When I went to Softlayers unmanaged service, I was prepared to do a lot of things for myself.
Softlayers customized control panel makes it easy to administer multiple servers.
It's not like CPanel, in that it doesn't control anything in the internals of the servers.
It does allow for easy hardware customizations after the sale.
I had bought 5 servers, and accidentally selected a 10Mbit port instead of a 100Mbit port.
With Softlayers panel, I was able to see the traffic in and out of each server on both the private network (internal to Softlayers data centers), and the public network (connection to the internet as a whole). I didn't have to install statistics program myself. My old hosting service lumped public traffic with private traffic by default. As a result of the details provided by the panel, I was able to quickly diagnose the issue and request a port upgrade.
Then I learned the best part about the panel: I can control my own port speed. I can easily cap my speed at 10Mbits for a run away server (useful if you're getting a DDoS attack) or I can disable the port completely. Their instructions for configuring the server software to use the newly enabled port is unfortunately out of date and did not work for my OS. However, they are an unmanaged service so this is outside of their SLA.
Another nice thing about Softlayer is their sales plans. From the start, you know exactly what you are getting.
They define:
- The CPU spec: model, clock speed, and cache size
- The type and speed of the RAM
- The type of the disk controller
- The type and speed of each individual drive
And you can add extra options like anti-virus, firewalls, and choose from a list of OS's.
This was a big selling point to me because my previous provider never listed the clock speed in their sales info, so the configured servers would have wildly varying speeds on set-up and the CPU speed could be changed at anytime. It made debugging slow-downs hell.
I know I'm new to Softlayer, and later on I might want to change my mind on this review, but so far no complaints.
I have 5 servers with Softlayer. They are all Quad-Core Intel which is pretty high end. I can't say how their service is for lower tier clients.
Biggest Pro: Lots of hardware to choose from. Great price.
Biggest Con: Unmanaged
This person recommends SoftLayer.
