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Archive for the ‘Evangelist's Corner’ Category

Kevin HazardAt the beginning of the month, Rob Walters, The Planet’s general manager of storage and data protection, had a chance to sit down with Mitch Keeler of The Web Hosting Show to chat about the benefits of cloud storage and how The Planet differentiates itself in the midst of so many other cloud providers.

Given the fact that the cloud platform is still in its infancy, Rob and Mitch approach the topic from a very high level — starting with the definition of cloud storage in relation to Gartner’s definition of cloud computing, then diving deeper into the benefits of cloud storage specifically. Rob explains how our cloud storage platform was designed to create a holistic customer experience, leveraging our resources and some of the newest technologies to make adoption of the new platform as seamless as possible.

One of the most interesting parts of the interview is the discussion of the utility of Storage Delivery Networks: locating your data “in the cloud” in specific locations for disaster recovery or end-user speed concerns. Often, cloud providers serve “the cloud” as an ethereal, “out there somewhere” destination, which doesn’t help customers who are trying to design their own internal networks to put data where it needs to be.

If you’ve got a few minutes, head over to The Web Hosting Show to listen to Episode 188 … You can finally put a voice to the posts you’ve read from Rob in the past. And yes, that voice has a British accent.

-Kevin

Kevin HazardToday, we announced the availability of a new report from market research firm Stratecast which supplies conclusive evidence that The Planet’s enterprise-grade hosted IT infrastructure reduces operating costs for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) by 51 percent over a three-year period.

Naturally, this report is monumental for small business owners — especially in a period of economic uncertainty. Understanding that I couldn’t do the significance of the report justice, I decided to get a little help from the United States of America’s forefathers … A Hosting Declaration of Independence for the Small Business Owner:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for small business owners to establish presences online that will connect them with their customers and to assume among the powers of the hosting industry, the separate and equal station to which they are entitled as a competitive company in this day and age, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation from hosting their infrastructure in their closets.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all businesses are created equal, that they are endowed by their owners with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Cost Savings, Infrastructure Flexibility and the pursuit of Competitiveness. —

That to secure these rights, hosting companies are instituted among Men and Women, deriving their powers from the consent of their customers, — That whenever any Form of Hosting becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the Small Business Owners to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Hosting Paradigm, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its business in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Budget and Peace of Mind.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that In-Home Hosting Models long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while their current environments are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the hosting to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of paying too much and worrying about downtime, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Hosting infrastructure, and to provide a new Platform for their future security. —

Such has been the patient sufferance of many Small Business Owners; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Methods of Hosting their Servers. The history of the present Do It Yourself Hosting Model is a history of repeated delays, overpayments and outages, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these Small Businesses.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:

SMBs can dramatically cut IT costs by more than 51% when comparing a DIY infrastructure with a hosted option.

A hosted infrastructure offers elements that characterize an enterprise-grade data center, one that meets best-practices criteria for data backup and storage, as well as provides a robust business continuity plan in case of disruption of service. These elements would need to be added to the costs for a DIY data center.

Hosted IT infrastructure places more control into the hands of the SMB. For many businesses, on-site proximity to IT infrastructure and in-house dedicated or contracted personnel provides a comforting sense of control. The truth is the physical location of IT infrastructure is immaterial to users, reputation and credibility are paramount to hosted IT Infrastructure providers, and application control remains in the hands of the business organization.

An IT infrastructure provider brings experienced and trained personnel responsible for choosing infrastructure equipment and suppliers on behalf of all of its subscribers.

Hosted IT infrastructure solutions reduce business risk for the SMB. The hosted provider’s business size, years in the hosted business, and diversity of subscribers that represent multiple vertical industries will, in many instances, exceed similar measurements of its individual subscribers. Also, subscribing to a hosting provider offloads SMB spend and attention to non-core but mission-critical functions.

In every stage of these Oppressions Small Business Owners have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A DIY solution, which is thus marked by every piece of evidence that may define a Poor Business Decision, is unfit to be the hosting infrastructure of a business.

We, therefore, the Representatives of The Planet, in The Planet Blog, Assembled, appealing to the Internet At Large for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good Customers of this Company, solemnly publish and declare, That the Small Business Owners are, and of Right ought to be Free to choose a hosted infrastructure, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to their Legacy DIY Solutions, and that all business connection between them and their server closets, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent Customers, they have full Power to choose their Services, conclude Peace of Mind, contract Alliances with Hosting Partners, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Customers may of right do. —

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Service Level Agreements, we mutually pledge to give our businesses Enterprise Hosting Environments, to Save Money, and to enjoy the Freedom and Flexibility that hosting provides.

