As any loyal ServInt Source readers know, our COO, Christian Dawson, and other members of our executive team are in Europe right now pressing the flesh at various industry events. But it’s not all just VIP passes and cheap drinks. Last night, at a Web Host Industry Review event in Amsterdam, Christian announced that we...

One of the critical parts of administrating your server is being able to log into your server via SSH (or shell access) as root. By accessing your servers “on the command line,” you can roll up your proverbial sleeves and really dig in: installing software, changing system configurations, investigating problems, etc. But there is a security...

Every year ServInt hits the road to attend industry conferences in the US and around the world. It’s a chance to see our colleagues and meet some of our customers face to face. We try to make it to different cities each year, but scheduling does not always let us spend enough time in certain...

In addition to providing you with valuable information and hosting industry news weekly here on the ServInt Source, many of you may not realize that we have an entire suite of customer engagement tools that are at your disposal. ServInt on Twitter ServInt has two twitter accounts, the longstanding @ServInt corporate feed which we use...

With today’s full-production launch of Jelastic comes ServInt’s first Cloud PaaS solution. If you’ve been following us on the ServInt Source for a while, you’ll know that we did a five-part series on cloud technology last year and that we’ve recently been incorporating cloud technology into our Flex product line. Some of you may be...

How do I view my site on a new server without letting the public see it? When migrating your website to a new web host, it can be helpful to see the site up on the new server before it goes live. You want to make sure that the site is going to work on...

At ServInt, nearly all of our employees have VPS accounts on our products. I personally host multiple sites on my VPS server and have since the first month I came aboard. Most people who hear about this shrug it off as just a perk of the job. And, of course, it is. But knowing how...

Sometimes in the Tech Bench, we dive into the deep end of hosting with in-depth articles like Fixing File Permissions or Troubleshooting 500 Internal Server Errors, but today we wanted to focus on answering some commonly asked questions. This article is for all the cPanel newbies in the house who might be afraid to ask that...

At the ServInt Source, we try to keep up with two posts a week, one on something technical as part of The Tech Bench, and one on some other pertinent topic. Our litmus test for all posts is: do they have actionable intelligence? (i.e. are we giving the reader information that they can learn from...

When you visit a web site, you are accessing a particular folder on a web server. For example, when you visit johns-carpentry.com, the server is pulling up the files at: /home/johnc/public_html. The web server only serves up the files located at that folder to incoming visitors. The location of that web folder is called the “document...

With the full-scale launch of Jelastic right around the corner, we wanted to take a moment on the ServInt Source to recap some of the developments and support documents that Jelastic is producing. The Blog Jelastic is constantly updating their product as it matures in beta, and they routinely profile these developments on their blog....

ServInt has always been about giving its customers flexibility. When we started, we entered a market full of shared servers. We started giving people the power of a full server — and this was back in 1995 before it was even called a dedicated server. We were early to the giving-people-lots-of-power party. We did the...

“Cloud hosting” used to be what companies called their services when they needed to impress investors. Now, it’s a term they use when what they really mean is “more virtualization.” Okay. I can live with that — there was a point when people finally stopped referring to scuba gear as a “self-contained, underwater breathing apparatus”...

This guide will help you install PHP Memcache on a CentOS server.   In my last Tech Bench article, I showed you how to install Memcached, the service daemon. Now, if you would like your PHP software to interface with that daemon, you will want to install a PHP extension for it. There are actually...

Earlier today ServInt announced its latest line of dedicated server products. Although we upgraded some core components in our Solo Series dedicated servers over the last two years, those changes weren’t profound enough to justify too much fanfare. Instead, we wanted to wait for a major revision to update the server line entirely–and it’s finally...

Today is an exciting day at ServInt. It’s my pleasure to announce the first finalist for our inaugural Sextant Award, the Michigan College Access Network. ServInt customers have always been a special breed. They are smart and driven, and many find innovative uses for the products and services we provide. But our Sextant Award honors...

What is caching? Servers have limited resources, and at any given time of high traffic, one or more of these resource limitations may create a bottleneck. A server–no matter the size–can only handle so many requests at a time. But what if there was a way to ease the burden when a server is asked...

Yesterday at the Parallels Summit 2012, Parallels announced that ServInt won the 2012 Parallels Partner Award for Excellence in Virtualized Infrastructure Services and Virtualization. Parallels Partner Awards recognize outstanding yearly achievements by partners who innovate with Parallels solutions to increase their sales and revenue, with special attention given to those partners who have excelled in...

Man, there are days when I love coming to work.  I wasn’t sure this was going to be one of them, but a new customer changed all that with what may be the best pre-emptive testimonial we’ve ever received.  In his sign-up form, our new customer, whom we’ll call “MW,” took the time to say:...

Today marked the 17th anniversary of when I founded ServInt.  17 is an interesting milestone.  Last year, at 16, I marveled at the fact that if the company I had created was a human, it would now be old enough to drive.  Now we’re forging further into “adulthood,” and I’m reflecting on what we’ve built...

In parts 1 and 2 of this series on disk storage, we looked at drive types and the benefits of using multiple drives in a RAID array. This week, we turn our attention to the final piece of the disk storage puzzle: the RAID controller. Beyond the drives and the array types and layouts, the RAID controller...

About a month ago, I was meeting with the ServInt Marketing team, discussing the fact that — while we have a relatively high proportion of customers who will shout from the mountaintops about how much they love us (thanks, guys!) — the vast majority of our customers are silent throughout the length of their stay...

suPHP and FastCGI require files and folders to have a specific set of permissions/ownership different from other handlers. Without these permissions set correctly you will see a lot of errors such as: “403 Forbidden”, “500 Internal Server Error”, or simply generic errors that commonly have the word ‘permission’ in them. It can be very time...

? I woke up this morning to the news that Norman Edmund passed away last week at the ripe old age of 95.  To a man whose proudest possession is a 48-inch fresnel lens rescued from a discarded TV, this was like like learning Santa Claus had died. That’s because Norman Edmund was the founder...

A savvy web hosting customer knows the importance of a storage solution that allows users to access and interact with their data quickly. In Part 1 of Evaluating Disk Storage, we talked about the benefits and drawbacks of different types of drives. But to assess the reliability and performance of an enterprise storage solution, it...

Today PIPA was dealt a crushing blow when Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled his planned cloture vote on the bill, agreeing to go back to the drawing board. The original vote was planned for Tuesday, Jan 24, but today he announced “In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the...

If you’re a subscriber to ServInt’s Twitter feed, you may have noticed we’ve tweeted nearly 30 separate “PIPA Facts” today.  We did this because we wanted to empower all our online friends and colleagues with easy-to-remember information that would make phone calls to their senators as quick and painless as possible. It’s easy to get...

SOPA seems to be breathing its last!  Although Rep. Smith has indicated that he’ll remove the controversial DNS blocking provisions of the bill, we’ve heard that the bill is so poisoned, hearings won’t resume, essentially killing the bill.  That’s a huge victory for the Internet industry. This bill had big money interests behind it, and...

