This post is a discussion post only. The changes mentioned within this blog post are intended to generate feedback from current and possibly new customers, and not guaranteed to be implemented in the future.
If you follow us on Twitter you may have seen our comments regarding the launch of the new site which we’d planned for last weekend. During that time, we’ve actually been testing some new server side technology which will allow us to far better manage the resource usage of accounts on our servers. After successful testing, we’ve decided to postpone the launch of our new website whilst we rework our packages yet again and get the infrastructure in place to handle the new changes.
Originally we’d planned to offer a selection of shared hosting packages, and split reseller hosting into its own category. Simply put, shared hosting packages would not have reseller access but would have unlimited/unmetered addon domains, subdomains etc and a scaling disk space and bandwidth allocation – much like we have right now. Resellers would have much bigger packages in terms of disk space and bandwidth, however the smallest package for this would be significantly higher than the shared hosting counterpart.
After the testing of the technology, and the impressive results that we’d seen, we’ve decided to revamp the packages for one final time. Instead of offering scaling shared hosting packages, we’ve decided to offer just two. The first package would be a ‘Starter/Blog’ package offering you a single website, no addon domains, no subdomains, but unmetered disk space and bandwidth. The second package would be a universal package, offering you any number of websites with unlimited addon domains, subdomains, and unmetered diskspace and bandwidth. Before you begin possibly panicking, let’s clear up a few things.
What is the new technology you’re talking about?
The new technology essentially allows us to control the CPU usage of individual websites and limit them accordingly. In short, this allows us to prevent a single account from consuming a massive amount of resources on the server and bringing everything else slowing to a crawl. To be clear, unlike some competitors who track the CPU usage and then respond by disabling your account after you consume a set number of resources within a period of time – this will instead limit the amount your acount can consume.
The limits we’ve tested are very healthy and will allow your website(s) to load just as quickly as they currently do.
Unmetered? Is that the same as Unlimited?
Not really. We don’t like using the term “unlimited” because it refers to something that has no limit. “Unmetered” on the other hand means there is a limit based on the physical limitations, however your actual usage of that resource is not tracked.
So, to be clear on this. Unmetered disk space – you are not limited to how much you can use on an account, but there is a limitation in the sense that disks can only store a certain amount of data. Unmetered bandwidth – you are not limited to how much you can use on an account, but there is a limitation on the connection attached to the server.
Why are you thinking of going unmetered?
As a hosting provider managing shared servers, the biggest and most valuable commodity on a server is CPU usage. Historically there has been no real method to control (in real-time) the usage of accounts from this perspective. You can track the usage and then let people know if it’s higher than you’d consider acceptable, but the usage could still have a huge affect on the server itself. An example of this would be if someone were to reach the front page of a social networking site – the CPU usage would escalate to the point where it could consume an entire server.
When selling shared hosting we need to take the CPU usage into consideration with the size of account packages that we offer. A bigger (Ultra) package with reseller access and many sub accounts is likely to consume more resources than a Starter/Blog package. It’s not set in stone, but it’s a fairly logical assumption. If we then are able to control the CPU usage of each account (which we can now do), the disk space and bandwidth become almost a non-issue entirely. If you’re using 20MB or 20GB of space, your CPU resource usage is what’s more important to us. Disk space and bandwidth are always something we can add more of – CPU usage is not. As a customer it can be very difficult to know just how much disk space or bandwidth your website requires. Now that the CPU usage is no longer a factor, why do you then need to make a choice?
Will there be any additional limits with unmetered disk space?
Yes, there will. Basically you will be limited on the number of files and folders within an account – and not the combined size of this content. The reason for this is that accounts with significantly high numbers of files and folders can dramatically slow down the backup process, even to the point where there account alone can take up to an hour or more to process. This clearly makes the backup process ineffective so something needs to be done about that.
The likely solution will be to remove the account(s) in question from the backup schedule. However, accounts that have a ridiculously high inode usage consumption will need to reduce this or move to a different hosting solution.
Is this definitely going to happen?
We would like it to yes, but we’d love to hear feedback from you. How do you feel about these possible changes? Please let us know.
What are the new packages going to look like?
We’ve discussed the shared hosting packages above. In terms of reseller packages, think something like our current shared hosting packages that scale in disk space and bandwidth. Exact figures will be released soon.
So will you be overselling?
No! With this new system, resources are controlled by the server in such a fashion that they are limited and will prevent users from consuming them to the point of causing an effect for others.
What will happen if my website hits this resource limit?
The limits we put in place will be very generous, but if your account hits the resource limit your website may begin loading more slowly. In very extreme cases, additional connections to your website will be dropped and an error message displayed. Please be aware that this is only in very extreme cases – and would only occur in periods of extreme activity (such as being on the front page of a social media website, etc).
Will you move existing clients to these new packages?
No. As always with any package changes we make, existing clients will remain on their existing packages. If you wish to upgrade or downgrade to one of our new offerings, you may do so by requesting this within the client area.
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