- Kevin Hazard (but mainly these guys)

To download the full Stratecast white paper (sans US History positioning) and to learn more about how hosting can save you money, visit http://www.theplanet.com/Hosting-Reduces-Costs/.

-Kevin

Kevin HazardHave you heard of “The Cloud”? It’s the end-all hosting solution that balances your checkbook, gives massages and keeps all the items in your kitchen cabinets alphabetized and sorted by size and category.

The term “cloud” has been around the block once or twice on the Internet – one of its first technological uses was a description of the Internet as a whole. Comparisons to “webs” or “series of tubes” have received a bit more fanfare, but the root of the metaphors is consistent: We need to be able to explain and visualize what this “Internet” thing is beyond bits and bytes and ones and zeroes.

The Internet

We hold these truths to be self-evident: The Internet is everywhere and the Internet is nowhere.

The fact that we can’t point to anything tangible to define the Internet forces us to conceptualize an image that helps us understand how this paradox is possible. A lot of information is sitting around on servers somewhere out there, and when we connect to it, we have access to it all. Cloud, web, dump truck, tubes … It doesn’t matter what we call it because we’re not defining the mechanics, we’re defining the concepts.

A Cloud by Any Other Name

These days, the term “cloud” has made a resurgence in a different context: Because we’re more intimately familiar with the Internet these days, we’ve come to understand it in terms of servers and connections, but technology has forced us to break free from that interpretation as well … Instead of content being hosted on a single server somewhere, it’s theoretically floating around independent of all hardware. It’s like a grid of servers acting as one … or a cluster of servers … or cloud of servers on the Intercloud (I’m going to trademark that).

The Internet

Breaking free from hardware limitations is huge. Cloud computing and cloud storage theoretically offer the ability to wave goodbye to those artificial processor and hard drive constraints and move toward a new, never-failing, infinitely scalable platform that cleans your room and pays your taxes. Wait. What?

-Kevin

Kevin HazardWednesday, April 8, was the American Heart Association’s National Start! Walking Day, so The Planet’s employees in Houston and Dallas suited up for a one-mile walk around our offices. The goal: building awareness around living an active and heart-healthy life both at home and in the workplace.

If you’ve had the chance to visit us, this goal shouldn’t be much of a surprise: we have treadmills set up in our offices for anyone who needs a little more movement than what a desk chair provides, and our vending machines have color-coded dots that point out heart-healthy snacking alternatives. Luckily, the weather we ordered for the walk was delivered on time, and we didn’t have to line folks up for their turn to walk on the treadmills … The sun was out, the birds were chirping and a free healthy lunch was waiting for us on the other side of the finish line.

Check out a few of the pictures we snapped on Wednesday and head to our Flickr page for more:

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

The Planet AHA Heart Walk Kickoff

When was the last time you got up from your desk for a quick walk? If you can’t remember, then use this post as inspiration to get out and get active! If this post isn’t good enough, crank up your speakers and find a copy of “Eye of the Tiger” to push you over the edge.

-Kevin

Kevin HazardA few days ago, I read a great article by Smashing Magazine explaining 9 Steps for a Happy Relationship with your Hosting Provider, and I was inspired to respond with “9 Ways your Hosting Provider Should Make you Happy” article. Instead, I thought a much more entertaining post would be to share an experience I had last weekend. We could call it something like “9 Signs Your Hosting Provider Ain’t No Good.”

The Problem: One of my friends has an old server that he needs to pull data from. The server itself is moving beyond its usable life, so putting it into colocation for a day to access that data once doesn’t really make sense. His predicament: he only uses laptops at home, so he doesn’t have a monitor or a keyboard to make the configuration changes necessary to enable access to the server on his home network. But I do.

Instead of bringing the components to his place, he decides that it would be more efficient to bring the server to me … forgetting that it’s heavy and awkwardly sized. After rigging a rolling duffel bag to accommodate this monstrosity of computing power, the server is lugged to my door, in retrospect like a lamb to the slaughterhouse.

The “Solution”: My desk became a makeshift server room.

Pay close attention. If your server room looks anything like the picture, you need to make a change. A word of warning: for those of you who value quality hosting infrastructures, you may want to avert your eyes … the image might be a little too graphic and disturbing.

