Reliable hosting for online business?

[Jacon]

I'm running an online business and looking for a hosting that:

1. Is really reliable in terms of uptime & stability
2. Has solid performance & bandwidth, I need great accessibility and decent download speed for visitors worldwide, especially U.S. and Europe
3. Offers decent support

My site itself is pretty lightweight (it's just a simple PHP+SQL site with some downloadable software products). I'm getting some 10.000 visitors a day, and the downloads cause a few hundred GB of traffic monthly.

So far I have experience with HostingMatters.com, DreamHost.com, and Servage.net. Although they all offer fast & friendly support and enough (as in "unlimited") diskspace and traffic, I do experience downtime at least once every few weeks (sometimes a few minutes, sometimes several hours ) or crap like non-responding SQL servers (apparently because they were rebooting it or whatever), and sometimes slow download speeds.

I don't need any fancy schmancy host, just PHP + MySQL + the usual basics (email, domain management, etc) and ROCK STEADY stability. 24/7 accessibility for my customers is my absolute #1 concern here.
Occasionally there's a visit/download spike (e.g. a few hundred people visiting or downloading at the same time, not extreme but more than average), and I need my site to handle that without problems.

I've heard good stories about JustHost.com, HostGator.com, BlueHost.com, and several more. But these all seem to be in the same category as the ones I mentioned above, i.e. shared budget hosting. They may be perfect for my needs, but on the other hand I'm running a business here, and I'd rather spend more money on my hosting if it actually makes a difference.

Any thoughts? Personal experience?

[bazz]

I don't need any fancy schmancy host, just PHP + MySQL + the usual basics (email, domain management, etc) and ROCK STEADY stability. 24/7 accessibility for my customers is my absolute #1 concern here.

moon on a stick matey

Seriously, though, if you need 24/7 uptime, and you have already experienced unresponsive MySQL servers, I would suggest you need > 1 db server running as "live passive" and perhaps several webservers behind some clustering, load balancing and a raid array.

I am in need of 24/7/366 uptime and a guarantee of no loss of data and that is the environment I have been advised to run. two san servers to ensure that when one fails, the other jumps in. several web servers behind a load balancer so that if one fails, another will take over almost instantly.

pricey stuff though. I am currently using rackspace on a small dedicated server and their support is, as they say - fanatical. the new setup I have described is about 10 times the price but is essential to run the planned operation.

That said; at ten times the price, it's still more cost effective (for me), to outsource.

bazz

[Jacon]

Thanks Well, I realize that virtually no host can absolutely 100% guarantee 24/7/366 uptime (at least not for reasonable money). Power outages and hardware failure are just a fact of life.

But I do prefer a host that does everything to keep problems to a minimum. I would happily pay more for that, rather than a $3/month host who compromises stability to save money.

A dedicated server, will that help for better uptime/accessibility? And doesn't that come with a lot more maintainance required from my side? I would rather not be responsible for my webserver's security, keeping up-to-date, etc.
Shared hosting is fine with me, as long as it's stable enough (i.e. not some lame ass budget host who cranks too much accounts on a server to save money, resulting in untrustworthy performance).

Considering the fact that there are hosting accounts for a few bucks out there that are quite good already (such as the ones I mentioned above), I'd kinda hope for approx. 10 times the money I should be able to get something reliable enough to host a company website?

[bazz]

Shared hosting is fine with me, as long as it's stable enough

If you want close to 100% uptime, you will have to pay - period. A dedicated server, in my experience, means that only your scripts/sites will be hosted on it so you don't have to worry about being on a shared server where some john doe is learning on his web space and crashes the whole server. So in simple terms, you cannot have shared hosting, where you can be sure it is stable and reliable. But equally important is that dedicated servers means only that it is for you ojly. Nothing to do with uptime guarantees or anything.

A dedicated server, will that help for better uptime/accessibility? And doesn't that come with a lot more maintainance required from my side? I would rather not be responsible for my webserver's security, keeping up-to-date, etc.

That's what my monthlies cover with my provider of a dedicated server. You can't eliminate the costs. You can only minimise them. Even if you do it all yourself, there is a cost because you are not able to do other productive work such as getting new business. And unless you have several people available, to cover around the clock, you can't even achieve 100% uptime yourself so trying to do so would be a false economy.

bazz

[jfreak53]

This is our newest server, only been online for that amount of time. Hardly any clients on it and we put a max of 100 max per server, less if some accounts use a lot of resources, so no overselling.

http://www.microtronix-tech.com

In business now for 10 years with clients in 5 countries of the world.

[ryanjjkk]

Take a look at www.apthost.com

They're working good for me.

[JulieV]

I used to use Godaddy.com but I have move these hosting providers; JustHost.com, BlueHost.com HostGator.com and Hostmonster.com
these are all great web hosting providers and you can check them out...

Thanks
JulieV