My company just moved to the Rackspace Managed Cloud, which is about $350 a month for a 4GB dedicated virtual server, and it has been fantastic. Our team is savvy, but we definitely don't have any hard-core linux sysadmins in the group, so being able to call 24/7 and chat with an expert who has access to our box gives us most of the benefits of having an in-house admin at about 5% of the cost.
How many hours in a month do you use this kind of "sysadmin expertise" ?
You could also use a freelance sysadmin (hourly based payments) that can remotely connect to your physical box(es) and do what needed.
Nothing specific, apart for the sites you know. I have no experience on those sites but I've heard of people that have found good professionists there (of course they wont charge you 5$/hour but maybe 50$/hour).
NB I could probably add also anyfu.com for highlevel experts (in the 200$/hour range) but it has not launched yet (it's done by Justin Vincent and Jason Roberts of TechZing podcast fame)
