6Sync Report: Final Thoughts

Over the past several days, I have written about a relatively new comer to the Linux hosting world, 6Sync. They offer virtual Linux servers that are fast and can scale, adding memory, disk space and bandwidth as you needs grow. I have been extremely impressed with their support team, who has consistently answered my questions in a very quick manner, usually within minutes of creating the support ticket.

Setting up a new server is very easy, and their backup strategy will protect you from unexpected situations. And when you mistakenly overwrite a file, restoring from a previous backup could potentially save you a lot of time.

6Sync is not a solution for those who are inexperienced with configuring and setting up a Linux server – 6sync is for people who enjoy configuring servers from the command prompt. For developers and system administrators looking for a solid hosting platform, 6Sync is a young startup that is moving to dominate the virtual server space. As with any startup, they have growing pains, but even with a few minor issues I encountered along the way, they were ready, willing and able to quickly help me resolve them.

Would I switch to 6Sync? That is a great question. Here’s some background before I answer it.

My historical practice for backing up data on a hosted Linux server has been to use a snapshot approach. That is, a backing up the data is performed by making complete image of the operating system and data.

For certain applications, like a Linux file server shared by many people, I see the value of being able to restore specific files from previous backups. When a person accidently overwrites a version of a file and needs to restore an older version, having the ability to recover a single file is done much more effectively and efficiently with a file based backup.

In my situation, I have a Linux server that hosts a number of websites, so I am missing a narrative around the value of backing up individual files that don’t change that frequently. (The database(s) do change frequently, however). For me, I prefer the convenience of taking an ad-hoc snapshot just before performing operating system updates. That way, if something goes wrong, I can quickly restore my server the way it was just moments before.

My answer to the question would I switch to 6Sync is unfortunately no (at this time) because of my current practices of backing up using snapshots. (Another concern of mine would be the time, effort and coordination required to move to a new server). That being said, I am open to hear what others have to say so I can learn about new and more effective practices for managing Linux servers.

Have any thoughts or insights? Please leave a comment, or two.