I just arrived back in Virginia after three days at International CES in Las Vegas, where I was spreading the word about the dangers of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) on behalf of the Internet industry. I had the opportunity to speak in front of large audiences about...

Your server is only as secure as what you choose to serve. Harsh words, but it needs to be said. At ServInt, we work very hard to deliver servers to our customers that are as secure as they can be. But every customization of and installation on a server creates holes in that security. It...

In a few hours, our COO, Christian Dawson, will be speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This is an important panel discussion involving SOPA and PIPA, but it is also a proud moment for ServInt. Before I came to ServInt, I spent years in the trenches launching various satellite-powered multimedia technologies —...

As many of you know, ServInt is in the midst of a beta test of the Jelastic Java cloud platform. Jelastic is a platform as a service offering that allows web developers to build and implement scalable Java applications in a cloud environment. It’s been a few months since the beta began and we thought...

We’ve all logged onto websites with an https://… url. That little “s” in https designates that the connection is using TLS/SSL encryption, an added level of security when interacting with a website. The most common places to see this are on sites that collect personal information or payments, basically anything private that users wouldn’t want...

In the wake of a well-publicized boycott campaign against GoDaddy, hosting providers are racing to try to come up with their stances against SOPA. I am proud that we don’t need to do that. Our stance on SOPA, its sister bill PIPA, and the bill from whence they both came COICA, is well known. We have spent...

Ever wonder where the MST looks to investigate events on your server when you submit a ticket? Knowing the locations of various log files for both cPanel and Plesk can be invaluable when trying to understand why, when or how an event occurred on your server. Below are breakdowns of log file locations for both...

With the holidays upon us, I thought I’d step back a moment from our insight-heavy “actionable intelligence” and ponder the season and our place in it. The holidays are a busy time for all of us. Whether it’s buying presents and visiting relatives, or getting those end-of-year projects complete at home and at work, it’s...

I just finished listening to 12+ hours of day one of the House Judiciary Committee Markup of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and I have the scars to prove it. It was a brutal day of legislating. Four Congressmen, Reps. Issa, Lofgren, Polis and Chaffetz, stood out as having a firm grasp...

I just got done reading an excellent blog post by Dan Palotta on the Harvard Business Review site.  It’s called “I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore,” and if you’re a lover of words — by which I mean, if you love words enough to care about them and hate seeing them being abused...

When troubleshooting client servers, there are a few sites that the ServInt MST seems to go back to again and again. Whether it’s a reference page or a testing tool, the links below are just a few of the valuable resources our MST uses on a daily basis. And if you you’ve got a favorite,...

Choosing the right size server package—and choosing a package that can be scaled easily—are important decisions in any hosting purchase. Simply buying a server with enough CPU, RAM, I/O and disk space may not be enough for customers anticipating future growth or spikes in traffic. And upping the size and cost of a server package during (or...

Jailshell is a level of shell (SSH) access that limits a user to his or her specific directory structure.  Under regular SSH when users log into their servers they are taken to their home directory and can execute commands within their directory structure. Under SSH that user can also travel to any directoy on the...

Do you run SATA or SAS Drives in your servers? We hear this question all the time from inquisitive consumers who want to know more than simply how many gigs of disk space they will have access to with a particular server package. But some customers who ask this question are under the false assumption...

Most customer service in web hosting is a reactive business. Departments train up staff and wait for the calls and tickets to come in. But as our Director of Managed Services, Jim Tricarico, said in a recent blog post, there is more to customer service than simply customer support. At ServInt, we believe that proactive...

Yesterday I got to be part of something huge. I spent the day on Capitol Hill as an advocate for small business on the Internet, and met with Congressmen and Hill staffers to discuss the impact of two pieces of legislation currently making their way through Congress: the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the...

Editor’s Note: For this week’s Tech Bench, we thought we’d share the particulars of a recent MST ticket. If you’ve ever struggled with administering email  for clients over your VPS, this is one’s for you.   Recently, a customer submitted a ticket to the MST asking for help with the email on his VPS. It...

November is in full swing and that means that once again it’s time for the annual Desert Bus for Hope charity gaming marathon. I genuinely look forward to this event all year! Our friends at the sketch comedy group LoadingReadyRun created this event back in 2007 to raise money for Child’s Play, a charity that donates toys...

Nameservers are a small, but important part of your web service. They are essentially programs that translate your domain into an IP address and vice versa. They do this so that Internet users do not have to remember 32 bit IPv4 addresses such as 123.45.67.89 or 128 bit IPv6 addresses that are far longer. They...

As part of my role in Engineering, I’m the guy who ends up with all the next-to-impossible support requests. It may surprise you to learn that what makes these problems hard to fix often has little to do with the actual situation at hand. The biggest “technical challenge” I find is almost always insufficient data. And...

After last week’s discussion of PHP handlers, we thought we’d use this week’s Tech Bench to discuss the ins and outs of file permissions and ownership. The Numbering Scheme File permissions are often noted as a three digit number. This number is the binary shorthand used to classify the owner, group and public permissions for...

If you follow ServInt on Twitter, you may have noticed a strange surge in profanity-laced tweeting coming from us and many of your fellow customers—and you may have wondered, what the $%#@! is going on here? The honest answer is, we’re not entirely sure yet. Let me explain. About a month ago, I was in...

What are PHP handlers? In order for a site to run on PHP, the server must interpret the PHP code and generate a page when visitors access the website.  It interprets the code based on which PHP library you are using, such as PHP 4 or PHP 5.  A PHP handler is what actually loads the libraries...

In the world of hosting customer support, “supported software and applications” is a phrase on the minds of many potential—and current—customers. Does my host support the software I am running on my server? Will they help me if it’s not working? Truly supporting applications doesn’t simply mean supporting the software itself, though. It means managing...

500 Internal Server Errors can be caused by many issues. Please be advised if you are using Internet Explorer as your browser, it is known to display an internal server error when there isn’t one. Try using another browser first to eliminate this possibility. If you are using a different browser, then the error may...

Editor’s Note: With this post, our Director of Managed Services, Jim Tricarico, kicks off a three-part series on customer service in the hosting industry with a post about customer service from the hosting side. Check back in coming weeks for posts on the meaning of “supported” software and applications and the five things to always...

As a hosting company we hear this question all the time, but it usually misses the mark of what hosting consumers are actually asking for. And a misunderstanding about what hosted Cloud services are and do can lead to solutions that might not fit the problems customers are trying to solve. So what do consumers...

At ServInt, we take our commitment to the environment very seriously. If you read the ServInt Source you’ve seen me periodically write on our green initiatives, and I am happy to report that some of the efforts our industry is making seem to be having a positive effect. EPA predictions of data center power usage...

As Director of Network Compliance, one of my less enjoyable jobs is to explain to a customer whose server has just been hacked exactly what damage has been done and what data can and cannot be saved. All competent webhosts should provide customers with hosting solutions that are secure out of the box. Managed hosting...

