The Planet Blog

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

A few weeks ago, we ran a one-hour contest for avid blog readers and @ThePlanet Twitter followers who wanted a picture of one of their actual servers in our data centers, and the results were phenomenal. We had more than 50 people contribute on the blog and on their own Twitter streams, and about 35 thrill-seeking adventure junkies completed all three tasks required to qualify for their picture.

The DC operations crews in Houston and Dallas were great sports about adding this photography project to their normal responsibilities, and we had the pictures out to customers within 48 hours of the contest’s conclusion. Here are a few of the snapshots we took during the contest:

As I warned, some of the pictures didn’t come out as professional photography masterpieces, but that just adds to their authenticity. We couldn’t be happier with the community’s participation, and we’ve heard the repeated requests to rerun the contest. We’ll be offering another opportunity in the near future for customers who missed out on this one. We’ll be tweaking it a little to allow more people to get up close and personal with their servers … even if they live half a world away and happen to be sleeping during the Texas workday.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in the inaugural #showmemyserver experiment! If you have any suggestions on other ways we can give you insight into our business, leave a comment below … We’re all ears.

-Kevin

P.S. If you have some time to kill, visit the #showmemyserver blog and click through to visit some of our customers’ sites in the comments section. The “My Web site is ______, and I’m powered by The Planet” list is a great snapshot of the diversity of our customer base and what they do with their dedicated servers.

Do you want to meet your server?

Here’s your chance.

If you complete ALL THREE tasks included below within one hour (by 3:30 p.m. CDT today), we will head out to one of our DCs with a camera to give your server a well-deserved close-up. While getting a picture is not the same as meeting your server face-to-faceplate, it’ll at least tide you over until you can make it to Houston or Dallas for an “in real life” data center tour.

Your Mission (you should choose to accept it):

1. Post a Tweet saying “I’m Powered by @ThePlanet. #showmemyserver”
2. Post a comment on this blog that includes “My website is _________, and I’m Powered by The Planet.”
3. Send an email to twitter @ theplanet.com with the name you want included in the picture (or we’ll default to your Twitter name), your The Planet account number* and the IP address** of the server you want pictured.

*This is to help verify your account.
**This information will not be shared or included in the picture. It is simply being used to target your server.

Because this is our inaugural #ShowMeMyServer event, we’re limiting each qualifier to a single server – in case we get slammed with a request from each of our 25,000+ customers in the next hour. If you have a private rack, we can make an exception and snap a couple pictures of the servers on your rack if you’d prefer.

Once we close the window for submissions, we’ll start the photography process. The turnaround will depend on the volume of requests, but we’re aiming to get pictures back to you (replying to the e-mail you sent twitter@theplanet) by Thursday afternoon at the latest. While we employ a lot of talented folks, the people taking your picture might not be professional photographers, but we’ll get the best picture we can … and if a reshoot is necessary, just let us know.

Are you ready?

Go!

-Kevin

EDIT: Comments are Closed as of 3:31pm CDT. Scroll through the comments section and check out some of the awesome sites our customers host with us!

One of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your IT infrastructure is that you don’t have to be anywhere near it to take full advantage of it. The inherent benefit of not having to be near your servers is that you can sleep a little more peacefully every night, knowing we’re keeping an eye on your equipment. If you want proof, ask the more than 44 percent of our customer base that are located outside North America.

Unfortunately, given the fact that you aren’t close to your server, it’s not uncommon to feel a little “disconnected” from your hardware … You don’t get the warm-and-fuzzy feelings from seeing your specific server on its rack or giving it a hug when it processes a big sale. Maybe that’s why a huge percentage of small- and medium-sized businesses have not outsourced their infrastructure needs: Their “server room” (or “closet” in real estate terms) may not be enterprise-level, but at least they can step “behind the curtain” and see their servers in action if they have the urge.

Naturally, we thought it might be fun to offset some of that “disconnection”:

While this tweet may have just been a thought in passing this morning, the flood of responses and ReTweets coming from that post suggest there’s a healthy demand for some “show me my servers in real life” love, so we’re going to make that happen.

At some point in the next week, we will post a tweet on The Planet’s Twitter page with instructions on how you can get a picture taken of your very own server/rack. We’ll even include your Twitter username on a namecard so you know it’s yours.

