Hosting Services

We work with third-party data centers to provide you with solutions that meet your hosting needs. There are many advantages to hosting your issue tracking system with us, including:

• Allowing You To Focus On Your Process
  We can provide the day-to-day maintenance and oversight to your server and databases allowing you to focus on your Quality Assurance processes.
• Flexible Migration Plan
  Third-party data centers allow you flexibility in upgrading to larger, faster, better computers and services without the need to purchase, install, implement or maintain hardware and services.
• Redundant Systems
  Unless you're a very large corporation, your uninterruptible power supply is most likely not a diesel engine the size of a locomotive. Additionally, you most likely have only one carrier for your Internet services. The third-parties we work with not only have a massive room of batteries, but diesel backup generators and they have multiple backbone providers which they can switch to in the event one suffers a catastrophic failure. We also work with providers with services on multiple continents if you are interested in the greatest possible failover coverage.

There are several different options available for hosting and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Shared Server Environment

Shared server environments place your account on a server with as many as 300 or more other customers. While this sounds daunting, it is incredibly cheap and quite often meets the needs for a team with a low volume of work. By that we mean that it will not support hundreds of users working with Bugs Dashboard due to the amount of memory required for the Tomcat server. We have seen shared environments support 10-20 users on Bugs Dashboard.

Shared accounts are the least expensive, but require the capability to run a Servlet container. We have used shared environments with the Bugs Dashboard with both a Tomcat and a Resin container without issues. Shared environments do not allow us to tune the Tomcat or Resin instance so we cannot tweak the memory, directory locations, ports, etc. Additionally, some third-parties do not allow the use of certain Perl modules required by Bugzilla, so great care must be exercised when selecting the right partner for your needs.

We have had experience with several different vendors and when you elect to use us to host your services via a third-party, we will see that you have the correct environment. We will work with vendors we have first-hand knowledge and experience with to give you the best hosting solution in a shared environment.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) Environment

You might think that a VPS is a step-up from a shared environment because it's listed after the shared environment. This isn't necessarily true! While a VPS does have advantages, such as sharing a server with as few as 10 other customers, virtually all third-party support from the host disappears! Because the server is considered your virtual private server, you are considered responsible for it. Some VPS environments come with an "assisted" plan whereby a System Administrator will do some of the work for you. We generally do not recommend this because you lose the administrator privileges to your server and for those services that you do need but which are not covered under the "assisted" plan, you are powerless to do anything about them!

VPS systems come with several different options for managing them; cPanel, Plesk and Virtuozzo are the most common. Each of these has its own quirks, limitations and strengths. We have worked with each of these and can manage your VPS environment through these and the command line.

Dedicated Server Environment

With a dedicated server, you do have full control over your environment, but you're still at the mercy of the third-party's available resources. For example, you may need to specify a dual processor or additional memory to meet your needs. These can be expensive options. We can provide you with a viable alternative; selection of your own hardware, configured to your needs, and placed in a co-location cage at a data center near us. Whether you are geographically close to us or on the other side of the world, this can work to your advantage by minimizing your costs while providing you with the type of performance you desire. The lesson learned here is that dedicated servers do not automatically guarantee the performance you might expect. For example, memory and bandwidth limitations can leave you with performance similar to that of the shared environment! When you elect to work with us in a dedicated server environment, we will work to see that the environment works to your advantage!

Managed vs. Self-Managed Services

The above environments are only the beginning of your hosting choices; operating system, services, control panels, access rights, etc. must be decided upon, implemented, and managed. In a VPS or dedicated environment, you are responsible for the domain name services (DNS), firewall rules, etc. It's not a piece of cake!

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