Cloud virtual servers or dedicated servers?
 

My website does have a lot of HD videos and high res. pictures. It is a members websiste where they can look at all the content and stream the videos.

What would be the best solutions for a website like mine? I am also constantly adding new videos and picture sets so I would like to have a flexible system which is easy to upgrade and have as litlle downtime as possible.

I would also appreciate if you have any companies you know that offers good prices on cloud hosting so I can compare it with the offers I have received on dedicated hosting.

Thanks:)

One of the advantages of a VPS is that up- and downgrades can be performed on the fly. And you can reload whatever OS you like whenever you want from your VPS control panel.

Due to the nature of VPS, the price should be much lower even with the same level of support and management. We monitor all containers *all the time* to keep our master nodes fast and stable. Here's a nice article on the differences between the two VPS virtualization platforms we offer: https://secure.xenlayer.com/index.ph...openvz-and-xen

If you need managed:

NakedHosting / CertifiedHosting :thumbsup
- fully managed servers
- cPanel/WHM available
- free site migration
- real 24/7 support (no outsourced monkeys from india/philipines)
- rock solid network
- they are based in Las Vegas (where all the fun is + no hurricanes)

If you know how to manage it:

DigitalOcean
- SSD drives BLAZING FAST!!!!
- Lots of ram and fast CPU for le$$
- 1TB of bandwidth
- cheap backups
- fast and seamless upgrades
- instant activation/provisioning
- can buy install cPanel/WHM yourself for easier management (FREE INSTALL)
- if you need any help - feel free to contact me at celebempire{at}gmail(dot)com

or to take some cheap server with lots of bandwidth from some cheap providers like
- leaseweb.com
- fdcservers.net
- ovh.us
- hetzner-online.de
and in this case make sure you have lots of hard drives and to put them in RAID

Are you looking for managed or unmanaged services?

How much disk space are you going to need now and again 6 months down the road?

I would say DigitalOcean as well - You could run into problems with bandwidth pricing though - Especially if you are streaming HD Video...

I am looking for managed service. I have around a 150 GB today and it will increase with 5 to 15GB a month.

streaming on digitalocean, forget it, they are so overbooked atm
i sometimes get barely 1mbit up, also i think by default they cap at 10mbit outbound bandwith

if he/she was doing a lot of video i would go with a cdn.

i would suggest a serve with lots of diskspace, you are going to need and at a cheap price.