Today, as you may have noticed, ServInt unveiled a brand-new web site — one that we hope will be easier to use, more pleasing to the eye and more valuable to our customers and prospects. The deployment of our new web site, in and of itself, is probably of modest importance to readers of the...

With Hurricane Irene projected to make landfall on the east coast of the United States in just a few days, many customers have been asking about what ServInt is doing to prepare for this potentially severe storm. During any extraordinary event, ServInt operates under a set of Major Event procedures that have been crafted and...

Editor’s Note: In advance of his appearance at HostingCon 2011 our COO, Christian Dawson, today published the following blog post on the HostingCon blog. If after reading, you want to learn more and find yourself in the San Diego area on Monday August 8th, use the discount code “AssociationPlanMonday” to register for HostingCon and receive $60...

Today is an exciting day at ServInt — because we’re announcing the largest free product upgrade in the history of our VPS platform. Basically, we’re upgrading our entire VPS line from Essential through SuperVPS.  Today, VPS clients will begin to see dramatic upgrades in up to 24 different resource allocations associated with their hosting account,...

In my last blog post for ServInt’s Cloud Series I talked about some of the true potential of Cloud Hosting. But how do you know if the Cloud hosting provider you’ve chosen will be able to make good on their promises for scalability, bandwidth, reliability, etc.? One of the reasons non-Could hosts fall short in...

When you invest in the monthly expense of a hosting service, one of the biggest questions in your mind—other than, will my customers be able to get to my site?—is: How protected is my data? Managing thousands of servers here at ServInt, we’ve seen it all: from the common problem of a VPS customer who...

Here at ServInt, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about IPv6 recently: When are you assigning IPv6 addresses? Will my IPv4 addresses all need to change? What does IPv6 mean for me? There are a lot of questions out there. As a senior ServInt network engineer on our IPv6 Implementation team I thought I’d...

In part 2 of our Cloud Hosting Series, ServInt CTO Matt Loschert made some interesting comparisons between VPS and Cloud Hosting.  One of the things Matt said was “Cloud Hosting creates a world in which server instances are transient and disposable. The instance is no longer important — the communication and cooperation between instances is.”...

I was saddened to hear of Randall Mario Poffo’s untimely death earlier today.  Of course, everybody knew Mr. Poffo as ”Macho Man” Randy Savage — or for me, just  ”The Macho Man,” the professional wrestling character he made famous in the 70?s, 80?s, and 90?s.  If you were a wrestling fan back then, it was tough not...

We just announced the opening of our newest data center, and as I write this, I’m looking at some pictures of the new facility. Next to these are some other photos of trees being planted. We just completed our 2011 carbon footprint reassessment and have upped our commitments to reforestation through our partners at American...

It’s been a hectic first quarter here at ServInt. We’re in the middle of a lot of very exciting improvements and new services slated to launch in 2011. And today marks the first. We have just completed build-out and opened the doors of our newest datacenter. The Northern Virginia facility joins our Downtown DC and...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I have have to admit, I’m a bit baffled by some of the messages I’ve heard coming from our competitors and from customers recently about what Cloud Hosting means to our industry. I often get questions from customers and read advertising from other hosting companies that equate Cloud Hosting to being the obvious replacement for...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};? A few weeks ago, I traveled to San Jose, CA, where I attended the “Cloud Connect” conference. Cloud Connect is basically an annual symposium where the biggest players in the cloud industry gather together to talk about what’s coming next for the Cloud. Analysts opine, accountants report, Fortune 500 CTOs brag, consultants take notes,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Sometimes, as industries evolve, they spawn new jargon that only means something if you’re inside the industry. To outsiders — even potential customers — these turns of phrase can seem confusing at best, and downright mysterious at worst. So it is with the term “managed hosting.” Search the web for a definition, and you’ll get...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Cloud Solutions. Cloud Hosting. Public Clouds. Private Clouds. Hybrid Clouds. Cloudy… Cloudish… Cloud-like. Is anyone else confused? The Internet industry has been buzzing about the potential of “The Cloud” for a while now. Here at ServInt we’ve been offering easily scalable, highly virtualized, business- and budget-friendly hosting solutions for years — and yet, as some of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};For the first time, ServInt will be attending the Internet industry trade show/conference South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) next week. We do a lot of tradeshows, but most are unlike SXSWi. This is one of those events where all the hip and trendy kids hang out, and I wonder how well we’ll fit in. Within...

A good friend of mine who works for a search engine giant that will not be named tipped me off to two very interesting articles about search engine optimization.  The first is a fascinating New York Times expose (requires registration) of “black hat” SEO tactics used by J.C. Penney to goose their Google search rankings...

Ladies and gents, today is ServInt’s Sweet Sixteen! It’s amazing to think how far this company has come. We’ve been through a lot, and we’ve seen our industry — as well as the Internet as a whole — change dramatically over the past decade and a half. In just 16 years, the Internet has become...

Everybody is talking about the Internet being shut down in Egypt, both in terms of how it was done and what the event really meant — and, quite frankly, I’ve been surprised and disappointed with the level of misinformation out there about this issue. I have nothing political to say, other than perhaps to just...

My name is Fritz Stolzenbach, and I’ve been leading marketing and business development efforts at telecom/Internet industry companies like Intelsat, Hughes Network Systems and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative for more than 25 years. I’ve been integrally involved in the rollout of some pretty cool broadband/rich media products and services over the years, including DIRECTV,...

A year ago this past week, an unspeakable tragedy befell the people of Haiti. A devastating earthquake ravaged the small Caribbean nation, destroying most of the nation’s infrastructure and leaving millions of men, women, and children homeless. Millions of people all over the world pitched in, and we in the hosting industry tried to do...

At ServInt, we like to make sure we hit the ground running every year. We certainly didn’t plan on starting 2011 any differently, that’s why we’re proud to announce that we have passed US-EU Safe Harbor Certification for 2011! Every year, ServInt maintains its Safe Harbor certification for the benefit of its clients all over...

2010 was an amazing year for ServInt and its clients. Despite a less-than-ideal economic climate we managed to grow substantially and further improve the core focus of our business, managed support. We doubled the size of our Managed Services Team, moved into a new Network Operations Center, gave away copious amount of free disk space...

Help us name our new training facility! Click here to submit a new name on our Facebook page! Read below for more information. Earlier this week, we received a Cease and Desist letter from Kerstein, Coren & Lichtenstein LLP, a law firm representing The Learning Annex. In a recent press release, we announced the doubling...

A little more than a week ago, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as nine U.S. Attorneys‘ Offices, seized 82 domain names, alleging that they pointed to sites that engaged in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit goods and copyrighted works. While it seems likely that the...

Recently, my wife and I helped friends of ours move. In the past when we had to get rid of a whole lot of furniture, we put up ads on Craigslist and consequently sold it all for reasonable prices in an extremely short window of time. In short, Craigslist was amazing, so we encouraged our...

We’ve had quite a few exciting announcements these past few weeks. From yesterday’s announcement about our sponsoring DesertBus.org, to our recent hiring blitz, it’s been a busy month. Well, today, we have another exciting announcement about our network. In support of a rapidly growing customer base and what we project to be our most aggressive...

