Cloud Hosting Powerhouses: Storm on Demand, SingleHop, and eApps
As with all things hosting related, there are many providers to choose from, and cloud is no different. So to make things a bit simpler, WebmasterFormat has delved into the murky world of extensive online research and found 3 respected and reputable cloud hosting providers who provide top quality services for very competitive prices.
eApps
Boasting a plethora of high-profile customers (such as NBC, Harvard University, and the United Nations), eApps has been at the forefront of website development and management for over 20 years. Since deciding to specialize in web hosting solutions in 1996, eApps has continued to push the boundaries of world-class hosting and customer service and now provides ‘true cloud’ hosting from its main data centers in Atlanta, Georgia. Here at WebmasterFormat, we have personally used eApps for our hosting solutions for over 2 years, firstly utilizing their VPS option before recently switching to a VM in the Cloud.
Storm on Demand
Based in the US, Storm is a subsidiary of managed hosting and data center company Liquid Web Inc. The Storm servers are located within a 90,000 square foot Cloud Data Center and provide customers with industry leading performance and renowned technical support. The Storm on Demand platform is a server hosting infrastructure which allows users to efficiently manage a flexible, scalable technology via the browser-based Storm Dashboard.
SingleHop
Chicago-based web host SingleHop was founded in 2006. In 2010, SingleHop was rated the 58th fastest-growing private company in America by INC. Magazine. Offering a wide selection of high-end hosting solutions, SingleHop has increased its dedication to quality cloud hosting with the release of its new cloud platform, Cascade.
Pricing: The Sliding Scales of Cloud Hosting
SingleHop Pricing and Resources
SingleHop Cascade Cloud Server pricing starts from $172 per month for a Core2Duo E8400 with a 250GB HDD and 4GB of RAM and progresses to the high-end Xeon Nehalem E5620 with a 1TB HDD and 12GB of RAM costing $349 per month. All options are fully customizable and come with 10TB of bandwidth.
Here is the range of key resource allocations available:
- RAM: 4 GB – 12 GB
- CPU: Intel Core2Duo E8400 - DUAL Xeon E5620
- Space: 250 GB – 1 TB
- Data Transfer: 10 TB - 30TB
- Port Speed: 100 Mbps – 1 Gbps
eApps Pricing and Resources
eApps offers 4 popular bundles, but all resources are fully scalable with the aid of user-friendly resource slider bars located next to each resource. The lower end package provides 256 Mb of RAM and an 8GB HDD and cost $12.76 per month. The top basic bundle has 4GB of RAM and a 100GB HDD for $173.96 per month. Data transfer is 50GB and 600GB respectively.
- RAM: 256MB – 16 GB
- CPU Shares: 10 – 600
- Space: 8 GB – 500 GB
- Data Transfer: 50 GB – 1200 GB
- Port Speed: 10 Mbps – 500 Mbps
Storm on Demand Pricing and Resources
Storm on Demand prices start at $35 per month for a 0.9GB RAM package with a 75GB HDD and moves up to a $1000 per month package with 48.5GB of RAM and a 1.5TB HDD. You need to pay an additional charge for bandwidth (prices range from $25 per month for a 250GB allowance up to $250 per month for 4000GB), so will need to factor this into your budget. Storm on Demand also charges by the hour for its services. So if you decide to alter your plan mid-month you will be charged the new rate an hour after implementation. This a very handy of you decide to reduce your resources and would mean you won’t be lumped paying the old charge for the rest of the month, even though you are now on a plan with decreased resource allocation.
- RAM: 0.9 GB – 48.5 GB
- CPU: 1 - 16 full physical processor cores
- Space: 75 GB – 1.5 TB
- Data Transfer: 250 GB – 4000 GB
Virtualization: What’s Under the Hood?
Storm on Demand and eApps both use a 64-Bit Xen hypervisor, while SingleHop utilizes KVM (Kernel based Virtual Machines).
The advantage of using a hardware-based virtualization software like Xen and KVM as opposed to OS level virtualization (such as Virtuozzo on a VPS), is that hardware-based virtualization allows VMs to behave as if they were running on a dedicated system. This allows users to run their own kernels and load kernel modules. Each VM is allocated its own virtual hardware which assists in achieving more accurate resource statistics.
Technical Support: Who You Gonna Call?
With the fanciful title of the Liquid Web Heroic Support team, Storm on Demand has a professionally educated in-house technical support. Every managed account includes 24/7 toll-free phone support, a help desk ticketing system, and live chat feature. A fully managed account had the advantage of a dedicated team of monitoring personnel.
eApps’ has an knowledgeable in-house Support services team that are available 24/7 and can be reached by email, chat, landline, and toll-free VOIP via Skype.
SingleHop provides a free basic service 24/7 phone (toll-free and direct dial) technical support service as well as a ticketing system which guarantees a 30 minute reply time. If you opt for a Managed solution there are QuickReaction™ Monitoring, Automatic Event Notification, and General Managed options to select from. These solutions provide an enhanced level of technical support.
Dashboards, Platforms and Portals: Simplistic Self-Management
SingleHop has its LEAP management platform, Storm On Demand offers the Storm Dashboard, while eApps provides a Client Portal. Three different user management interfaces that in general allow users to perform similar, but essential, tasks.
These account management platforms allow users to: purchase and set-up SSL certificates, organize and initiate back-ups, perform software updates, assign IP addresses, perform server installs, create or destroy servers, clone or re-size a server, configure private networking, and more.
Accreditation: Who Has Reason to be Proud?
Storm on Demand’s parent company, Liquid Web Inc. has won the INC.5000 Fastest Growing Companies award in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 and is a Better Business Bureau (BBB) A+ rated host.
SingleHop is BBB A rated and has won many prestigious awards and recommendations from leading industry authorities. These include: Most Reliable Hosting Provider 2009 (awarded by Hosting Review), Most Reliable Hosting Provider in October 2009 (awarded by Netcraft). SingleHop was also listed as one of the Top 10 Managed Providers in August and September 2009 by HostReview.com.
While eApps currently holds no BBB rating, you will not find any negative reviews for the company with BBB and you would be hard pressed to find any negative reviews about the company and its cloud hosting services anywhere else. The company has many prestigious clients and is highly regarded within the hosting industry itself.
The Winners Circle: The Brightest and Best of Cloud Hosting
Without doubt, we have selected 3 outstanding, highly revered cloud hosting providers to review. Choosing an out-and-out winner would be difficult and undoubtedly an exercise in futility. Cloud hosting provides such incredible levels of flexibility and scalability that any of the hosts featured here are able to be adapted to suit most requirements.
One Size Never Fits All: The Beauty of Cloud Hosting
All our featured cloud hosts offer standardized packages ranging from basic resource allocations, to grandiose options able to appease even the most traffic-hungry websites out there. And while reliability, speed, and superior stability are very influential aspects of cloud technology, the most revolutionary factor is undoubtedly the sheer unrivaled flexibility and almost instantaneous scalability provided by cloud.
Remember, you don’t always have to scale up. If you see a package featuring the resources you require but the price is just out of your reach, you can simply reduce the allocation levels of the least important resources until you achieve the pricing which fits your budget.
Any of the cloud hosts we have selected will make an excellent choice. Each allows a customer to manipulate the various resource components to achieve the perfect package. Our advice would be to contact each company directly, tell them what you need, see what they can do, and then make your final decision.
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