Eventually, I am hoping that my community becomes active enough so that I can switch to a managed dedicated server.
However, I have no idea who is the best at managed dedicated servers.
I have been with Hostgator and they do offer managed dedicated. Do you think they are reliable for their managed dedicated server? If not, who do you suggest and have you had personal experience with the company you are suggesting?
Thanks again for your help!
Ryan
How are you currently running your community? On a shared hosting account? On a VPS? What’s the current configuration and server load, if you know it?
Thanks for the reply. Currently, I am on shared hosting environment using Hostgator’s services. The server load is very small at the moment but this is what I am anticipating:
-500-2,000 members online at any given time
-Website will be running off of the Invision Power Suite (Forums, Blogs, Gallery, etc)
Those are my goals and I believe I can hit them, but I want to be ready for it of course and would like a managed dedicated server. I do not have any server administrative experience, which is why the keyword here is “managed”. 
Thanks again for your help!
500-2000 concurrent users is no small number. If you are paying for the suite, you should ask them what kind of hardware you will need and if it supports EC2.
Amazon EC2 is probably your best bet.
##Edit:
I posted the original response from my tablet and didn’t feel like trying to view their website. Disregard all of it.
You should ask the software provider what kind of hosting you should get. On their site on the buy page when you go over 750 online at once, it stops giving you prices and just says “Contact Us”. You should ask them what the best hosting would be. Starting at the 100user/$70mo price it includes “Priority Support”. At the concurrency number you’ve said here, you’ll be basically paying someone’s salary. Don’t be afraid to contact them.
Depends on how you setup session time out in your forums, this number can be a big issue. You need to distinguish between number of online members and concurrent connections.
Anyway, if you are running on a shared hosting account now, and want to upgrade, I would consider VPS first, not jump directly to dedicated servers. Why? Most of the good managed server vendors I know, they only do with high-end configuration, and it will be a big difference in monthly cost. How much can you afford per month?
In terms of monthly cost, my absolute maximum is around $200/month and the only way I could do that would be with donations from the community to help with costs, which I’m sure the commnity would be willing to help out.
So, I’m looking at not going over $2400/year. I have seen many managed dedicated servers (like at Hostgator) that offer this pricing. Plus, I do not want to go to VPS since I have absoultely no server administrative knowledge and would have to pay someone anyway to manage the server.
Do you think that Hostgator’s managed servers at http://www.hostgator.com/dedicated can handle what I’m asking?
Thanks again for your advice with this!
Ryan
The suite you’re using costs $590/month for 750 users. After that it just says “contact us”. This is enterprise software.
There are managed VPS servers as its no different in that sense than a Dedicated.
They would be cheaper than managed dedicated since the host would have three or four managed VPS on the one server.
Didn’t realize that about the managed VPS servers…do you guys have any recommendations? I have no clue where start looking for a managed VPS. Hostgator doesn’t seem to offer it and if it could save me tons of money, than that would be great!
Thanks again for your help!
According to the page at Hostgator listing the VPS plane they are all fully managed.
My dedi is with WebHostingBuzz. They offer managed or unmanaged and allow you to configure the server as you require. As for me, while the tailored server is fantastic (modern hardware), their software suite is top of the line and their support is absolutely fantastic. Color me impressed … and thankful. I prefer my servers in the US (they have data centers in several cities) but they also have servers in a UK data center.
Regards,
DK
While you might have had great experience with WebHostingBuzz, personally I wouldn’t recommend them. I consult for various clients and some are on WebHostingBuzz and their support has been less than desirable - most of my clients want off WHB and are looking elsewhere with plans to move soon.
With that said for managed dedicated, highly recommend Wiredtree.com - been with them myself for 6 yrs and majority of my clients have moved to them if you want managed servers.
prequel, I find that hard to believe. We constantly get rave reviews about our support and our satisfaction ratings are consistently between 90-95% every month.
We aren’t perfect and we do make mistakes, but to suggest there is an underlying problem or issue with our support is untrue.
What I have noticed is that your support people are prepared to listen and will keep trying different things until either they solve the problem or they eliminate enough possibilities for you to figure out the solution yourself.
Stephen,
Not only do they listen but their response time is far better than what I was used to.
MDRussell,
For the types of questions I was asking, they were always spot on (and never a mistake).
Regards,
DK
Thanks for the positive feedback guys.