Which host to use?

fluKe

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I have built a little prototype that takes a photo every minute for 8-16 hours a day, each roughly 1.5mb in size, and uploads it to a ftp.
I then have a web interface that allows me to go through the photo archive and view any photo in the archive.

The entire plan is to have this going for up to 5 years and allowing me to review over time.

Is there any host that would allow for this at a relatively cheap rate?
 
First things first, is the server side MIcrosoft stack or Linux?
Secondly, 1.5Mb every minute will need some decent upload speeds to get all that uploaded.

Hosts might have an issue with the size you are looking to store using the el cheapo hosting packages so for scalability over time you need a VPS. That way you can scale storage over time and only pay for what you use.

Finally, international hosting is usually better for projects like this unless money is infinite for this?
 
Linux is fine, upload speeds are sorted.

I have no problem utilizing international hosts and money is a factor on the project.
 
What's your issue with the international guys?
There are plenty of hosts abroad that do a far better job then the locals. If latency and compliance are not an issue I move my personal projects abroad to save costs.
 
http://hostingweb.co.za

Click on the button to take you to the latest guide and then scroll right to the bottom where you'll find a lot of hosting packages from various South African hosting companies. You can then look for one that fits your needs. You'll probably want to go for something that requires a lot of space and also a lot of bandwidth.

Then contact the ones that you've chosen and tell them what you want to do and ask them if it's alright because if there's one thing I learned then it's unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth do not always mean that. Another thing I've learned though is that the hosts in South Africa are a friendly bunch and they'll let you know if they are happy with what you are doing. :)
 
What's your issue with the international guys?
There are plenty of hosts abroad that do a far better job then the locals. If latency and compliance are not an issue I move my personal projects abroad to save costs.

I said I have no problem using international.
 
Then VPS is the way to go, look at guys like Rackspace or Amazon or even Hetzner.de (both their VPS and dedicated offerings are good, I host my lab on one of their dedicated boxes and for what I need they are great with very decent latency to SA), get yourself a Linux VM and either install a control panel (VestaCP is a nice free CPanel alternative which is nice if that is what you are used to) or just manually install The stack you need.

With an international VPS you might be paying slightly more the you would for a shared hosting environment but if you push the quantity of data you mentioned it will start to make financial sense in no time. Also, you don't need to bother reading terms and conditions and having to worry about AUP violations as its is your server to do with as you please.

depending on the type of data look at getting an outsourced backup solution, most companies in the US charge peanuts for automated backups.
 
You're looking at about 600 GB of data being hosted like that per year

My personal recommendation would be Google Drive. You get 15gb free and can scale up to 100gb for only $2 a month. 1TB will cost you $10 which is what most "unlimited" shared hosting costs, except it's not really unlimited and they might kick you off. Google is well established and you don't need a custom web interface to view your photos etc, apps are abundant on Android/iOS for it
 
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That's assuming the device OP is building will support one of the Google Drive apps

It's actually very easy and straight forward with their API's. Also, depending where the files are stored, they will immediately be sync'ed like DropBox, so not really required with API and programming and what not. There's services like itduzzit that allows you connection through FTP with Google Drive if you really only need FTP and that's the only thing you can use.
 
First things first, is the server side MIcrosoft stack or Linux?
Secondly, 1.5Mb every minute will need some decent upload speeds to get all that uploaded.

Hosts might have an issue with the size you are looking to store using the el cheapo hosting packages so for scalability over time you need a VPS. That way you can scale storage over time and only pay for what you use.

Finally, international hosting is usually better for projects like this unless money is infinite for this?

(1 megabyte) / (1 minute) = 16.6666667 kBps, sorted on all ADSL products (Should be done in 20 secs each time @512kbps and 10 secs on 10mbps/1mbps).
 
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