, hosting infrastructure and using virtualization to divide this infrastructure up between different customers and services. This environment allows individual users to be able to easily scale up to higher capacities when needed. Most allow for on-demand access to CPU processing power without the need for shutting down user access to upgrade capacity.
Is it suitable for your Website?
With out question! The Cloud provides a powerful hosting environment for any Website that demands uptime - and what site doesn't? It is not subject to the problems of shared Web hosting - see next tab for more on this. From the smallest site to the busiest, cloud hosting provides on-demand performance.
Perhaps the only qualifier is for those that want self-instaling applications such as those provided by our LiteSpeed cPanel servers; with cloud hosting you need to install your own applications. This is actually fairly easy to accomplish these days.
What about the cloud hosting environment?
The Technomax Cloud is hosted at our partner's (RackSpace) Data Centers in Texas. They are perhaps the premier provider of IT services in the world. As a Technomax customer you get all the benefits of RackSpace's well-known Fanatical Support Services© plus all the added benefits provided by Technomax. This provides you with an unbeatable dual-level of support and other services, as well as special discounts.
Our cloud customers rave about the support and the services. That's the difference for them and the reason we've been in business as a hosting agency since 1997. Read some testimonials here.
Next Step - Click Here to view "How it Works"
A Cloud Infrastructure virtualizes large-scale compute resources and packages them up into smaller quantities
Cloud Computing is characterized by several common qualities:
- It's scalable: Each customer's application has access to almost limitless resources (CPU, Memory, Storage) and can use as little or as much as they need;
- It's shared: Cloud Computing Providers can use a large, common infrastructure for many applications or customers;
- It's cost efficient: By adopting a single standard, inexpensive infrastructure and taking advantage of economies of scale, costs can be controlled and utilization maximised;
- It's a flexible environment: In most cases, a customer can run their application on an on-premise (private) cloud, on off-premise (public) cloud, and can move it between clouds as conditions dictate.
Hosting Providers are developing cloud-based infrastructures to obtain better ROI from their infrastructure investments, to control costs by investing in commodity, general-purpose hardware (rather than single-purpose proprietary hardware), and to take advantage of the capabilities that technologies like virtualization and large economies of scale brings.
www.zeus.comNext Step - Click Here to view the Features and Benefits
More Powerful Than Dedicated Server without The Single Points of Failure
What is a Single Point of Failure (SPOF)?
In a dedicated server, for example, a SPOF is any part of the server or system associated with it that, if it fails, the entire system stop functioning. As you can see in the diagram above when the router, hard drive, OS or any other critical part fails the server no longer delivers packets across the Internet. One such failure and a Website is inaccessible - it's down or offline. Ouch!!
Shared Web Hosting
Most Websites hosted in a shared environment are located on single dedicated servers as described above, and are therefore subject to the SPOF isues as mentioned. Far too many hosting companies employ a practice called overselling. For example - 250GB of disk space and 5000GB of data transfer at $5-8 a month isn't an unusual offer. Some even promise unlimited storage space and data transfer for $10 a month.
Both of the latter are nothing more than empty promises; no hosting provider can provide these allotments because it is simply not possible. One provider sells shared Web hosting with unlimited storage and data transfer for $12.95 a month and the same provider sells a dedicated server for $415 a month with 2 x 300GB drives and 2,000 GB of data transfer. Do the math and if that doesn't convince you, well what can we say!
Here's the Catch
Deep within their TOS (Terms of Service) these hosting providers, will have a condition like this:
YOU agree not to engage in any activity that can overwhelm OUR servers with heavy usage, or that requires a disproportionate amount of resources of its servers, including but not limited to, highly active CGI or chat scripts;
What this means is that you can't have the CPU resources that your Website may need in the event of unusual spikes in activity: such as your users coming in significant numbers to view a video presentation; or running a CMS (Contact Mangement System) that consumes a little more of the CPU that the hosting provider deems excessive. What 'excessive' actually means is not normally clearly defined and leaves closing down the site at the total discretion of the hosting provider.
The Bottom Line
For those who opt to sign up with one of these hosting providers, here's the ultimate results:
- You will never get to use the data transfer and storage that probaby lured you into signing up in the first place.
- If you have even a moderately busy Website, you'll probably never be able to deliver the content to your users, because your site will either crash or get shut down. You will then be asked to upgrade to a more powerful hosting package.
