n00b questions: managed VPS server providers

[LiquidFractal]

Hello,

I thought I would ask some of those in the know here about managed VPS services.

I'm looking to move hosts because I cannot upgrade CentOS on my current server (and <7.x support will expire by 2020).  I'm looking at KnownHost, which comes highly reviewed.  I will ask them some questions of course, but I wanted to see if anyone had any advice on the following:

• LiteSpeed or Apache?  I hear LiteSpeed outperforms Apache but are there any compatibility issues re: running PHP, MariaDB, Cpanel etc?
• Is there any way to ask a provider to provide an IP address or something for speed testing?
• I'm in Australia but am looking for a good managed VPS provider on the US west coast.  Does anyone know of any reliable providers or hear of good ones?

Thanks in advance!

[Aiwa]

PM @ASTRAPI