This is going to be a limited-time, limited-availability opportunity, and you might have to work to get on the list, but the payoff will be more than worth the effort: a picture of your server that you can print out, frame and hang above your monitor. It’s a chance for you to own a picture of your Web site in its unprocessed form.

Stay tuned and be ready.

-Kevin

A couple of years ago I wrote a three-part series about the Internet social scene. (”Three-part series” makes it sound very official and important, doesn’t it?) I really enjoyed writing it because … let’s be honest, I’m a social butterfly. And I love the Internet. We’re like two great tastes that taste great together. So when Kevin asked if I could do a follow-up about how the game has changed, I was stoked.

Today, social sites have become a huge part of our culture. They are how we communicate, how we receive information and how we socialize on a daily basis:

• We keep up with friends and acquaintances via status updates and photo uploads.
• News stories spread like wildfire across Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr feeds.
• RSS readers let us know immediately when a Web site posts an update, whether it’s a blog, news source or promotional feed.
• Smartphones are now the equivalent of pocket-size computers that allow you to surf the ‘net, get your e-mail and check all of your social networking sites from anywhere.

It’s a 24/7 information blitz that keeps us plugged in, informed and juiced up on more information than we can process. It’s overwhelming at times … even for a junkie like me.

The social networking landscape has changed a lot in the last two years, the biggest change being its acceptance as a genuine, measurable, and necessary addition to the way people and businesses market themselves. The power of a successful social networking plan is undeniable. For the first time, we had a presidential candidate who embraced new media and used it to elevate his campaign to a level never before seen. Blogs, e-mail blasts, a modern Web site and the use of social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook helped his campaign message resonate with a growing social media generation.

I’ve seen firsthand what a great social media strategy can do for a business. Coffee Groundz is a coffee shop/bar/café/hang-out that opened two years ago in midtown Houston. The owner’s dream was to create a community atmosphere that was conducive to both hanging out and business meetings … a place that simply felt like home. To kick off his business, not only did he create a Web site, but he signed up for Twitter and Facebook. He began hosting “tweet-ups” for his “fans” and “followers” that have become huge events. He brings in live musicians, exhibits local art, holds charity events and hosts social networking breakfasts. He built his business as a community – harnessing the power of social media.

As a side note, he also chased a bank robber through midtown and handed him over to police, so he’s sort of a superhero. News of the robbery and pursuit spread via Twitter and Facebook within minutes of his tweets about it – long before any news outlets reported on it. That’s power.

We can’t deny the importance of social media any longer. Turn on the TV and you’ll probably see:

• Congressmen tweeting during sessions and votes
• Advertisers replacing Web site addresses in their ads with Twitter usernames
• Shows like “Entertainment Tonight” covering Twitter stories
• Letterman and Conan often referencing – sometimes cynically – the social media sphere
• CNN constantly posing questions to their Facebook and Twitter followers
• Companies offering Twitter- and Facebook-exclusive deals and promotions

Imagine harnessing all that power for your business. How many people could you reach? The evolution is happening, and if you haven’t embraced it, you’re already way behind.

Do you know what the best part about it is? It’s free. Sure, it costs man power and time, but those are two things you already pay for. When has there ever been a time that an advertising tool was basically free? Who ever heard of free billboards or radio spots or TV commercials or newspaper ads?

Embrace it. Use it. Make it a required part of the way you market yourself and your business.

You know what I do remember? When people thought Web sites were unnecessary and the Internet was just something to “play” on. Ha!

Follow us on Twitter: @theplanet or http://www.twitter.com/theplanet

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theplanet

Become a part of it!

-Ali

Given the ever-evolving social media landscape, it can be difficult for a company to evaluate if, how, when and where it should participate.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been throwing around a few ideas about how we can communicate with our customers more often and get feedback.

Enter twitter: A community-driven platform built to communicate what different members are doing in real-time. It starts a new conversation.

Follow us on our official twitter page – @theplanet – where we will regularly answer the status-centric question, “What are you doing?”

If you are not a part of the twitter community yet, now’s your chance to sign up and join the conversation. We also want to learn about you!

I apologize if this announcement post seems a little disjointed. I wanted to make sure each one of these entries was exactly 140 characters.

-Kevin

Edited: Our official account was previously @theplanetdotcom but has been updated to @theplanet.