The Planet Blog

What defines “value” in hosting for you? Is it all about price? The quality of the server? The quality of the network? Is it an intangible peace of mind? Where do great service and support fit in?

In 2010, The Planet is raising the bar. We are on a quest to bring our customers the best hosting value, and we’ve started making some big changes. We’ve lowered many of our regular server prices and added new server lines to our product catalog, including a low-end model with Intel’s newest Pentium G6950 processor.

You shouldn’t need a special deal to get a great server at the best price, and our new approach to pricing guarantees that for you.

While lowering prices is a good first step in becoming a leading provider of value hosting, it’s just that — the first step. We know that you want to run and maintain your server with as little interference as possible, so we just launched a value bundle program to empower you with the tools you need: With every new server you purchase from The Planet, we’re going to provide a free control panel, 10 GB of free cloud storage and free Symantec antivirus software. That’s not for a limited time — it’s a permanent value-add.

Thus far, we’ve only talked about a few of the server-side changes we’ve made, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Value hosting is not defined by bottom lines and add-ons. The most valuable hosting offering is the one that provides the best data centers, network and support for a given budget, so we’re investing in those areas of our business.

Since value is perceived on a customer-by-customer basis, your experience is our focus. In the coming weeks and months, you’ll hear about some of the huge investments we’re making to increase your satisfaction. The Planet has always been known for the quality of our service, and we’re not resting on our laurels. We want your experience to be even better.

If you’re interested in learning more about our new offerings and Twitter-exclusive deals, be sure to follow @ThePlanetSales.

2010 is already an exciting year at The Planet!

-Kevin

On January 12, Haiti was rocked by a series of devastating earthquakes. In the past week, people from around the world have come together to provide supplies and support to the Haitian people and their ravaged nation. More than $24 million has been pledged via text message to the American Red Cross International Response Fund , and groups like Doctors Without Borders, Shelterbox, AmeriCares and International Medical Corps have been working around-the-clock to provide as much help as possible.

With all of the ongoing relief efforts, it has been difficult to decide how we could be involved and make the biggest difference without making our involvement seem like it’s about us. It turns out we’re not alone in that sentiment. Over the past week, The Planet has been working with other hosting companies including Rackspace, PEER 1, GoGrid and ServInt to create an industry-wide campaign to provide relief:

We know the power we have as a group exceeds the sum of the contributions we could make on our own, so we’re putting aside our fierce competitiveness for the greater social good. If you’re able to help, you can be sure you’re making a difference.

Visit HostingForHaiti.com to learn more about how you can help by donating to the American Red Cross and spreading the word about this effort.

If you’re a Web host and you’d like to join this industry-wide effort by posting a blog and spreading the word to your social network, e-mail info@hostingforhaiti.com to be included.

Follow the progress of the effort on Twitter by following @hostingforhaiti or searching for the #hostingforhaiti hash-tag.

We hope to make a difference through our unified efforts by providing immediate assistance to the tens of thousands of Haitians in need. Please join us to expand our reach.

Sir Isaac Newton saw an apple drop from a tree, and started contemplating gravity. Albert Einstein was riding in a street car, and Bern’s clock tower inspired the key to special relativity. Larry Page woke up in the middle of the night to scribble down a plan to download the Web, and Google was born. These “Eureka!” moments get the most fanfare, but Thomas Edison reminds us that “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

The same can be said about new businesses and software applications: Even the best ideas require time, diligence, resources and a whole lot of work to succeed. If you’re a small business owner, you probably won’t make it very far by spending an hour a week executing your business plan. If you’re a developer, you won’t be able to code and test “the next Google” on an old Pentium II desktop in your closet.

While we can’t provide the inspiration, diligence or “whole lot of work” pieces of the puzzle, our new Sand Castle program can give you the resources and time you need to jumpstart your vision:

• A Dual Xeon server
• An Enterprise-class data center
• An Industry-leading network
• FREE for 12 Months.

The costs of rolling out new business plans and testing software can be prohibitive, especially in uncertain economic times. So think of Sand Castle as an economic stimulus for entrepreneurs and developers. We’re providing an online environment to help launch the next big Internet success.

The initial Sand Castle deployment includes up to 500 servers, and The Planet’s Chairman and CEO Doug Erwin looks at it like this: “With eight data centers, we’re in a position to offer a single server to 500 individuals who want to start their own businesses. These 500 servers could create 500 jobs, and then we’ll have taken one small step to pay it forward and be part of the solution.”

FREE Server Configurations

We consulted with many developers, and with their feedback, we set minimum server specs for this program:

• Dual Xeon 2.4, 2.8 or 3.2
• 1GB RAM
• 146 GB of HDD space
• 10Mbps Unmetered Bandwidth
• Operating System: CentOS 5

Eligibility

Are you a developer? Do you have a vision for a new application or service? Do you need help turning that vision into reality? If so, you’re perfect for the Sand Castle program.

Fill out the one-page signup form with your contact information and vision for a Sand Castle server. We expect demand to exceed our initial supply, so quantities may be limited, and not every application will be accepted. Take time to detail your plans and provide any applicable examples to give yourself the best chance.

If you’ve got the inspiration, it’s time for some perspiration. Visit the Sand Castle page to learn more and apply!

-Kevin

P.S. If you know of any friends who may be interested in the program, be sure to Tweet this, Digg it, email it or smoke-signal it.

At the end of my Learning from a Blender post, I alluded to a project George Wright’s presentation inspired. Armed with a video camera and a bit of inspiration, I headed to our H2 data center to capture our own “obvious” video for our customers. Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series features their Total Blender in a way few had ever seen a blender before. Blenders are designed to dice and slice, so they recorded themselves dicing and slicing … albiet a few unconventional objects.

