> but this is pretty poor.
It is a hardware failure. Don't tell me you don't plan for that.
> Also interested in recs.
What do you need? Data integrity or availability?
In the first case, have a properly designed and well-exercised data back up and recovery plan¹, or pay someone to do it, but it is *your* data after all.
In the second case, redundant servers with automatic failover is probably a good starting point.
Combine both as needed if necessary to meet your needs.
If you are using shared hosting (as I do: Gandi in fact), consider it a best-effort resource that can fail at any time in a number of more or less spectacular ways. If using dedicated hosting, make sure to go very carefully through your service level agreement.
What I look for in a hosting provider is a) that they don't fail too often or in too mysterious ways and b) that wenn die Scheiße den Fan trifft they are at hand to help sort things out.
Right now, I'd recommend Gandi. Once bitten twice shy, etc. :-)
¹ For the data that needs to be preserved. Not all of it does, usually.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
