Hello,Today i shall be discussing/sharing/chatting/etcetc my experience with <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://jonesolutions.com/services.html">http://jonesolutions.com/services.html</a><!-- m --> 
so grab some pop corns if you like. :blush: Ok after my switch from Steven, rack911.com guy, after he got his new job, or whatever reason i was booted out :blush: and was recommended Jone Solutions :agree: . So, i joined and signup, after i got my brand new shiny server for Jose paying a heafty setup fee :blush: and decent monthly fees 
. Setup if i remember did not create much issues other than the cpanel 11 thing with restoring from older version of cpanel , and jones decided to do it some other way, which is rocket science to me 
Sever got setup secured and what not. Even got a shiny custom kernel installed. Well i have not had many problems with jones, just one thing i really am worried about is the response time and can range from 1 min to 8 hrs, which was made clear when i signed up with them. I do not remember what once made me argue with jones on msn about some issue, and reached to a point where i almost got my money refunded. Maybe jones remembers what happened though. After that its been going smooth, they do what you ask them to do without problem, only thing is they never login to check on server every month unless you tell them that something is not wrong, and their service plan states this : .Clean logs every month.Scan your server for vulnerability every month.Update your server every month ( manual update )Maybe they setup some automatic cron or something, but from last ssh access i can be sure they manage to login only when i tell them that their cron to remove old email is not working again.:blush: I feel so bad reminding them of the same, while i can just via whm just remove them . Bottom line (for those who did not bring popcorn): jones is a good solution for noobs like me who has no time to look after server, as they(jones) know what they are doing, but if you are seeking someone really proactive, i think they might be bit slacking on that aspect. Cheers time to pay my invoice for this month or maybe i should wait, maybe jones got offended, i have this tendency to offend people by expressing myself. :blush:I think i used too many smilies too !! By the way i signed up as i was looking for someone to monitor server 24/7 and manage to get it online when i am not around, so far that has not been any issue. Cheers.I doubt they will be offended because there is nothing wrong with contructive criticism, and thank you for your review.
Good review but with regards to them being proactive there are many ways to consistently check servers without fully logging in however it is also good measure to log in fully every now and then but it's not 100% necessary.We personally execute commands on mass to each managed server rather than login to each individually, with this being done it does not actually spawn the shell far enough to log the last login but it's still being checked so it's certainly possible they are doing something along those lines but then again it's possible they are not. They obviously offer a great service for fee and are one of the few management companies that are actually any good.So with that been said, congratulations on finding a good management company for you and congratulations jonesolutions for doing a good job.-ScottWill see what jone says about the part of not login to shell and still doing monthly checkups externally.Thank you Energizer Bunny for your review and scott for your comments.Energizer Bunny, I would really appreciate if you just send a ticket instead if you have any concerns but since you want to know the answers via WHT, I think I can give some...Your server is updated and there is nothing to be done so we do not login. Your kernel is also secured so we didn't update it unless you want the latest kernel.You know about our monitoring system, if we received some suspicious notification, we then login right away because we know there is something wrong with it.For confidentiality and security reasons, I would appreciate if we just use the other secure line.Thanks again for your review.NetYou know about our monitoring system, if we received some suspicious notification, we then login right away because we know there is something wrong with it.
By that you mean the errors whm also sends me get sent to you? Cause i recently got one with email from whm. Will open ticket when i get home if your system does not get whm alerts.Thank you for a great reviewThank you for a great review
No problemo amigo :blush:I have used them very recently as well, they have been very prompt on any response. Great review!Good review but with regards to them being proactive there are many ways to consistently check servers without fully logging in however it is also good measure to log in fully every now and then but it's not 100% necessary.
Seriously, why is it "good measure to log in"? The solution shown above is $45/month which seems insanely low to me for any type of management service. As a consultant, I was 17 years old the last time I charged less than $75/hour for consulting. For this cheap of a management service, you should understand that what you're getting is :
- Ticket Response
- Monitoring and response to monitoring generated incidents
The only way somebody can be profitable at these prices is to have well a well-tuned, automated management and monitoring infrastructure in place. Everything needs to be scripted. Beyond that, logging into a server is a manual process. If the guy does it twice in a month, he lost money on that customer for that month.
