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Final SwiftVM Review
About a month ago, @eastonch was kind enough to offer me a slot testing one of the servers in his new service SwiftVM. Having had the server for a month, and after putting it through its paces, I agreed to leave a review, so here it is.
The server itself:
The server itself has been mostly satisfactory. SwiftVM bills their servers as pure SSD, and the speed shows. I was getting speeds in the GB/s in DD tests, and ioping gave IOPS in the ten thousands. Yes, there is faster, but I'm sure with speeds like this, a database server (for instance) would be pretty happy. As to the network, that was less impressive. The servers have 100mbps links which are OK, but 1Gbps would undeniably be better. Furthermore, IPv6 was not included, which is something I look for to see if a provider is ready for the future of the Internet. In my first review, I was told that both of these would be fixed would be fixed either "soon" (network speed) or "in a few weeks" (IPv6). While I'm glad of that, I know these things can often take longer than anticipated. I understand it's not always the provider's fault, but the provider does have a choice of upstream providers, so they should be on the lookout for those with good support of the latest technologies. SwiftVM is currently with AIS in San Diego.
For full tests, you can check out the ServerBear benchmarks I ran on the VPS. I should note, these were done right at the end of the trial period, when SwiftVM had officially launched, meaning there would have been more customers on the node.
Support:
I never went through the "official" ticket support system. When I was selected for this test, I was given an e-mail address to contact for initial help, so that might influence my experience with support. With that said, I did find that I got a quick response to the few items I mentioned, which were mostly about the website itself, since they were just launching. I did find a possible bug in the order system, which I was assured would be fixed, but have no way of checking. Strictly in terms of speed of responses, the support was good, but I can't comment on technical competence.
Other:
The website is good, it seems well designed and the information needed is clearly available. The plans are OK too, with fair prices for what you're getting. If the above network issues were worked out, the plans would be very good. @eastonch has always been fairly active on LET, and he posted his offers here after the launch of SwiftVM, so I feel like he is trustworthy.
Overview (TL;DR):
SwiftVM seems to be a decent service for the money, run by a competent member of the community. Though the network issues might make some hesitate, I'm told they will be fixed, so I feel things are in good shape there too. The overall professionalism is A+. Since there are two people working together on this service, there is less chance of it having to go due to time constraints. All things taken in to account, I'd say this is a good host, one to consider for your next project, especially if you live near San Diego.
Comments
Didn't notice this thread until now. Thanks for the review @DStrout!
No problem, hope it helps someone. Too bad it sank so quickly.