Rimu continues to rock.
I've been using RimuHosting for several years now, for both personal and professional applications, and they're just stellar. They're competent, responsive, proactive, honest, ethical, and most of all, reasonable. And their prices are quite fair for what they provide -- you can find cheaper services elsewhere, but I doubt you'll find anywhere near the same level of service or professionalism.

This unabashed plug was prompted by this email that I just received:

Subject: Report on 26 Sep NY Power Outage

Hi.

== NY data center outage report

The NY data center we use had a power outage last month. That particular issue is now resolved and we have a report of what occurred at:
http://rimuhosting.com/maintenance.jsp?server_maint_oid=68009362

The data center management staff report they are working on resolving the cause of this particular problem. And they are also investigating a new UPS system (but have not finalized their plans on that just yet).

That said, this is not the first power issue at the NY data center.

We work hard to provide a reliable service. And when we cannot do that we feel we are letting our customers down.

In this email I tell you a little bit about some of the other data centers we use, and describe some options for you to have a server running in those other locations in case that is a better option for you.


== A bit about the other data centers we use

NY is one of the first locations we used (way back in 2003).

In addition to NY, we also operate servers from Dallas, London and Australia. We have found we have had very reliable service at those locations.

Dallas has been our primary location for new setups for the last few years (since 2004). The facilities at Dallas are particularly good. Their network has been very reliable for us. The power systems there have not let us down (the only power issue I can recall there was when we once tripped a power switch in a single cabinet: too many of our 1U power hungry dual CPU servers...).

In Dallas we also have more control over the equipment we use (buying and colocating our own custom spec hardware rather than leasing equipment).

== Dallas servers

We have some very good server options in Dallas. Most are more powerful than the servers offered in NY, and typically for a price that is similar or less than the NY plans.

For example our lowest spec dedicated server in Dallas is a 2 Ghz Core 2 server with 2GB of memory for $169/month. This server is more powerful than the Sempron (currently offered for $155/month) or Athlon ($169) servers that most of our customers are using in NY.

In Dallas we also offer Quad core Core 2 CPUs and quad core dual Xeon processor systems. See http://rimuhosting.com/order/startorder1.jsp?type=1&t-ded

Most of our Dallas servers have memory options for up to 8 - 12 GB of memory (vs. up to 4GB in NY). And we also have options for various disk sizes (80, 250, 400, 750 and 1000GB) for 2-4 disks per server (cf. typically up to 2 x 400GB disks on the NY-based servers).

And of course we also offer powerful and affordable VPS and semi-dedicated VPS solutions. These VPSs typically run on servers with fast 2 x quad core Xeon processors with up to 32 gb of memory and 2TB of disk space.

== Migration process

If you would like to not use the NY data center, then you can have a server in one of the other data centers we use.

We describe some of the options for doing that here:
http://rimuhosting.com/knowledgebase/rimuhosting/moving-servers

VPS moves are very 'easy': only an IP address changes. You just pop in a server move ticket.

Migrating a dedicated server can be a little more work, but we are happy to help. To migrate to a dedicated server, just pop in an order for the spec you need and we will work through the details with you.

== Migration offers

If you migrate from NY to a Dallas dedicated server then we will put a $120 hosting credit on your account. Just request this on the dedicated server order comments field.

If you migrate off a NY dedicated server, when you are done with the original server, pop in a cancellation ticket for it and tell us to shut down right away. Ask us on the cancellation support ticket and we will work out a hosting credit for unused time for that server (it is best to organize the shutdown a week or so prior to the start of a calendar month). (Normally we would not issue pro-rated credits for servers that are shut down prior to the end of the month).

We will help out with any migration work you need done. We will include at least one hour's work for no extra cost (extra time may be billed at $40/hr).

These offers are good for the next few months at least.

== What to do next?

I am hopeful that the NY data center reliability will improve. And if you are OK with things in NY then no change is necessary.

However, if you feel that a change to a different data center is in your best interests we would like to help you with that process. There is no rush. If we can spread migration work for customers over a few months then that helps even out our workload.

If you feel we could help you make the decision on what to do next, just let us know a bit about your situation and how we can help. Information like what applications you are running, current server load and resource usage, where your users are physically located and your hosting budget are all information we can use to help advise you on a good solution.

Our goal is to provide reliable hosting and back it up with hassle free service. If there is ever a time that you think we could help advise you on your setup or help out with sysadmin work, please don't hesitate to pop in a support ticket and we will try to help.

Regards, Peter
http://rimuhosting.com

Look at that: responsibility. A mistake happened. Rimu didn't cause it, but had some responsibility for it. They tracked it down, fixed it, admitted it, explained exactly what it was, and offered a fair plan to make it right.

Mistakes happen with hosting companies. It's just the nature of the beast. What makes Rimu different from many other hosting companies is that they don't try to pretend that mistakes don't happen or don't matter. They take them seriously, and they do everything they can to fix them.

If you are comfortable with root/administering your own server (with the ability to fall back on the pros when you need to) then I unconditionally recommend Rimu to you.