Big-G

At the moment I run several e-commerce websites using shared hosting, I don't want VPS or Private servers.
I am very happy with my host but they are not cheap.
I was looking at VidaHost Cloud Hosting which would cut my outgoings to my host by 70%, quite a saving over a year.

What are your experiences with cloud hosting?

Beef

"Cloud" is merely a new name applied to older, pre-existing technologies. A quick look at the VidaHost site indicates you would actually be buying either shared hosting or a VPS, just under a different label.

hodgy0_2

agreed, the bullsh1t around "the cloud" is pretty deep

it's a marketeers wet dream

Big-G

The behind the scenes technology is not that important to me, but cost, performance and reliability are.

So, despite the crap hype, I could be financially better off with no loss of performance or reliability?.

Scooby Soon!

how much are you paying a month?/ year?

I run a few e-commerce sites from a UK VPS, what is wrong with them?

Big-G

Including VAT I am paying £42 a month for a reseller package which I never used for reselling but used for hosting multiple websites.
VidaHost have an offer of £1 per month for 3 months to try their cloud hosting out, then it's £9.99 a month after.

Scooby Soon!

thats more than i am paying and I think mine is slightly more expensive than average, whats the reason that you don't want VPS or Private servers?

Big-G

I suppose it has been the cost and not understanding how to use all of the options available.
I just want to run my websites without getting too involved with the behind the scenes technology.
I was operating 20 websites at first but presently am operating 5 sites at the moment, mostly e-commerce, this will be expanding to 8-10 over the next year.

Scooby Soon!

I use a managed VPS, 10 sites £30 month, I have literally in the last day or so just renewed for a year. I have two main sites both eccomerce and then 8 other sites that I play about with. Its fully managed if i ever have a problem I just email and someone gets back to me with in a few minutes. I did have a quick look around when i renewed and you can get the same spec for about half the price but decided to stick with what I knew. I was originally with Bluehost which was about £5 a month per site but I was sharing with about 800 other sites on the same server and support was pretty bad, the settings were never quite right although a friend of mine does host a busy eccomerce site with hostgator (same as bluehost) and does not really get any problems.

Due to new PCI DSS compliance I am now forced to have my site scanned every month by card merchant and I believe the shared hosting is now causing some problems on these tests.

Big-G

I am not worried about PCI compliance, I use third party payment processors and let them carry the card details.

Thanks for your replies.

Scooby Soon!

we use a third party but we still have to have it or do you only use paypal?

Big-G

PayPal exclusively now.
Despite what people say about PayPal, as a seller they tick all of the boxes for me.
I've used them for over 10 years for buying and selling and never had anything other than minor gliches.
In my experience when used correctly PayPal is a great tool that has many features that the majority of users are unaware of.