: From the requirements you describe, you may want to have a look at the Rackspace Cloud. In many cloud server (VPS) environments, when you want to scale up your machine (increase RAM, CPU,

From the requirements you describe, you may want to have a look at the Rackspace Cloud. In many cloud server (VPS) environments, when you want to scale up your machine (increase RAM, CPU, etc.) you have to provision a new server and then migrate from the old to the new. Rackspace gives you the option to increase resources as you need them without having to provision a new server and migrate.

You have a TON of options for configuring your infrastructure. Cloud Files gives you file storage capabilities with the added benefit of being globally distributed on a CDN (included as part of the service). Traffic between your application, database, and file tiers do not count against your bandwidth charges.

In addition to being able to scale up (making each server bigger), with their Cloud Load Balancer options now available, you also have the ability to scale out (adding servers to a particular tier). Managed private clouds are available if you didn't want to handle any of the server management aspects.

For the record, I am not affiliated with Rackspace in any way but I have used their services in the past. Performance has been extremely good.

At the end of the day, the solution you pick will ultimately depend on your requirements, budget, and comfort level with a given provider. That could be Rackspace, Amazon, or just about any other provider.

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