The Planet is widely recognized as an industry leader in network performance, reliability and capacity, so for our loyal customers (and soon-to-be customers), we wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at what makes our network great.

Terms like “Tier 1 bandwidth” and “fully redundant” are tossed around in networking circles, but to the uninformed, those terms may make about as much sense as “dual layer lunar module connections” and “space-time transfer warps.”

Have no fear, though. The video below should give you a good education on The Planet’s network, and you’ll avoid the typical Network Engineer initiation (which typically involves multiple pairs of socks and a gallon of peanut butter … I’ll spare you the details).

Stan Barber, our vice president of network operations, gave me a great network walkthrough, and because I think everyone could benefit from his tutorial, I did my best to transcribe the simplistic overview on video a la the UPS Whiteboard commercials.

Video Disclaimer: We are continuing to build our network, so the final schematic is forward-looking and will be fully realized shortly. The connections and their explanations have been simplified to best communicate a high-level understanding of the network … Oh, and I am not an actor nor a Network Engineer.

Right about now, you’re probably expecting me to say something like “The Planet: It’s the Network,” but I doubt Verizon would find that message very original.

We take a lot of pride in our hosting network, so if you have any questions, please let us know and we’ll be happy to answer them for you.

-Kevin

The YouTube link: The Planet Network

When Van Halen came to Houston, I wore the rockingest facial hair EVER into the office for a few days after the concert. I’ve amassed a solid collection of t-shirts from companies like RandomShirts.com and Busted Tees, so the other folks at the office don’t even look twice when my shirt says “Fact: Clowns Eat People” or claims “Texas messed with me First.” I zip through the office on the company’s Segway, and I’m usually listening to music on my iPod.

Needless to say, I’m not known to be very formal.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I sported a green t-shirt, jacket, and pair of tennis shoes. You’ll note the “I’m too lazy to shave” beard and regularly-worn jeans.

As you would probably guess, given this context, I face full-on inquiries from curious coworkers when I wear a shirt with buttons or khaki pants, so I decided to push the envelope with a social experiment:

Clean-shaven. Suit. Tie. Hair gel. No detail was spared. I wasn’t this formal when I interviewed for the job, and even when I showed up in a sport coat, I was over dressed.

I made sure to document all of the reactions, so here they are … even the awkward ones:

Either you’re interviewing or somebody’s dead.
- Jimmy T.

I am fully freaked out right now … Now I can’t remember what I was doing!
- Katie S.

That’s your Bob Dole outfit … What? You have an interview today? You’re lookin’ niiice.
- Bryan M.

Check it out, Kevin shaved. When’s the job interview? … You somebody’s best man today?
- Aaron T.

Woah … Hey … Good luck on the job interview … Sorry if somebody died.
- Brandon P.

Fancy! You running for office? … You’ve got a Stephen Colbert thing going on.
- Gretchen P.

Job interview today?
- Judy B. - Chung W. - Andrew G.

What?! Are you feeling okay?! Are you sure?
- John B.

SUIT! You’re a suit today!
- Richard L.

Somebody have a court date? The only reason you’d dressed up like that is if you have a court date or if you’re taking out a nice lady.
- Clayton S.

You’ve got your nerdy hair on … Do you have a date today? Is everything else in your closet dirty?
- Ali L.

Niiice…(*sort of creepily)
- Urvish V.

What’s this all about? What are you doing? What are you wearing? I don’t like it … Who are you meeting?
- Todd M.

What are you doing? Interviewing? You’ve got your power tie on … lookin’ like Donald Trump. When Kevin’s wearing a suit, you know something’s up …
- Will C.

I feel like you’re going to sell me a used Buick…
- Jeff N.

What’s going on today? You meeting the President or something?
- Arnold Y.

You’re lookin’ sharp!
- Kelley H. - Matthew S. - C. Valderamma

Wow. You own one of those [suits]? You get dressed up, and you’re a pretty handsome dude … I know it’s weird to hear another guy say that … Is that a clip-on?
- Steve K.

When you come to visit The Planet, I’d suggest you lean more to the “casual” side of “business casual.”

-Kevin

P.S. Steve said I should include this quote from Gordon Gekko in Wall Street to embody my “look” for the day:

The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.

