Hosting Comparison

Below is a comparison of what hosting companies offer compared to the comprehensive professional site reliability engineering and hosting solutions at IONICA that we deliver for all of our clients.

The comparison is broken into four categories — service and support, security, performance, and environmental and corporate social responsibility.

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Service and Support	IONICA	Hosting Companies
Bespoke Solution, unlimited customisation — any technology, any CMS	Yes	No
24/7/365 Access to Expert Engineers	Yes	No
Engineers work closely with you and your developers	Yes	No
Phone Support	Yes	No
Dedicated Cloud Servers / VMs	Yes	No
Canadian Data Centres Available	Yes	Sometimes
24/7 Monitoring	Yes	Typically basic server up-time only – no database, memory, storage, etc.
24/7 support	Yes	Tpyically e-mail only, sometimes phone support available with additional fees
24/7 proactive incident response	Yes	No
Host unlimited number of sites at no extra cost*	Yes	No
Unlimited bandwidth	Yes	No
DNS included	Yes	Sometimes
Back-ups included	Yes	Sometimes
Dedicated staging environment	Yes	No
Automated code deployment for developers	Yes	No
Optional automated testing for developers	Yes	No
Client list of global brands, government institutions, non-profits	Yes	Rarely
Outstanding list of references available	Yes	Rarely

Security	IONICA	Hosting Companies
Custom managed network firewall	Yes	Basic, not customisable
Custom managed web application firewall (WAF)	Yes	Sometimes, but usually basic protection only, not customisable
DoS mitigation	Yes. Three-stage mitigation	Sometimes, but typically very limited
Automatic banning of malicious site visitors	Yes	No
Service and process confinement	Yes. LSM MAC	No
24/7 security incident response	Yes	No
SSL/TLS certificates included	Yes	Sometimes
Comprehensive dedicated logging	Yes	Sometimes
Custom-tuned security parameters in OS kernel	Yes	No
Standards compliance available	Yes	No
Strict restrictions on system user authentication and privileges	Yes	No
Comprehensive background checks on all staff	Yes	No
Intrusion detection systems (HIDS / NIDS)	Yes, optional	No
Service sandboxing	Future capability	No
LSM-based user confinement and MAC	Future capability	No

Performance	IONICA	Hosting Companies
Environment tuned specifically for your use case and goals	Yes	No
Static asset cache	Yes	Sometimes, via CDN only, typically not adjustable
PHP OpCache, or other language cache	Yes	Sometimes, typically unmanaged and not adjustable
Database cache	Yes	No
Custom database configuration and slow query logging	Yes	No
High performance solid state storage	Yes	No
Dedicated memory, CPU, and cache	Yes	No
Custom web and application server tuning	Yes	No
Work closely with you and your developers to ensure fast performance	Yes	No
Add more logging, increases log verbosity, change server configuration as needed	Yes	No
Optional high-availability load balanced web server configuration	Yes	Sometimes
Optional high-availability multi-master database cluster	Yes	No
Optional high-availability database cache cluster	Yes	No
Optional disaster recovery environments, file and data replication	Yes	No
Scale up to 120 GB memory, 32 CPU cores, 10 GB Internet link	Yes	No
Dedicated physical servers available	Yes	No. Dedicated servers not even available.

Environmental Responsibility & CSR	IONICA	Hosting Companies
Carbon neutral data centres	Yes	Sometimes
Water neutral data centres	Water neutral by 2030	Uncommon
Donates portion of annual profits to charity	Yes. More than $200,000 donated so far!	No
Commitment to fair employee compensation and treatment	Yes	No
Employs local talent, with living wages and fair labour practises	Yes. Positive, exciting company culture. Employs Canadians at a living wage.	No. Often largely staffed by low-skill, low-wage off-shore workers

Have questions about what we do, how we work, or how we go far above and beyond what hosting companies do? Contact us to learn more.

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