Dedicated Server Reseller Recommendations?

**shina00** · September 29th, 2011, 03:22

Can anyone recommend a dedicated server reseller for the US & UK? If they offer both US and UK that's a bonus but not essential.

Thanks in advance!

**Logan1999** · October 1st, 2011, 14:23

Softlayer.

**theswagbayorg** · October 2nd, 2011, 08:16

Softlayer is hands down the best data center to host your server in. I am a softlayer reseller at this time, just PM me if you would like me to make you any offers on dedicated servers.

**wswd** · October 2nd, 2011, 12:45

I'm going to disagree. They do have a great network, but take a look around and you'll see some stupid things they're doing to peoples' equipment, etc. They're performng tasks on the wrong servers. They try to "fix" peoples' servers without permission and end up wiping them clean, etc. WHT has some wonderful horror stories recently. We used to be with them (for years) when they were ThePlanet and things just got terrible when SL took over, so we left.

Their upgrade prices on their servers have also become unreasonable. ThePlanet used to have very reasonable prices. SL costs 4-5 times as much as the going rate for upgrades and such. The "premium network" nonsense only goes so far. If they want to raise the base price on their servers to cover the "premium network" that's fine, but they shouldn't try to make up costs in server upgrades.

There are a lot of good networks and datacenters out there. Most people aren't going to notice any difference.

**theswagbayorg** · October 3rd, 2011, 14:51

I agree with you, that upgrades/etc are expensive....but their support cannot be beat. Even though I dont pay for managed services, they still don't mind helping out a client! A few years ago, I needed a BitTorrent Tracker installed one of (well at the time, it wasn't my server, but none the less I managed it. So, for the lack of the right word, lets call it a "Friend's Server") "friend's server". I just opened a support ticket requesting the install a BitTorrent tracker, and by the end of the same day, it was done, for free. How many datacenters will do that for you?

All in all, even though their servers are overpriced/expensive in comparison, they do offer a level of support that I think cant be beat.

**wswd** · October 3rd, 2011, 19:48

Unfortunately, if you look around at various other forums, their support has gone downhill as well. There are plentiful examples of them not knowing what they are doing, completely ruining servers, formatting the wrong drives, etc., etc. No doubt everyone is going to have a different experience, but some of the stupid things you see their support staff doing are completely unacceptable in this industry. Companies lose money (and sue) when support staff does idiotic things.

I wish ThePlanet would have stuck around because I was extremely satisfied with their services. Prices were great, support was second-to-none, and their forum was chock full of knowledgeable folk. Was a great community! As soon as the nonsense with SL started, I moved over to Colo4 (Colo4Dallas at the time) and couldn't have been happier.

**deeplist** · October 11th, 2011, 09:40

Originally Posted by wswd

I wish ThePlanet would have stuck around because I was extremely satisfied with their services.

SoftLayer IS The Planet. SoftLayer was bought out by The Planet and they just kept the "SoftLayer" name for branding and marketing purposes. The Planet was NOT bought out by SoftLayer as everybody seems to think.

**sander k** · October 11th, 2011, 10:06

SoftLayer is the best DC in the USA. Yeah its more expensive then others, but the quality is the best.

**wswd** · October 11th, 2011, 17:34

Originally Posted by deeplist

SoftLayer IS The Planet. SoftLayer was bought out by The Planet and they just kept the "SoftLayer" name for branding and marketing purposes. The Planet was NOT bought out by SoftLayer as everybody seems to think.

Well...it was all one big merger actually. GI Partners actually bought them both as two completely separate portfolio companies, and merged them together after the fact, so in the grand scheme of things, neither one bought the other. When I refer to SL "taking over", I'm talking about post-merger.

All that aside, as soon as the merger happened (and the change was made to the Softlayer name), the new company went to hell. I'm guessing it's actually the EV1 side of things, as they were always a crappy budget provider. I'm guessing it's all their techs. who stayed on board, probably because they were used to working for much of less of a paycheck. Of course, all speculation, but there was a huge degradation in quality after the merger. It doesn't take more than a quick search on WHT to see the stupidity that goes on in their tech. support department.

They might have a great network. In fact, I always liked their network, when they were ThePlanet exclusively. But I had just as much luck, if not better, after transferring to Colo4, and actually saw improvements in ping times, etc. almost across the board, plus their techs. were FAR more knowledgeable, and far more personal. Now most of my server deployments are with WebNX out in their LA racks, and their service completely blows away the other two. I have only been with them for a year, but have had 100% network and server uptime (aside from our own reboots). Neither of the other two ever came close to that. There was always some sort of "maintenance" going on with TP routers and such, and Colo4 developed a quirky, little routing issue a couple times. The servers now have been absolutely rock solid. *cross my fingers*.

And, I get to be happy without the higher cost and ungodly upgrade costs on the SL servers.

**deeplist** · October 13th, 2011, 07:56

Originally Posted by Logan1999

Softlayer.

Also, you can't resell SoftLayer hardware and expect to turn a profit on it. Their prices are already so high that when you add your markup, nobody is going to be willing to pay what you're asking for. They're also not willing to give any kind of significant discounts unless you're a high volume customer. I've been with them long before they were SoftLayer and long before they were ThePlanet (it was ServerMatrix back then) and I still have a hard time getting them to cut me a deal at times, even today, and I've been there for about 7 or 8 years.