According to Time Magazine’s blog, yesterday was the 40th birthday of the beloved Cubicle. We’ve all had them at one time or another. Some good and some … well … I’d rather work in a hole.

At The Planet, we have an open-concept work environment filled with fabulous “newbicles”—cubicles that are neither drab, dreary or soul-sucking. We have shelves, fun white boards and a really large workspace to spread out on.

I wasn’t sure I was going to be thrilled with the arrangement when I first heard about it, but I’ve grown to love it. They are big enough that we aren’t squished on top of each other and the white noise that’s piped in really helps give you privacy. I like being close to my team, too. I just have to roll around on my chair to talk to them!

So, in celebration of the birth of these little gems, I thought we’d pay homage to our friend the cubicle—picture style.

Some prefer a really business- like atmosphere. *cough* …Accounting… *cough*

Some like to show off achievements. (Hi Phil!)

Others prefer to decorate with some panache… (Guess whose sits there? w00t!)

Some need a sufficient place to primp or get food out of their teeth.

Most love to display their collectibles (better known as toys).

Note: We obscured some super-secret plans on the white board.

Beware of this dude. He’ll pelt you with that giant koosh ball or nerf gun when you least expect it.

Never fear. Scully and Mulder are here to protect us from the abnormal… well, extra abnormal.

Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler…

Happy Birthday, cubicle! Don’t worry, 40 is the new 30. You still look fabulous.

-Ali

Hi there, everyone. It’s been awhile, and in fact, this is only my second blog post. A great customer experience over the past few weeks prompted me to post, so I wanted to take a little time to relay it to you.

At The Planet, we’re not just a service provider — we’re also a customer of a several hardware, software and service vendors. Many of my recent projects have centered around our KVM offering, the Lantronix Spider KVM-over-IP unit. We’ve been searching for the best way to highlight the unique features and benefits of the Spider KVM that distinguish it from a standard KVM option.

We had a number of ideas — a demo unit, a demo video, etc. Lantronix really stepped up to the plate with an offer to produce a demo video that was custom-tailored to The Planet’s deployment of their hardware. I also deployed a demo unit that lets you see, first hand, how the Spider KVM unit functions in a real-world scenario.

Please take a moment to view the Lantronix Spider video. The Lantronix team did a really great job on short notice (it was probably seven days from concept to online publication), and it gives you a good feel for what the Spider KVM is all about.

While you’re at it, you can try out my demo KVM unit. By the way, Kevin told me that a few people have already checked out the KVM demo and requested a Windows demo box. I’m working on it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Back to my central thesis … It’s not just the work on the video: We just met with our account team and Lantronix executive management. Their openness to working with us, both to better promote their product and to build some of our user requirements back into their roadmap for future versions, was truly refreshing. More importantly, it reinforced in me the fact that we’re an important partner to all of our customers. We want to do what we can to make your business successful, so that we can grow along with you.

This is especially true within the Product Management team, since we are responsible for taking your needs and building them into our future releases. I look forward to hearing from you how we can improve our portfolio. Comment on the blog and let me know what you think.

-Aaron

Since I shy away from vending machines, trans fats, Las Vegas and scary ingredients, I will stick to my favorite topic: Storage!

It took perhaps a day for our faithful customers to give us clear feedback on our Dedicated Backup Server (DBS) line when it shipped last September, and we listened. They wanted more space, a lower cost per GB and more power. It took us a little more than a day to answer those requests, but we hope our new addition is worth the wait.

We’re proudly announcing the newest addition to the DBS family, affectionately called “The Beast” by those of us who drool over 6 terabytes (TB) of usable and abusable space, dual quad core XEON power, 8GB of RAM and 8 massive TB of monthly bandwidth!

We actually have been building this configuration for a few months on a custom basis, and so it has been heavily tested and approved by our hard-core TB drinkers: They loved it, and you will too!

The regular monthly price is $1,099, and we are going to have a promotion at the launch to make sure these Beasts do not sit around for long. For a limited time, The Beast can be yours for $999/mo … that’s around 16 cents/GB per month, if my math is any good. This is by far the best value in the line, and comes with the same unlimited pool of client licenses, Continuous Data Protection and block level performance as the humble 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB DBS configurations we’ve had available since the product’s launch.