- Even if you have a small, static Website that uses few resources, you will be in a very unstable hosting environment that hosts far too many sites. You will probably experience poor site performance and/or far too much downtime.
So why even get involved with these types of hosts? You may think you're saving money, but the bottom line dictates that your actually losing money - when your site is unavailable for more than 15-20 hours a month, you will lose customers and it could also affect your search engine rankings.
The Technomax Cloud is Meant for High Uptime and Delivers!
The Cloud does not limit your CPU usage (unless you are using an insecure application or one that is improperly coded)
so that when you need power to deliver your site content, it's there. This is called 'on-demand CPU resources' and is what The Cloud delivers. If you want to talk about unlimited, then it is far more appropriate to attach this to CPU usage than storage or data transfer. From this perspective The Cloud is as close to unlimited for the majority of Websites than any other definition or use of the term out there.
Any Website that out grows the services The Cloud delivers has a enviable problem. That would mean site visitors in excess of 2 million monthly and page views upwards of 8 million or more. Not only, would you need a Cloud or complex hosting system of your own, but you could easily afford it. Nice problem to have!
How does The Technomax Cloud avoid this issue?
- The Cloud is Fully Redundant - Redundancy distributes your email, databases and content over servers dedicated to those specific tasks; and load-balancing provides quick responses for all requests. All of this provides true failover with virtually 100% uptime at prices affordable to any size business. In The Cloud your site is not just dependent on one server or one router; in fact, The Cloud is hundreds of server and dozens of routers and load balancers. The bottom line is redundancy in every aspect of mission critical hosting from electrical power to computing power.
- A SAN (Storage Area Network) - replicates your site in real time making multiple instances available. Should a system server fail - your email, databases and content files are back on line within moments resulting in our unprecendented 99.99% platform and 100% Network SLA Uptime Guarantee.
- Geographically redundant DNS (domain name system) - Redundancy in DNS adds even more stability to your site. If Named in one server fails, another, either locally or remotely takes over.
All of the above, and more, combine to provide your site with enterprise level services and mission critical uptime.
What are the features and benefits of The Technomax Cloud?
Features & Benefits
High Availability Cloud with Failover and Clustering - The Cloud is a High-availability cluster (also known as Failover Cluster) which allows redundant computer nodes, which are then used to provide service when system components fail. The cluster implementations attempt to use redundancy of cluster components to eliminate single points of failure.
Automatic Scaling - Right from the second you upload your Websites, your sites are hosted on advanced clustered cloud-computing technology designed for high-traffic and high-performance. When your site grows bigger than what's included, you pay inexpensive scale pricing for exactly what you use on the cloud and nothing more.
Inheritance - Load-Balancing, clustering, and redundant storage are all inherited by your application automatically, without any effort.
Enterprise Firewalls to protect all server clusters
DoS (Denial of Service) Attack Mitigation included free
Media Accelerator - for faster media delivery
Super Easy Control Panel - The intuitive control panel provides everything you need with no bloat of any kind.
Enterprise level Web stats through Urchin; set up your emails easily; set up SPF; databases with admin and more.
True Hybrid Technology - TrueHybrid is the best server technologies from both sides of the fence, fused together in a way that just has to be seen to be believed. Cloud Sites makes it possible to upload both ASP (popular in the Windows camp) and PHP files (popular among Linuxheads) to your website--gasp!--right in the same folder. In a rare display of cooperation, both types of pages work flawlessly, side by side, on the same website. You don't need to worry about hosting your Windows apps over there and your LAMP apps somewhere else. How much does that save the average Website owner annually? We venture to say a minimum of $200-$300 for a quality Web host and you probably don't get all the benefits of the cloud! If that's not enough both Windows and LAMP apps run in their native environments - no clunky and unreliable emulation - they run the way they were intended to!!
Load Balancing and Security - Right behind our firewalls (which keep your files ultra secure), we've employed quite possibly the most advanced load-balancing technologies ever. Going a step beyond traditional approaches, the Technomax Cloud actually checks the type of each file, sending files to the native clusters where they will perform the best. So every Windows-based page is served from a cluster built and optimized especially for Windows, and every Linux-based page is served from a cluster built and optimized especially for Linux. In addition load balancers share the workload with the entire cluster to further enhance performance.
