XenForo Cloud discussion

[alternadiv]

XenForo Cloud will enable community managers to be up and running in minutes on a platform purpose-built and preconfigured to run XenForo at its best. With XenForo Cloud, you can spend your valuable time nurturing your community instead of managing the software. Forget about server management, maintenance issues and software updates, it's all part of the service.

Of course, the advent of XenForo Cloud will not mean the end of XenForo in its current form. XenForo will continue to be available as a package for installation on customers’ servers.

All XenForo Cloud subscribers will benefit from the entire XenForo software suite including the XenForo Media Gallery, XenForo Resource Manager and XenForo Enhanced Search, which not only supercharges the search system within XenForo, but also enables the Similar Threads feature debuted with XenForo 2.2. All new XenForo features will roll out to Cloud subscribers automatically.

XenForo Cloud subscriptions will be available from $60 per month and packages will be available to suit communities at any scale.

Announcing XenForo Cloud

Over the past ten years, XenForo has grown its market share consistently, helping all-new communities to spring forth and giving those previously running on other software platforms the opportunity to migrate and take advantage of the stability and rich functionality offered by our platform...

xenforo.com

I didn’t see this coming. What do you guys think?

 

[alternadiv]

I pay about $1200 a year for a VPS that is overkill for what I need but it obviously performs well and their customer support is over the top. The control panel is DirectAdmin which is also pretty powerful and handy to have.

But the XF Cloud is intriguing at the moment. I don’t use my server for much other than XF stuff. I know there are pros and cons to either though.

 

[Paul B]

One important point to note with the XF cloud offering is you will have no access to the server at all.

You can only upload files (style related images, smilies, etc.) via the asset management system in the ACP.

 

[Rhody]

and no plug ins, as of the moment. That wouldn't work for me, but I can see the appeal for many!

Besides, the "joneses" down the street have a similar offering - so it makes sense.

 

[woody]

Considering I was paying $80/mo about 20 years ago for a tiny dedicated server, this seems like a great opportunity for forum owners.

XenCDN implementation....push a button and add the monthly $, and you instantly have your forum with a fully functional Xenforo backed CDN.

Plugin trials? Browse thru the menu of approved 3rd party plugins hosted on the cloud, and try free for 10 days. No more developer concerns about stolen code.

 

[Russ]

and no plug ins, as of the moment.

My hope would be that this new service leads to some sort of audit/approval process on resources .

 

[Valhalla]

I saw reference to it in a recent video, so I was intrigued!

 

[alternadiv]

My hope would be that this new service leads to some sort of audit/approval process on resources .

That’s what I was thinking. Maybe a plug-in directory in the control panel, kind of like WordPress has? @Chris D

 

[Chris D]

It’s a phase 2 thing. Initially if you have a dependency on add-ons then it won’t be for you. The design of a future offering with add-ons is currently undefined and will be shaped based on feedback.

 

[SneakyDave]

Will XenForo Staff be maintaining this cloud infrastructure, or who will be doing that?

 

[woody]

More thoughts...

Own a few forums? what about a shared database? Each retains their own unique look/feel, but many of the tables are shared....and the ease of shariong "similar threads" between multiple forums under a single owner... Forum1 is $60/mo, add additional under that same dataset for $30/mo ea.

OR, multiple owners create a mutual agreement to share "similar threads"...helping drive traffic to each other and create more success. Being on the same cloud makes that simple.

 

[Lawrence]

I''m paying 50 US a month for my VPS which I need to manage, so for $10 more a month (starting package of course) I would no longer need to manage my server, plus get Xenforo and all official Xenforo add-ons? That is a really really good deal!

I take it add-on developers will have a new command to look forward to in the future: build-asset-release ...

 

[Chris D]

Will XenForo Staff be maintaining this cloud infrastructure, or who will be doing that?

Are you asking if the management and service is outsourced to another company? No. The system has been designed, implemented and managed by us.

 

[SneakyDave]

Are you asking if the management and service is outsourced to another company? No. The system has been designed, implemented and managed by us.

That's good to hear.

Maybe the demo system can eventually be replaced by a free trial of this cloud offering?

 

[beerForo]

What about file storage/image hosting? I would use this to free up my server.

 

[Chris D]

We’re providing a fully turnkey, managed instance of XF. You can’t use it just for storage. A certain amount of storage is included and additional storage is available in higher priced tiers.

 

[Sperber]

Haven´t seen that coming. I haven´t seen anything yet. But somehow I am remembered to the aftermath of what IB did to vBulletin and immediatly got goosebumps. I don´t know who could benefit from a hosted community service, when there are no addons available, no ftp access, but I guess XenForo did their homework before starting such a project. What really gives my headaches is, that managing and running this project is done by the same peeps, which are developing XenForo and have to manage and split their available time now on the side project, too.

I wish you all luck with XenForo Cloud, but this is not for me and unfortunal the last thing in a very long list of popular demands of additions for the XenForo software.

 

[Alpha1]

Are you asking if the management and service is outsourced to another company? No. The system has been designed, implemented and managed by us.

Will the XenForo team be expanded with server engineers?

Is XenForo cloud optimized for speed and SEO?

 

[JoyFreak]

It sounds promising.

 

[beerForo]

We’re providing a fully turnkey, managed instance of XF. You can’t use it just for storage. A certain amount of storage is included and additional storage is available in higher priced tiers.