Tuesday, November 28, 2006

MediaTemple Grid - A HUGE Mistake.

Where to begin. MediaTemple used to be known as a great, reliable host. The shared server was their basic offering and worked well for small to medium sites. Then came "The Grid". It was promised to be the "last hosting plan you'll ever need". I, like many users, bought into the hype and agreed to switch from my shared server to the grid platform.

Fast forward to 2 months later. My site has been up and down constantly. I have over 30 support tickets. The biggest problem it seems is the MYSQL connectivity, it is very inconsistant and goes down at least once a day. If you use a CMS or other system that relies on MYSQL, run as fast as you can from the Grid. It will destroy your site. They say they are "working on it", but in the mean time, you will frustrate your users to no end. It seems this product was not fully tested before they decided to release it. Uptime is nowhere near the industry standard 99%. It seems more like 60% uptime. How hard is it just to keep a site up and running?? This is what they do right? Get your act together already!!

The obvious questions is, why not just leave then? Well the problem is that I have so much invested in this current setup. It would take a huge amount of time and effort to get moved to another host. Not to mention downtime between servers. Domains transferred, SLL certs, moving the apps, content, mysql database, email configs, etc.

So while they are totally screwing you, it takes a lot to actually get up and leave. I wish it was more simple to move, because I am very frustrated that I am PAYING for this. One thing is for sure, no new projects will be hosted by mediatemple, they simply cannot handle the job.