ServInt passes US-EU Safe Harbor Certification for 2011
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 the world. While the re-certification specifically outlines our compliance with the EU Data Protection Directive, it’s also a prime example of our obsession with ensuring our clients data is protected, regardless of where their business is located.
We’ve always taken our regulatory requirements seriously at ServInt. We feel that small businesses would rather do business with a company that respects the laws and regulations of their country while maintaining and upholding the rights associated with having your site hosted in the United States. While we don’t always agree with regulation — and while we occasionally have something to say about it — we’re proud to continue earning the trust of our clients in the EU with our Safe Harbor recertification and look forward to a great 2011!
Livin’ In A Hosting Paradise: 2010 at a glance
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 to our VPS and SuperVPS clients, and tripled our network capacity.
But a straightforward recap would be boring, so this year I thought we’d have a little fun. I should mention that the piece below this went through several drafts prior to publication, if I get hounded enough I MIGHT consider posting earlier uncompleted drafts. I can assure you, this was the best among them (and that’s not saying much!).
Now, without further ado, I present to you:
Hosting Paradise
(To the tune of “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio)
As we walk through valley of the tech corridor
We take a look at the web,
And it looks like Mt. Mordor,
‘Cause we’ve been hostin’ and postin’ so long
That even our mommas think that our network’s strong.
But we ain’t never crossed a site that didn’t deserve it,
We be treated like a punk, with uptime that’s unheard of,
You better watch how you’re talking, and where you’re walking,
Because you and your homies might be required to knock,
On the door to our new future-proofed NOC,
See our folks park themselves in new cubicle oak, fool,
We’re the kinda hoster little homies want our poster,
With the best engineers.
[Chorus]
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
Mobile applications, Android fragmentation,
Geeks can’t live a normal life, there’s no parking on the street,
So we gotta be down with telecommuting,
Too much hulu watching got us all chasing streams.
We’re an educated crew with our new Solo Line
Get a gigabit port and watch your content fly high.
We’re grok’d out gangstas, bit-trippin’ h4xx0rz
Our homies aren’t ever down so don’t arouse our anger, fool.
IPv6 ain’t but a heartbeat away,
We livin’ life do or die, what can we say?
We’re 15 now, and we’re set for many more,
The way things are going fo’ sho’.
Can you believe?
The generosity?
For all to see!
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
Power and the cooling, cooling and the power,
More efficient hardware, hour after hour,
Every server’s running, but at half the wattage
We met our green goals this year
They say you wanna learn,
and KickStart is here to teach, see.
If you need more help, open tickets and you’ll reach me,
You know you can,
Ask for help man,
We’re all upfront,
That’s why we try to be helpful, fool!
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
We’ve been ServInt most our lives
Living in a hosting paradise.
Can you believe?
The generosity?
For all to see!
We increased by three,
Our largest increase,
In history.
[Outro]
That, friends and Romans, is that.
Happy New Year from all of us at ServInt!
Lessons Learned, Or How To Stop Worrying and Throw a Contest
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 in size of our Managed Services Team and the opening of our new Network Operations Center. We also, however, mentioned the opening of a new training facility adjacent to the new NOC. This facility was designed to train new and existing employees on our MST’s KickStart team the latest and greatest web technologies that our clients use everyday. We dubbed this new facility the “learning annex” for two key reasons, because it was an annex of our existing campus, and because the newest members of our MST were going to learn stuff there.
We were unaware that there was a company doing business as The Learning Annex, and we will happily comply with their Cease and Desist letter by changing the name of our facility. It was, as the kids say, “our bad.”
ServInt respects intellectual property. We ourselves have a powerful brand that we have to protect, and we certainly didn’t mean to infringe on any trademarks of any kind.
With that out of the way, let’s move onto the important stuff. When we decided to change the name of the facility, we first opened it up to our staff. What follows is a short list of ACTUAL name submissions for our facility:
- The Caffeine Lounge
- The Boom Boom Room
- The Learny Place
- The Holodeck
- The Ensmartening Room
- The Place Next to the Main Place Where We Teach You Stuff
While I might personally want to hear someone say “I got my KickStart in the Boom Boom Room!”, we thought we’d leave the final decision to our fans. So, without further ado…
We want YOU to name our new training facility/warehouse/whatever!
Click Here to go to ServInt’s Facebook page and submit a name for our new facility! If you haven’t ‘Liked’ ServInt on Facebook yet, you’ll see the sign up form up front and center. If you already ‘Like’ ServInt (and why wouldn’t you?) just click on the Signup Form Tab up top!
