I looked into virtual hosting solutions about a year ago and found Slicehost. The original impetus was to have a server in the cloud in order to host a code repository and test server for things I work on in spare time. Some of the requirements I was looking for included root access, good management tools, and relatively cheap. Slicehost fit the bill pretty well and seems there is a good amount of goodwill out there about their offering.
I have been pleased with the cost, performance and service they offer. Through their great articles, I was quickly able to secure the server and set up and configure the right set of software and services to get things running.
I have started with a 256 slice running Ubuntu and haven’t yet had need to upgrade it to something new. Initial software configuration includes:
- nginx
- ruby
- php5
- mysql
- git
Since starting with just a server to host a code repository I have moved on to host some additional sites on the server including this blog. Most of the sites are yet to be publicly available as they are things put together more to learn something than explicitly made available for public consumption.
In the end, this has been a great solution for my needs.