The Technomax Added Value Layer
Support - The well known Fanatical Support© - 24 x 7, toll-free line and live support and chat desk. Add to this the added level of support provided by Technomax and you're in good hands. See more about support on the next tab.
SSL Capabilities - Free - A $20 a Month Saving - Cloud Sites utilizes dedicated SSL hardware to securely encrypt Website traffic without creating unnecessary load on the Windows or Linux web servers. This allows your https links to load faster than standard SSL services.
Purchase Verisign© or GeoTrust© SSL Certificates at Cost - These are two of the most trusted sites providing security services for your site. You will save between 20-60% on SSL certificates for your site as a Technomax customer.
Discounts on Web Applications - We have a growing list of popular Web applications - shopping carts, newsletter software, coding software and more. Save from 20% - 35%.
More Features and Benefits
There's finally an easy way to run your applications. Code it and load it. The Cloud takes care of the rest - monitoring, patching, configuration, security, scaling...
There's nothing else out there like it. Cloud Sites is an advanced, enterprise-level platform that lets you focus on what you're good at. All the headache of server administration is our responsibility.
SAN Storage System
Nothing as important as your website should be served from a single hard drive, but you'd be surprised by how many web hosts have little more redundancy than a pair of crossed fingers. We're different - and for good reason. The advanced architecture powering our hosting solution uses groups of high-performance, network attached storage devices to reliably serve every web page, image, and email. Inside each storage device, drives are mirrored to each other in a RAID configuration to create a first level of redundancy. And, as a final precautionary measure, all data on the system is automatically backed up on a repeating schedule.
Next Step - Click Here to view the Support Details and our SLA
Fanatical Support® means that we manage the network, the operating system, the server applications, the security, and all of the hardware repairs and fluctuations to ensure that your site stays up when traffic goes up and your bill stays down when traffic is down - leaving you completely free to manage your code. All of our servers are housed in some of the most robust and reliable data centers in the world and run on a fully redundant network. Our Configuration Management System ensures that security updates are rolled out as soon as they are made available. While other platforms require custom coding and architecture, we've built our platform on existing Web standards so that you get the benefits of a scalable platform, spending zero time coding toward custom APIs or data schemas.
- Control Panel
- Load Balancing
- Apache & IIS
- MySQL &aaaamp; MS SQL
- Linux & Windows
- Hardware Clustering
- Redundant Storage
- Network
- Data Centers
Application Frameworks
- PHP 5
- Perl
- Python
- MySQL 5
- .Net 2.0, 3+3.5
- ASP
- MS SQL 2k8
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
- Email - POP/IMAP, and Webmail with shared calendars
- Windows Components - Common components are available, such as AspUpload, AspJpeg, CDONTS and CDOSYS
What You Support
Application code and Content. If you're really stuck, we'll try to help or at least steer you in the right direction.
The Cloud SLA (Service Level Agreement)
Our no-loophole, no-legalese SLA
We believe that your websites, email and databases should always be protected against unscheduled outages. Our commitment to you is that every effort will be made to keep your sites online.
This isn't an empty promise:
1. Cloud Sites, powered by enterprise technology, is built to be highly robust.
2. We've hired great people.
Most importantly, we'll credit your next invoice with the equivalent of 1 day's hosting fee for each 60 minutes of unscheduled downtime (up to 100% of your Recurring Fee). It doesn't matter why-any time your websites, email or databases are offline or not functioning as a result of a failure in our systems, data center, or network is considered downtime, and we begin counting from the minute you open an incident report with our support team.
That's it-we've designed our SLA to be ultra-simple. Please note that the Cloud Sites SLA does not cover coding or configuration errors on your part, and like all hosts, we may schedule occasional maintenance windows that will affect the availability of some services. We'll post notification of scheduled maintenance before it happens, and since we operate clusters of servers, maintenance that causes downtime should be rare.
Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)
Next Step - Click Here to view Plans and Pricing
Cloud Hosting Plans - Developers and Site Owners
 If you are not completely satisfied with our services for any reason within the first 30 days of usage you will be given a full refund of all monthly hosting fees. Simply call us or use our contact form before the 30th day of your services and let us know you wish to cancel. We will issue you a prompt refund. Please note that certain products/services are not eligible - SSL Certificates, domain registration fees, MailFoundry. |  |
View our FAQ for more information.
