Invision hosting and large sites

[Sheffielder]

So I'm currently self hosting a couple of forums
Both are old sites that have been running since around 2004 or so

They're large in size of database but also storage due to uploads over the years of images etc by members

I've tried Invision hosted communities a few times over the years but always had issues with it in terms of speed, downtime or issues but due to price increases by my current hosts I'm tempted to try once more

Could I get some advice as to whether I should trust Invision to host my stuff or not?
 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Sheffielder

[Jim M]

1 minute ago, Sheffielder said:

Could I get some advice as to whether I should trust Invision to host my stuff or not?

Yes, you can but I might be biased 😄 .

Any specific questions you have? We have plenty of enormous communities running on our Cloud platform and many large corporations trust us to run their communities. If you haven't tried our platform in the last 4-5 years, it is widely different in a completely cloud based architecture and keeps improving.

We publish our status and uptime here, if you have any concerns: https://status.invisioncommunity.com/

[Sheffielder]

The last few times I've tried I've had to move away as I'm UK based, found the site had issues, had really slow response times (back then) which meant it was a very frustrating experience to say the least, and because the site is monetised I couldn't risk staying on the hosting any longer so went to self hosted.

What I'm looking for is a smooth migration to a new host, uptime is fine I can see that - but if my site has an issue currently an engineer is on it within 15/30 minutes and it gets sorted, plus I get backups etc offsite - all on SSD infrastructure that's really fast. 

I don't want to risk moving if it's going to be a nightmare migrating, or I lose files/images in the move, or if the response/repair time if there's downtime is a nightmare like previous times where I've had to leave my site down overnight till the support staff come on shift in the US etc?

Also - ping time, response time for users in the UK and also SEO implications of moving away from UK hosts?

Edited September 20, 2022 by Sheffielder

[Randy Calvert]

In terms of performance, there are a number of performance enhancements that are being rolled out in the next few updates. Charles posted about them here:

In addition, IPS offers hosting out of Europe now. So that should help quite a bit in terms of performance as well!

[Jim M]

You will have a project manager who will work with you to migrate your self-hosted community to our Cloud. The import process is typically pretty smooth. However, I do want to stress that we can only import what is provided so ensuring a complete backup is taken is always the best way to ensure a positive migration experience 🙂 .

Our support timeline can be read here: https://invisioncommunity.com/legal/standards/ . I'm afraid, I cannot guarantee that you will get a 15-30 min response rate 24/7 but during regular business hours, we are very quick to respond and we do have monitors in place to warn us about issues happening in our environment that we have people in place to resolve as quickly as possible.

We do not have an automated backup process that you can perform and hold offsite. We have rigorous backups in place to handle this for our clients but we can provide you with periodic backups on request.

If your user base is in the UK, you may wish to look at our EU hosting location which comes with our Creator Pro plans and higher.

If you wish to move forward, I am happy to move this to our sales team to help you continue investigate if this is right for you.

[Sheffielder]

1 minute ago, Randy Calvert said:

In terms of performance, there are a number of performance enhancements that are being rolled out in the next few updates. Charles posted about them here:

In addition, IPS offers hosting out of Europe now. So that should help quite a bit in terms of performance as well!

 

Thank you

Also another thing is mail and FTP access which are essential for me 

Just now, Jim M said:

You will have a project manager who will work with you to migrate your self-hosted community to our Cloud. The import process is typically pretty smooth. However, I do want to stress that we can only import what is provided so ensuring a complete backup is taken is always the best way to ensure a positive migration experience 🙂 .

Our support timeline can be read here: https://invisioncommunity.com/legal/standards/ . I'm afraid, I cannot guarantee that you will get a 15-30 min response rate 24/7 but during regular business hours, we are very quick to respond and we do have monitors in place to warn us about issues happening in our environment that we have people in place to resolve as quickly as possible.

We do not have an automated backup process that you can perform and hold offsite. We have rigorous backups in place to handle this for our clients but we can provide you with periodic backups on request.

If your user base is in the UK, you may wish to look at our EU hosting location which comes with our Creator Pro plans and higher.

 

 

Is there no support in place for UK users during non-US business hours in case of downtime/issues?

[Jim M]

1 minute ago, Sheffielder said:

Is there no support in place for UK users during non-US business hours in case of downtime/issues?

A good portion of our team is based in the UK and work UK hours.

[Randy Calvert]

1 minute ago, Sheffielder said:

 

Thank you

Also another thing is mail and FTP access which are essential for me 

FTP access is not provided. For cloud hosting this is not really needed. There is a file uploader in the ACP that can add files. You can also leverage an AWS S3 bucket and upload files to it. 
 

IPS does not provide email hosting services. I personally use Office 365 for email. You could use Google Workspace or any other email hosting service. 

[Jim M]

1 minute ago, Randy Calvert said:

FTP access is not provided. For cloud hosting this is not really needed. There is a file uploader in the ACP that can add files. You can also leverage an AWS S3 bucket and upload files to it. 
 

IPS does not provide email hosting services. I personally use Office 365 for email. You could use Google Workspace or any other email hosting service. 

These are more typical of regular hosting, rather than our Cloud which is a Saas (Software as a Service) offering.

