Moodle Hosting, What do I need

Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by jonnym m -
Number of replies: 14
I'm looking for a recommendation on what kind of hosting I need. I know that its a tough question, but any help would be gratefully received.

This instance of moodle will be to offer training on some hardware.

The basic out line is:
  • Initially 200 students ramping up to around 2000 at the end of the year
  • One course, with 10-15 lessons each with a PowerPoint or wink tutorial and a quiz.
  • Forums FAQs etc wont be used (at least not for 12 months)
  • We expect concurrent usage to be low I would think around 20.
  • The students will have to complete 4-5 of the lessons, and will select the appropriate ones.
  • Each lesson will take 2-5 mins and the quiz will be 10 multiple choice questions.
Ive been advised to take hosting from as cheap as £5 per month to £500 per month, and the moodle partners costings Ive contacted are all light years different.

I would like to pay monthly, rather than a big whack upfront if possible

I'm now totally lost!

Thanks for any help

Jon



Average of ratings: -
In reply to jonnym m

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Hosting is, broadly speaking, a get-what-you-pay-for situation. It gets cheaper the more sites that are crammed onto each server and it gets more expensive if you want services like backups. You have to decide what you need - I would suggest that backups are important for example. You also need to decide if you need expert Moodle support - this will again cost extra.

Having said all that, your requirements are not great so any decent host should suffice. I would avoid the really cheap and nasty ones though as Moodle *is* a big bit of software.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to jonnym m

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Ron Meske -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers
We went through a lot of evaluation as to what it would take to host Moodle, not just hardware specs but also support and maintenance. Based on what we were able to find in the forums and from our own testing you will probably need more RAM on the computer, assuming MySQL and Apache are on the same box.

After all our evaluation, we decided to go to a Moodle hosting partner. The reason, we are an Instructional Design company, not a technology company. We decided to focus on our core strengths and let someone else worry about:
  • Proper sizing of the servers
  • Proper bandwidth
  • Nightly backups
  • Security updates for the OS, Web Server, MySQL server, and Moodle
  • Software upgrades
  • Hardware failures
  • Internet Connection availability
You can go to just about any reputable hosting company and get all of the above except for the Moodle support. When evaluating pricing of a generic host versus a Moodle Partner, the Moodle Partner we decided to use in the U.S. was just slightly more but had the added benefit of specializing in Moodle.

One of the best ways to evaluate them is by talking to them and ask how they handle the above items, if they are part of the price or extra. Ask for their SLA so that you can determine how quickly they are saying they will respond to problems. Once you narrow down your choices ask for references and if they can set you up with an evaluation site.

I have suggested, and still feel it would be beneficial to all, a rating system for Moodle Partners. The really good ones would welcome this, but the ones that are questionable, would obviously not want this.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ron Meske

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Jai Gupta -
Ron Meske: "I have suggested, and still feel it would be beneficial to all, a rating system for Moodle Partners. The really good ones would welcome this, but the ones that are questionable, would obviously not want this."

There is just one issue why something like this would be useless.

No Moodle partner is allowed to deal with a client who is not from his country. Even if a client is highly interested in his services he will have to divert back his client to other Moodle Partner of the client's country. Only if he gets permission from the Moodle Partner of client's country he can accept the deal.

Economy calls it Monopoly which has lot of disadvantages for end user.

I called it Monopoly because for e.g. if we compete two Moodle Partners, a partner X and a partner Y and they are from different countries then a school or anyone cannot choose them on the basis of price, support, expertise or ratings but they are forced to either choose a Moodle Partner from their own country or just move to other abc host who is not a Moodle expert. Out of 27 countries only 5 have 2 partners and 2 have more than 2 partners. All others have only 1 partner. Moodle Partners actually are not competing with each other.

The question I ask to myself is why to create this Monopoly and why not to let a school or an individual himself decide which Moodle Partner is better for his requirements.

If this happens I am sure overall quality of services will increase and price will drop for services offered by Moodle Partners.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jai Gupta

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
This is factually incorrect!

Anybody can employ the services of anybody anywhere and that includes Moodle Partners. The requirement is that we have to point out to you that there are partners in your part of the world and forward that information to those partners - that's it. The prospective client can, however, use who they like (wherever they are). "The customer is always right".

