Hi all,

I'm based in the UK and have previously developed and run a couple of websites; one for an iPhone app that I developed, and one for a couple of tech books that I've written. I've used 123-reg.com for my web hosting needs because they offered pricing/bandwidth that was suitable for my needs. (The sites were basically vehicles for my products and so bandwidth wasn't too much of a worry).

I'm currently in the planning stages for a client/server (app/web service) that, potentially, will generate much more web traffic than I currently use. The mobile app will communicate with the web server which will do all the heavy lifting.

For scalability reasons I'm therefore wondering if I should employ something like Linode right at the beginning rather than switching halfway through the project if I find 123-reg is lacking. I've come across this site this morning and just want a bit of advice:

* I presume I can whack any type of site on there (I normally do Joomla) and run that without issues?
* What benefits does Linode give me in the scenario above, over 123-reg?
* If I developed my site/back end initially on 123-reg, could I easily migrate to Linode

I'm just a one-man band, so any guidance appreciated.

Thanks for any pointers,

R.

Linode is a VPS provider. I've only had a quick look at 123-reg but they seem to be purely a hosting provider. With Linode, you just get the OS you choose, it's up to you to install a webserver/PHP/database/etc on it and maintain it.

So to answer your questions concretely:
1. Yes (but you must also install the software required to run websites)
2. More freedom. You can tune the configuration and set up better caching etc... For very busy sites you could also do load-balancing.
3. Probably, but I don't know their set up. If you use the latest joomla version there should be no issues. If you use older versions (bad!) you should make sure it is compatible with the PHP version you'll install on your linode and the one used by 123-reg.

Unless you already have mad sysadmin skills, or wish to add said skills to your one-man band, you're looking at a significant learning curve and large blocks of time managing your VPS (any vps, not just Linode).

As with all small businesses, you have to ask yourself what part of your business makes you money, and focus most of your time doing that.

So in this case, will doing Sysadmin tasks on your websites make you money? If no, then why would you waste time on it?

_________________
Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

Thanks for the responses Nuvini and Vonskippy,

OK - maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse as my dear mother used to say

I think for now, I'll work on the premise of sticking with 123-reg and their managed hosting services. The fact that I can install pretty much anything on the VPS means that I'll certainly be able to mirror the configuration on Linode if I did decide to migrate to this solution in the future.

Thanks again, and very best regards.

R.