Develop on a Sitefinity Hosting Package | PlanetMagpie Business Hosting

Working with Sitefinity CMS? Use Our Hosting Platform for Website and Module Development

Hosting a content management system like Sitefinity locally takes a lot of computing power. More than most have on hand. At PlanetMagpie we've built a set of servers specially purposed to handle hosting Sitefinity CMS.

Why? For two types of clients: Tech-smart companies who want to run their websites with Sitefinity. And Sitefinity developers who need a hosting platform for testing and production.

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Hosting Options: Standard Server, Virtual Server

PlanetMagpie has two hosting options set up for Sitefinity developers: Standard Server and Virtual Server.

Standard Sitefinity Server Hosting is set up and maintained by us. You can still develop in the Sitefinity admin, but we maintain control over databases & server configuration.

(Note: Direct access to the SQL database server is not permitted due to security issues.)

Virtual Sitefinity Server Hosting gives you full control of the Sitefinity configuration and user permissions on a virtualized server. (Databases may be created by you.) The virtual servers are running Hyper-V, with IIS7 enabled, and backups conducted by Microsoft's Data Protection Manager (DPM).

Advantages of Hosting Sitefinity CMS with Us

For a developer, having a hosted Sitefinity package grants a number of useful advantages.

Build Process Automation – Test your new modules in a real-world environment. Tinker all you want. Developed modules can be moved to production with simple XCopy deploys.
Problem Resolution – Our Sitefinity experts are responsible for helping with issues with your CMS install. Plus, we have a Hyper-V expert in case virtualization gives us any snags.
Testbed – Something went wrong? We have rollback capacity. A few minutes and your Sitefinity install is back up. (How's that for a sigh of relief?)

For those who want to host a Sitefinity website, the advantages come from our technical capabilities.

Virtualized Servers pack maximum horsepower for running the site and databases. We use IBM System X enterprise-class servers.
Upgrades are done all the time on bandwidth, storage space and security patches (no effort needed on your end).
Access to the website only takes a single login.
By using servers in our server room instead of running the CMS locally, you'll save on power costs. And help us keep the Earth green.

Want more specifics on Sitefinity hosting? Here are a few questions that PlanetMagpie has received from our Sitefinity hosting clients.

When are connectionString and SMTP setting variables made available to new account holders?
Your application folder is under your control. Settings information is provided immediately after website configuration.
Can web.config error handling settings be set by me at the account level allowing for errors to be client viewable (e.g., I can see any errors thrown by my site)?
Yes, these items can be set by the customer in their web.config file. However, customers do not have access to IIS settings for management of these configuration settings.
What file/folder-based permissions can be set by me to allow for Sitefinity functionality (e.g. read/write)?
File-based Permissions are set by our system admins. Sitefinity user permissions are completely controlled by the customer.
What platform is the IIS server is on, (e.g. ESX, cluster or load balance)?
All new installs have been done on IIS7. However, if you have a specific need for another web server or version, we're happy to discuss it and offer an appropriate recommendation.
How do you handle patch management (expected downtime, if any)?
Patch Management is done on a routine basis. If there is a customer outage expected for a patch application it is done on off business hours (typically 2am to 3am PST).
What is your Internet bandwidth to server?
We use 3 total ISPs for bandwidth as well, spread throughout all servers. All bandwidth is monitored. None of it is throttled.
What type of security is employed (e.g., IDS, IPS, blacklist, Antivirus)?
We use a "labyrinth" of Juniper firewalls, Blacklists, and Antivirus. As well as locking down all unnecessary ports on servers. All servers are hardened prior to production use. Servers only have roles opened that are necessary for operating the resident applications.

To give you an idea of the developer work you can do with a hosted Sitefinity package, here's a partial list of the modules our own developers have customized or created.

Modules Customized:

News. Added new meta data columns for thumbnail and image link URL, Image gallery key to associate a news item to images in the news photo gallery.
Image Libraries. Added new meta data columns for image sequence, to put images into an order for display, and image link URL.

Modules Developed:

News Item Import. Import forms for upload of CSV or Excel spreadsheet, review of import data, and perform and report on imported data.
Portfolio. Custom module for managing client portfolio data, multiple associated images and meta data columns, permissions-based access, custom end user controls with rich presentation using RadControls.
Products. Custom module for managing product data, CMS Admin forms and front end controls.
Additional Membership Provider Contacts. Custom profile and authentication for users to access permissions-based content outside of the CMS membership framework, includes website and product registration forms.
Membership User Import. Import forms for upload of CSV or Excel spreadsheet, review of import data, and perform and report on imported data, includes creation of membership user accounts and notifications by email.

Email us at businesshosting@planetmagie.com if you have questions about our hosting packages. Or call PlanetMagpie at 408-341-8770 to set up your own testbed.