Why Uptime Guarantees are Ridiculous
Last week ServInt released an updated SLA that covers all of our products, from VPS to dedicated to cloud. And like everyone else, we laid out the “uptime guarantee” for network, servers, support, etc. This guarantee, though, is simply a threshold, if your service dips below which, you may request hosting credits.
What’s ridiculous is the way some hosts – and some industry “experts” – glibly refer to uptime guarantees as if they were some sort of literal guarantee of future performance: “Wow, they’re offering five nines in their SLA,” “Did you hear about the host that guarantees 100% uptime?”
Uptime guarantees don’t promise what percentage of the time your server will remain online without network disruption, and they are not evidence of future network performance.
An uptime guarantee is – no matter which host you look at – simply a promise of what refund the host offers customers if there is a network outage.
And every network—even the most robust, redundant networks—at some point will experience an outage. Our last network outage was in 2004.
The question is not: Will my host have an outage in the future? They are: How likely is it that my host will be the next to experience an outage? and, How quickly and efficiently will they respond and fix any problem that occurs? Read more
ServInt is Fighting For Your Constitutional Rights
This week, ServInt was one of a dozen hosts to send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to support updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, along with the i2Coalition which coordinated the hosting industry’s participation.
The government needs a warrant based on probable cause to search our mail or the documents in our homes. It’s one of our most fundamental rights, guaranteed in the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights. But because of this outdated law — the ECPA — which passed in 1986 before the commercial Internet even existed, law enforcement only need a subpoena (issued without a judge’s approval) to read emails that have been opened or are more than 180 days old. Under the ECPA, communications stored on a server over 180 days are said to be abandoned. This rationale has allowed the government to demand access to older electronic communications without a warrant issued by a judge.
That’s right… the government says it doesn’t need a warrant to search through your old email.
This year, Congress is finally considering updating ECPA. ServInt plans to directly engage in this much overdue process, offering its perspective and expertise in dealing with 18 years of serving customers online and dealing responsibly with law enforcement information requests.
We know that aiding law enforcement in responsible ways doesn’t need to come at the expense of our fundamental Constitutional rights. ServInt will be carrying that message, along with other i2Coalition members, up to Capitol Hill this year.
Stay tuned to the ServInt Source where we’ll keep you updated on the status of this and other important Internet legislation.
Image by g4114is.Education as Advocacy
Anyone following the CISPA debate closely will know that in spite of the hoopla, as early as last year, Obama promised to veto the legislation should it pass Congress.
So why then would I, as part of the i2 Coalition, head up to Capitol Hill for a day of meetings with Congress as part of Internet Advocacy Day?
The answer is still CISPA, or more specifically, the culture in Congress that created CISPA.
Internet Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill
Wednesday, February 27th I am heading to Washington D.C. to help teach Congress how the Internet works!
The organization I helped build last year, the i2Coalition, is holding an event and meeting with Congresspeople on the Hill. Members of AiNET, Arvixe, Black Lotus, Cheval Capital, Firehost, FortressITX, Gandi.net, Green Olive Tree, Handy Networks, Hedgehog Hosting, Jumpline, LeaseWeb USA, MediaTemple, OpenXChange, ScienceLogic, ServInt, Studio 1337, and WiredTree are all attending and participating. Details of the event are here.
On Tuesday night at 8PM at Ping Pong Dim Sum we will be holding a kick-off party, and I’d like to invite you – our ServInt Source readers! I named the event “Celebrate the Innovation Economy” and it is hosted in conjunction with a group that advocates for startups called Engine Advocacy, and is sponsored by CEA. Here are details.
Click on the links above if you’d like to attend either event.
Hope to see you there!
-Christian
Christian Dawson is the COO of ServInt.ServInt at 18
Saturday, ServInt turned 18 years old. That’s a lifetime in this industry – basically the entire life of the commercial Internet. I am writing to specifically congratulate Reed Caldwell on the accomplishment of building an organization from scratch that now, if it were a person, would be considered an adult.
I wanted to write this article because I’ve been here since the very beginning, watching ServInt grow from an idea Reed had while in his college dorm room at the University of Richmond. I was also attending UR where I was one of his closest friends, and even then a close adviser and sounding board for his ideas, which at times sounded crazy to me. But sometimes crazy ideas work, and are what drive us forward!