As the number of manual interactions between a human and a computer decrease, so does the potential for operator error.Seriously, why is it "good measure to log in"? The solution shown above is $45/month which seems insanely low to me for any type of management service. As a consultant, I was 17 years old the last time I charged less than $75/hour for consulting. For this cheap of a management service, you should understand that what you're getting is :
- Ticket Response
- Monitoring and response to monitoring generated incidents
The only way somebody can be profitable at these prices is to have well a well-tuned, automated management and monitoring infrastructure in place. Everything needs to be scripted. Beyond that, logging into a server is a manual process. If the guy does it twice in a month, he lost money on that customer for that month.
As the number of manual interactions between a human and a computer decrease, so does the potential for operator error.
That's going to be fully dependant on the company at question however, it's widely accepted many of these companies are from locations where the average wage is significantly lower, I cannot speak for any other company and am just making assumptions here based on experience.
The figures above also make the assumption that it's going to take an hour per server which would not necessary be true or anywhere near that figure. These are all basic checks which while the majority of automation is effective you can never automate explicit things which a human can easily spot. If you take a 10 minute spot check every month per server that's then lowered to 6 of them per hour. It's going to vary based on that particular company, but it's certainly fesable that you can perform manual reviews of systems based on the model above. I do however agree it would be expecting more than you should be from any given service based on the pricing level.
--Reading over--
I am not even sure if this makes sense, been here since 3am so forgive me.That's going to be fully dependant on the company at question however, it's widely accepted many of these companies are from locations where the average wage is significantly lower, I cannot speak for any other company and am just making assumptions here based on experience.
Interesting. With the dollar currently shrinking against the Euro, the Rupee, and pretty much all Asian currencies, it seems like their profitability would be shrinking with this as well, no?
The figures above also make the assumption that it's going to take an hour per server which would not necessary be true or anywhere near that figure. These are all basic checks which while the majority of automation is effective you can never automate explicit things which a human can easily spot. If you take a 10 minute spot check every month per server that's then lowered to 6 of them per hour. It's going to vary based on that particular company, but it's certainly fesable that you can perform manual reviews of systems based on the model above. I do however agree it would be expecting more than you should be from any given service based on the pricing level.
I find it questionable that there is really any data that a human could find in just say 5-15 minutes of checking that cannot be scripted. Log entries can be grabbed by something like SEC or Switch. Some agent based monitoring system can grab any vital systems information making it available for monitoring and trending.
--Reading over--
I am not even sure if this makes sense, been here since 3am so forgive me.
At 3am, everything makes sense!Thanks for the reviews and comments - a thread on management companies ... well, a good thread on management companies ... is always appreciated.
so grab some pop corns if you like. :blush: Ok after my switch from Steven, rack911.com guy, after he got his new job, or whatever reason i was booted out :blush: and was recommended Jone Solutions :agree: . So, i joined and signup, after i got my brand new shiny server for Jose paying a heafty setup fee :blush: and decent monthly fees . Setup if i remember did not create much issues other than the cpanel 11 thing with restoring from older version of cpanel , and jones decided to do it some other way, which is rocket science to me Sever got setup secured and what not. Even got a shiny custom kernel installed. Well i have not had many problems with jones, just one thing i really am worried about is the response time and can range from 1 min to 8 hrs, which was made clear when i signed up with them. I do not remember what once made me argue with jones on msn about some issue, and reached to a point where i almost got my money refunded. Maybe jones remembers what happened though. After that its been going smooth, they do what you ask them to do without problem, only thing is they never login to check on server every month unless you tell them that something is not wrong, and their service plan states this : .Clean logs every month.Scan your server for vulnerability every month.Update your server every month ( manual update )Maybe they setup some automatic cron or something, but from last ssh access i can be sure they manage to login only when i tell them that their cron to remove old email is not working again.:blush: I feel so bad reminding them of the same, while i can just via whm just remove them . Bottom line (for those who did not bring popcorn): jones is a good solution for noobs like me who has no time to look after server, as they(jones) know what they are doing, but if you are seeking someone really proactive, i think they might be bit slacking on that aspect. Cheers time to pay my invoice for this month or maybe i should wait, maybe jones got offended, i have this tendency to offend people by expressing myself. :blush:I think i used too many smilies too !! By the way i signed up as i was looking for someone to monitor server 24/7 and manage to get it online when i am not around, so far that has not been any issue. Cheers.I doubt they will be offended because there is nothing wrong with contructive criticism, and thank you for your review.Good review but with regards to them being proactive there are many ways to consistently check servers without fully logging in however it is also good measure to log in fully every now and then but it's not 100% necessary.We personally execute commands on mass to each managed server rather than login to each individually, with this being done it does not actually spawn the shell far enough to log the last login but it's still being checked so it's certainly possible they are doing something along those lines but then again it's possible they are not. They obviously offer a great service for fee and are one of the few management companies that are actually any good.So with that been said, congratulations on finding a good management company for you and congratulations jonesolutions for doing a good job.-ScottWill see what jone says about the part of not login to shell and still doing monthly checkups externally.Thank you Energizer Bunny for your review and scott for your comments.Energizer Bunny, I would really appreciate if you just send a ticket instead if you have any concerns but since you want to know the answers via WHT, I think I can give some...Your server is updated and there is nothing to be done so we do not login. Your kernel is also secured so we didn't update it unless you want the latest kernel.You know about our monitoring system, if we received some suspicious notification, we then login right away because we know there is something wrong with it.For confidentiality and security reasons, I would appreciate if we just use the other secure line.Thanks again for your review.NetYou know about our monitoring system, if we received some suspicious notification, we then login right away because we know there is something wrong with it.By that you mean the errors whm also sends me get sent to you? Cause i recently got one with email from whm. Will open ticket when i get home if your system does not get whm alerts.Thank you for a great review
Thank you for a great review No problemo amigo :blush:I have used them very recently as well, they have been very prompt on any response. Great review!Good review but with regards to them being proactive there are many ways to consistently check servers without fully logging in however it is also good measure to log in fully every now and then but it's not 100% necessary.