We did hit one problem: the dang things do NOT fit in our vending machines, and the silly machines didn’t accept $100 bills.

Don’t worry, we’ve got a call in to our facilities group.

-Brett

I’ve got a serious case of ad blindness. I generally ignore banner advertisements online, tune out when a TV show goes to commercial (except when ShamWow! is being advertised), and I rifle through newspaper pages to read only the most important content — the comics.

“Use as directed.” “Prices and participation may vary.” “Your call may be monitored or recorded to ensure quality customer care.” “Wow, Kevin. You are incredible.” I hear those phrases all the time, so I’m almost desensitized to their meanings: Of course you should use a product like you’re supposed to … If a McDonald’s branch doesn’t give me a Big Mac at the $2 promotional price, that branch loses my business … The call “may” be monitored or recorded (so it’s probably not … right?) … And yes, I know I’m incredible.

In last week’s edition of “This Week* in Vending,” you met The Planet’s Manager of Technical Support Christian Plunkett. Four minutes and 25 seconds into the video, Christian sent my world into a spiral of uncertainty as he explained the weekly call calibration session used to monitor and score The Planet’s phone support quality. What? Calls are monitored and recorded for quality purposes? What does that mean for my other assumptions? Maybe Mitch Hedberg was right when he talked about the existence of a McDonald’s that didn’t participate in anything: “Cheeseburgers? Nope. We got spaghetti … And blankets.”

Once I was coaxed, shivering and confused, from the corner of the darkest room I could find, I pulled myself together enough to join in on last week’s call calibration meeting to get a sense of what all that monitoring and quality assurance looks like behind the scenes. The managers, supervisors and call center reps from our billing care, technical support and quality assurance groups meet in “The Attic” (an aptly named conference room on the lofty mezzanine level of our Houston headquarters) to hear and evaluate randomly-chosen calls from various reps. Our phone system automatically records, stores and indexes each phone call, which can be easily accessed and searched via Web browser. So, in a matter of a few clicks, we hear the “Thank you for calling The Planet” greeting from the first call.

Each person in the meeting has a quality control call monitoring form to grade the customer experience based on each conversation. Points are assigned in various categories to ensure thorough, friendly and consistent calls, with a maximum score of 100 per call. This monitoring process is constantly updated and improved as we meet and exceed the expectations we set for ourselves, with the overarching goal being able to resolve every problem quickly and easily on the customer’s first call.

Because you are probably interested in what one of these calibration sessions looks like, I’ll sneak you in behind the lines. This clip features a discussion about using of the caller’s name conversationally during the call to cultivate a more comfortable, friendly experience.

In addition to these call calibration meetings, individual monitoring sessions are held weekly between every rep and his/her supervisor. These meetings give each agent an opportunity to self-analyze and improve their own service based on what they hear as a third party. Beside providing direct and immediate feedback for each rep, we’ve used these monitoring sessions to evaluate our own support processes. As a result, we’ve changed serveral confusing or unclear policies in order to better streamline the path to a resolution for every customer.

The customer experience at The Planet has gotten even better, so we’re very happy to be constructively dissatisfied with our progress.

-Kevin

Given the phenomenal success of Todd’s “This Month in Vending” interview last week, along with his survival, we decided to post a new episode for your viewing pleasure. With this quick turnaround, we changed the name of the segment to “This Week* in Vending” with the asterisk doubling as an attention grabber for the word change … and as an excuse in case we aren’t able to keep up the pace.

In this interview, I enjoy a vending machine chili-cheese hot dog with Christian Plunkett, The Planet’s Manager of Technical Support. A new addition to the episode is the welcome music track pulled from a song performed by our very own Brandon Holbrook … Hopefully he accepts this shout-out as a substitute for the royalties an artist would typically receive.

If you’ve worked with anyone here at The Planet and you’re interested in hearing from them in a segment of “This Week* in Vending,” please let us know. If you work at The Planet and you want to embarrass one of your co-workers, feel free to nominate them as well.

-Kevin

The YouTube link: This Week in Vending: Christian Plunkett