Al Vallario said:
Also, what's with the "they have servers in the states, back off" mentality? The US is home to some bargain bucket hosting operations, but also some of the best in the world. Ping times aren't going to matter when it comes to plain old web hosting, so often it comes down to "we can get a rack of servers on an unlimited connection in the US, or a single server with 150GB/month bandwidth in the UK" for web hosts.
Hehe, I suppose I have absolutely noleg to stand on but here goes
US servers used to be a lot cheaper than their UK counterparts. The high-volume industry there (ThePlanet, EV1, LayeredTech) really helped drive down costs which, to be honest, was great. Because not only were they cheap, ThePlanet for one are actually an outstanding company. Sure, they have their faults at times - but simple economies of scale mean you get so much for your money. Stuff like actually owning the datacentre meaning they can get techs who know the kit looking at it properly very quickly, incredible networks, and stupendous extras like NAS, network-based IDS and so on.
The only problem is download speed....as broadband connections get faster I've noticed that the sheer distance means my pipe sits half-used, so I need to do multiple connections and whatnot.
Another issue is latency....but that's not much of an issue I don't think - what matters above all is the company behind the servers, ie how they run them. An overloaded server can be nextdoor but still slow.
Yes it's quicker to have UK-based servers (due to the lower latency) and by heck I didn't realise by how much until I got one today, but I'd still pick a host based on the company first.
UK hosting has come a long way in the last couple of years - and infact like-for-like servers are probably cheaper so long as you don't want a bargain-basement server. You just need to know where to look...2host.co.uk, 4pence.com and Register1.net all do very well-specced, well-priced kit and provide the good support, too (as they're some of the larger providers).
I think that unless the hosting company is going for bargain-basement Celeron kit (in which case steer clear), the reason for going for US hosting now is perhaps the security of a large company - a few UK folk have gone bust recently due to price hikes - or inertia, or not knowing the right people in the UK
Also, another issue is VAT. There ain't none in the US but over here it whacks 17.5% onto the price if the company isn't VAT registered.
So whereas in the past it was seen as the cheap option, now that the pricing playing field is more level I don't think there should be so much of a stigma about US hosting because the reasons are probably more valid than just cost-cutting.
Note: I've just spent a fortune on a fancy new UK-based server so I should be biased and saying US hosting is evil.....hmm.....truth is I like them both for different reasons, and it's also useful to have physically diverse DNS/backup locations.
