Rate My Startup: Xen VPS Hosting
Our VPS hosting project (www.onvps.com) is up and running. We'd like some final help flexing the system before we take the 'beta' label off.
The deal: Get 99 days on a full VPS with 256MB RAM, 8gig disk and 2 VCPUs and one of the few remaining IPV4 addresses :) for $0.99.
99 days for 99 cents (after is $5.50 monthly).
We'd like to give away accounts for this, but since we're in a market that sees frequent fraud and abuse, we really need a credit card number we can validate. So, we're trying to make it as low cost as possible.
Use the following URL to get the coupon:
https://management.onvps.com/signup?product_id=8&coupon_code=My99CentServer
Thanks for your help! [edit: add URL to company website]
20 comments
[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 68.2 ms ] threadWe went with only 64 bit OSs to:
1) limit the number of choices available to the customer (simplify choices -- make it easier to decide)
2) lower the overhead of managing OS templates.
We've included a kernel in every domU in hopes that most 64 bit issues we've seen with VPSs won't be problematic for our customers.
We've tried to do everything we could to get those old VPS memory problems out of the system. In our experience, most performance problems with VPS systems are due to overselling of resources on the node level, or plans that simply are unrealistic (i.e. 64MB of RAM) not actual client limits. We're ensuring that each server has dedicated resources allotted to it. We don't oversell our systems.
We've tried to offer the best possible price for the resources, so although memory usage is not optimal for smaller systems, we have tried to offset this by offering realistic server resources for a good price.
The 32 bit issue is something we'll definitely revisit; however, there's a technical limitation with pygrub that will only run a 64 bit kernel when loaded from a 64 bit dom0.
There's two different ways we can overcome this: the same way that everyone else does -- by loading a 32 bit kernel & managing that, or by having dedicated 32 bit hardware nodes for our low memory VPSs.
Internally, either option has its own drawbacks & problems.
(Edit: RapidXen provides swap as well... would it be viable to run swap on your disks?)
Also, what are your network policies? e.g. is there a bandwidth limit?
The pricing is based on our need to get the word out. It's our loss leader so we can start getting customers in the door. We plan on keeping the prices as low as possible, but we won't be keeping them this low indefinitely.
We're working in coordination with Wowrack (http://www.wowrack.com) for our datacenter and systems. They give us a great price on our overhead, so we're passing it on.
> would it be viable to run swap on your disks?
We do provide a dedicated swap disk included with each server (2x RAM). In addition, if you wanted to add a swap file in your VPS, you certainly could.
> what are your network policies?
Customers have free access to do anything over the network as long as it's not an outbound attack against another server. We don't limit the network unless we get multiple reports of outbound attacks. And finally, before we limit anything, we make sure the customer knows about the reports & try to see if there's any mitigating circumstances that we may help in resolving.
> is there a bandwidth limit?
The bandwidth limit is based upon the package. For the Vps256, it's 110GB monthly & $1.00 for every 10GB over.
[edit] that popup on your homepage... It just wants to make me jump ship. You have a nice uncluttered design, no need to have a pseudo-popup that makes your website seem it's hosted on geocities :)
We're trying to be the VPS provider we always wish we had.
One example is the kernel. Pretty much every other VPS provider gives you no access to the kernel. You either get the choice of running a shared kernel (OpenVZ providers) or having a 'blessed' kernel loaded by the provider on Xen. Ultimately, you are stuck with what they give you. So if you want to run a specific kernel, you're out of luck. And if your provider is running OpenVZ, good luck even loading a module.
Giving full access to the system, including the kernel is the kind of thing we thing a VPS provider should do.
> that popup on your homepage...
Thank you. I really appreciate this feedback. To be honest, I had the same reaction the first time I saw it... I've been working on everything from the order process to the hardware node, but the onvps.com home page has been taken care of by a web designer.
Linode and prgmr give you pretty much full access unless you are somehow offering something else?
Some tips for your homepage, get rid of that popup it is the bane of many internet users. Maybe show some pictures of your admin if it looks alright, and stay away from stock photos. State where the hell your servers are located.
Linode is a good example of how we're different. As per my knowledge, you can have your own kernel, that's true, but you need to make a special request to support & then wait for them to modify your server. It's not included out of the box.
We include this out of the box on every server. I know that prgmr does the same; however, they're the exception in the industry.
prgmr is the exception in many ways. Our hope is to provide the same kind of service for grown-ups while also providing a robust set of features that help make management easy and doing it for a good price. They have a very focused target market, but they don't appeal to all VPS customers (otherwise, everyone would already be a prgrmr customer).
Thanks for your feedback about the website! Very much appreciated.
Nope you just compile it yourself set up grub right and choose 64bit or 32bit pv-grub for your kernel
I think that in the US, there are some parallels in the hosting industry to what happened to ISPs a decade ago; the small guys are giving way to big players in the market. The biggest slices of the pie are just getting bigger while the remaining crumbs are few and far between.
For the small guys, there's a race to the bottom in pricing and most times this is at the expense of quality... There's really no other way to easily differentiate yourself from the other guys.
But there are important differences between the hosting industry and the mom & pop ISPs of yore, the big one being the target market. Having name recognition works to get the undiscerning, but the average VPS user is more knowledgable about the product they are getting. And the product itself is much more complex; the needs of any two businesses are quite different.
This presents opportunities. And the popularity and ultimate acquisition of the ISP Speakeasy by Best Buy shows that building a loyal base of knowledgable customers can pay big dividends.
Things have been pretty well saturated for a long, long time and there's still a niche market in the US for good quality hosting companies that care about the individuals they serve. (Although that niche becomes smaller as the big guys' quality, cost and ease-of-use improves year after year.)
Ultimately, hosting just isn't a business that can go viral. There's just too many physical limitations. It is lucrative and I think it can be a good long-play, but it's dependent on getting and keeping a relatively small critical mass and keeping those customers happy.
I really appreciate your feedback and honesty. Solving the difference problem itself is really the innovation in this business; there's not really many ways to distinguish yourself as a hosting provider, so how do you do it?