We help our customers build their businesses on servers in our data centers, so why not disassemble a server and rebuild it on camera for you? While the server-building process isn’t nearly as noisy or destructive as blending marbles, it gives our customers an opportunity to see their server – or in this case, one like it – from a different perspective: inside-out.

When I asked the data center managers about recording a server build on video, they jumped at the opportunity. Transparency is one of The Planet’s goals, and by showing you how your server’s components fit together, we’re giving you that “insider” perspective.

Follow Scott Stanley, an H2 data center supervisor, as he builds a Xeon 3060 – SAS server:

Key Components:

• 2.4 GHz Intel Xeon “Conroe” 3060 processor
• 4GB DD2 667 ECC RAM
• 146GB 10K RPM SAS HDD
• SAS drive card
• Dell PowerEdge 840 tower chassis

If you’ve never seen how all of the components are laid out inside a server, consider this your crash course. Do you have any questions about the server construction process? Is there anything “behind the scenes” like this that you want to see for yourself? Leave a comment below and let us know!

-Kevin

P.S. The background music is courtesy of Brandon Holbrook at Royalty Free Music X. Thanks Brandon!

Will it blend? That is the question.

If those words evoke mental images of diced golf balls, shredded iPhones or powdered marbles, you’re one of the tens of millions of people who have watched Blendtec’s virally successful “Will It Blend?” video series.

At a conference I recently attended, Blendtec Vice President of Marketing & Sales George Wright explained the inspirational genesis of the “Will It Blend?” phenomenon: While walking through the company’s factory, he came across a pile of wood shavings on the floor. Since wood isn’t used in the production of most commercial-grade blenders, the sight was unexpected and borderline worrisome. When a few assembly line workers saw his confusion – and concern – they explained that company founder Tom Dickson was testing a new blade design on a two-by-four and that everything would be cleaned up quickly … No big deal.

This kind of “testing” didn’t cause much of a commotion in the factory, but George saw potential. Armed with a $50 starting budget, “Will it Blend?” was born. As the series approaches its 100th YouTube upload and 100,000,000th video view, it’s fairly safe to say that the $50 was well spent.

What made the video a success? What was the secret sauce? George’s first bullet-point: Obviousness.

Of course people want to see a blender face off against a Chuck Norris action figure. Of course they’ll tune in to see you destroy the impossible-to-get-at-the-time iPhone. Of course people want to see why your blender is better at blending than any other blender on the face of the planet. Is that the case? I can’t say I’ve seen any other blender destroy a rake handle:

Taking Blendtec’s “obviousness” cue, I headed up to our H2 data center with a video camera and came back with a video. Do you want to see it?

-Kevin

P.S. Yes, I jumped when the rake hit the blade the first time.

While navigating the expo hall of the 2009 Cloud Computing Conference, Dell’s Cloud Evangelist Barton George snagged Rob Walters for a quick interview to learn more about how The Planet is taking advantage of the cloud. Rob tackles some big questions about the market’s perception of pure cloud computing and its hesitance to immediately adopt the seemingly Utopian platform. If you have about six minutes and forty-two seconds to spare, head to Dell’s Inside Enterprise IT blog and watch the video: The Planet, from Hoster to Hoster & Cloud Provider.

As soon as they wrapped up the interview, I turned the camera to Barton. What does Dell’s Cloud Evangelist think about the future of cloud computing? Can private clouds and virtualization survive the hype of the public cloud? How is Dell approaching the cloud behemoth? His answers may surprise you:

Key Points:

• Dell has invested about $450 million in software in the past two years to provide niche public cloud services.
• Similar to Rob’s sentiment, Dell sees virtualization as the “building block” of the cloud – a necessary step in getting hardware-minded customers comfortable with the platform.
• The private cloud isn’t necessarily doomed, and it’s more than just a stepping stone.
• Traditional IT isn’t going anywhere.
• In the future, a company’s infrastructure may involve a mixture of traditional IT, virtualization, private clouds and the public cloud.

-Kevin

A few weeks ago, I received an interesting email. The sender claimed to be from CNN, and he wanted to chat about The Planet’s #showmemyserver experiment. Before I filtered the seemingly surreal opportunity into a folder typically reserved for emails that say, “Dear Sir, I will send you $1million dollars if you send me $25.93 for postage,” I did a little snooping around. To my very pleasant surprise, this John D. Sutter guy is not only a real person, he actually writes and produces for CNN!

We exchanged a few phone calls, and I learned that he spoke with Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge for a CNN Tech article about “The Cloud.” As they discussed the mechanics of the cloud in terms of data centers and servers, Rich pointed out the juxtaposition of this hyped demand of virtualized products with an old-school desire to have the data in a visible, tangible location. Enter The Planet’s #showmemyserver project.

John was very interested in our take on the social media experiment’s success, so it was great to share a little of what we heard from our customers … and we were even able put him in touch with Nate Tallman at HealthTeacher.com to give him a direct customer perspective. Thanks for your help, Nate!

Long story short: John posts A trip into the secret, online ‘cloud’ to quite a bit of fanfare … which isn’t surprising, given its great introductory video:

From the heart of that article, he links to a “Behind the Scenes” blog about The world of ’server huggers’ and investigates his subconscious desire to find the “real” location of his digital data. As any customer who visits one of our data centers can attest, he’s not alone.

If you’re interested in “hugging” your server, stay tuned to The Planet Blog over the next few weeks, and keep your keyboard at the ready. We’ll offer another opportunity just in time for the holidays.

-Kevin