Wombat Mobile I should be coding or sleeping instead of this...

When I emerged from my tech hibernation recently, I needed a new server for my various domains that I had parked while I was on R&R from Internet burnout. Even though I develop web apps and services for my day job, I swore off working on personal projects for a while.

But after my technolust was rejuvenated, I needed somewhere to house my personal work. I figured I would need some sort of Servlet/JSP container, and was disappointed in the options available out there.

In the past, I'd leaned toward running my own server. From 1996-1997, I ran a web server on a linux box out of my apartment. I was hacked once, and spent a lot of time recovering from it. After that, I spent most of my time keeping up to date on patches and trying to fend off recurring attacks.

From '98 to '01, I decided to colocate an NT box at a place in San Francisco for my personal stuff. This actually worked pretty well. VNC was good enough for me, and it was a pretty small outfit run by a serious techie with great response time.

Now it's 2005 and I think I'm getting old because I don't feel like managing my own server anymore. (It must be the age, I don't even build my own machines these days.) It just doesn't seem like an efficient use of my time, I'd rather be coding. I started out as a sysadmin in 1994, and at various startups and contracts since then I've done network administration duties when there was a skeleton crew and we needed to wear multiple hats, but it just takes a different sort of mindset from developing, and it's a pain to jump back and forth between both roles.

Unfortunately there didn't seem to be a lot of Java hosting providers out there, and even fewer that allowed the kind of control I was looking for (my own jvm I can restart, mySQL, multiple domain pointers, shell account if I want to do more complicated stuff).

Luckily, I stumbled upon servlet ISP reviews at servlets.com. I ended up going with Kattare and their linux/tomcat option, and I couldn't be happier. I'm amazed at the setup they have, it's like having my own server, but I don't have to deal with the annoying tasks. Great customer support, too. I had a configuration request that I emailed on a holiday and they emailed me right back saying the change was complete. I must be jaded, but I'm not used to quick responses anymore. Very knowledgeable folks, too, and I was up and running right away.

Heh, this sounds like a damn paid endorsement, but I've been really happy so far, and don't regret choosing hosting over colocation at all. I'll let them worry about the security and keeping things up to date, and I can focus on coding.