Reed was passionate about the way the Internet was exploding back in 1995, and about giving people the tools to build their ideas on this new, exciting platform. He was so passionate that he decided he was going to lay it all on the line to start his idea for a company. Read more
CES Driving Innovation and Internet Freedom
Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted by Christian Dawson on the blog of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition.Every year CES hits Las Vegas and every year it is huge and showcases an awesome display of innovation. This year’s 2013 International CES was no exception, but despite that, like clockwork, before the show even starts, every year a certain group of skeptical bloggers proclaim CES dead. They are wrong. You can see that on the floor with technology that blows me away every year (the MakerBot is incredible!).
You can see that nowhere more than in the Innovation Policy Summit. I was delighted to participate on the “Washington and the Startup Economy: First Do No Harm” panel with Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) moderated by Larry Downes, which is embedded below. Read more
Still My Favorite Web-based Charitable Event: the Desert Bus for Hope!
“Impossible means eating the sun.” — Lou Reed
Faithful readers of this blog know that each year around this time, I turn into a one-man social media army for my favorite web-based charitable event, the annual Desert Bus for Hope drive-a-thon.
Each year, ServInt donates free server hardware and bandwidth for the Desert Bus event, and we’re proud to do so. What could be more ServInt mission-friendly than making it possible for event contestants to play the world’s cruelest, most pointless, most existentially hopeless video game — for days on end, without ceasing, until they literally drop from exhaustion? It’s for the children, dammit!
Seriously, I won’t go into the many, many reasons why this event is so amazing. Just trust me on this one — or check out our 2010 and 2011 blog posts for more detail, video snippets, and the greatest appearance by Lou Reed in any video game, ever.
Oh, and visit http://desertbus.org to join in the fun, and give generously. Thanks!
Local Innovation Driving E-Commerce Worldwide
Pictured above is the old server that originally ran Etsy.com.
As Chairman of the i2Coalition, I spend a lot of time talking about how our industry fuels innovation, jobs and the economy. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. e-commerce reportedly accounted for more than $190 billion in revenue 2011 and that number continues to grow. When you pop online to visit your favorite websites, though, you just may not see it. That’s the thing about the Internet – because people use it every day they assume they understand it, but few truly understand how it works or its implications. So here’s a little story from my past to show how I think companies like mine get to have a hand in changing the world. Read more
My Love Letter To The Internet – Why I helped found the i2Coalition
Many people think the world is slowly getting worse. With Banking scandals and debt crises, civil wars and oppression, it’s hard not to be inundated with stories of how bad things are right now.
But the World is not getting worse, it’s getting better. And this is in large part because of the Internet.
The Internet has not simply increased our speed of communication, it has brought us closer together as a human race. We are hearing the stories–often first hand–that might have garnered only a few minutes of coverage on the evening news twenty years ago. We can communicate, one-on-one with journalists, politicians, strangers, and long-lost friends. We can know the intimate details of people living a world away simply by getting online and reaching out to them.
Internet access can lift people out of poverty, start businesses and start revolutions. Much has been written about the use of the Internet through the “Arab Spring” – Internet censorship was both a reason for the uprising and a tool used to attempt to quell it. Like anything, it can be used for good or ill, but overall it’s the greatest communication tool man has ever made, and it’s bringing the world together.
One fascinating quality of the Internet is that it’s decentralized. It is not one thing. Nobody owns it. Moreover, for how many people use it, whose lives are intimately linked to it, few understand what it is, how it works, or even who builds it. Read more
Choosing a Data Center Whether You’re a Web Host or a Customer
ServInt EU
With the recent launch of our new European data center, a few customers and prospects have asked us: why Amsterdam? It’s a good question — particularly for folks who aren’t customers (yet!) — because your hosting provider’s choice of data center partner can really make a difference for you and your business.
ServInt’s decision to open a European data center was based on one factor: to provide our European, African and Middle Eastern customers a hosting option closer to their customers. Europe was a natural fit both for its central location for the region and its relatively close proximity to our headquarters in Northern Virginia. Read more