What is the most boring, frustrating game in the world? What if someone made a game that required players to drive from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV in a bus? What if they had to make the 400 mile, 8 hour journey in real time, and what if the bus really, really needed an...

At ServInt, we have thousands of clients who rely on WordPress software to run their business. They’re attracted to its simplicity, its ubiquity, and the myriad of plugins available to scratch nearly any “feature-itch” imaginable. Plus, with our free nightly backups, they have a little extra peace of mind. Well, that peace of mind just...

Earlier this year at HostingCon 2010, cPanel’s Lindsey White sat down for a chat with our COO Christian Dawson.  They discussed his presentation at HostingCon, “Oh My God, We’re All Gonna Die”, and his general take on current state of the hosting world. Is it just me, or does Christian sound like he’s being interviewed...

At ServInt, we’ve made no secret of our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. Whether it’s our regular equipment recycling, the ongoing retrofitting of more efficient and environmentally friendly equipment, 110% carbon offsetting policy, or our corporate patronage of American Forests, you certainly can’t say we’ve been standing idly by. That’s why we’re honored to...

Ready. Fire. Aim. Repeat. That’s right — I said “Ready. Fire” — and then aim.  Then start over. For those of you who’ve read a business management book in the past decade or so, this might not be a new concept. But for those who are just getting their sea-legs as a small business, it’s...

Hi, I’m Kevin Nicastro, ServInt’s New Director of Engineering. After joining ServInt in 2004, I was appointed as ServInt’s lead network architect. Alongside my colleagues in our Managed Services and Provisioning Teams, we helped create the VPS, SuperVPS, and Solo Series servers many of you enjoy today. We also created ServInt’s incredibly fast, robust and...

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the ServInt Source, our Twitter feed, or our Facebook page recently, you’ll have noticed lots of announcements about our staff. In the past few weeks, we’ve promoted Jim Tricarico to Director of Managed Services, we appointed Mike Witty to head our Network Compliance division, and the one and...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Hi, I’m Brian Loomis, ServInt’s New Director of Provisioning and all-around nice guy — and my team and I are the foundation of the company. No, seriously. See, as Director of Provisioning, I lead a team of brilliant men and women who are responsible for managing, maintaining, and yes, provisioning, all of ServInt’s servers, data...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Hi, I’m Mike Witty, ServInt’s new Director of Network Compliance. To those outside of our industry, the words “Network Compliance” probably sound a bit cryptic – even bureaucratic.  But network compliance actually affects every single customer we have.  I’d like to take this opportunity to explain how, and why. First, a little about me. I’ve...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Back in June, we announced that we would be increasing the disk space across our entire VPS line — and that this upgrade was going to be passed along to all our customers, both existing and new, at no additional cost. After weeks of hard work, I’m proud to announce that we have successfully completed...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};[Editor's Note: ServInt cast a wide net when looking to fill this role. We received hundreds of resumes and interviewed dozens of exceptionally qualified candidates. We were looking for individuals who were committed to -- and possibly a little obsessed with -- exceptional customer service. I therefore shouldn't have been that surprised when an employee...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};One of the best parts of my job is being able to go places and meet our partners, our peers and our clients face to face, be it in meetings or at conferences, speaking engagements and events. It’s funny, despite how much closer the Internet brings us, sometimes the tech industry can seem oddly impersonal....

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When I started at ServInt more than six years ago, one of the first lessons I learned was just how critical first impressions were to the customer experience. ServInt’s new Kickstart Team, a division of our Managed Services Team, is committed to making hosting a website as painless a process as possible. Here’s a little...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};A couple weeks back, I mentioned that I would be speaking at the HostingCon 2010 conference in Austin, TX. I also mentioned that I would post the presentation here for all to see after the conference and I want to make good on my word. The presentation is posted below (after the jump). The title...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As you may have heard, I’ll be speaking at HostingCon 2010 next week in balmy, beautiful, and weird Austin, TX. I love Austin and am really looking forward to mingling with friends and industry colleagues, but I thought I’d mention something about my presentation before I hopped on a plane to the Lone Star State....

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Today ServInt is announcing the availability of full gigabit (Gbps) throughput to all ServInt Dedicated Server customers for just $25 a month. Of course, this isn’t the most revolutionary news. Though ServInt’s pricing on this service is very competitive, we’ve been offering this service on a custom basis for some time. Really, this announcement is...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Earlier this morning I read a terrific article from cnet’s Ina Fried about the state of the “Internet Appliance”. Basically, the Internet Appliance rested on the idea that there were, to paraphrase Ms. Fried, many “on-ramps” to the Internet (more specifically the web). These “on-ramps” would give relatively fast, simplified access to the web in...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};All of us at ServInt want to wish our friends up North a very happy Canada Day! Fire up your barbecues and (safely) light up your (legally obtained, I’m sure) fireworks. ;-)

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We’ve always been vocal about our support for open source software and the communities surrounding the movement. After all, we wouldn’t be around without Linux and the myriad of open source components that help us run our business. This isn’t a simple reaffirmation of the obvious here, we are true believers and we want to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Reed’s Announcement! from ServInt on Vimeo. If the point of virtualization is to make hardware abstract, why do most hosting companies charge for resource upgrades? At ServInt, we work hard to ensure that our VPS and SuperVPS customers never have to worry about being left behind as new hosting industry technology and service standards evolve....

