By kpm on

Can anyone suggest a Drupal friendly host in Canada? It should be on a shared hosting environment that also allows ssh access and the ability to use Drush. I know, that is a lot to ask... Dreamhost does this nicely, but their servers are in the USA, and this site has to be moved to a country that does not have a "Patriot Act". A friend recently set up a law office in Canada, and would have liked to use Google docs, Gmail for mail server, etc, but the various provincial bar association will not allow lawyers to use Google Mail or Doc services (or any USA cloud based services) due to the Patriot Act. They have the mail sorted out, but after learning this investigated where their site was hosted, which turns out to be in the USA, and have decided they should move it as well to a Canadian host (they hate the idea of a 'Patriot Act'). Netfirms is Canadian, but they don't seem to have their shell access set up properly to run Drush... I have also experienced inexplicable and random problems with Drupal sites on Netfirms that I don't at other hosts. So if anyone has any suggestions, other than Netfirms, that meet those criteria, they would be most welcome.
Thanks

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

pixelite’s picture

pixelite
Primary language English
Location Montreal
commented

I don't think there are any Canadian hosting companies that specialize in Drupal specifically.

We use iWeb (which is Canadian) for our dedicated servers. The servers themselves have been great, although the customer service is not so great. They have shared hosting as well, so I would look into that.

kpm’s picture

kpm commented

I asked iWeb if they could provide what I sought in a shared host... they said no. I suspect I'll have to do a vps in the end... I have a couple of those at Linode, which is great, but alas, they are in the USA. Perhaps I'll put a bug in DreamHost's ear (or Linode's for that matter) to expand north to Patriot Act free land.
I'd just quite like to find a shared host similar to DreamHost. They seem to be able to manage a shared hosting environment that comes packed with ssh, where Drush works, etc. It's easier for non technical folks to manage their own various hosting services with shared hosting situations than it is for them to manage a vps or dedicated server (is my assumption).
I wonder what will come first, the USA punts the patriot act, or a shared hosting service that handles the requirements appears in a patriot act free country. I'm sure it does exist, they just haven't quite gotten the advertising down yet. Though such advertising may draw unwanted attention... as this post may... ok, 'nuff said.

arcall’s picture

arcall commented

I recommend to use www.slicehost.com, I've been using this for 4 years now. It's really stable, easy to use and scalable if need be. The cost is just perfect. You will need a littlebit of knowledge to install the dupal site, mysql ... and administer yourself.

It's not in Canada, but in the cloud, do you really care ?

Good luck

kpm’s picture

kpm commented

It is good to know that SliceHost is ssh friendly, but as stated in the original post, Canada (or a country that does not have any Patriot Act type legislation) is the requirement.
The cloud is a metaphor. It refers to physical servers located in geographical locations that fall under various legislative rules and regulations; depending on the current governance at that location. With the Patriot Act, the Bush and now Obama governments have chosen to legislatively cripple USA email and web hosting companies with regards to privacy making them less secure than a hosting company in Canada.
A few years back, the British Columbia government got slapped for attempting to out source its medical records management to a USA based company because of the Patriot Act. Provincial law societies are not allowing member lawyers to have USA based email services because of the Patriot Act. I live in the USA and have a couple servers here, use Gmail for a mail server, etc. These services are excellent and make administration much easier. But, for privacy concerned industries, or in the case of my Canadian friend's law society, they are simply not permitted to use them, and must turn to services in a different country.
If interested, you can learn more about the Patriot Act here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/privacy/module5.html
Yep, I really do care.

pixelite’s picture

pixelite
Primary language English
Location Montreal
commented

I found a thread about this from the Montreal group: http://groups.drupal.org/node/54968.

kpm’s picture

kpm commented

I will keep an eye on that thread.
It is good to know many seem to be giving iWeb a thumbs up... I suspect I won't find what I'm looking for and have to shell out a few more dollars and time to set up a vps after all.

gor’s picture

gor commented

Hi .

Check it out non affiliate link
it is Toronto based company.

Gor

seanray’s picture

seanray commented

There are some good web host in Canada, but very few of them are the world level brand, and less well known. And most of them don't brand them as Drupal hosting.

I think you can consider VPS or Dedicated server, normally, it's good for Drupal, and what you should do is to find a reliable hosting vendors, Peer1 should be one of them.

end user’s picture

end user commented

I had a dedicated server with http://www.netelligent.ca for a 4 years with only two problems over the years and then went with their reseller account. So far so good on the reseller account.

MacMiniMe’s picture

MacMiniMe commented

I have a few servers with Clarity. http://claritywebhosting.com/hosted-services/mac-mini-services
I was at first looking to colocate my servers somewhere and came across those guys in Canada. The biggest thing for me was to test out the bandwidth. I was pleased and in 6 months I went with a dedicated mac mini option after. Less headache for me as they service all hardware problems :)

anthony.zhan’s picture

anthony.zhan commented

Try it by yourself Search hosting in Canada(hostucan.com/search/plan?host_country_code=ca)

Hope it help.