Leverage All the Capabilities of the Cloud With the High Performance of Bare Metal Servers

TL; DR: PlanetHoster combines the cloud and bare metal servers to create its HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution. The team did so to meet the needs of users who want to leverage the unparalleled benefits of cloud computing while enjoying the performance of bare metal. We spoke with Mina Shenouda, CEO and Co-Founder of PlanetHoster, about the cloud’s high availability, the PlanetHoster platform, and new solutions on the road map.

Sometimes, I miss the old ways of doing things. It’s not because I’m stuck in the past, but because those methods were just better. Using the latest technologies can be exciting, but they can often lack the functionality or durability you loved about older models.

Take updates for example. My devices have gone through updates where I asked myself, “why did they fix that, it wasn’t broken in the first place.” I then find myself wanting to Frankenstein the whole thing, adding bits and pieces from both versions to create the perfect solution.

The team at PlanetHoster understands this well. With the rise of cloud computing, many businesses hopped on the hype train to leverage unprecedented benefits of the cloud. But they later found that the cloud was missing crucial elements that their legacy or on-premises infrastructure used to provide.

Instead of abandoning the cloud, companies wanted a hybrid solution that combined the best of the cloud and dedicated hosting. Responding to this need, the PlanetHoster team developed its HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution for its customers.

“We essentially took our bare metal solution to the next level. So our hybrid cloud solution has all the advantages and performance of a bare metal and all the advantages of a cloud solution combined,” said Mina Shenouda, CEO and Co-Founder of PlanetHoster.

PlanetHoster enhanced its bare metal offering by integrating essential cloud components. Its HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution covers the scope of business needs, providing users with high performance, availability, and security.

Below, I’ll discuss PlanetHoster’s hybrid solution, innovative approach, and road map.

Mina Shenouda co-founded PlanetHoster in 2007. At the time, the digital landscape was on a precipice of unprecedented transformation. The cloud would go mainstream within the next decade and smartphones were taking over, changing how we surf the web and bringing technology into every crevice of daily life.

However, since the beginning of its journey, PlanetHoster has had its focus on one type of server: bare metal. Many businesses relied on these servers to build legacy infrastructure and their systems throughout the years.

“We can put anything on a bare metal server — Linux, Unix, Windows, whatever. And it would usually only have a motherboard and RAID 1 at the time. But when it fails, it becomes a huge headache,” said Mina.

Bare metal servers only have a single point of failure. So if a server fails, everything goes down with no backups to save the day. When the cloud came along, however, it guaranteed a highly sought-after feature: high availability.

“Cloud zones were able to provide the high availability that people were looking for. At the time, bare metal with RAID 10 could provide redundancy and performance for data. But in the end, it was still a single point of failure,” said Mina.

The PlanetHoster team understood the benefits of bare metal servers but also knew its customers needed something more reliable in case of unexpected downtime. So it decided to combine its bread and butter, bare metal servers, with cloud hosting to create its HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution.

“Our clients were looking for high-performance data processing and CPUs and high availability for their storage and compute. Our hybrid cloud gives them all those things,” said Mina.

The HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution merges the best of both worlds and gives users the high performance of bare metal with the reliability and flexibility of the cloud. And it’s 100% managed.

PlanetHoster offers a gamut of solutions that meet different needs and business journeys where they are. PlanetHoster has the services and features — from shared hosting to hybrid cloud infrastructure — to help anyone jump-start or advance their web goals.

Mina told us customers can easily migrate within the PlanetHoster platform. For example, if your business experiences sustained growth, you will need to upgrade from your existing shared hosting plan. PlanetHoster allows you to migrate from shared hosting to a dedicated server plan like that.

Its plans are comprehensive and secure, providing you with everything you need under one hood. This way, you don’t have to go elsewhere for other resources.