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is the second entry in Christian Dawson’s The Five Worst Sales In Webhosting. Check out the original post here! ? Sale Type #4: Out of sight, out of mind I treat new customers better than my existing, loyal ones. Have you ever been a loyal customer of a company and suddenly noticed them advertising...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Last Friday, I commented on the outage at WordPress.com. Over the weekend, WordPress contacted us in response to that post. They took issue with a few points and sent us a heartfelt and thoughtful response outlining some of the work they had done to battle their outage. The conversation was enlightening and caused us to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When I walked into the office today, my various RSS feeds, Twitter apps, and news aggregators were lit up with news of WordPress.com’s outage. Now, we’ve made our position on the viability of free platforms known before. They’re great if you’re just goofing around, but they’re not so great if you’re trying to make a...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We’ve already told you about the 5 worst products in webhosting, here is part 1 of a 2 part series on the 5 worst sales in webhosting. Everybody loves a sale. The other day I was shopping for birdseed at Lowe’s, a home improvement and hardware store here in the states. As I perused the store,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Earlier today, we announced a permanent price drop across our entire Solo Series dedicated server line. The price drop, while a terrific deal, can also be a tad confusing, since we now seem to be selling two different products for exactly the same amount of money.  As consumers, we’re conditioned to think that if two...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Yesterday we told you about SPORTSbyBROOKS, one of ServInt’s most popular blogging customers. If you didn’t catch it, Brooks talked about the harrowing burst of traffic he experienced when he broke the infamous Tiger Woods story last November. After one phone call, ServInt built Brooks a custom solution that more than quintupled his previous resources,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Generally speaking, sports reporting tends to focus on stats, facts, and predictions. Sure, there are always exceptions. There are plenty of human interest stories on doping and cheating; but tune into ESPN at any given hour and you’re more likely to get a breakdown of a particular team’s performance than you are the juicy gossip...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This morning, ServInt announced that I will be assuming the role of Director of Sales. I’m incredibly excited for the challenge and look forward to expanding our already stellar Michigan-based Sales Team over the weeks to come. As some of you may remember, a few months ago, I introduced ServInt’s new Solo Series Dedicated server...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I was talking to a colleague yesterday, and he used the word ‘bulletproof’ to describe the robustness of our services. I responded with “That word doesn’t mean what you think it means.” It got me thinking about buzzwords we use for hosting that sound good but aren’t. I’ve tried to crack the code on a...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};If you follow the tech industry, it was hard to miss HP’s recent acquisition of Palm, Inc. The Sunnyvale based smartphone maker was in serious trouble after its seemingly meteoric rise from a very similar grave in January of last year. Palm was on the ropes, its wonderful webOS platform overshadowed by ineffective marketing and...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Last week, myself and Christian were in San Francisco for O’Reilly Media’s famous Web 2.0 Conference. There were some really compelling keynotes, fascinating panels, and the show floor, while small, did its job of showcasing the current focus of the tech industry. What I found most interesting was the seemingly laser-like focus the entire tech...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};A few days ago, ServInt made a donation to the Fairfax County Police Department as a token of our appreciation for all of their hard work. ServInt’s founder, Reed Caldwell, is the son of a police officer and has made respect and admiration for all public servants a part of what ServInt is culturally. Perhaps...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};If your data is your livelihood, watch this and learn about the time Toy Story 2 disappeared: It’s a teaser for a longer story on the Toy Story 2 DVD, which I watched with my son this weekend. It starts: “When making a film like Toy Story 2, we use a bunch of UNIX and...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The image to the left is of a ServInt-sponsored soccer team, complete with ServInt T-shirts. The lovely lady upfront and to the left is none other than ServInt’s own Leslie Molina, our Controller (a bigger picture is available at the bottom of this post). A lot of folks have an image of webhosting companies being...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Today, all of us at ServInt are proud to announce that we have become a Silver Member of the Linux Foundation. For over 15 years, Linux and Open Source Software have been integral components of our products, services, and network. We’re fond of saying that both our products and culture are open source, and as...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Editors Note: This is part of our ongoing series of customer profiles right here on the ServInt Source. Want to take part? Tell us your story! At first glance, there don’t seem to be many parallels between sound recording and webhosting. Indeed, we thought the same thing before we visited Swing House Studios in Hollywood, CA...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Editors Note: This is part of our ongoing series of customer profiles right here on the ServInt Source. Want to take part? Tell us your story! Here’s a quick lesson in electrical engineering that you should never attempt. Take an old hair dryer from the U.S., preferably something pre-1985, and plug it into a Chinese...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Earlier this year, we ventured out to visit a few clients to learn more about their businesses and their presence online. We had a great time and had the privilege to see and hear some incredible stories in the process. From serial entrepreneurs working from home to businesses that have evolved into web companies after...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Yesterday, I wrote about a new direction for ServInt’s social media outreach. Basically, I explained that a lot of companies, ServInt included, spend too much time talking about themselves and not enough time talking about their customers. I made a new rule saying that we’d talk more about you . So, naturally, I’m going to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};OK, friends – time for some blogging about why we’re blogging! The other day I discovered that Verizon had been over-billing me for months – an extra cable box and the ‘Filipino package’, neither of which I ever requested. I thought about jumping onto Twitter to complain in public. I didn’t. Instead I started thinking...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As I’m sure you know by now, ServInt has been in the webhosting business for more than 15 years. In that time, we’ve built literally tons of servers along with truly massive network infrastructure literally all across the country. As we’ve grown and remained competitive, we’ve had to upgrade our hardware to keep up. We’ve...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This week, all of us at ServInt are proud to celebrate Earth Week. While environmental protection is always on our mind, this week gives us the opportunity to focus on our actual accomplishments and lay out a strategy to take it one step further. Planting the Seed Earlier this month, ServInt completed its reforestation goals...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As far as Affiliate Programs go, ServInt has always been one of the most generous and competitive in the hosting industry. In an industry where 25% payouts are the norm, we’ve quadrupled that sum and have cultivated one of the most successful affiliate programs in the hosting world. In March, we launched a slew of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We at Simple Station are really excited to have partnered with ServInt and Asparagus Media on the Indie Music for Haiti (IMFH) project. It was an great opportunity for us to help the cause in a way that fit a core principle of our business: design for social impact. In the first team meeting, it...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};A few days ago, I sat down with James Felter, founder and President of Vwa Ayiti / Voice of Haiti International. We talked about some of the challenges his organization faces day to day in Haiti, what they’ve been doing there before, during, and after the disaster, and what he and Voice of Haiti hope...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As I’m sure all of you know, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti earlier this year. Millions donated money, time, and energy to help those in need, however as with any international crisis the dedication to alleviating the problem wanes shortly after the cameras leave. Even worse, Haiti was the poorest nation in our hemisphere long...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};ServInt is at a very interesting point in its 15 year history. We have a lot of customers outside of the United States, and despite the ongoing global economic crisis we’ve managed to grow quite well. Whether its our latest series of data centers springing up on the West Coast, the launch of our new...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When ServInt was founded in 1995, there were less than 18,000 dotcoms in the world. That fact, according to an article on CNN.com yesterday, is pretty jarring when you think about it. It truly emphasizes just how much of a frontier the Internet was for entrepreneurs. How so many companies, in the shadow of the...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};At any given time, a huge percentage of our customers are based outside of the United States. With customers in more than 60 countries, ServInt has terrific connectivity to Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. Because of our international clientele, we do everything that we can to ensure that our products and services stay compliant with...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Greetings blog readers! As head of our Enterprise sales team here at ServInt, I usually spend my days working directly with customers and I’ve never been a contributor on ServInt’s blog before, but today we have an announcement I’m so excited by that I insisted on being the one to share it. Since it is...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};15 years ago, I founded ServInt. The odds were very much against us at the outset.  I was 19 and I didn’t have any connections to the industry, much less the capital that would be necessary to start a company of our scope today.  What I lacked in funding, I made up for with sheer,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Some called it the “Snowpocalypse”, other called it the Blizzard of 2010. But thanks to the talented technicians and engineers of ServInt’s Managed Services Team, we called it business as usual. All of us at ServInt want to give a warm thank you to our very own Managed Services Team for their exemplary work. Their...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Right up there with “The Cloud”, Green hosting has been a heavily trafficked buzzword in our industry for nearly 3 years. In 2008, ServInt began retrofitting its data centers and, in combination with a massive investment in reforestation projects all over the world, we became climate positive within one year. We strive to be green...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Hey Everyone! We’re all really excited about the concert tonight, it’s going to be a blast and we’re looking forward to hanging out in what is already my personal favorite night spot for a great cause. In anticipation, I thought I’d shed some light on a few of the performers who are slated to appear...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We at ServInt are working with one of our clients, D.C. area recording studio and custom music house Asparagus Media, to put together a fundraising concert to benefit Voice Of Haiti, a charity that’s been working for years to promote sustainable development in the country. The wonderful folks at DC9 join us as sponsors and...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The internet is a market of ideas; a true democratization of knowledge. That democratization has also brought an unparalleled connection to the goings on in the world around us. On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck just a few miles from the capital of Port-au-Prince, ravaging the capital city and killing an estimated...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Wow, I look great in that video thumbnail, kudos to YouTube for ensuring that folks question my state of consciousness. Anyway, we have some really exciting news to tell you, so without further ado: In a connected world, we’re always striving to better capture the adventures that happen around us. At ServInt, we help connect...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Just about every company worth its salt has some sort of online advertising component as part of its marketing budget. With the ubiquity and ease of use of platforms such as Google’s Adwords and Facebook ads, online marketing has truly become an accessible avenue for a lot of novice advertisers. But there’s another question that...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This has been an incredible year for ServInt. Despite one of the messiest economic downturns in history, we’ve been able to grow bigger, stronger, and more global, all the while maintaining the quality of service our customers have come to expect from us. This isn’t always easy. Staying competitive in this industry requires a tremendous...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As we approach the last batch of holidays this year, all of us at ServInt wanted to wish everyone happy holidays! Thank you for your time, your support, your business, and your competition.

