DNN Software / Evoq CMS and Evoq Social Hosting Requirements If you've got a Evoq CMS website (formerly DotNetNuke CMS) or Evoq Social site from DNN Software regardless of the version there are fairly standard requirements for hosting the site. There are variances in necessary hardware and software based on your Evoq CMS version, traffic to the site, integrations, etc. Below are some of the very high level requirements though to help plan your DNN site's hosting basics. We've also included a more detailed overview as well: Windows OS or Azure IIS ASP.Net MS SQL Server For a more detailed listing of requirements see below by Evoq CMS/DotNetNuke version number: Evoq CMS (formerly DotNetNuke CMS) Requirements Windows OS IIS Version ASP.Net Version SQL Version DNN 3.X Windows Server 2003 (2000+ works) IIS 5 (IIS 5-8X work) ASP.Net 1.1 MS SQL SERVER 2005 (2000+ works) DNN 4.X-5.1X Windows Server 2005 (2000+ works) IIS 6 (IIS 5-8X works) ASP.Net 2.0 (2.0+ works) MS SQL SERVER 2005 (2000+ works) DNN 5.2-6.X Windows Server 2008 R2 (2000+ works) IIS 7.5 (IIS 5-8X work) ASP.Net 3.5 SP1 (3.5 SP1+ works) MS SQL SERVER 2008 (2005+ works) DNN 7.X Windows Server 2012 (2008+ works) IIS 8.0 (IIS 7-8X work) ASP.Net 4.5 (4.0+ works) MS SQL SERVER 2012 (2008+ works) Which potential DNN hosting providers to choose? So now that you've identified the requirements how do we recommend finding a good hosting partner? If you're asking, then we're glad you did! It makes a very significant difference for your experience during go live as well as throughout your hosting experience. This is not unlike other service choices you may make with your business. The primary note we will make is that selecting a hosting provider based on price is typically much more expensive than it might appear on the surface. Typically taking a site into production in a hosting environment that doesn't provide proper access to configure settings and otherwise optimize the site can very easily result in dozens of hours of wasted time either on the part of your company or the part of a 3rd party services company, like Clarity. Typically we recommend that you stay away from shared hosting solutions like GoDaddy, Network solutions, or other options like them that may boast low monthly fees but ultimately will result in slower site performance, poor backup reliability, security risks and other downsides. So who do we recommend hosting with? Typically "ASP.Net hosting" companies that offer great support where you can find reliable, 3rd party reviews to corroborate their claims of great support. We also encourage Clients to consider historical and projected traffic to their site as well as visitor behavior. Some of the best experiences we've had came with the following hosting providers: PowerDNN - Great Evoq/DNN Shared hosting options with scalability Liquid Web - Dedicated, Virtualizable (i.e. scalable) machines - SSD drives and RAID 5 configuration, etc. Windows Azure - Cloud based shared & dedicated hosting for ASP.Net and Evoq/DNN (can also host PHP, etc. as well). Amazon Cloud - Cloud based shared & dedicated hosting for ASP.Net and Evoq/DNN (can also host PHP, etc. as well). So how does one go about using DNN Evoq Cloud? (aka DotNetNuke hosted in the Cloud) What if you don't really want to go through all the hassle of selecting a hosting provider, monitoring for outages or bandwidth and hardware usage and managing to ensure you scale your resources as needed? Isn't this the promise of cloud hosting? Does Evoq CMS offer that? How does one go about setting this up? Firstly, Yes it does - there are some key caveats but it's now a well supported option for hosting. You can also easily spin up an Amazon EC2/S3 cloud and host there as well. However, there are advantages to leveraging the newly supported Evoq DNN CMS in the Azure cloud option. Caveats for DNN Evoq Cloud hosting Caveats you say, that doesn't sound so great - well it's not as big a deal as we make it sound. Basically when you go into the cloud the data storage and memory persistance requirements change because you're no longer directly allocating a permanent hardware resource but now you're potentially scaling hardward resources in and out dynamically. This means that from a data and a memory perspective your site and it's related modules (and possibly, but not typically skins) must support the Azure cloud infrastructure requirements. With this in mind we recommend doing some diligence to look for modules (and , but not typically skins) that state they are "Azure ready" to ensure compatibility. Key Takeaways The key takeaways we want to leave you with are the following: Use robust, well rated hosting solutions. Don't host with low cost shared providers to "save a buck" - it (most likely) won't work out for you. Confirm with your hosting provider that they provide IIS, ASP.Net and MS SQL support to match your DNN version. Feel free to contact us with any questions or post a comment below if you'd like more information or to discuss a specific caveat.