You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
For all sorts of reasons, another work website has to be hosted with existing supplier of 1and1. The site is wordpress based.
However, we have a site that will at some point have a few dozen classes of 20-30 kids (out of 300 schools) at once, accessing the site to upload and download simple data (no images or media), mainly into a main single database/csv files.
We are being recommended Cloud/flexible server for reasons unkown by another partner in the project (a Uni I department) and great cost. They and developer are also burying us in marketing Business Bull Sh*t...
Do I need this, or would more simple/traditional "virtual" server work?
Is there noticeable difference in speed/performance between the different specs? I would have thought that schools infrastructure and computers are more the limiting factor...
Your thoughts please...
Bump
flexible/cloud server can be a lazy answer really.
It just means they're not sure what the maximum server load is likely to be so want to be able to say 'we'll just up the capacity as needed' to cover themselves.
If you know that a server config of 'X' will cope with the maximum load without struggling then it's easy to compare that cost as a static server with cloud/flexible pricing and make a decision.
If you will have *very* variable demand then a cloud/flexible server config can be useful, if it's cost, effective to only pay for the max capacity for a short period.
There's no easy answer really but if you can pay for the bare minimum flexible config out of school hours/during holidays and then ramp it up during the school day it may be that is more cost effective than paying for a static server 24/7?
You do need someone monitoring a cloud solution though and deciding when to ramp things up...
flexible/cloud server can be a lazy answer really.
That was my feeling, all mixed up with some marketing BS about 'the cloud'...
virtual server if you are happy patching os and wordpress. Its not hard but make sure you have another instance to test your releases. I think wpengine if you want something solid and secure at a price.
If you are on shared hosting at the moment they may have a point. You don't really know who/what else is on the server and what sort of cr$p other folk are running.
Try looking at the various options on 1and1 for dedicated server etc. and see how that compares to the proposed solution price wise.
Is it also being developed in WordPress? If so, they may or may not know that Pantheon (getpantheon.com) are doing some pretty snazzy hosting for WordPress now.
Unless you specifically need elasticity (i.e. the ability to respond to demand to scaleout/up and in/down) you don't need a real cloud service. You don't.
As it's Wordpress I'd probably go 2 vCPU, 4Gb and 'enough' storage, should be more than adequate and cheap.
What a lot of people call 'cloud' is usually hosting on a VM where it's easy to expand if you really need it anyway, so check carefully what's being offered.
I asked on Twitter about it recently. You can find the recommendations here:
https://twitter.com/beztweets/status/684311139166064640
I went with Krystal, but Mythic Beasts and TSO looked good. I happened to like the basically unlimited Ruby package from Krystal for £12 a month, and I think that would suit your needs by the sound of it.
Cheers all. 1and1 is the chosen supplier as our other sites are with them... 🙄