I'm building a service that runs on os x. I'm really enjoying heroku and amazon ec2 for other projects. Ideally, I'd spin up os x instances on their ec2, but they don't have os x as an option. And from what I can tell, VMWare is technically capable of running a virtualized os x, but have been prohibited from doing so by Apple, so I can't even start up a linux instance on ec2 and virtualize an os x server. So I'll need to look elsewhere.<p>But maybe I missed something. Is there a way to run os x on ec2?<p>Failing that, does anyone have a recommendation for an os x hosting service?
Over the years (decades now?) I have looked into hosting on Mac OS. The times that I have actually done so have allows been done in-house at clients site as part of an intranet.<p>I can tell you that your options are pretty few. <a href="http://www.macminicolo.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.macminicolo.net/</a> has been around for a while, but they specialize in the hosting of Mini's.<p>Another option is <a href="http://www.forest.net/" rel="nofollow">http://www.forest.net/</a> who has been around since nearly the dawn of the Internet, and who have always had Mac Servers as a specialty. Originally, they had a large number "Classic" Mac servers prior to OS X.<p>As I understand it, Apple allows VMWare to run OS X virtualized under Mac OS X server, but no other configurations. So your could talk to forest.net about running a dedicated Mac Pro tower running Mac OS X server and VMWare.<p>(Of course, you could try this on a Mini too, but I don't think a Mini will go far running multiple virtualized servers in production)
OS X hosting options are VERY scarce. Your best bet is going to be checking out <a href="http://www.macminicolo.net" rel="nofollow">http://www.macminicolo.net</a> and seeing if they'll suffice for you.<p>You should carefully evaluate whether or not you truly need OS X Server for what you'd like to do and see if you can migrate your service to a more traditional hosted *nix solution.
$50/mo shared 5mbps connection, BYOS. No limits.<p>Other options available depending on what you want.<p>Class A datacenter, generator backup, secure access, hot hands service included.