For the last six years my sites have been hosted by Dreamhost and for the vast majority of that time I have been a happy customer. Unlimited email addresses, sites, sub-domains, and databases. Easy to use web interface, and excellent customer support. So why am I looking to move away?

Reliability and speed. Over the last number of months my sites have been un-available due to spikes in traffic to other users on the same shared box as me. Secondly, the fact that the servers are based on the west coast of the USA meaning users in UK get a slower site.

What are my options? I’m currently testing out the free tier of AWS, and also looking at other paid services including Rackspace and Media Temple which both will be at least double the cost that I am paying with Dreamhost.

My main criteria are speed and uptime. Will post more thoughts when I have made my decision.