We’ll collect our favorites, put together a short poll, and give you the opportunity to vote on them! And don’t worry, we won’t spam you either.
The winning name will appear on a new series of T-Shirts highlighting our KickStart team and the new facility. The individual who proposed the winning name will receive a t-shirt, as well as some assorted ServInt swag and a big thank you from our team!
ServInt will also make a donation in your name to the Literacy Volunteers of America’s adult education services in the District of Columbia. The LVA is a non-profit organization serving Washington, D.C. They offer free tutoring to adults who seek to improve their literacy skills as well as English as a second language (ESL) courses for our growing immigrant community.
A few simple rules:
- The deadline for submissions is January 6th. We’ll have names up for a vote on January 10th.
- Please keep the names family-friendly and inoffensive, that means nothing racist, nothing sexist — and keep religion and politics out of it, please.
- The name cannot use any existing trademarks. Come on guys, we don’t need to deal with this twice.
- Be creative and have fun!
What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!
Driving the Desert Bus…For the Children!
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 alignment?
And what is your reward for all of this arduous, tedious work?
Exactly one point.
This is the premise behind “Desert Bus”, part of the eclectic — and unreleased — Sega CD gem, Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors. A group of incredibly generous masochists at LoadingReadyRun (who, by the way, also make hilarious sketches: see the slightly-NSFW embed after the jump) have decided to donate a not-insignificant amount of their youth to playing this game.
The cast of LoadingReadyRun will play marathon sessions of Desert Bus in support of Child’s Play, an incredible charity that works to help sick kids in children’s hospitals all over the world.
The more (tax-deductible!) donations viewers make to Child’s Play through DesertBus.org, the longer LoadingReadyRun must drive the desert bus. Last year, the troupe raked in more than $140,000 for child’s play. Simply amazing.
ServInt is sponsoring DesertBus.org, and I can’t tell you how ecstatic we are to be a part of an event that allows us to be both generous AND vindictive…all for the children!
ServInt Has Your Golden Ticket! Get Ready for VaultPress on ServInt!
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 grew 11-fold.
Today, we’re proud to announce that ServInt is one of the exclusive launch partners for VaultPress, the incredible backup and security service developed by Automattic, the creators of WordPress.com. Automattic has granted us access to a “Golden Ticket Machine” enabling us to offer all of our clients who are using WordPress access to the VaultPress beta!
VaultPress is a continuous security and backup system that works in real-time to dynamically backup every post, tag, folder, and font change you can make in WordPress. It even picks up on things that WordPress doesn’t, such as files you’ve added via FTP.
VaultPress security monitoring scans uploads, plugins, and themes and alerts you when it detects potential security issues. VaultPress doesn’t just make one backup, either, it goes to 11. Combine that with ServInt’s backup system, and you have 12 distinct backups (though you lose out on the Spinal Tap reference). This level of redundancy virtually ensures you’ll have all your data, all the time.*
Installation? Easy. VaultPress installs just like any other WordPress plugin.
The cost? ServInt will be extending VaultPress’ beta discount to all interested clients, $15 a month for the Basic Level, $40 a month for the Premium Level.
What are you waiting for? Click here to go to ServInt’s Customer Portal and request a Golden Ticket now!
If you aren’t using WordPress, don’t worry. At ServInt, ALL of our VPS, SuperVPS, and Solo Series clients have access to our incremental backup system which offers daily backups for exactly ZERO dollars. Whether it’s your personal computer at home, the critical documents you have at work, or the website living comfortably on your server, backing up your data is an absolute necessity and at ServInt, we make it easy.
For the thousands of ServInt clients who rely on WordPress to run their business, well, now it’s even easier!
So get your Golden Ticket now!
*Unless there’s a robot uprising or zombie infection. ServInt and VaultPress
can’t really help you there.
ServInt Nominated for an NVTC Green Award
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 have been nominated by the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) for it’s annual Green Award.
With that being said, we obviously don’t do this for the awards. We’ve always tried our best to identify and minimize the damage our industry does to the environment. When we first set out to tackle our ongoing green initiative, we took a long, hard look at our infrastructure, our software, our hosting platform, and our facilities. Putting a dent in our carbon footprint meant more than simply buying more energy-efficient hardware, it also meant reengineering our software to increase the performance of our products without increasing the number of resources they consume.
The result is more — and better — performance for our customers, less cooling and energy costs for us, and a healthier planet for everyone. It truly is a win-win situation.
We’ve been a member of the NVTC for years, and as the Northern Virginia/Washington, DC Metro area has expanded, so have we. We’d like to give a warm thank you to the NVTC for nominating ServInt.
