Web Ascender has always outsources our website hosting.  They are essentially our machines, we have 100% access to them but our hosting company makes sure they are always up, always have internet connectivity and are in charge of the hardware if it ever bombs out.  You would think website hosting and server hosting would be easy, but it is not, I assure you it is not.  We started off with trying to use a company in Pennsylvania Burstnet.  This experience actually never fully transpired.  We ordered our server and it was custom, we needed more ram and we added an external hard drive for quick and easy short term backups.  A week went by before our server was setup, then it had none of the add ons we needed, and we could not start configuring it until the hard drives were setup correctly.  Another week went by, then another and after getting voicemail boxes, full inboxes from each of their departments as we called in, excuses about not getting their hardware order in, or someone being on vacation or a host of other excuses we had to cancel it.  This was not a sign of long term service or a relationship we found would be mutually beneficial.

The second company we tried was hostik, they had very reasonable prices for their server environments and were actually pretty quick on setting up our server.  It was a little strange that they required us to fax in a license, but it went well for about 6 months.  Then, our server would turn off for hours at a time.  We did a huge e-newsletter mailing one morning and our server was just off, couldn’t connect, couldn’t call or contact them.  It was like a pie in the face, very embarrassing.  After multiple inquiries of why we are getting this sporadic downtime we were eventually able to get an answer.  Power issues.  Apparently they were having blackouts in that area of California and their generator was not getting turned on (or they had no generator) and they offered no better explanation on how this was going to be solved or get better.  So, we went with a local company Liquid Web that was in Mid-Michigan away from natural disasters and has plenty of access to power and high connectivity.

Our Liquid Web experience has been amazing.  We now have 3 servers with Liquid Web and a half a dozen clients that we have recommended get their dedicated servers with Liquid Web.  Here are a few examples of their awesome support:

• All our servers were live within 48 hours, usually faster
• We have only had a single instance of downtime, their technician explained the issue, how they resolved it and made me feel that they knew what was going on.  I appreciate their transparency.
• They will install and update your server if you request it.  I have a client that requires their server to be updated/patch every quarter and these guys have logged in to their Linux box and done this for us. Beyond the call of duty in my mind, but they did it.
• They provisioned a server for a client and SQL Server 08 was not installed quite right, their technicians were on top of it within minutes to get our issues resolved
• I was out of town one weekend and couldn’t get access in to one of my Linux machines very conveniently, and they did an SSL cert install on my behalf
• I have never waited more than 5 minutes from an email contact from one of their technicians regarding an inquiry of ours
• Their prices are competitive, they are not cheap, but if you require support even once it will pay for itself

The list continues, these guys have web hosting down.

www.liquidweb.com