[Web-SIG] A query for hosting providers

[Ian Bicking]

I'm wondering -- and this is mostly directed to the hosting providers 
(Remi, Sean...) -- what are the problems with providing commodity-level 
hosting for Python programs?  I can think of some, but I'm curious what 
you've encountered and if you have ideas about how to improve things.

Some things I've thought about:
* Long running processes are hard to maintain (assuming we rule out 
CGI).  Code becomes stale, maybe the server process gets in a bad state. 
   Sometimes processes becomes wedged.  With mod_python this can effect 
the entire site.
* Isolating clients from each other can be difficult.  For mod_python 
I'm assuming each client needs their own Apache server.  Maybe this 
isn't as much of a problem these days, as virtualizing technologies have 
improved, and multiple Apache processes isn't that big of a deal.
* Setup of frameworks is all over the place.  Setting up multiple 
frameworks might be even more difficult.  Some of them may depend on 
mod_rewrite.  Server processes are all over the place as well.

But I don't have a real feeling for how to solve these, and I'm sure 
there's things I'm not thinking about.  How do you guys do it now, and 
if you could change this stuff -- on any level, from interpreter to 
framework -- what would you do?

-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb at colorstudy.com  / http://blog.ianbicking.org