DDN unresponsive - who to go to for Domino hosting?
Aug 24, 2010
http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/DominoHerald/entry/ddn_unresponsive_who_to_go_to_for_domino_hosting6?lang=en_us
 For the last several years, I've used the Domino Developer Network to host my personal Notes apps. Overall, I've not had any problems. Support requests weren't answered in 2 seconds, but since they weren't critical, I got decent responses - except for the one time the request got lost entirely.
 
Last month, however, I created some new XPage apps and moved them up. When I tried them from a browser, they didn't work. A little troubleshooting showed that ".xsp is not recognized" - meaning the Domino server isn't 8+. DDN says it's servers are 8.5 so I put a support ticket in the middle of last month. After over a week of not hearing anything, I put another in. Both are sitting in the queue without response.  I gave it more time, then emailed the only other addresses I could find, billing and sales. I got an automated message back that had a phone number. Yesterday I called that. I couldn't get anywhere, the automatic system just bounded me around until it hung up on me (twice).
 
Since I'm not getting any response from DDN, I'm going to have to look for a new hosting provider, so does anyone have any suggestions? I'm itching to get my XPage apps up. 

I'm really disappointed in DDN for this. I've been a quite customer for years, and now it seems I can't get any response at all from them. I think I've given them more than enough time (since we're now talking over a month) to make some response. I know they have different levels of support, and I'm not on the 'drop everything and run' level, but this is much longer than I'm willing to take. And I've been patient. But I've not gotten any acknowledgment that they have seen my requests for help, or asking me for clarification. Whenever a vendor does this type of thing, it says to me, the customer, only one thing "We don't care about your business." Vendors can do something to show they are at least queuing up a request - and I'd take that. My not this silence. They are getting my money, but they don't seem to be interested in it any more. So I guess I'll have to see if someone else is interested in my money.

 
So, suggestions? Good hosting plans? I actually own a copy of Domino, so I could even use a non-Domino hosting site if I could load it on.

Cheers,

Brian 

Comments (7)


1 Tim Tripcony commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
I'm not sure what the pricing structure is, but you might want to take a look at GROUP Live:

 


http://www.grouplive.com
 
It's a fully virtualized environment, so it allows you to spin up a fully functional Domino server in less than 10 minutes. The primary target market is enterprises looking to move some, or all, of their Domino infrastructure to the cloud, so we might not have a pricing model in place for individual blog/playground environments, but it can't hurt to ask... one of the perks of working at GROUP is I get a blog/playground server for free. :)



2 David Leedy commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
You can also try the Amazon Cloud thing. Since you're testing xpage apps that's legit I'd think.You just pay Amazon whatever their rate is.



3 Sean Cull commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
@2 your looking at around USD 600 per year using spot pricing or nearer to USD 1,000 using normal pricing



4 Niel Revelle commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
I've used www.wwow.com in the past. Not sure how their rates compare, but the service was great.



5 Kevin Pettitt commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
The guys over at Prominic.net are great. Long time specialists in Domino hosting, very responsive. Servers never go down. "Development Hosting" starts at $10/month: http://prominic.net/web.nsf/pages/domino

 


My blog (www.lotusguru.com) and Notes mail have been running on Prominic for years with zero issues. About the only time I have to contact them is when I want them to upgrade the servers. Speaking of which... 



6 Chris Miller commented Aug 24 2010 Permalink Recommendations 0
It depends on your hosting requirements. If you are doing a single non-blog database Prominc works great. (we host blogs for free)

 


If you are looking for server hosting then talk to us for sure 
http://www.connectria.com


7 Brian M Moore commented Oct 29 2010 Trackback Recommendations 0
I heard from someone who is also having trouble with DDN. Her company as been without their Lotus Notes email for days and they haven't been able to get a response from DDN at all - trying the support system (which submits a form) or the telephone number.

 


One of my apps uses a simple LotusScript function to send email - that seems to be down as well, so I'm guessing their entire mail routing is down.
 
I shared the information I had as I searched, and I'm moving to http://wwow.com/, who have been so very response to my questions.
 
DDN has been around for years, and I was happy with them, but they seem to be people-less just now, just some machines running on their own. Good thing Domino is resilient, or all the websites would be down already.
 
Come to think of it, their business may be down, there seem to be fewer folders (folders being other accounts. I never even try to go in).
 
Cheers, 
Brian
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