VPSWiki.us Provider Classification

[Mun]

Alright everyone, I am looking for your thoughts on what you think is acceptable category for a low end provider vs. a high end provider.

This can be things like X many clients per node, or any other criteria that you find acceptable. i.e.  what would classify linode against chicagovps.

This will be used on: http://vpswiki.us/ and we are accepting new providers to be added to the list, if you would like me to do it, then send me a PM. 

Thx Mun

 

[NodeBytes]

1.) Network

2.) Oversold/Not Oversold

3.) Provides Backups or Imaging

4.) Uptime

5.) Stability

6.) Customer Service being really supportive and knowledgeable

7.) Quality of hardware they use

8.) Price - A $5 Chicago VPS will not compare to an EC2 Instance.

 

[Mun]

1.) Network

2.) Oversold/Not Oversold

3.) Provides Backups or Imaging

4.) Uptime

5.) Stability

6.) Customer Service being really supportive and knowledgeable

7.) Quality of hardware they use

8.) Price - A $5 Chicago VPS will not compare to an EC2 Instance.

But what specific criteria. Like what would you say out of those need to be X value to be a High End Provider

 

[Tux]

This is what I consider "LEB":

• The lowest plan available is less than $3/month, allowing a bit of leniency to allow BuyVM/RamNode to be listed without being considered "high-end"
• The provider uses mostly provider-assigned IP space. Now, there's plenty of LEB hosts that have their own IP space (Front Range Hosting, RamNode, BuyVM, Prometheus, ...), but I think this is the catch-all used for most LEB providers. This should apply for both IPv4 and IPv6, so SecureDragon counts since it uses PA IPv6 space.
• Usually located in non-obscure locations (i.e. the stuff you don't find on ExoticVPS.com).

 

[jarland]

I don't think there's a line you can reasonably draw. Everyone sees it a little differently, and high/low end is quite relative.

 

[Mun]

I don't think there's a line you can reasonably draw. Everyone sees it a little differently, and high/low end is quite relative.

True but we can all state linode is High end and CVPS is low end, so there can be a rule written to classify the two, but what is it. Like max 25 clients per node = high end?

 

[TruvisT]

True but we can all state linode is High end and CVPS is low end, so there can be a rule written to classify the two, but what is it. Like max 25 clients per node = high end?

Eh, you really can't based on clients. It really depends on the resource usage. I go more by the max amount of resources you allow used per node.

 

[NodeBytes]

1.) Network - Who is in that chain

2.) Not Oversold

3.) Provides Backups or Imaging - Premium service providers should have this.

4.) Uptime - Needs to be at least truly 99.9999999%

5.) Stability - If it's not stable, it ain't high end.

6.) Customer Service should be really supportive and knowledgeable

7.) Quality of hardware they use should be good.

8.) Price - A $5 Chicago VPS will not compare to an EC2 Instance.

I'd say all of these are important. They should all be considered. Linode, EC2, Rackspace... all provide all of these.

 

[Mun]

Eh, you really can't based on clients. It really depends on the resource usage. I go more by the max amount of resources you allow used per node.

Then give me a number, Im trying my best to give you all the freedom of what you want to classify, but yet keep it on topic. I only game client numbers as an example.

 

[willie]

One thing I would say about high end is that there should always be plenty of all plans in stock all the time, so users can always expand their operations whenever they want to/have to.  That means the providers have to deliberately have a lot of mostly-idle hardware, which drives costs up.  EC2 Spot Market is a clever way to generate a little bit of cash from the overcapacity, but it depends on having hourly billing, and it usually brings in just a fraction of the on-demand charge.  Another thing about high end is big servers should be available, like the EC2 cluster servers with 244 GiB of ram.  By this standard, linode is not high end.

 

[NodeBytes]

Eh, you really can't based on clients. It really depends on the resource usage. I go more by the max amount of resources you allow used per node.

Plus, a lot of the premium providers have a lot of idle hardware and they automatically load balance. They move vm's around as needed and they are able to do this very easily. So you can't say how many per node because this can change on a daily basis for an EC2 or Linode node.

 

[jarland]

True but we can all state linode is High end and CVPS is low end, so there can be a rule written to classify the two, but what is it. Like max 25 clients per node = high end?

A lot of people would call linode low end and overpriced. "Attractive to big spenders" and "well funded" are really the most defining points of what we often regard as "high end" and the problem is that you can't accurately measure that. If you draw a line, you'll have protestors on both sides. You'll constantly be tweaking it because valid points will exist on both sides.

Just my two cents

 

[Mun]

So let a provider choose the classification?

 

[jarland]

So let a provider choose the classification?

What if you let them choose to classify themselves as a budget provider? That isn't a negative term, but it allows you to draw some lines for better sorting. Many providers want to be known as a provider who works hard to keep prices low, while many want to be known for the exact opposite.

 

[Mun]

What if you let them choose to classify themselves as a budget provider? That isn't a negative term, but it allows you to draw some lines for better sorting. Many providers want to be known as a provider who works hard to keep prices low, while many want to be known for the exact opposite.

 


I guess that will work

 

[mikho]

I think there shouldn't be a classification on high or low end.


If the provider knows what they are doing the end user wont notice if it's oversold or not.


If you really need a classification, it should be on the virtualization used.

 

[willie]

If you really need a classification, it should be on the virtualization used.

I think it's mostly about the business approach.  First there's the range and utilization of hardware I mentioned earlier.  Maybe more importantly though, it occurs to me, high end services are usually postpaid rather than prepaid, and they can always bill your company credit card instead of subjecting you to Paypal, and once your volume gets above a reasonable level, they will take purchase orders and send out invoices like a normal company does. 

Another thing, they usually have very large net pipes, i.e. even for a small vps you get a gigabit port and you can actually saturate it if you want to.  Of course they charge exhorbitant prices per GB transferred, in order to make this happen.

 

[mikho]

I think it's mostly about the business approach.  First there's the range and utilization of hardware I mentioned earlier.  Maybe more importantly though, it occurs to me, high end services are usually postpaid rather than prepaid, and they can always bill your company credit card instead of subjecting you to Paypal, and once your volume gets above a reasonable level, they will take purchase orders and send out invoices like a normal company does. 

Another thing, they usually have very large net pipes, i.e. even for a small vps you get a gigabit port and you can actually saturate it if you want to.  Of course they charge exhorbitant prices per GB transferred, in order to make this happen.

Postpaid or prepaid isn't a definition on the level of the provider. The company i work for has prepayment for the virtual machines and postpayment for the actual work done and I do classify ourself as a high-end provider.

On the same topic, we don't accept paypal. We only send out invoices... how would you classify that type?

What we are talking about is different types of clients, I don't know if any of the providers that are active here or on LET have a complete company infrastructure in their client briefcase?

if you want a classification on low/high end providers, ask the question... would you be willing to host your whole company at that provider?