I'm looking for a SharePoint (MOSS) shared hosting provider that supports deployment of custom solutions (.WSPs) - it'd be okay if it was medium trust. I'm building a public Internet site on SP and the client doesn't want to host it or pay for the license all up front. Any suggestions?
[Previously asked on SO - no good answers then]
MOSSHosting, Rackspace, and FpWeb are all capable hosters - hopefully you can work out a plan that works.
The thing that makes MOSS hosting with SharePoint Server 2007 is that the web applications share execution space, and just as Aaron answered, deployed code for one application can affect another, peer application. There aren't sufficient security barriers between applications so to do it right, each MOSS hosted application could require its own instance of MOSS. Lots of admin time, relative to configuring WSS, for example, which can be replicated at low cost, causes prices to be higher.
Most, if not all, of these vendors have virtual hosting offers, which can help with the price.
If you can, though, look for a hoster who is now providing support for SharePoint 2010. SharePoint Server 2010 is architected with support for multiple tenants, and hosting in this type of scenario is fully supported.
Happy Hosting with SharePoint 2010!
Owen
The hosting provider Mosshosting.com is pretty highly recommended. Do they offer what you are looking for? It will be hard to find the flexibility you need without hosting it yourself.
It is probably going to be really hard to find a hosting company that will allow you to upload and deploy your own custom WSP in a shared environment. This is because by uploading a WSP you can run code with really high privileges which can result in a security breach and/or performance issue.
The recommended approach in this scenario is to host it yourself or find a company that will help you by leasing you hardware and software to run your own dedicated farm.