British Film Institute
We have been hosting our website with the Positive Internet Company since 1999: Positive have helped us grow our site from small beginnings and double our site traffic year-on-year.
We started out with an account on one of Positive's shared servers: when we needed to upgrade to a dedicated server for a major media event (www.bfi.org.uk/tv100) and the launch of discussion boards, Positive had the server ready at short notice and worked with our developers to get everything ready on time. Since then, our dedicated server has run smoothly, logging continuous uptimes in excess of a year.
Positive's platform is both robust and flexible for our needs: their Open Source architecture is backed up by a deep and detailed knowledge of Linux and Apache: our server is fine-tuned to our needs and not just another NT-server-out-of-a-box. PHP, Perl and MySQL make it easy to develop new applications on the site, and to find developers who will write quality code. Upgrades to the latest versions of the software are always done quickly and transparently.
Positive'seyes are always peeled for potential security risks: if an Apache or PHP hole is discovered, it's likely that I'll hear of it first from Positive who are telling me they've patched it or upgraded. I'm confident that with Positive, our server is as safe from mischief-makers as it's possible to be.
Positive's support and helpdesk systems are exemplary: their email support system keeps track of queries so that none are ever lost, and as a dedicated server customer, I can always get through to them on the phone in an emergency. The staff, whoever I talk to, are always helpful, and if there's anything they can't help me with, they'll find a colleague who can.
As a public sector body, we look for value for money, which Positive has never failed to provide. I'd recommend Positive's dedicated service to anyone who takes their organisation's web presence seriously.