For Cloud Hosting Plans we include SSL Capabilities free of charge. For those that need Microsoft SQL (2008) storage it can be ordered as an option at $7 per 100MB monthly from the order page after you engage the 'Buy Now' button below.
Developer/Power User Plan
Developer/Power User Cloud Plan - $149 Monthly - Includes:
50 GB Disk Space
500 Monthly Data Transfer OUT
Data Transfer IN is free
10,000 Compute Cycles per Month
24 x 7 x 365 phone and live chat support
Support for both Linux (LAMP) and Microsoft Windows (.NET) hosting
Additional Pricing Information
For really popular applications (say around 100,000 visitors/month or more), The Cloud handles growth automatically and affordably. No expensive capex. Just pay in small increments as you grow.| Additional Disk Space | 50 cents per GB Monthly |
| Additional Bandwidth | 25 cents per GB Monthly |
| Additional Compute Cycles | 1 cent per Cycle Monthly |
| Dedicated SSL Capabilities | $20 Monthly |
| White Label Tech Support | $3 /Monthly/Domain |
| MicroSoft SQL Storage | $5 /100/MB/Monthly |
| Automated Client Billing | $2 or 4% per transaction(whichever is greater) |
| Domain Name Registration | $10 Annually |
1) How many sites can I host on the Developer/Power User Plan?
You can host as many sites as your space, bandwidth and CPU cycles will allow. If you need more you can buy it in small increments as noted above.
2) How do your 24x7x365 support services work?
If you are under the Power User Plan support, via phone or live chat, is available for all your hosted domains
at no additional cost. As a Developer support costs $3 per month per each of your customers/domains. The Cloud Hosting Plans include support for your primary domain free of charge. Additional domains are free of charge for support during business hours or $3.50 each per month for 24x7x365 phone and live chat support.
The Cloud Hosting Plans were set up to offer Website owners access to premium true business grade cloud hosting for a single mission critical Website without having to pay $100 a month plus associated services such as secure SSL servers and expensive SSL Certificates. The Cloud really is equivalent to having a dedicated server or a powerful VPS with out the high price.
Cloud Hosting Plans
TMC-101-$12.95 Monthly - Includes
1000 MB Storage
20GB/300CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 1/3
TMC-201-$17.95 Monthly - Includes
1500 MB Storage
30GB/500CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 2/5
TMC-301-$25.95 Monthly - Includes
2000 MB Storage
50GB/1000CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 3/7
TMC-401-$35.95 Monthly - Includes
3000 MB Storage
65GB/1500CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 5/9
TMC-501-$45.95 Monthly - Includes
4000 MB Storage
100GB/2500CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 6/10
TMC-601-$69.95 Monthly - Includes
5000 MB Storage
150GB/5000CC's Monthly Transfer
24x7x365 Phone/Live Support Chat
Control Panel - Secure Email
Free SSL Server Access
99.99% Uptime SLA
MySQL Databases(Free)
Domains/Sub-domains 7/12
3) Why both Compute Cycles and Transfer in GB in the Cloud Plans?
Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications require on The Cloud. Using 10,000 compute cycles in a month is roughly equivalent to running a server with a 2.8 GHz modern processor for the same period of time.
How many compute cycles will my applications use?
Since web applications vary so greatly, it's hard to make a perfect guess. However, there are some guidelines that can help. First, you can think of 10,000 compute cycles as being about the same processing power as you'd get from a decent dedicated server or Amazon EC2 instance. For example 10,000 compute cycles would power:
- about 2.1 million page views using a database-driven content management system
- about 11 million page views of technomax.com
- about 25 million requests for a static 15KB image
Compute cycles measure CPU processing time. However, compute cycles also account for the disk I/O your application's operations consume. For example, a page with heavy database queries will consume more compute cycles in part due to the larger volume of disk I/O it requires.
The transfer in GB is also included to provide maximum data transfer for static sites. We have many more or less static sites hosted within the cloud that produce less than 500 compute cycles monthly yet transfer 30-50GB monthly. That's approximately 400,000 to 600,000 page views. The Cloud is a perfect hosting environment for any site. It's fairly priced and when CPU power is needed - it delivers.
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