Seriously, why is it "good measure to log in"? The solution shown above is $45/month which seems insanely low to me for any type of management service. As a consultant, I was 17 years old the last time I charged less than $75/hour for consulting. For this cheap of a management service, you should understand that what you're getting is :
- Ticket Response
- Monitoring and response to monitoring generated incidents
The only way somebody can be profitable at these prices is to have well a well-tuned, automated management and monitoring infrastructure in place. Everything needs to be scripted. Beyond that, logging into a server is a manual process. If the guy does it twice in a month, he lost money on that customer for that month.
As the number of manual interactions between a human and a computer decrease, so does the potential for operator error.Seriously, why is it "good measure to log in"? The solution shown above is $45/month which seems insanely low to me for any type of management service. As a consultant, I was 17 years old the last time I charged less than $75/hour for consulting. For this cheap of a management service, you should understand that what you're getting is :
- Ticket Response
- Monitoring and response to monitoring generated incidents
The only way somebody can be profitable at these prices is to have well a well-tuned, automated management and monitoring infrastructure in place. Everything needs to be scripted. Beyond that, logging into a server is a manual process. If the guy does it twice in a month, he lost money on that customer for that month.
As the number of manual interactions between a human and a computer decrease, so does the potential for operator error.
That's going to be fully dependant on the company at question however, it's widely accepted many of these companies are from locations where the average wage is significantly lower, I cannot speak for any other company and am just making assumptions here based on experience.
The figures above also make the assumption that it's going to take an hour per server which would not necessary be true or anywhere near that figure. These are all basic checks which while the majority of automation is effective you can never automate explicit things which a human can easily spot. If you take a 10 minute spot check every month per server that's then lowered to 6 of them per hour. It's going to vary based on that particular company, but it's certainly fesable that you can perform manual reviews of systems based on the model above. I do however agree it would be expecting more than you should be from any given service based on the pricing level.
--Reading over--
I am not even sure if this makes sense, been here since 3am so forgive me.That's going to be fully dependant on the company at question however, it's widely accepted many of these companies are from locations where the average wage is significantly lower, I cannot speak for any other company and am just making assumptions here based on experience.
Interesting. With the dollar currently shrinking against the Euro, the Rupee, and pretty much all Asian currencies, it seems like their profitability would be shrinking with this as well, no?
The figures above also make the assumption that it's going to take an hour per server which would not necessary be true or anywhere near that figure. These are all basic checks which while the majority of automation is effective you can never automate explicit things which a human can easily spot. If you take a 10 minute spot check every month per server that's then lowered to 6 of them per hour. It's going to vary based on that particular company, but it's certainly fesable that you can perform manual reviews of systems based on the model above. I do however agree it would be expecting more than you should be from any given service based on the pricing level.
I find it questionable that there is really any data that a human could find in just say 5-15 minutes of checking that cannot be scripted. Log entries can be grabbed by something like SEC or Switch. Some agent based monitoring system can grab any vital systems information making it available for monitoring and trending.
--Reading over--
I am not even sure if this makes sense, been here since 3am so forgive me.
At 3am, everything makes sense!Thanks for the reviews and comments - a thread on management companies ... well, a good thread on management companies ... is always appreciated.