As the lights in windows across the western shore flicker and turn off for the night, the lights in cyberspace are turning on bright. For after a day of data migration, the hosting rebirth is nearly complete. Five days ago, after much deliberation and research over what to choose, I founded the Farmer Host and established superior hosting for myself and for all current and future clients. Now not only can I offer expanded hosting services at FarmerHost.com to individuals, nonprofits and small businesses, I will be able to continue my own website developments and internet-based projects with greater flexibility and functionality.
So today, with a sigh and a smile, I say good bye to Blue Host and welcome Farmer Host as my new provider. Blue Host was my first full-fledged hosting provider and served me well for almost a full four years. Certainly their tremendous growth over this time is a testament to their competitive services, and, even more significantly, to their outstanding support. Instant and expert telephone support and text/email response was and continues to be a lasting virtue at Blue Host. But alas, outstanding support can never overcome the effects of certain business decisions.
The climate of cyberspace has changed and so too have the policies and procedures of hosting companies like Blue Host. Six months ago, the tides of change began to turn when, without the slightest forewarning, client accounts were suspended. Website owners were never notified of policy changes nor were they alerted that suddenly all their domains were replaced with a generic error message.
“This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the support department as soon as possible, and please have your site name ready.”
Only blocked email access and this home page warning indicated that anything was amiss. The cause of the reported abuse was an exceeded file count. While Blue Host offers “unlimited” hosting, evidently the business and data analysts determined that their previous policy of unlimited everything was causing a back-log with the new back-up software they implemented. So, 50 thousand files were deemed the tolerance of the back-up engine. It didn’t matter how big these files were; rather the total number of distinct files affected the back-up time. So in order to release the hold, clients had to eliminate their data from their server. For some deleting data may be a fun exercise in house-cleaning. For others, it is an ordeal causing much consternation. Yes, forgetting the past for some is a blessing. Yet when one puts heart and sole into the organization and categorization of his data, randomly deleting entire libraries of data content at random is an abomination. Hoping for the best with nearly four years of happy hosting, I began addressing the task. But for every file removed, another was generated. And here the support could offer no meaningful solution. So the quest for a new host began, first in passing, then in earnest. Many companies from the past were revisited and many new firms were assessed and examined. The results of hosting research will likely be published in an expanded version. For now, let it suffice to say that everyone from the long-standing corporate hosts, such as RackSpace and Enom, to the home-brewed startups and fly-by-night self-promoting hosts were visited and considered. Friends, associates and “experts” were consulted. In the end, my final selection was made and Farmer Host was born.
To put the icing on the cake, as the lights dim in the land of blue and brighten in the fields of the farmer, on the last day before transfer was to be completed, Blue Host again decided to suspend all access. What a way to go. I must admit that it is harder to feel as saddened about leaving as I would have even two months ago, especially with such a graceful good-bye. All I hope is that someone either wakes up to these downfalls or WordPress updates their hosting review ranking. So long and fare well. The transfer has taken five days. Tomorrow is a new beginning.