The Media Temple versus Rackspace (Mosso) smack down revisited

18 Apr 2010

Way back in 2008 I compared hosting with Media Temple versus Mosso (now Rackspace). Since then, cloud services have matured and offer more options so I thought I'd share the results of moving a site from Media Temple Grid-Service (GS) to Rackspace Cloud Server.

It's important to note that Media Temple GS and Rackspace Cloud Server are very different services:

• Media Temple's GS is a managed email and web hosting solution controlled through a web interface. Users don't need to think about server setup and administration but also have no control of server features.
• Rackspace's Cloud Server lets you create a virtual server from a number or popular Linux distros or Windows (beta). You manage basic backup and virtual machine controls through a web interface but are responsible for configuring the server OS via SSH. Rackspace has an extensive knowledge base covering OS setup topics but if you're not comfortable with basic Linux commands, Rackspace Cloud Server is probably not for you.

Hosting Environment & Costs

Media Temple

Grid-Service and optional 128MB RAM MySQL GridContainer. Includes 100GB of storage and 1TB of data transfer. Fixed cost of US$40/month.

Rackspace

512MB RAM Debian 5.0 Cloud Server. Includes 20GB of storage. Variable cost based on server hours and bandwidth currently averaging around US$25/month.

I use Pingdom to monitor site response and uptime. Only HTTP is monitored as I made the wise decision to move my email to a dedicated email host a long time ago.

Media Temple Grid-Service

Pingdom results for my site on Media Temple over a six month period from April to October 2009:

Media Temple uptime

• Uptime: 99.60%
• Downtime: 17 hours, 30 minutes, 29 seconds
• Number of downtimes: 124
• Longest downtime: 4 hours, 36 minutes, 4 seconds

Media Temple response time

• Average response time: 719 ms
• Slowest average response time: 2,563 ms
• Fastest average response time: 329 ms

I really wanted Media Temple GS to work as they have a fantastic web management UI and support has always been quick and friendly but dismal performance over the six months was a big incentive to give Rackspace a try. You often hear of big names using and happy with Media Temple but I suspect none are using the Grid-Service but instead opting for the much pricier Dedicated-Virtual or Nitro services.

Rackspace Cloud Server

Pingdom results for my site on Rackspace over a six month period from October 2009 to April 2010:

Rackspace uptime

• Uptime: 100.00%
• Downtime: 10 minutes, 43 seconds
• Number of downtimes: 8
• Longest downtime: 2 minutes

Rackspace response time

• Average response time: 275 ms
• Slowest average response time: 412 ms
• Fastest average response time: 200 ms

Wow. Rackspace performance has been phenomenal over the last six months and even more dramatic when you look at the improvement in response time during the switch from Media Temple to Rackspace towards the end of October:

Response time during the switch from Media Temple to Rackspace

Conclusion

If you're comfortable with a little Linux SSH, using a Rackspace Cloud Server is a no-brainer: you have the freedom to build a custom server environment running on rock solid infrastructure at relatively low cost.