Maybe its time to get serious about software and hardware.
How much more serious can I get about hardware? I already run a multi-hundred dollar/month dedicated top shelf server box with a top provider.
Arguing over which host provider is best, and which hardware is best is pretty pointless, ask 100 experts (I have!), and you get 100 different answers.
IME, no matter which host provider you go with, even the "redundant cloud" type, your site can go down.
I do daily automated full site and database backups to a remote site (need a new solution for this, as autositebackup.com are ceasing)
And really, if the forum is down for a few hours (rare), or even a few days (never happened), is it the end of the world?
- Database system with journaling / automatic recovery (preferably a real database like Postgresql and most certainly not Mysql with myIsam tables)
I believe I can only run what the SMF forum software uses?