What is vCluster?
vCluster gives the power you need to host large, demanding PHP-based web sites. We have hundreds of CPU cores and many Terabytes of ultra-fast storage hosted right here in the UK on a fast, resilient network.
From just £25 per month, vCluster provides a private, horizontal partition on our web hosting cluster, with absolutely no usage limitations. It can help to scale any PHP application up to hundreds of millions of requests per month and data transfer measured in Terabytes, without costing you the earth.
How does vCluster work?
vCluster provides a two-tiered approach to hosting. The first tier is optimised for ultra-fast delivery of static content and high concurrency, and dynamic (PHP) requests are forwarded to servers running mod_php.
Our mod_php setup is more secure than most shared PHP hosting. With vCluster your code always runs under a dedicated user account in a locked-down environment, without the performance penalty or incompatibility of CGI or FastCGI. Read this blog post to find out more.
Both web server tiers sit behind redundant load balancers with continuous health feedback to ensure the smoothest possible clustered hosting experience.
Is it easy to use?
It’s as easy to use as any standard PHP shared hosting. In fact it’s probably easier thanks to our back-to-basics control panel! Just create your vCluster, upload your code, import your database and you’re ready to go. The default settings should work for the vast majority of sites, if not all sites.
Will my application run on vCluster?
vCluster is designed to be 100% compatible with any application that runs under mod_php (currently v5.3.1). No code modifications should be required at all on your side – we would treat that as a bug and provide priority hands-on support to get the issue resolved.
Did we mention that the whole platform is engineered and maintained in-house, and that all technical personnel play an active role in support?
How about MySQL performance?
We believe our MySQL platform offers the highest performance available in the hosting industry. We use the latest quad-core Nehalem CPUs, lots of DDR3 memory and up to 14 SSD drives in raid-10 to satisfy even the most demanding applications. We will soon offer dedicated and custom replication solutions so stay tuned!
How do I access my vCluster, is there an API?
The basic cluster settings can be configured using our simple control panel, which also provides usage and performance statistics. We also offer (S)FTP, SSH, RSYNC connections and a rich shell environment without compromise to security. Be aware though, access servers are heavily logged and monitored, and we’re not afraid to hand out ASBOs.
There is a RESTful API to the service, but this has not yet been launched to the public.
Are you a Cloud Computing Service?
Not really, our platform is far more traditional than that. We use lots of Open Source software like OpenLDAP and Apache, and MySQL – then mix in our own special sauce. If you look at it one way it resembles a grid, from another angle it’s a cluster. We don’t think anybody has reached consensus on what a Cloud really looks like yet.
We call it vCluster, that’s Virtual Cluster because we made a big cluster and then split it up into lots of smaller ones. Our cluster scales horizontally, so there is plenty more room for growth.
How does the one month money back guarantee work?
It’s as simple as it sounds! If your not satisfied after the first month, you an cancel your account with no cancellation charge and we won’t charge you for the months hosting!
What about support?
We provide direct support during business hours, 0800->1800GMT, Monday to Friday.
Our engineers are on-call 24×7x365 to deal with any platform issues that arise. If you require hands-on support around the clock then contact us for more information on our Premium Support plan.
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