In the meantime, as we continue to grow we’ll keep doing whatever we can to build a greener future for all of us.
Back from the Ashes: The Internet Appliance
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 order to access information.
There’s no doubt it was a great idea, but the execution was hampered by spotty, slow, and expensive internet access and a lack of justifiable content. The result was a swift and untimely death for the entire concept.
But fast forward to today and you’ll find the Internet Appliance is alive and well. While there isn’t a single product or category that can claim the “appliance” concept outright, most of us have and use these devices everyday.
Be it an iPhone or Android, a PS3 or a Wii, all of these devices have constant access to the web to some degree.
Looking again at Ms. Fried’s article, one of the most glaring examples of an appliance’s “revival” of sorts is the concept of the “Network Computer”.
Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison dreamt up the concept of a modern mainframe computer, a “thin client” that simply accessed a core computer for its computational muscle. In the 90′s, the idea fell flat. These network computers looked and acted like standard desktops, only they were designed to be used completely differently and simply didn’t have the muscle of your standard PC.
Today? Mobile “thin client” devices are everywhere and this space is slated to get a lot more competitive with devices like the iPad and the upcoming Chrome OS.
From the standpoint of a hosting provider, the needs of web users have changed dramatically since then as well. In 1999, web pages were largely static and couldn’t break. When all you’re doing is throwing an animated “hamster” gif up with a looped audio track, well, that could very well stay up forever without a hitch.
Today, even the most basic sites require databases. Whether it’s video sharing sites, online gaming, or even a simple blog with comments, it’s hard to imagine an internet that didn’t involve real time user participation of some kind.
That got me thinking, I know how my internet creation and consumption habits have changed in the past decade, but what about everyone else’s? For those who own and operate businesses, how has your company or business adapted to the modern web? For consumers, how has your experience consuming content changed with this latest generation of internet appliances?
Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, and follow ServInt on Twitter!
Follow Eric Morales on Twitter.
Photo by Steve Rhode.
Happy Canada Day from all of us at ServInt!
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. ;-)
Supporting Open Source One Download at a Time
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 show it. Below are a couple of the open source initiatives we’ve been involved in the past few weeks, with even more to come!
In April, we decided to double down and become Silver members of the Linux Foundation. We did it for two key reasons.
First, our entire product line is is based on Linux, so we felt compelled to help ensure that the platform is sufficiently protected and represented in the growing tech world. Secondly, we believe that real innovation comes from a level playing field.
There is no fairer platform than Linux.
A little while later, we also became official sponsors of the CentOS.org. Our VPS, SuperVPS, and Solo Series all leverage the power, and flexibility of CentOS Linux and we’re proud to put our money where our mouth is. We’re also hosting a CentOS mirror on one of ServInt’s Solo Series Dedicated servers, so those interested can download our favorite distro!
Finally, ServInt’s COO, Christian Dawson, will be visiting LinuxCon 2010 in Boston this coming August. If you’re in town, don’t forget to say hi!
In the near future, we’ll be announcing even more open source initiatives so stay tuned!
Questions? Comments? Let us know below, on Facebook, or on Twitter!
Follow Eric Morales on Twitter.
Photo by sidereal.
WordPress Reaches Out
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 reflect differently on the outage.
As you may know, we’ve never shied away from defending a competitor that was doing the right thing. We were very public in our support for Rackspace — one of our largest competitors and industry colleagues — last year during its series of tragic outages.
We’ve also never had a problem challenging those that weren’t. When a new wave of “solar powered” hosts began targeting eco-oriented blogs and lambasting them for hosting with companies like ServInt, we called them out on it and pointed out our own green credentials.
We have always treated our blog as a public facing forum for ideas, we want readers to know that real people with real emotions and opinions work at ServInt. I think it’s that willingness to engage in constructive and frank conversations that set us apart from other people in this industry who would rather play it safe.
So, thanks again to our friends at WordPress for sharing the information with us that they did. WordPress powers our blog and is the cornerstone of our own Blog VPS line, so it goes without saying that we’re fans and love the platform. As an active member of the Linux Foundation and as open source stewards for more than a decade, we love and admire innovative companies that help make software development free and community driven. The WP staff and community have done great things for the Internet and are clearly talented, brilliant assets to the web.
Here are a couple of the responses the folks at WordPress pointed us to:
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg’s blog post detailing the outage.
Again, we appreciate their reaching out and setting the record straight.
Have something to say? Don’t forget to comment! You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Us!