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The data center is the most important tool in a web host’s arsenal. That might sound painfully obvious, and it is, but for those looking to get into this industry it’s an important item to remember. Competitors brag about which bits of software they use to push product out the door but they often forget...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Stuff happens. Of course, we all know that. Everyone has bad days where everything seems to go wrong and businesses are no different. In our case, the hosting industry relies on thousands of pieces of ever-changing, ever-evolving hardware that need to be married with new standards and updated software. Problems do happen, even to those...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};“We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror.” - Marshall Mcluhan Now that the hype has died down a bit, and now that I’ve had a chance to play with very early builds of Chrome OS myself, there are some interesting questions about the new OS that arise as they pertain to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We’re big fans of breaking barriers at ServInt, and as such I’d like to announce our exclusive after-Thanksgiving Black Friday Sale for new AND existing customers who become fans of ServInt on Facebook! Please read everything below carefully. On Friday between the hours of 10am-6pm EST we will be offering the items below exclusively to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};One of the key points that ServInt’s management tries to communicate is that we aren’t an insular company. We thrive on the feedback we get from our customers and a core tenet of this company is utilizing that information and acting on it whenever possible. In that spirit I’d like to announce ServInt’s launch of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I have had the opportunity over the past two weeks to carry the news of ServInt’s LA launch to several well known tradeshows that are popular with our clients. Last week I attended both the PubCon and DevConnections conferences in Las Vegas. This week I’ll be at both Interop and Web 2.0 Expo in New...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Nearly half of our customers are overseas. That’s pretty staggering when you think about it. After all, we don’t do a tremendous amount of advertising, our ad campaigns are fairly modest compared to some of our competitors. In fact, we began advertising earlier this year after nearly a decade of going ad-free and focusing entirely...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};ServInt LA was a huge undertaking, the time, energy, and resources required to replicate the very complex and efficient series of East Coast data centers in the West can’t be discounted. ServInt LA is a new milestone in the history of one of the best and most experienced webhosting companies in the world. I can’t...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When I started ServInt in 1995, I saw a niche that had yet to be filled. Organizations, companies, and entrepreneurs like me were using in-house servers to host their own webpages. For big companies, this was sometimes ok if only a tad inefficient. However, for small businesses whose priorities did not necessarily include learning the...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Last week, Windows 7 made it’s long awaited debut on the tech world at large. Along with it came an enormous marketing machine that went from a few entertaining commercials all the way to this monstrosity. Yup. I assume Kobayashi is doing some consulting work for Microsoft in Japan. Regardless, this got me thinking about...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};If you use the internet for leisure, do business on the internet for profit, or count on the internet to spread your message, you are at a disadvantage if you are not doing so in America. There, I said it. That wasn’t meant as a slight to our friends and colleagues abroad. I don’t mean...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Braaaaaaaaains… Happy Halloween from all of us at ServInt! Photo via Icanhazcheezburger.