The following features are included in its spotlight managed HybridCloud N-Zero-C Solution:

• Multisite redundancy across France, Canada, and Switzerland
• Remote backup – 2nd Data Center – 20 days
• 25 Gbps of public internet access
• High-performance N0C Web server (compatible with Apache, LiteSpeed, etc.)
• A full security suite: web application firewalls, DDoS, anti-brute force, KVM
• 24/7 monitoring and cybersecurity forensics
• Up to 32 CPU cores, 256GB RAM, 16 TB (SSD/NVMe), centralized with triple replication erasure coding and high availability
• Proprietary N0C panel (similar to cPanel) for managing kernels, email, and other resources without additional monthly fees
• Free migration
• Data center (Tier III or Tier IV)
• SLA excluding DDoS: 99.99%
• Caching N0C
• CloudLinux OS (CageFS and MySQL Governor)
• KernelCare
• WAF: Included
• Anycast DNS and anti-DDoS
• Anti-spam for mailboxes
• Access to PlanetHoster RPMs
• Remote logs (read-only)
• 24/7/365 support and monitoring

The PlanetHoster team is currently working on getting the highest level of certifications and accreditation, including ISO and SecNumCloud certifications, to complete its security compliance.

Established in 2007, PlanetHoster has seen the hosting industry dramatically evolve. Although the team shares a collective innovative mindset, Mina said he and his team members don’t get ahead of themselves when it comes to the newest technologies.

“We are not early adopters of new technology. We need to see it in a mature state. After that, we bring our own research and development to it,” said Mina.

The PlanetHoster team takes a more prudent, inspective approach to innovation. Mina shared the team’s approach to the cloud as an example. When the cloud first arrived, it still had some wrinkles to iron out.

“There were many solutions on the market that weren’t stable or secure enough for our clients. So we tackle this type of hype with some wisdom because if we don’t, we’re putting our reputation at risk,” said Mina.

It’s safe to say that PlanetHoster doesn’t fall for the hype or rush to integrate solutions too quickly. Instead, the team takes its time and brings a solution that is stable and reliable, so it won’t disrupt its customers’ businesses.

This is also why PlanetHoster is waiting to integrate AI into its platform. The team wants to ensure it has all the infrastructure and training in place to accommodate AI and its capabilities.

“We have a great eye on the news. We test all the new things ourselves, but we don’t integrate them until we know we can offer security, reliability, and stability to our clients,” said Mina.

Offering Innovation and Stable Pricing

PlanetHoster is a supporter of innovation. As a matter of fact, Mina said having an innovative business model has helped PlanetHoster keep its pricing stable over the years.

“Innovation also brings stability in pricing. Since we don’t use a third party, we can keep the pricing stable across the years. And that’s something also our clients are looking for,” said Mina.

Since PlanetHoster creates its solutions in-house, it doesn’t have to outsource, which can drive up costs and product pricing. PlatnetHoster develops everything in-house from its control panel to its hybrid cloud solution.

“Having a hybrid cloud solution does not mean that we use a hyper scaler to extend the capability of our infrastructure. Everything is in-house. We don’t have any third-party presence,” said Mina.

The PlanetHoster team doesn’t have to worry about a hyper scaler being bought out or a vendor suddenly raising prices. PlanetHoster is also privately held, so the team controls everything, allowing it to provide the best experience for its customers.

“We accomplish great things in software and hardware. Currently, we have a great satisfaction rate from our clients and that’s one of our major goals,” said Mina.

Mina also told us that PlanetHoster has a lot of new solutions coming up in the pipeline.

“We have already launched our new division and cyber defense. We want to make it more public so we can protect, for example, external networks or IP blocks. It’s similar to Magic Transit from Cloudflare,” said Mina.

PlanetHoster also set up direct links to its network for clients in Montreal, Paris, and Lausanne. It’s a regional product, but the team offers GRE tunneling to extend this capability to other networks farther away.

The team is also working on a unique solution for migrating between hosting plans. Mina said the solution is currently in beta testing, but it will allow users to transition from shared hosting to hybrid cloud infrastructure on an as-needed basis.

One of PlanetHoster’s core values is sustainability. Its data centers and servers use renewable energy that consumes a small amount of electrical energy. And the team plans to add more initiatives to meet consumer neutrality goals.

“There’s a lot of innovation we’re doing to reduce our energy consumption, offer a green hosting, and to answer the value of eco responsibility that we have internally,” said Mina.