Can I use cloud hosting??

You should probably look into 'elastic' hosting that allows you to expand or contract your resource needs as the situation requires. Amazon is probably a good fit for you.

Linode will never suspend you for using a lot of resources. RAM is fixed, CPU has a maximum fraction and at that point is equally shared, bandwidth is billable, disk IOPS (operations per second) is about the only thing you could use too much of but at that point their normal behaviour is to move you to a machine where you'll be less disruptive (and that's very rare). I'm not sure that Linode's service is what you think it is, though. Linode provides a platform that can be used to implement cloud services, but it does not by itself provide cloud hosting (they provide the servers, not web hosting). That is to say that Linode will give you a bunch of virtual servers, each acting almost indistinguishable from a dedicated server. You pay less per server, and it's easy to create a new server or resize an existing one, but you still have to implement a scalable solution on top of it.

Maybe another way to say it is that Linode provides the foundation, and you have to build the building.

Linode does have a managed service, where they take a much more hands-on role helping you with that stuff, but you'd want to contact them directly (this is a community forum) to see exactly how much they're willing to do; it's a new service, so those of us in the community are not that familiar with what exactly they're willing to do.

Then again, one advantage of Linode is that it's very easy to resize your linode to scale resources up or down (need to double your RAM? Turn off the linode, resize it, wait a few minutes for the data to move to a new physical machine, start it up again). You can also take the easiest first step towards multiple servers. Ultimately a really huge site needs to be really scalable and parallel, but there are some low-hanging fruit that take you the first few steps. Moving the database server to a different box from the application server is almost trivially easy to do, since it requires no changes to your application (beyond changing the database connection info). So that's often the first thing people do. The two boxes can be different sizes, too, so if you need a huge database server but only a medium sized application server, you can do that.

@Main Street James:

You should probably look into 'elastic' hosting that allows you to expand or contract your resource needs as the situation requires. Amazon is probably a good fit for you.

errrr

I'd say Amazon is probably the worst possible solution for a high-traffic site, unless you're pulling in enough VC to need two foosball tables in your converted open-floorplan warehouse.

Also, Main Street James needs to look at the "Resize" tab on the Linode Manager.

@hoopycat:

Also, Main Street James needs to look at the "Resize" tab on the Linode Manager.
hoopycat,

I'm aware of the 'Resize' tab, I just didn't think the OP was a legitimate post (of course, I may be wrong) so I gave them an answer that I thought they were looking for.

It appeared to me that the OP was looking for verification that "cloud" hosting was the correct hosting for them (something Linode doesn't offer). I inferred from their post that they thought of themselves as too big of a resource user for Linode (once again that Linode wasn't the host for them), and that they've been suspended for exceeding their resource allotment which didn't jive with being on a dedicated server.

They knew specifics about their usage, and they're currently on a dedicated server, but didn't know what Linode or cloud hosting was, etc. Though Linode offers hosting that would meet xologist's needs, and using Linode's Managed services would address their apparent lack of knowledge, it didn't seem to me that they were actually interested in using Linode. Something about it doesn't smell right to me.

MSJ

@xologist:

So I use a LOTTT of resources
I've looked at many network dashboards, and have yet to see "LOTTT" on any of them".

How about providing REAL numbers, like disk space, database size, bandwidth used, etc.

Along with OS, web engine, framework, etc?

The number of users is oh so relative, it's pretty much useless in determining the size of the host you'll need.

Like Vonskippy says you need real numbers to decide what the best hosting is for you. It's never as simple as dedicated server or cloud, there are many factors that will affect your decision.

If you are trying to run web forums at a profit from advertising low cost will be an overriding consideration. I'm only guessing that's what you are doing though.

While Von Skippy is as abrasive as ever, he does have a point. What is a lot to one person is a small amount to another person. I put 24GB of RAM in my file server. Some people would say that's a lot (particularly if they're used to putting 4 or 8 gigs of RAM in a machine), but somebody who builds a lot of file servers might say that's tiny.

It's all relative. Linode can be a fantastic option for many use cases, but for some other use cases, it's not ideal. So knowing more about the requirements is important.

@Guspaz:

While Von Skippy is as abrasive as ever, he does have a point.
Whew! Thanks for verifying I still cut right to the point. I just had a birthday and was a bit worried I'd lose my edge in my old age.