FAQ

Get answers to most of your questions.

General

Why should I go with Somewhere in the Cloud?

Utter simplicity. Period.

For the first time in the history of web building, there's finally an easy way to run your applications. Code it and load it. Somewhere in the Cloud takes care of the rest — monitoring, patching, configuration, security, scaling...

There's nothing else out there like it. Somewhere in the Cloud is an advanced, enterprise-level platform that lets you focus on what you're good at. All the headache of server administration is our responsibility.

What does Somewhere in the Cloud use for a storage system? Have you done anything to make it redundant?

Nothing as important as your website should be served from a single hard drive, but you'd be surprised by how many web hosts have little more redundancy than a pair of crossed fingers. We're different and for good reason. The advanced architecture powering our hosting solution uses groups of high-performance, network attached storage devices to reliably serve every web page, image, and email. Inside each storage device, drives are mirrored to each other in a RAID configuration to create a first level of redundancy. And, as a final precautionary measure, all data on the system is automatically backed up on a repeating schedule.

How often does Somewhere in the Cloud backup information?

Somewhere in the Cloud makes backups of your data on a nightly basis. However, its purpose is for disaster recovery on the server side. If for any reason a storage node on our side were to crash, our backups are there to replace any lost data. That should give you peace of mind.

With that said, we recommend that you make periodic backups of your site and data to your local computer since we are unable to extract an individual site's data from the nightly backups. If you need a backup of your MySQL or MS SQL databases, they can be exported through our online utilities or by connecting directly to the servers using desktop software.

What version of Linux does Somewhere in the Cloud run? What about for Windows?

The Linux side of our platform is built on Red Hat Enterprise Server. On the other side of the fence, the Windows platform runs on Windows 2008 and IIS 7.

Why isn't shell access offered by Somewhere in the Cloud?

Shell access is not offered by Somewhere in the Cloud primarily for security reasons. We know that shell access has its benefits and we expect to have some level of access available for our customers at some point in the future. Keep in mind however that many functions typically accessed via shell are possible with Somewhere in the Cloud, including cron jobs, file permissions, and unzip.

Pricing and Scaling

What is included with my plan?

We have included enough resources in our plans to power most business needs. You get high performance storage as well as plenty of outgoing bandwidth per month (incoming is not included in your calculation). In addition, Somewhere in the Cloud uses compute cycles (see below) to monitor your computing usage. Unlike many hosters, Somewhere in the Cloud will never cut you off for using what we sell you.

What happens if I exceed my plan limits?

We have created fair and simple pricing beyond the base amount that means you pay only for what you use and nothing more. There are no onerous penalties for exceeding the included plan amounts. Our price sheet is here for all scaling metrics. The key items include $0.22/GB for outgoing bandwidth, $0.50/GB for storage and $0.01 per compute cycle. For super heavy users over 50 million page views, special pricing may be available.

How far can I really scale?

In truth, there are no limits. We currently have users pushing hundreds of millions of requests on single domains. The most important issue is whether your site will be compatible with Somewhere in the Cloud. Please refer to our technology section to ensure you can run your applications successfully Somewhere in the Cloud.

What are compute cycles?

Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications require on Somewhere in the Cloud. For example, using 10,000 compute cycles in a month is roughly equivalent to running a server with a 2.8 GHz modern processor for the same period of time.

How many compute cycles will my applications use?

Since web applications vary so greatly, it's hard to make a perfect guess. However, there are some guidelines that can help. First, you can think of 10,000 compute cycles as being about the same processing power as you'd get from a decent dedicated server. For example 10,000 compute cycles would power about 2.1 million page views using a database-driven content management system like WordPress.

How do I track my compute cycle usage?

The compute cycles you use are presented in your control panel in near real time.

What goes into calculating a compute cycle?

Mostly, CPU processing time. However, compute cycles also account for the disk I/O your application's operations consume. For example, a page with heavy database queries will consume more compute cycles in part due to the larger volume of disk I/O it requires.

Support

When is support available?

Somewhere in the Cloud support is staffed 24x7x365. Chat or call us anytime and talk to a real human being at our headquarters in San Antonio, Texas.

Is phone support incoming only, or outgoing as well?

The Somewhere in the Cloud support team prides itself on getting things done. That means we'll do whatever it takes to resolve your issues. Sure, most of the time you will be calling in with a question, but if need be, our support reps won't hesitate to pick up the phone to call you back. Of course there's no extra charge for outgoing calls, anywhere in the world.

Where is your support team located?

Our entire technical support team is located in-house (in San Antonio, Texas, to be precise); we refuse to offshore any portion of support. By closely monitoring service interactions, we can ensure your clients will receive a worthwhile interaction every time. And our team is structured to promote cooperation to resolve your customers' issues quickly. Our support technicians sit right next to our admins who manage the hosting clusters and our developers who write the applications. If there is a problem, this cross functional team can quickly huddle to solve the issue.

What type of response times should I expect from your support team?

Our technical support team is staffed around the clock to ensure fast resolution of all customer issues. Whether you are calling in on our toll free support number or chatting live with us from your control panel, you should expect to interact with a live person within 60 seconds.

What forms of payment do you accept?

We allow you to pay using Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.

What will appear on my credit card statement?

"Web Hosting Billing Systems" will appear on your credit card statement for every month you host with Somewhere in the Cloud.