We don't just provide ready-to-go virtual machines optimised for Drupal. We also provide server management - in fact, many of our customers run their own hardware and employ us to manage the software running on it.
Essentially, we prefer it if you buy a server, base install Debian on it and hand us the keys. We can manage any server, anywhere, as long as you don’t mind us having access (via our secure VPN), wiping it and installing our High Performance Stack.
Once installed, we add your server to a manual update rota for applying any new packages released by Debian themselves (and other trusted repositories). We also hook it up to Puppet, the configuration management software by Puppet Labs. We use an application called Puppet Master to remotely manage the configurations on all servers we control, so we can keep things ship-shaped on your server without even logging in. Finally, for your security and safety we also add our usual monitoring and back-up services.
You will still have full access and control over your server, you'll be free to install your own packages, all the things you'd expect to be able to do with your own server. You just don't have to worry about the hum-drum parts of maintenance, back-up and security.