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Hi everybody! You may have noticed things have been quiet here for a bit. We have a couple of new posts in the pipeline, some new internal projects that ServInt is working on, and a new feature added to the blog that we’re excited about. This just went live today, so please forgive any potential...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The iMac I use for work died a fiery death yesterday afternoon. I got a ‘grey screen of death‘ and that was the end of that. After some tests, all signs were pointing to hardware failure so I grabbed the machine and headed up the road to the local Apple Store. I showed up without...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is the final entry in a 5 part series: Big Picture Ideas for Small Businesses. My previous post was on buzzwords, those groan-inducing terms that often do little more than spread hype without actually describing substance. The argument I tried to make was that buzzwords were, in some limited cases and when taken with...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I want to share with all of you a letter that I sent to The Rachel Maddow Show this weekend. She had Xeni Jardin on, who writes for BoingBoing.net, which I love. My big problem with the segment is that it left viewers with an overall impression that the DMCA was anti-free speech and that...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is part 4 in a 5 part series: Big Picture Ideas for Small Businesses. Have you ever heard sentences like these? Web 2.0 and Business 2.0 centric New Media paradigm-shifting into the cloud! Or perhaps… Use SaaS to promote organic growth and synergy in a variety of verticals! Odds are, if you do business...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};You may have noticed a quieter ServInt Source recently. That’s because Christian and I are in Houston, TX for the cPanel Conference! It’s been a blast so far and we’ve met a ton of great people. For now, most of our communication is going on on our Twitter feed and on our Facebook page at...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is part 3 in a 5 part series: Big Picture Ideas for Small Businesses. In Part 1 of this series, we talked about how important it was to keep an eye on and maintain your reputation online. Keeping an eye on what is said about you on the internet is not particularly elegant, but...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};On September 25th, CNet’s Matt Assay wrote a terrific post on his blog The Open Road entitled “Free software is dead. Long live open source.” The crux of the post was that the particular brand of free software or FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) that is much-lauded by software partisans like Richard Stallman and Cory...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is part 2 in a 5 part series: Big Picture Ideas for Small Businesses. Pricing is a touchy subject. It dictates your marketing strategy, your target demographics, payroll, staffing, and day-to-day expenses. It’s what brings revenue into your company and what crafts an image outside of it. Whatever you’re asking the customer to spend,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is part 1 in a 5 part series: Big Picture Ideas for Small Businesses. Your reputation is one of the most critical aspects of your business. It’s what lends credibility to your marketing, weight and value to your product, and it provides status in competitive industries. Maintaining a good reputation sounds really easy. After...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};It seems kind of obvious right? Any business, particularly small ones, should offer products and services that solve a problem and that can be realistically deployed. Provided you do so for a reasonable price, you’ll make money and grow your business that way. A few days ago, RedBeacon.com, a startup based out of San Meteo,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Years ago, the usual stomping grounds for those of us in the hosting industry took an interesting turn as shady fly-by-night hosting providers started using the term ‘unlimited’ to describe their product plans. These companies offered ‘unlimited’ bandwidth or ‘unlimited’ disk space as an enticement for customers to buy their products. There was a strong...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Most businesses have prices dictated by their resources. It’s the cornerstone of capitalism after all, turning raw materials into products to sell for a profit. High value items, like gold and oil, have a relatively high cost in their raw form, so it complicates the final product and causes either thin margins or high prices...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Everybody has their passions and I wear mine on my sleeve. I am a huge dork on two very dorky subjects, IT customer service and support (seriously – I study up on the theories and techniques – it’s scary) and music. Today the two conflict. You see, we’ve got some pretty cool stuff going on...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When I first came to ServInt, our newly promoted CTO Matt Loschert told me something that stuck with me. “We’re still in business because we solve hard problems.” It’s a pretty simplistic sentence when you look at it, it deals with the fundamentals of capitalism and why it’s integral that we constantly innovate to beat...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};In Louis Vuitton Malletier, S.A., v. Akanoc Solutions, Inc., et al., CV07-03952 JW (N.D. Cal. 2007), Louis Vuitton brought suit against hosting companies Akanoc Solutions Inc., and Managed Solutions Group Inc., as well as Steven Chen, the owner of the two companies. Vuitton’s attorneys sued these entities for contributory infringement of both trademark and copyright,...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The “internets” have been abuzz about a recent bill being pushed through the US Congress that many reports claimed would allow the President of the United States to “take control” of the internet in a national security emergency. This would be incredibly alarming, if it were true. News outlets as prestigious as CBS were reporting...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};At HostingCon earlier this month, we received some excellent feedback regarding our affiliate program that I thought I’d share with you and expand upon. It seems, from what I can gather, that ServInt’s affiliate program is great from a feature perspective (our payout is currently at 100% which is, and I’m not just saying this...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I hadn’t much thought about the proposed Rural Broadband Stimulus until recently.  The fact that the government is hoping to spend $7.2 billion, or more, on rural broadband just wasn’t all that interesting to me.  I think they spent that much on toilet seats or something last month.  The government wastes some money, spends some...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Today, ServInt announced my promotion to Chief Technology Officer.  While you may or may not have heard my name until now, I have led the company’s technical operations for quite some time despite keeping a relatively low profile. I suppose it’s my nature as I’m not particularly into blogs, forums, social networking, etc. That being...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};McLean, Va., August 25, 2009 — ServInt, a pioneering provider of high-reliability, managed web hosting for businesses worldwide, today announced the promotion of Matthew Loschert to the new position of Chief Technology Officer. Loschert, 34, joined ServInt in 1998 and has served as its Vice President of Technology since 2006. In this position, Loschert will...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};How things change. Ten years ago, ServInt was a dedicated hosting provider with exclusively physical servers. We were also offering DSL and T1 services which was, in hindsight, a lack of focus that was also evident in our competitors all around us at the time.  Most of them aren’t around anymore as a result. Fast...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};ServInt’s hosting is based on CentOS, an open-source derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that we’ve worked painstakingly on customizing over the years. We don’t generally offer Microsoft products simply because they aren’t as easy to deploy in our VPS and dedicated server implementation, and being new to this industry I simply assumed the same...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};In all the hullabaloo of HostingCon events this week, I nearly forgot that yesterday was the 6-year anniversary of ServInt’s VPS offerings. Passing that landmark day there was fitting. A lot of the folks we partnered with to create our VPS products were there, particularly Parallels, and it’s an excellent reminder of just how far...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Earlier today we announced that I have been named ServInt’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). It is a promotion from within – I’ve been with the company for over 11 years now, having started in 1998 as the assistant to the Director of Marketing. It’s been quite a journey! I wanted to use this as an...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};In the midst of all of our recent accolades, I’d like to remind anyone attending next week’s HostingCon in our lovely nation’s capital that our very own Christian Dawson will be giving a presentation on green hosting at 11 am on Monday the 10th. For more information, click here for Monday’s schedule. I’ll be there...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};It seems Twitter is currently defending itself from a denial-of-service attack, causing sites that run Twitter clients to load slowly including the ServInt Source. We’ve decided to remove the Twitter Tracker from the blog for now until the DDOS attack is under control so that the rest of the blog loads in a reasonable amount...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We’ve just made our world-class support a little more world class. The goal of this project was to further increase our capability to deliver fervent, quality support 24-hours-a-day, 365 days a year. We’ve leveraged the expertise of our existing staff and increased the size of our Managed Services Team (MST) by 40% this year alone....