[Sheffielder]

1 minute ago, Randy Calvert said:

FTP access is not provided. For cloud hosting this is not really needed. There is a file uploader in the ACP that can add files. You can also leverage an AWS S3 bucket and upload files to it. 
 

IPS does not provide email hosting services. I personally use Office 365 for email. You could use Google Workspace or any other email hosting service. 

 

 

Thank you - so I'd be able to make changes to things like my ads.txt files etc?

[Jim M]

Just now, Sheffielder said:

 

 

Thank you - so I'd be able to make changes to things like my ads.txt files etc?

Yep, this is possible via our CMS, Pages, which comes with a Cloud package.

[Randy Calvert]

1 minute ago, Jim M said:

A good portion of our team is based in the UK and work UK hours.

If you look at post history… Marc was starting the day off around 9 hours ago at 5am ET.  🙂

 

 

[Sheffielder]

Am tempted but it's such a huge leap 🤣

 

[Randy Calvert]

5 minutes ago, Sheffielder said:

Am tempted but it's such a huge leap 🤣

 

The question is if you want a managed service where you just want to USE the tool or if you’re wanting just “hosting”. 

If you don’t want to worry about things like if the platform meets the requirements of the software or if it is optimized to work with your setup… the Invision offering makes this a no brainer.

If you want to have your fingers on the controls over things like PHP and MySQL or if you want to run scripts that are NOT IPB… you’re most likely better remaining self-hosted and just finding a provider that meets your needs. 

At the end of the day there is no right or wrong answer. It is simply what makes sense for you and your community. 🙂 

[Charles]

If you want to schedule a call, just email sales and we can book a Zoom meeting 🙂 

[Sheffielder]

36 minutes ago, Randy Calvert said:

The question is if you want a managed service where you just want to USE the tool or if you’re wanting just “hosting”. 

If you don’t want to worry about things like if the platform meets the requirements of the software or if it is optimized to work with your setup… the Invision offering makes this a no brainer.

If you want to have your fingers on the controls over things like PHP and MySQL or if you want to run scripts that are NOT IPB… you’re most likely better remaining self-hosted and just finding a provider that meets your needs. 

At the end of the day there is no right or wrong answer. It is simply what makes sense for you and your community. 🙂 

 

 

Ultimately I need:

1) Smooth migration

2) To be able to edit ads.txt and custom css

3) To have emails sending to members when they join etc and bulk mail

4) Just to use the site software - and not have to worry about PHP, MySQL or any tech stuff 🤣

I just need it to work, and when it doesn't need it fixed like asap and not the next day etc

Also site speed - I need it all to be RAPID in the UK for my users

The simpler the solution the better for me

Edited September 20, 2022 by Sheffielder

[Jim M]

I would suggest hopping on a call with Charles and our sales team. They can help any uneasy feelings about the process and give you first-hand insights to these items 🙂 .

General "Welcome" emails and the bulk mail feature are part of our software so are included regardless if you are Cloud or self-hosted. 

The ads.txt can be added via Pages so you can edit it at any point. Themes (custom CSS) are still available as well.

[Sheffielder]

1 minute ago, Jim M said:

I would suggest hopping on a call with Charles and our sales team. They can help any uneasy feelings about the process and give you first-hand insights to these items 🙂 .

General "Welcome" emails and the bulk mail feature are part of our software so are included regardless if you are Cloud or self-hosted. 

The ads.txt can be added via Pages so you can edit it at any point. Themes (custom CSS) are still available as well.

 

Thank you - will book a call and see what else I need to check off my list of worries !

The Bulk Mail I meant actually having emails go out (e.g not the feature but the actual email delivery that I currently pay sendgrid an over the top amount of £ for - really not happy with it at £100 per month etc)

[Jim M]

4 minutes ago, Sheffielder said:

The Bulk Mail I meant actually having emails go out (e.g not the feature but the actual email delivery that I currently pay sendgrid an over the top amount of £ for - really not happy with it at £100 per month etc)

If these are just the emails that the software sends, yes. We do have a cloud email delivery system which comes with your package. It is not as customizable as SendGrid or your own SMTP server (e.g. all emails send from an email address on our domain to ease deliverability concerns and use a reply-to with your email address) but it is available. Alternatively, you can continue to use SendGrid or find another SMTP provider.

[Sheffielder]

1 minute ago, Jim M said:

If these are just the emails that the software sends, yes. We do have a cloud email delivery system which comes with your package. It is not as customizable as SendGrid or your own SMTP server (e.g. all emails send from an email address on our domain to ease deliverability concerns and use a reply-to with your email address) but it is available. Alternatively, you can continue to use SendGrid or find another SMTP provider.

Ahhh that's frustratingly close to what I need

All I'm needing is for the site to run and for anyone registering to get an email from 'me@mydomain.com' etc confirming it, and bulk mails to come from an email at my domain etc

[Marc]

13 hours ago, Sheffielder said:

Ahhh that's frustratingly close to what I need

All I'm needing is for the site to run and for anyone registering to get an email from 'me@mydomain.com' etc confirming it, and bulk mails to come from an email at my domain etc

If you wanted to use your own email addresses, you would indeed need your own email service for this.

 

Just reading through what you have there. I am UK based myself, as are a few of our developers for any issues that may need to be escalated 🙂 Staff in general we have on a few time zones