Updated: SiteGround Cloud Service Getting Better
UPDATE: Since July 4th SiteGround started applying a Cloud platform upgrade in our Asia-Pacific Data Center. All customers with accounts in Singapore will now enjoy the same benefits as our Cloud users in other data centers at no additional cost. Check out our Cloud plan details and read below about the upgrade.
From the moment SiteGround started to offer virtual private servers in 2005, which later evolved in our current cloud hosting service, we have always been using virtualization platforms created by third party providers. This has sometimes led to issues that were beyond our control and we have been on the track of taking over everything for quite some time now. For the past 6 months we have been actively working on our own cloud platform and we are happy to announce the first stage of its official launch today!
Why building it ourselves?
The main reason to start working on our own virtualization platform is that with all third party solutions we have used, there have been reoccurring issues we were not able to resolve. Some examples are: delays in problems resolution due to the fact that other people are in charge of the software; prolonged provisioning time issues causing new cloud users to wait for hours to get their instance; and more. That is why we have decided that it was high time to extend our handmade philosophy to the cloud platform and gain full control over the software used for this service, as we already did for our shared and dedicated servers.
Upcoming changes (for our US and EU data centers)
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New platform
First, all new cloud instances will be provisioned from now on a new platform with the following characteristics: KVM virtualization technique, latest Kernel and OS versions and entirely new API system, which will allow us to troubleshoot problems faster.
Existing cloud accounts in our US and European data centers will also be moved to the new platform over the next few weeks. We will preserve all current IP addresses, so no change of DNS would be needed.
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Up to 100% RAM increase
Each of our existing cloud instances in USA and Europe would also get its RAM Doubled!!! Except for our most expensive cloud offering, all the rest would get their RAM doubled free of charge. Our cloud 4 (4096 MB RAM) now gets its RAM boosted to 6144MB for free too. If you are a new client signing up for a cloud instance you automatically get the higher RAM at the current price at no additional cost. The upgrades we are implementing are significant and costly, but their effect will be felt immediately by our cloud customers in terms of improved performance of their clouds. Our calculations show that our cloud 1 (boosted from 1GB to 2GB of RAM) would perform 3.5x faster than before, just because of that upgrade.
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Faster upgrade and provisioning
The new setup will allow us to upgrade our cloud users and power up new instances in just under a minute.
Vision for the future
The changes going live today are just the beginning. We have envisioned some of the craziest things we’ve ever done to come towards our cloud Users way in the near future too. I will not go into too much detail on that to avoid spoiling all the surprises for you, but here are some of the perks:
- Highly resilient, ultra high performing distributed block storage build with the help of the innovative software by StorPool. We’re already in advance testing phase of this storage solution and we’re amazed by its potential.
- New, developed by SiteGround virtual environment, far more efficient than anything else to date
- 2 seconds provisioning time
- Instant rebootless scalability
Stay tuned for more updates 😉
Comments ( 13 )
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Kaffe Bönor
Great improvement! Looking forward to applying them to my site. Regards, Kristoffer
Jukka Hotokka
Great news!
Eben
No mention of the Asia/Pacific Data centres, will these be getting it at a later date?
Hristo Siteground Team
The current RAM prices at our datacenter in Singapore prevent us to apply this upgrade at this time. However, we will be looking for different options once we complete the upgrade for our EU and US servers.
Paul
Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this. While I applaud Sitegrounds progressive action here I feel marginalised for having chosen a VPS (and 2 GoGeek accounts) in Singapore. I do after all pay the same money for a server that is now 3.5x slower than those located in the US and EU data centers. I'm left wondering what else I'm not getting by having this location?
Hristo Siteground Team
Generally, the hosting costs in Singapore including hardware, dedicated IPs, etc. are much higher than those in Europe and the US. Whenever possible, we absorb the expenses difference in order to provide consistent service for all our customers. If a significant difference in the features of similar products in the different data centres appears it will be announced. Thus, you can make an informed choice which product to use. Once we are done with the Cloud upgrade in USA and EU, we will continue to search similar opportunities for Singapore, but you are free to migrate to any other location if you consider it more appropriate for your needs.
Alain
As always SiteGround is above his competitors.
John
When will price increase take effect on cloud services?
AlbertTCB
I also wonder when the upgrade will be effective for the Cloud (1) servers in Europe?
Gary Barclay
Ram Increase no ram increase. It makes no difference when your server is just taken offline for 60 minutes. No warning, no notification, no info or apology page nothing, just all my clients without a website, worse...a broken url and a damaged reputation. I purchased a cloud server because I was under the impression that the storage was distributed accross many servers hence "Cloud" and that this would offer increased stability. I now find out after a failure in just one piece of hardware(raid card) that it's just a VPS with a misleading moniker. That's not even the worst of it, it's the way it was handled that has really changed my opinion. At the very least you could have diverted my IPs to a "temporary Offline" page!
Marina Siteground Team
Hello Gary, Although our Cloud platforms are more stable and reliable than other virtual solutions on the market, they are still not infallible and depend to some extent on hardware. The issue in your case was NOT caused by a single failed HDD but by a faulty RAID controller of the entire disk subsystem that had to be replaced and rebuilt. We have very strict procedures in such cases and our system administrators and the data center engineers are very experienced, but unfortunately service downtime cannot be avoided when a RAID controller replacement is required. We did our best to complete the replacement as quickly as possible and minimize the service downtime as much as possible. I would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this unpredictable issue caused you and your clients and to provide you with a compensation for the downtime in extending your account expiration date with 2 days. Thank you for you patience and understanding! Best Regards!
Adrian Sanchez
Hello, there's a broken link here in your post: UPDATE: July 4th, 2014, SiteGround has implemented a better platform and RAM increase in our Asia-Pacific Data Center as well! All our customers who have accounts in Singapore will now enjoy the same benefits as our customers with accounts in other data centers. Check out our Cloud Hosting page for all plan details. Check the link on "all plan details" hhttp://www.siteground.com/cloud-hosting.htm?dcid=3
Marina Siteground Team
Thanks, it's fixed now :)
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