Hi there
Could someone make me a recommendation for moodle hosting please? I finally got some cash to puti n a hosting solution and deploy moodle properly but I'm not sure who to go with.
I will have about 400 users (including teachers) initially but this will grow to 500 or 600 in the medium term so I'd like to put in a solution to cover that too. Members of staff at our school have had bad experiences with other, lesser systems (easylink etc) and so I need to go just a little OTT to make sure there are no teething problems.
On the recommendation of a poster here (Richard I think) I've had a look at the Catalyst 2 and their VPS 4 @ £44.99 a month. Ideally I guess I'm looking for someone who can provide just a little support for those questions not answerable here!
Many thanks for any help you can give me, sorry for the long rambling post and Merry Christmas.
Additionally, someone mentioned sometime ago that there was a moodle book which sales of supported the community and product directly...can anyone provide me with a link? If I can blag the cash from somewhere I will try and get all members of staff a copy by way of donation to the excellent Moodle Product.
Long live the moodle.
SP
Hosting recommendation
Number of replies: 12Re: Hosting recommendation
Hi Stephen,
For UK Moodle hosting and support, I'd highly recommend Moodle Partner www.pteppic.net. I've always found Sean to be extremely helpful.
For UK Moodle hosting and support, I'd highly recommend Moodle Partner www.pteppic.net. I've always found Sean to be extremely helpful.
Re: Hosting recommendation
This is a stupid question (possibly) but what extra do I gain from their (more expensive) packages against something like http://www.catalyst2.com/services/vps/vps4.asp aside from the support aspect?
Money is tight as I guess it always is in education...
Thanks
Stephen
Money is tight as I guess it always is in education...
Thanks
Stephen
Re: Hosting recommendation
Hi,
aside from the support? Why? Don't you need it? Great!!
What about:
- Moodle's customisation.
- Moodle's optimised servers.
- Partner's great experience over Moodle (every Partner is an Expert).
- Possibility to grow smoothly if your site needs more and more resources.
- Avoid generic co-shared hosting risks.
- Professional Moodle installation and upgrade.
- Possibility of training.
- Security patches (warning and/or installation).
- Consultancy and custom development services.
- Help Moodle development to continue.
And what was the prize difference between the generic VPS4 hosting solution and the Partners alternative? 200-300£/year? How much money does cost the list above?
Sincerely, although "make-yourself" generic hostings can work pretty fine, I really think that the added value provided by Moodle Partners is invaluable. Perhaps you will be able to pass without them but, if you are looking for PROFESSIONAL services to work with Moodle professionally, Partners are for you. That's my opinion, at least.
From my personal perspective (simply a developer) just the last point in the above list would be enough to use Partners Services (I call it "co-respond", not sure if it has the same meaning in English than in Spanish
, but talks about how to help to who is helping me). More if I've some minimum requirements and I don't want to spend a lot of time (money again) with aspects out of my personal/organisation skills.
Ciao
PS: Sean, I'll send you my commission privately. Sorry, just joking!
aside from the support? Why? Don't you need it? Great!!
What about:
- Moodle's customisation.
- Moodle's optimised servers.
- Partner's great experience over Moodle (every Partner is an Expert).
- Possibility to grow smoothly if your site needs more and more resources.
- Avoid generic co-shared hosting risks.
- Professional Moodle installation and upgrade.
- Possibility of training.
- Security patches (warning and/or installation).
- Consultancy and custom development services.
- Help Moodle development to continue.
And what was the prize difference between the generic VPS4 hosting solution and the Partners alternative? 200-300£/year? How much money does cost the list above?
Sincerely, although "make-yourself" generic hostings can work pretty fine, I really think that the added value provided by Moodle Partners is invaluable. Perhaps you will be able to pass without them but, if you are looking for PROFESSIONAL services to work with Moodle professionally, Partners are for you. That's my opinion, at least.
From my personal perspective (simply a developer) just the last point in the above list would be enough to use Partners Services (I call it "co-respond", not sure if it has the same meaning in English than in Spanish
Ciao
PS: Sean, I'll send you my commission privately. Sorry, just joking!
Re: Hosting recommendation
In an ideal world I would do as you suggest. Putting something back etc, picking up on the support. The fact is I don't have enough cash for that. Its been a battle to get £600 for the first year and that just affords me VPS4 hosting option...if I had more I would go for something with the support...but I dont so I will just have to beg that from those in the know.
As a developer you may or may not be aware of how tight money is in education. Whilst I would like to support someone like Sean and in return get support the fact is that £600 has been a pain in the arse to get. I come from Business where I used to spend £40m - £50m a year...education is very different!
Steve
As a developer you may or may not be aware of how tight money is in education. Whilst I would like to support someone like Sean and in return get support the fact is that £600 has been a pain in the arse to get. I come from Business where I used to spend £40m - £50m a year...education is very different!
Steve
Re: Hosting recommendation
Hey Steve,
I was just trying to answer your (not stupid at all) question. From my subjective perspective in Moodle, of course.
And yes, I think I'm aware about difficulties to obtain money in education. It has been my "official" work since 12 years ago. So, I really hope your founds become roomy next year, sincerely!
