Softlayer Dedicated Servers

Today I finished transferring the last of my websites to my new dedicated server on Softlayer. Many of my friends tried to convince me to choose other dedicated server hosts like RackSpace, FastServers and The Planet. I had heard of the new company Softlayer from a friend who had just signed up at Rackspace. I knew that Rackspace was rock-solid when it came to customer support, but I also knew they were a bit pricey. When I signed up at Softlayer, they were running some pretty agressive promotions on their specials page. I ended up getting a free upgrade on RAM to 4 gigs, and an extra 250 GB hard drive by shopping off of the specials.

Since I am not the most web savvy person I ordered the PLESK control panel with my new dedicated server (cPanel and Webmin are also available). There was a bit of a learning curve in provisioning new domains on the server, but after a few false starts I had it all figured out. The hardest part of running a dedicated server is learning all of the different features, the possibilities are truly endless. You can truly customize nearly any aspect of the server remotely. One thing that bugged me was that by default most ports are left wide open. You have to lock the server down manually using firewall settings and other security features.

So far I am pleased with the dedicated server and the value I got for the money. For $279 per month I have an Intel Xeon-Clovertown 5335 QuadCore processor, 4 Gigs of RAM, Dual 250 Gig hard drives, 2000 GB of bandwidth and 64 dedicated IP addresses with a PLESK 100 user license. There many other details but these are the basics of my server. Only time will tell the tale of the reliability of  softlayer servers, but so far so good.

10 January 2008 | Tech Support Test, Dedicated Server Hosting | Comments