How that's a monopoly I have no idea.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Jai Gupta -
Howard,

Thanks for clarifying, as I am not a MP I may not be having accurate information.

Actually, one of our clients faced this difficulty. A MP directed him to another MP of his country giving the same explanation.

Can you please expand "forward that information to those partners". Do you also need to wait for a message from other MP? How complex (time consuming) is the procedure?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jai Gupta

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
All MPs have am agreement and this is just one part of it. The main point is that a customer can choose to work with any Moodle Partner they wish in any country. I don't believe there is any requirement beyond inviting them to use the Partner in their own country and informing those potential Partners of the contact. If they don't want to use their local Partner then there is no problem and no further procedures.

It very rarely comes up to be honest. We have to log all our clients and their locations and this information is available to other Partners so it is completely transparent. It's actually not ideal having customers in wildly different parts of the world due to communication/language and maintenance time issues.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jai Gupta

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Bryan Williams -
Jai,

Howard is right, your comments are factually incorrect. Moodle partners collaborate regularly and often all get the same inquiry from someone seeking services. The standard response by a partner receiving an inquiry that is outside their designated region of service is generally to direct the inquiry to a partner within the persons local region. If there is no Moodle partner within the region, or the regional Moodle partner either does not provide the service needed or is not responsive, another Moodle partner is free to contract with the inquiring person or organization. In all cases an organization or individual in any part of the world can select any Moodle partner they wish (you are the customer). It is important to keep in mind time zones and regional language and custom differences when selecting a Moodle partner. The growing Moodle partner network of companies now includes most areas in the world.

If your experience with a Moodle partner was less than satisfactory I suggest you contact Moodle HQ and report this. Martin runs a tight ship and will not allow an organization to remain a Moodle partner if their services fall below his expected standards. Companies have left the Moodle partner program for this reason.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bryan Williams

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Jai Gupta -
Bryan,

My impression was based on one of our client.

You said "If there is no Moodle Partner within the region, or the regional Moodle Partner either does not provide the service needed or is not responsive, another Moodle Partner is free to contract with the inquiring person or organization."

What if MP is responsive and also provides services needed. Is customer still free to decide on his own? How much time is given to MP to respond, 24 hours (I am guessing)?

I am just curious to know if the process is just too complex or time consuming that a MP just refused to contract a customer because he was not from his country (above all, he was blaming MP contract for it).
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Jai Gupta

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
There is no complexity. If Customer A insists on using the services of Partner X - for whatever reason - then that is the end of it.

Yes, the Partner has some obligation to declare this to other Partners and to tell the customer that they can get the services from Partner(s) in their own territory but this is not the client's concern or worry. The overriding principal is that the customer is right. Period.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Howard Miller

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by Jai Gupta -
All this was in my mind from past few months. Howard, thanks again for clarifying.

Coming back to Ron Meske. What do you (and all other MP) think about rating system for Moodle Partners?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ron Meske

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by jonnym m -
"After all our evaluation, we decided to go to a Moodle hosting partner. The reason, we are an Instructional Design company, not a technology company. We decided to focus on our core strengths"

I think I will end up migrating to a moodle partner, for exactly those reasons. The people I spoke to were undoubtedly very professional. But there advise conflicted and there prices were over £1000 different.

I went with a VPS as it is scalable, and I can increase the ram.

I'm experienced at implementing Moodle and setting up VPS servers, but never the two combined. I'm guessing I will soon get up to speed.

I see I have inadvertently opened a big can of worms about the moodle partners. I would like to say that the partners I spoke to offered a quality product along with some great advice and I have no issue with using them. Infact the reason I didn't commit initially was my chosen Moodle partner wanted money upfront for the year, rather than a monthly/quarterly payment, for a job I have not yet recived payment for.
Also the scalability of the service I now have would seem to be a bonus, due to the slow increase of usage.

Thanks for all your comments

Jon


Average of ratings: -
In reply to jonnym m

Re: Moodle Hosting, What do I need

by E. L. Cooper -
Do keep us updated on how the VH works and works out. Document document document!
Average of ratings: -