Ciao
I was just trying to answer your (not stupid at all) question. From my subjective perspective in Moodle, of course.
And yes, I think I'm aware about difficulties to obtain money in education. It has been my "official" work since 12 years ago. So, I really hope your founds become roomy next year, sincerely!
Ciao
Re: Hosting recommendation
Moodle Partners are probably the recommended route, but I can provide some other options if you want to contact me privately.
Re: Hosting recommendation
Ditto on Helen's post; you really can't go wrong with a guy like Sean supporting your organization. Authorized Moodle Partner support is your guarantee that someone knowledgeable will be available to address not only technical problems but online instructional design questions your teachers will have about Moodle.
Re: Hosting recommendation
If you're looking at an externally hosted site, I'd certainly concur with the idea of going with a Moodle partner, and Sean would be top of my list. Aside from the technical know-how, the moodle partners send a share of their profits back to Moodle itself, which is a Good Thing.
Have you ruled out hosting it in-house? It's not as scary as you might think, and it means your colleagues can just upload resources by moving them across into the right file-share. If you're planning to use it a lot in school, rather than principally for homework, then there's likely to be a performance gain. If they're your ISP, you might need permission from your LA or RBC to open up port 80 for your own webserver. For homework use, the key factor will be the speed of your broadband connection out.
I believe Sean also offers support and installation for in-house hosting.
Have you ruled out hosting it in-house? It's not as scary as you might think, and it means your colleagues can just upload resources by moving them across into the right file-share. If you're planning to use it a lot in school, rather than principally for homework, then there's likely to be a performance gain. If they're your ISP, you might need permission from your LA or RBC to open up port 80 for your own webserver. For homework use, the key factor will be the speed of your broadband connection out.
I believe Sean also offers support and installation for in-house hosting.
Re: Hosting recommendation
Helen just told me about this thread and I am blushing furiously, here
Seriously, what you get when you host with a Moodle partner (us or any other partner that offers hosting) is less to do with the actual hosting (storage space and data transfer, which just about anyone can do) and more to do with the inside knowledge of moodle workings, servers optimised for and dedicated to moodle, lots of moodle hosting experience across many sectors, support for your moodle administrator on top of server support, and the knowledge that a significant portion of your fee is going directly to further moodle development.
Of course you don't have to host externally...many moodle sites are hosted on the organisations' own networks...and some of them pay partners for Moodle installation, and support contracts. Again, you are making use of the knowledge and experience that the partners have, and contributing towards moodle at the same time.
Or, you can install, host and support all by yourself. That is the beauty of the open source model that moodle uses...you don't have to pay for licenses, and you don't have to pay for services if you don't want or need them (Had to put that in...this was starting to sound like an advertisment!)
Sean M Keogh
UK Moodle Partner
http://www.pteppic.net
Seriously, what you get when you host with a Moodle partner (us or any other partner that offers hosting) is less to do with the actual hosting (storage space and data transfer, which just about anyone can do) and more to do with the inside knowledge of moodle workings, servers optimised for and dedicated to moodle, lots of moodle hosting experience across many sectors, support for your moodle administrator on top of server support, and the knowledge that a significant portion of your fee is going directly to further moodle development.
Of course you don't have to host externally...many moodle sites are hosted on the organisations' own networks...and some of them pay partners for Moodle installation, and support contracts. Again, you are making use of the knowledge and experience that the partners have, and contributing towards moodle at the same time.
Or, you can install, host and support all by yourself. That is the beauty of the open source model that moodle uses...you don't have to pay for licenses, and you don't have to pay for services if you don't want or need them (Had to put that in...this was starting to sound like an advertisment!)
Sean M Keogh
UK Moodle Partner
http://www.pteppic.net
Re: Hosting recommendation
Thanks Sean, I would like dearly to host with you but the reality is that I might or might not need the support but in the short term I have just enough to buy a basic hosting package and I need more than 20 courses which is about what I could afford from your list!
Cheers
Stephen
Cheers
Stephen
Re: Hosting recommendation
Main use will be external hence the desire to host externally...plus the internal network is not up to scratch.
Ta
Ta
Re: Hosting recommendation
Hello,
I've been working with moodle for about two years now. A couple of months ago I started a small company dedicated to hosting applications for schools. I try to keep the costs as low as possible. One server will serve 1 to 10 schools; depending on the amount of users. You can take a look at my website for the prices (I'm working on an english translation at the moment; sorry for that..) Hosting for a school with 500 - 750 users will cost 1025 a year (7500Mb diskspace, 45Gb bandwith).
Randy Vermaas
http://www.digitaalonderwijs.nl
I've been working with moodle for about two years now. A couple of months ago I started a small company dedicated to hosting applications for schools. I try to keep the costs as low as possible. One server will serve 1 to 10 schools; depending on the amount of users. You can take a look at my website for the prices (I'm working on an english translation at the moment; sorry for that..) Hosting for a school with 500 - 750 users will cost 1025 a year (7500Mb diskspace, 45Gb bandwith).
Randy Vermaas
http://www.digitaalonderwijs.nl