Reader looking for UK-based (or related) Reseller

I'm just passing this on. I don't like to get into the 'find me a host' type conversations as it isn't an area I'm experienced in (and like religion, it has no final answer), but I figured this request was specific enough where maybe some of my European readers could help out. Anyway, on with the question:

I have a slant on the usual "what CF hosting companies are out there?" I've been searching for a couple of months now for a good CF8 reseller plan. My company is based in the UK which means we fall under the European wide data protection laws and so do all of our European clients. In essence the laws state that all personal data must be stored on a server within the EU. Exceptions are granted to servers located in countries with similar data protection laws which currently are only Argentina, Canada, Guernsey and Switzerland. US companies which subscribe to the US Dept of Commerce "Safe Harbour" scheme are also OK but the only CF hosting company I've found which subscribes is CrystalTech and I've heard the quality of their hosting is hit and miss according to which server you're put on.

Ideally I'd also like a hosting company which can provide english speaking support and is in a relatively close time zone to the UK. I'm not looking for free or dirt cheap hosting but the prices I've found offered by UK companies make you're eyes water (eg. $1000 per year for 1Gb of disk space and 10Gb monthly bandwidth / $5000 per year for 10Gb disk space and 50Gb monthly bandwidth)

Do you have any ideas or recommendations? I've been through Ben Forta's entire ISP list but the European entries are really out of data - this is no reflection on Ben as it's up to individual companies to manage their entries.

I've asked the reader to monitor this thread and if he wants to post his contact information he is welcome to, but if folks could help him out, I'd definitely appreciate it.

Comments (13) Apr 28, 2008 8:37 AM Views: 616

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Have had really experiences w/ OpenMind Hosting. Thier support and uptime has been top notch, and the plan pricing is very reasonable.

http://www.openmindhosting.com/
# Posted By Brent | 4/28/08 8:47 AM
Hi Ray,

We provide bespoke hosting, but I can also recommend London Web (http://www.londonweb.net/) and also Firstserv (http://www.firstserv.com).

Regards

Niklas
# Posted By Niklas Richardson | 4/28/08 8:48 AM
UK CF Hosting Companies (in no order of preference - only in the order I remember them)
* CFMX Hosting http://www.cfmxhosting.co.uk/
* Flint Hosts http://www.flinthosts.co.uk/
* FirstServ http://www.firstserv.com/
* RackSpace http://www.rackspace.co.uk/
* LondonWeb http://www.londonweb.co.uk/

I'm sure I've seen more, but those are the names I can remember at the minute.

There's probably other people out there with servers with space on, like myself, that would be able to offer non-dedicated hosting services, but those are harder to find.
# Posted By Stephen Moretti | 4/28/08 8:53 AM
*blatant plug*

Your reader should come up to Scotch on the Rocks (http://www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk/ in June and have a chat with the other delegates about the hosting providers they use and what their ratings are.

Chances are there will be at least one hosting company actually attending.... :D
# Posted By Stephen Moretti | 4/28/08 9:01 AM
I use Titan (www.titaninternet.co.uk)
Which, whilst expensive, have the best tech support I've ever encountered.
# Posted By Tom K | 4/28/08 9:49 AM
We are currently using www.firstserv.com. Very impressed with their support, but they are not cheap.

Hotchilli.net is a cheaper option, but their support has not been great.
# Posted By Brian Horisk | 4/28/08 11:30 AM
UK company UGC Webhosts (http://www.ugcwebhost.com/) offer a shared hosting environment. Not only is ColdFusion 8 as standard, but the servers also come with ASP 2 and PHP, with SQL Server 2005 access.
# Posted By ColdFu Monkeh | 4/28/08 2:41 PM
FWIW Edgewebhosting is Safe Harbor certified.
http://web.ita.doc.gov/safeharbor/SHList.nsf/WebPa...

I'll save the sales pitch, drop us a line if you'd like. We're a few hours behind you in U.S. eastern time, though.
# Posted By Scott Krebs | 4/28/08 6:02 PM
Further to Brian Horisk's comment, I'd very strongly recommend you *against* using Hotchilli. I had a very bad experience with their hosting a couple years ago. I won't go into the details, but basically they fleeced me of hundreds of pounds for hosting of a personal website.
# Posted By duncan | 4/29/08 3:06 AM
I'm a +1 for edgeweb and crystaltech.
I'd also say -1 for rackspace(uk & us).

Maybe dropping a comment with your platform (win/*nix), whether you're looking for shared/dedicated hosting and how much disk-space & band-width you're currently using & predicted usage you might get some more accurate opinions for a setup of your size & budget.
# Posted By David | 4/29/08 6:18 AM
I firmly recommend you avoid Hostway - their support is diabolical and they have been stinging us for extra SQL server disk space, I'm looking for a replacement as we speak.
# Posted By Katie Atkinson | 4/29/08 7:01 AM
+1 for FirstServ. They aren't the cheapest, but as with so many things you get what you pay for. We've used them for 4+ years and any problems we have had have been dealt with very promptly.
# Posted By Will Swain | 4/29/08 10:03 AM
We've also had generally good experiences with Titan and generally poor ones with Hostway during the last 5 years or so.
# Posted By Julian Halliwell | 4/30/08 12:04 PM
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