Systems · Hosting · Automation
I build and run infrastructure that stays calm when traffic doesn’t.
I’m Muhammad Wasif Laeeq, CEO of Middlehost . I work on web hosting platforms, backend automation and tooling that keeps sites fast, stable and explainable.
Shared, VPS and dedicated hosting with HAProxy, LiteSpeed, NGINX and sensible defaults.
Laravel, Node.js and scripts that replace manual SSH heroics.
Monitoring, logging and postmortem-style thinking baked into the platform.
- Custom hosting panels and tools where cPanel/WHM is not a perfect fit.
- HAProxy-based filters to stop abusive traffic before it hits web servers.
- Improving Middlehost’s product line from “cheap shared” to solid managed offerings.
CEO @ Middlehost
Systems / DevOps engineer
Backend & automation dev
Pakistan (PKT), working with clients and infrastructure in US, EU and beyond.
About
I started out fixing practical problems on real servers, not building “perfect diagrams”. Over time that turned into running a hosting company and designing the systems behind it.
At Middlehost I look after both the business and the technical side: infrastructure choices, product design, incident handling, developer tooling and support processes.
Things I care about:
- Shared hosting that doesn’t feel disposable.
- Observability: Prometheus, Grafana and logs that actually answer “what changed?”.
- Security as layers: WAF, HAProxy filtering, malware scans, and sane client defaults.
- Removing repetitive work with automation, not more checklists.
- Hands-on with configs, logs and code.
- Prefer simple, observable architectures over clever ones.
- Write things down so future-me isn’t guessing.
I tinker with Linux workstations, GPUs, multi-monitor setups and ways to make remote work & support smoother for technicians and clients.
What I Do
Hosting & Infrastructure
Design and operate reliable web hosting platforms across shared, VPS and dedicated servers.
- LiteSpeed, Apache & NGINX stacks
- HAProxy as a traffic & security layer
- DNS clusters and outage debugging
- Backup and storage topology advice
Custom Panels & Tools
Build focused panels for hosting operations when generic panels don’t match requirements.
- Laravel & Livewire dashboards
- NGINX/HAProxy log analysis and IP blocking
- Upgrade & billing integrations
- APIs for abuse and automation
Monitoring & Reliability
Make it easy to see what’s happening and detect problems before users do.
- Prometheus & Grafana dashboards
- Log pipelines (ELK / Elastic stack)
- Practical alerting rules
- Incident review and follow-up changes
Security & Abuse
Reduce noise from bots and bad traffic while keeping things usable for real users.
- ModSecurity, custom WAF rules
- HAProxy filters and IP intelligence
- Malware scanning for PHP/web apps
- Abuse ticket workflows and null-route handling
Backend & Automation
Build the glue between billing, infrastructure, abuse handling and external APIs.
- Laravel, Node.js, some Python
- Queue-driven workflows
- Payment gateway & panel APIs
- n8n & custom automation scripts
Architecture & Advisory
Help teams decide what to build, how to host it and how to avoid painful surprises later.
- Hosting strategies for SaaS and agencies
- Migrations, scaling and provider choice
- Trade-off discussions beyond buzzwords
- Multi-jurisdiction and practical constraints
Selected Projects
Hosting Platform
Middlehost
Founder & CEO · Infrastructure, product, support, tooling
A hosting company focused on realistic performance, helpful support and sane defaults for shared, business and managed hosting.
- Cheap shared plans that are still monitored and tuned.
- Business/premium plans with Redis, LSCache and better resource guarantees.
- Work on managed and AI-related services on top of the platform.
Tools & Panels
Abuse Console & Traffic Control Panel
A Laravel/Livewire dashboard for pulling NGINX logs, identifying abusive IPs and updating HAProxy blocklists, with service reloads and log views from one place.
- Fetches logs via SSH from multiple dedicated servers.
- Shows top offending IPs by request volume.
- Syncs HAProxy blocklist files and reloads services safely.
Experiments & Community
Local Listing & Utility Tools
Smaller side projects like business/contact listings and internal utilities, usually backed by simple JSON and static-ish frontends.
- Contact directories with search and filters.
- WHOIS and outreach tools for domain owners.
- Internal abuse/malware support helpers.
Stack & Preferences
Infrastructure & OS
- Linux (Ubuntu, Alma/CentOS family)
- Dedicated servers & VPS with RAID where it makes sense
- Provider and datacenter diversification
- Simple, documented network setups over clever ones
Web & Application Stack
- NGINX, LiteSpeed & Apache
- PHP (Laravel), Node.js, some Python
- MySQL/MariaDB, Redis
- cPanel/WHM, custom control panels and APIs
Monitoring, Security & Tools
- Prometheus & Grafana
- ELK/Elastic stack for logs
- HAProxy, ModSecurity, malware scanners
- n8n, queues and shell scripts for glue work
Contact
I’m open to chats about hosting architecture, migrations, custom panels, and automation around infrastructure and support.
If you need someone who understands both logs and business impact, feel free to reach out.
- Direct about trade-offs and risks.
- Written context > long meetings.
- Prefer incremental improvements over giant rewrites.
- Care about reliability more than buzzwords.
- Value clear explanations over magic.
- Want systems you can still understand in two years.