Hosting a complex online service

Question

I have an idea for a web-based service. The implementation is very complex. There will be very few users, and the traffice will be fairly low, but the server-side code could require a lot of resources. Ideally I'd need to have as much control over the servers as possible.

How should I arrange hosting for this, when it comes time to release it to the public?

Should I do the hosting myself, from my own servers? Trouble is, since I'm not quite an expert on .NET hosting, it might take time to learn and I might make big mistakes.

The trouble with using a hosting company is, they might steal my idea, or else, it might cost a lot. Since I'm an un-funded startup I don't have a lot of money to throw at this.

Answer 1

A lot of hosting providers are able to provide you with a dedicated server or VPS (Virtual Private Server) where you run a virtual machine on shared hardware. I have used HostMySite for VPS in the past and the service was very good. Dedicated and VPS hosting will cost much more than a shared hosting situation, but probably a safer bet than buying your own hardware, running in the high-speed backbone, dealing with backups, climate control, generators for power outages, etc.

update:

I missed the part about the hosting company stealing your idea. Somebody will take your idea, but ideas alone are worthless... it's all about the execution, and I don't think people at your hosting company would copy your code directly.

Answer 2

If your idea is any good, you bet that many (and I don't necessary mean webhosting companies) will try to copy it regardless how you host it. Also, no webhosting company will allow you to host resource-hungry applications on shared infrastructure, so you will have to do it on your own dedicated servers anyway.

Answer 3

Maybe you should get a look to the Windows Azure Platform. At the moment I heard nothing about prices but it can be a good solution if your application needs to scale (in a transparent way).

Answer 4

Most reputable hosters have no real interest in their customer's business ideas because they're in the business of hosting. Any hoster stealing business ideas would quickly lose out on reputation if they crossed that line.

Speak to a company that does dedicated servers and chew the fat with them about your requirements.

Without knowing what your solution does and what special needs it has you're not going to have much luck getting qualified answers on SO. So maybe an overview of what you're doing without giving away the crown jewls would be in order.

Update: Right....there's a lot of FUD here about hosters stealing customer business ideas. I work in the hosting business and have done so for over 10 years....

Professional hosters really have no interest in your business ideas....they're in the business of providing hosting services, not building the next StackOverflow or Amazon or EBay or whatever. Do you really think CrystalTech (who host SO) thought "oh hey we could do that and make a pile" when Jeff mentioned the project idea? No...they do hosting.

Many professional hosters have reseller programmes, and those hosters that do take great care not to step on their reseller's businesses with shoddy practices like contacting reseller customers directly to steal their business.

Professional hosters have enough on their plate making sure that their operations run smoothly such as managing 100's to 1000's to 10,000's of servers, ensuring that backups work, ensuring that servers don't cook in the DC, ensuring that network connectivity works properly, ensuring they get paid etc etc.

Professional hosters often have staff available for value add services such as consultancy and technical support to help you the customer get your business idea off the ground, and as fascinating as your business ideas may be, that's all their guys are employed to do. If you're really that worried get them to sign an NDA before you speak to them. I've signed plenty in my time and have seen some fantastic businesses get off the ground and make heaps of cash....but....those businesses are not my area of expertise....because guess what....hosters do hosting services.

The company I work for started off in the hosting business in 1998 by being a reseller for a large US hoster, at the time we had 10 dedicated servers with them 3 of which were shared and raked in a pile of cash @ $15 a month per site with around 600 sites a server. The profit margin was very lucrative....did they steal our business?...nope.

So my advice to Jonathon is go speak to a good hoster and talk things over, get expert advice.

Hosters do hosting, we're not interested in selling pies or widgets or becoming the next venture capital darling for the next flashy Web 2.0 idea.

Cheers
Kev

Answer 5

Instead of a web hosting company, you can use a colocation facility, where you put your server in their rackspace, and they provide the power and bandwidth. If you choose not to give them access to the box for emergency and backup purposes, they have no more access to the contents of the server than the public.

I'm an officer in the Boston Linux and UNIX group, and we have half a rack with three servers and tape backup unit.

Answer 6

Setting up some Amazon EC2 instances is also an option, you still have to do all of the administration yourself but at least you don't need to worry about the physical hardware.

Answer 7

you want .NET hosting on IIS yes? what is "a lot of resources" (memory, bandwidth, database, cpu) ? What would be wrong with a simple & cheap shared web hosting account?

Answer 8

when you say "web-based service", do you mean a "real life service" converted into something that is more economic to do through web or a whole new "YouTube/Facebook" (just examples of web-based services)???

What I am trying to figure out is, what kinda "setup" do you really require for your first run.

I would start with a "local version" where you buy and extra PC/old desktop should do. Then you registrate for Websparks from Microsoft, which will enable you to gain licenses for development. Both server and VisualStudio... then you get some experience while installing and configuring this, and that you can use to move the service online once you are ready for it.

To test this setup, all you have to do is to forward your port 80 (http) in your private router/ADSL (internet connnection at home) or wherever you are going to put this service while developing.

Once you've had some friends testing it from outside and everything starts to run smoothly, then have a look at some sort of professional hosting. I would personaly recommend something like Amazon EC2 or Microsoft Azure. There a more cloud-hosting faclities. They are not all that cheap, but they promise higher bandwidth and stability...

Not sure if I really would believe that, so since I dont know your "real idea", I would stick with the local development version first. Which is also great for testing new ideas and prototyping aftewards. Because once you get online with a .NET website, you will need to have an "offline" version you can develop on too. Everytime you upload new files the website has to recompile and that would make online-users experience slow pages or loosing their sessiondata = relogin which is utterly annoying for users.

Tell os some more "details" - not the idea, but tell us more about your calculations regarding bandwidth, CPU power, RAM, SQL-database etc... then we MIGHT be able to help you figuring out which approach is best.