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Lifehacker, one of my favorite blogs of all time, had a great article earlier this week on the “hidden” dangers of cloud computing.  I’ve been digesting it for a few days and thought I’d add perspective from a web host. To me, the current frenzy over cloud computing reminds me a bit of the story...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};When Google announced Chrome OS, the tech world exploded. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch promptly thanked himself for his own genius, Open Source Advocates and bloggers everywhere looked at Microsoft and Apple and predicted the death of desktop computing as we know it, and hosts and software companies everywhere rushed to release their own Cloud/OS/Storage Solutions...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We recently sent a couple of new employees out to an event at the Greater Washington Board of Trade designed to teach the basics of social networking — the physical, in person kind of social networking as opposed to the Twitter-kind. The employees were asked to come up with an elevator pitch that described the...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};At ServInt, we talk openly about being — well — open. Sure, our sales and marketing teams primarily use the “Diet-Open Source” platform that is OS X and while we have had the very occasional Windows box turned-up in the past, our bread and butter is good old fashioned linux.  On the vast majority of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Growing up in the Washington DC Metro Area has some unique advantages. DC is built on a swamp, and thus has four very distinct seasons…the two most brutal being our unforgivably humid Summers and our frigid winters for which Washingtonians are almost always completely unprepared.  DC is also home to the seat of international political...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I remember a day when you needed certain qualifications to run a company.  You needed a track record in business, the ability to grease palms and sell your ideas, and most importantly you needed a business plan!  My how times have changed.  Today there seem to be hundreds of new hosting companies popping up around...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I’d like to start by thanking the staff of Data Center Knowledge for their article about Reed’s post yesterday. Here it is if you haven’t had a chance to take a look: Hosting Downtime and Competition The question posed in the article is whether “rescue marketing” is a shady tactic. Like most things, the answer...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The past 24 hours have been really fascinating for us at ServInt, both as a hosting provider and as a citizen of the internet. When Reed decided he wanted to comment on the recent outages at Rackspace, we were initially taken aback. Why would we say anything about a competitor at all? After all, Ford...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};ServInt has been in business for nearly 15 years.  In that time we have seen incredible success, we have seen defeat, and we have seen resurgence.  We have had honest, healthy competition from friends and colleagues and we have seen disingenuous poaching by hundreds of companies who — surprise — aren’t around anymore.  What we...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Web 2.0 brought a lot of newness to the tech world.  The concept of user-generated content and social integration helped fuel the rise of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter among many other sites. It’s made running a business on the web a lot more lucrative, but also, in many cases, much more expensive and complicated. There...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Press Release Here: ServInt upgrades its Managed Enterprise Server hosting packages — Available disk space increased by 56 percent while maintaining current price levels — McLean, Va., July 5, 2009 — ServInt, a pioneering provider of high-reliability web hosting for businesses worldwide, today announced it has upgraded the performance of its three most popular Managed...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};There are few things in life that are permanent.  Introductions, however, tend to stick around. With that in mind, my name is Eric Morales and I’m the Business Intelligence Manager for ServInt and one of the newest members of the team.  While I am new to the webhosting industry I am not new to tech...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};There are many factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider. How long have they been in business? How solid is their reputation for quality and service? How effectively do they deal with problems? Do they have 24/7 email and phone support? How well do their servers perform? And of course, how fast is their...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We’re known as a bunch of hard-working folks who keep our customers online through thick and thin, 24/7/365. As an institution that’s true, but at the end of the day ServInt is comprised of individuals – each with our own goals and obligations, interests and challenges. Working hard can be stressful so it’s great that...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};A large number of our clients are hosting companies themselves – people who take our hosting services and resell them in one capacity or another. One of our most popular resources is ServInt’s private customer forums. In there, providers can look for tips on what others are doing, what seems to work well and what...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};ServInt is a hosting provider, first and foremost. Countless hosts try to be more than that all the time and get lost trying to dabble in each hot new technology trend that come along, doing too much and doing it poorly. There seems to be something new each year, and has been for as long...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Though we long ago stopped exhibiting at tradeshows, I find attending them useful opportunities to engage with partners, clients and potential clients. Shows with an industry focus like Interop and HostingCon are obvious places where we can engage with the people we work with on a daily basis face-to-face. Every time I go to one...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Today I have a few pictures I’d like to share. They are pictures of trees being planted on behalf of ServInt. The trees are pine, and part of a reforestation project we helped make happen. Not every tree planting we do is like this one but reforestation projects like this one help restore ecosystems damaged...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I often point out that ServInt has more years actively providing service to the industry than many of our competitors do months. ServInt started in 1995, a lifetime ago in this industry. That’s one of the things that makes us better. We have experience that competitors only dream of. Hot ‘up and coming’ providers have...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Happy Earth Day everybody! I was going to take the day off from work today, in order to complete one of my own personal Earth Day goals. But Earth Day around ServInt is particularly busy, so I’m postponing my goals for the moment. Instead I would like to share them with you here. I am...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};You already know the case for ‘going green’ in your daily life. You are being marketed-to every day about the benefits of environmental awareness. Some campaigns appeal to your emotions, asking you to “do it because it’s the right thing to do”, but the more effective ones couple that with the practical reasons to try...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Let’s talk about green… In celebration of Earth Day, I’ll be writing a few short notes each day talking about what we see as the many purposes of our Green Initiative. I’ll be taking a look at our goals and intentions from a number of different experiences. I want to start the week with a...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I promised our Twitter-feed readers that I was going to have this post up by Monday at the latest. So now I get to start my post on advertising apologizing for a bit of false-advertising! This post is late because I have a cynic’s eye and know when something sounds like a big pile of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The State of The Union: I don’t mean for this to sound like a total marketing rant. I prefer it be a bit of a wake-up call. It’s April 2009, and there are hundreds of thousands of low-end unmanaged servers operating throughout the world — perhaps millions. Made popular in the ’90s as an alternative...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};It’s important to get engaged in the business community and to make your voices heard in both regional and national matters that affect your business. Two organizations I am involved in are the United States Internet Industry Association (USIIA) and the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC). If you’re in the Internet industy (or if you...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Lots of fun new ‘green’ themed banners available to ServInt affiliates today! Affiliates should check the customer portal.

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Read this: CERN on March 13 celebrates the 20th anniversary of a proposal entitled, “Information Management: A Proposal,” by Tim Berners-Lee, which would become the blueprint for the World Wide Web And thanks, Tim Berners Lee! -Christian

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};We are working on some upcoming changes to the ServInt blog. One of the things we’re looking to do is to choose a new name for the blog – something a little catchier than “The ServInt Blog”. We started a contest in our customer forums to choose the new name. If you are a ServInt...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Safe Harbor is pretty cool. It makes it easier for EU-based customers to do business here in the United States. And in this economy, making it easier to do business with anyone anywhere is a good thing. US-EU Safe Harbor is a streamlined process for US companies to comply with the EU Directive 95/46/EC on...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Last week I started a Facebook group and invited people to join. This week I started a Twitter feed for ServInt. Both of these are experiments, and both are recommendations from a few trusted clients. If even a few clients want to see us on Facebook and Twitter, who are we to argue? We have...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};As an experiment, I just started a ServInt Facebook group. I invite you all to come join!: ServInt Family & Friends on Facebook -Christian

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I had a conversation with a customer today in our internal forums that I thought I’d share here. He said that tons of companies are claiming to be green and that usually it doesn’t mean anything. He wanted to know what went into our internal ‘green audit’. Here are a few of my comments to...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};I haven’t been writing about our green initiative lately, because I’ve spent all my time (well, not all my time but all my Green Initiative related time) finishing up our 2008 internal audit. We did a full review of all our goals to make sure we met them all. We just announced the completion of...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};In my last couple of posts, I’ve been talking about ServInt’s green initiative, and have promised that we would start exploring ServInt’s green methodologies. Today I’d like to start that process, but first I wish to introduce a couple new concepts to the discussion that will help me show that ServInt’s green initiative isn’t just...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The word ‘Kaizen’ (??) is Japanese for “continuous improvement”. ServInt’s green initiative is a Kaizen project. We’re excited about what we’ve done so far, but we never expect to be truly done. We’ll never be done, because there will always be another aspect of ‘green’ to tackle. There will also be new ideas to explore...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Enterprise computing is a major contributor to global energy consumption and carbon emissions.  Green, or environmentally friendly, computing has moved to the mainstream in the past few years.  More businesses now realize that – besides harming the environment – energy-inefficient computing can adversely affect their company’s financial health and lead to serious competitive disadvantages. This...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};The world is in the midst of profound economic, social and environmental change that is overturning conventional wisdom.  The best course of action is to meet todays challenges head on with new ideas, fostering creativity and encouraging innovation. That’s why I believe we are at the beginning of the Internets latest growth surge.  With confidence...

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Welcome to The ServInt Blog! Why is ServInt publishing a blog?  Why now, when the world already seems saturated with blogs? For starters, the entire blogging culture is built on a technology that we happen to be experts in.  ServInt has been helping online businesses since 1995.  Along the way, weve learned a thing or...