Home Server

  1. Server Seating. Your hosting provider says “A comfortable server is a happy server, so instead of going with racks or cabinets, we’re moving toward faux-leather seating for all servers in our fleet.” Move your business now.
  2. 100% Power. Your hosting provider says “Rather than provide an SLA agreement for power, we’re going a step further by dedicating a whole outlet to your server.” Move your business now.
  3. Server Security. Your hosting provider says “Too often, DC personnel rely on screws, rails and ‘bread racks’ to keep servers in place. We’re more confident in the armrests of the aforementioned faux-leather seating.” Move your business now.
  4. Cable Management. Your hosting provider says “Too often, cable organization can get overcomplicated with colors and labels. The new wave: use only black cables and let them hang as precariously as possible.” Move your business now.
  5. Efficient Airflow and Cooling. Your hosting provider says “Some of our top engineers have been focused on airflow and cooling strategies and they’ve come to a surprising consensus: rather than isolating hot and cold air in the server area, just position the server so half of it is not encumbered by racks or cabinets.” Move your business now.
  6. Inventory Management. Your hosting provider says “We don’t need a dedicated area for our parts inventory … We just keep everything laying around to make it easier to access.” Move your business now.
  7. Contingency Planning. Your hosting provider says “We don’t think inclement weather should affect your service, so we’ve got dedicated umbrellas for every server in our fleet to keep it online rain or shine.” Move your business now.
  8. Accessibility. If your hosting provider says “KVM units allow for remote access to your server’s keyboard, video and mouse controls … we think offering the real thing is even better,” move your business now.
  9. Safety First. Your hosting provider says “Because this server room configuration is a little non-traditional, it’s important that the operations folks performing ‘remote hands’ work on your computer are equipped for safety. Hard hats are also useful in physically hitting a server that needs a metaphorical kick start.” Move your business now.

Click on the picture above to see a larger version of the nightmare. Are there any other red flags you notice that you’d point out?

-Kevin

P.S. Again, if your server room looks anything like the picture you see above, call us now. Right. Now.

Kevin HazardThe top vote-getter in Katie’s quick survey about what you’d like to see more of on The Planet Blog was “Contests/Competitions,” so we’ve got a quick and easy way for all of our customers to enter to win a Flip MinoHD camcorder:

Take Our 6-Question Hosting History Survey!

Flip MinoHD

It is quite possible to thoughtfully complete the entire survey in about 25 seconds, so don’t miss your chance to join in on the fun!

Click Here to Take the Survey.

We’re always looking for ways to involve you, learn more about you and give away some cool stuff, so let us know if you’ve got any other ideas for competitions or games.

The random drawing for the camcorder will occur on April 8, so get your entry submitted before 11:59pm CDT on April 7 to be eligible.

One entry per customer. One account number submitted in Question 1 of the survey will be selected at random as the winner. The winner will be notified via an email to the master user on the account.

-Kevin

Kevin HazardTo the tune of The Clash’s classic with the same name:

London calling via Internet routes
The Planet’s connected, and you shouldn’t have doubts
London calling to the hosting world
Come check out our servers, all you boys and girls
London calling, now come look at us
Our new data center is causing a fuss
London calling, and it ain’t just a fling
Our network’s a ring on the international scene

CHORUS
The Planet is coming, yes we’re moving in
A D.C. in England, now watch all Europe grin
A 10-gig connection, so you have no fear
London’s connected – and you have a computer

London calling, but not on the phone
Don’t worry, brother, your site can have a new home
London calling and it speaks like Macbeth
A Queen’s English accent accompanies each breath
London calling – and I don’t wanna shout
But you started reading – and I saw you nodding out
London calling, and this ain’t no guise
So go get the attention of someone who buys (servers)

CHORUS (x2)
The Planet is coming, yes we’re moving in
A D.C. in England, now watch all Europe grin
A ten-gig connection, so you have no fear
London’s connected – and you have a computer

Now get this
London calling, yes, you’ll be there, too
An’ you know what I said? Well, all of it was true!
London calling at the top of the dial
So after all this, won’t you give me a smile?
London calling

We think this is new you’ll like … you’ll like … you’ll like

Yes. The song is true. The Planet just announced a new data center in London. It features up to 20kW of power per rack, backed by N+1 redundancy on generators, transformers and UPS systems. Customers gain access to a 10GB private fiber interconnect to The Planet’s core network through our Ashburn, Va., data center, as well as local connectivity to Tier-1 providers and the major European peering exchanges.

We’ll be offering virtual racks in the space starting in April, and we’ve already begun preleasing servers there! This announcement is made possible by the colocation agreement we made with London-headquartered TelecityGroup, which operates 20 network-independent data centers across seven European countries.

Check out our London Data Center Expansion press release for more details!

-Kevin

P.S. I bet that tune will be stuck in your head for at least an hour. :-)

 
 

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