Quadranet is Crap, Need to Move, SoftLayer Feedback?

I haven’t used SoftLayer since long before they picked up ThePlanet, but now I’m in the market for a heavily managed solution.

First off, I’m using Quadranet, formerly known as PacificRack, and they have become pretty terrible. I’m thinking of doing the switch to SoftLayer after the holidays but need a solution that is heavily managed.

What I have right now is a primary web server and 4 mysql servers. One mysql server is a master that only takes updates, the second is a mysql server that only tracks impressions statistics and it updates the master, and the other two are slave that only accept SELECT and sync from the master.

Kind of a headache setup but works for our heavy amount of traffic.

I need a strong managed solution to ensure my site stays up. Here is my web server setup (all the mysql servers are pretty upgraded also)

Chassis Model: 815TQ-600CB - 4x Hot-Swap HDD Bays
Processor 1: Intel Xeon E5-2670 Octa Core - 2.60Ghz, 20M Cache, 8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading
Processor 2: Intel Xeon E5-2670 Octa Core - 2.60Ghz, 20M Cache, 8GT/s QPI, HyperThreading
Memory: 64GB RAM
RAM Type: DDR3-1333 ECC Registered “x4”
Storage Drive 1: 147GB SA-SCSI 15,000RPM
Storage Drive 2: 147GB SA-SCSI 15,000RPM
RAID-1

The web server does about 25GB of bandwidth per month.

All feedback appreciated.

Cheers!
Ryan

Interesting setup with just 1 Web and 4 MySQL servers. SitePoint probably isn’t the place but on a professional level, I’d be very interested to see how each server is performing. Are the servers optimized/tuned? Are you running vanilla MySQL or any addons like Percona or memcached?

We have had some legacy servers with SoftLayer since they started. We’ve mostly migrated away but not due to bad service (we outgrew them). Overall, the service has been pretty solid. A few rack power issues 2 years ago but since then, the network and infrastructure has been stable. I can’t comment on their management service but I would be interested to see what it adds to the overall cost.

Matt

If you can afford SoftLayer, they are definitely a good provider but be prepared to shell out a good sum of money when working with them. Since, you are in the market for a premium provider you could also take a look at Rackspace.

I disagree here. They are overrated and overpriced. We take a number of clients from them on a monthly basis.

Maybe that is because most people are not able to afford them or whatever. I have no personal experience with Rackspace though, but do have friends using them and they seem to be immensely happy.

But Softlayer, I use them, I have used them in the past and have a lot of clients hosting with them and not one of them seems to be unhappy.Yes they are overpriced, but their products and services are top-notch (pretty much like Apple)

I think you misunderstand. I did not suggest SoftLayer are overpriced. I also shared a personal positive experience with them as a pure server provider.

I did suggest Rackspace are overpriced. In particular, we’ve had people move to us because certain elements you’d expect to be covered in a management package at those types of prices ($750/mo+ for an average spec server) were not.

I haven’t used Rackspace personally so will not be able to comment on them.

SL is way over-priced. They have also downgraded in performance & reliability from what they used to be. How much are you currently paying for this setup? Have you done re-search on any other providers?

  • Daniel :slight_smile:

I disagree here. They used to be plagued with power issues and have some network issues while they were figuring out rack density and other issues. But in the past ~24 months, they have been rock solid.

I do concur that prices have increased. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; plenty of dedicated providers push prices down to unsustainable levels that hurt the industry.

Matt

I’ve had both experiences with SoftLayer, some good, some bad - I can’t comment on their managed service as I’ve not used that. I’ve had servers fail and it taken over 24hrs to find spare parts before now. The other big consideration for you, will be where are your users. When our servers were with The Planet (and EV1Servers before that) the connections were great, but over time they got slower for us. I can’t comment on performance in the US, but here from the UK the change (during merger) was more noticeable.