Remembering the Macho Man
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 to root for Randy. He was brash, he was colorful, and he was the living embodiment of professional wrestling attitude.
I didn’t know him personally, of course, but in 2003 or thereabouts, when I was working in our Network Operations Center (pre-MST), the Macho Man was a client of ServInt’s. You can imagine the buzz around the office the day he joined the network: ”The real Macho Man?”, everyone would ask. ”Yeah, the real Macho Man.” I suppose to some there were “more serious” customers that one might use in a business or social setting to represent the quality and prestige of our company’s clientele. But for me, at that time, the first name that always came to mind — our coolest customer, in other words — was The Macho Man. And not surprisingly, people continued to ask, “the real Macho Man?” – and my response, delivered with a grin, would always be the same: ”yes, the real Macho Man.” There was no need for me to go any further. The name had been dropped. My mission was accomplished.
The real joy in having Mr. Poffo’s server under our wing was being able to talk to him on the phone on rare occasions. For us ’round-the-clock tech support guys, it was always a real treat when Mr. Poffo would call and ask us for help. You’d feel lucky if you were the guy who got to answer the phone when Randy was on the other end of the line. I remember him as a very curious and patient person, polite and professional. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was just a regular guy, but I was, if just a little. And if you’re curious… no, his every-day voice wasn’t the booming growl he used inside the ring, in TV commercials and back-stage interviews. But it was unmistakable — there was no doubt that you were talkin’ shop with Randy Savage.
After every Macho Man call, for a good 30 minutes or more, we couldn’t help but talk amongst ourselves in pathetic imitations of the Macho Man. It was impossible not to. Technical jargon just sounds better when you say it like Randy Savage. More fun, too. Every conversation was rehashed, sentence for sentence, for everyone else in the room. For some reason, it was incredibly important that each of us knew exactly why he called.
As much as I may have wanted to, I never had the courage — nor did I think it was appropriate — to ask him for a patented “Snap into a Slim Jim, oooh yeah”! But I was just as satisfied with phrases like “what version of Perl do I got” and ”let’s just reboot it.”
“Macho Man” Randy Savage was an icon of my childhood and my favorite client during my tech support years. On behalf of ServInt, I’d like to extend my sincerest condolences to Mr. Poffo’s family and friends. Thanks for all the memories, Macho Man.
Photo by goodrob13
ServInt’s New Data Center and Our Green Commitment
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 Forests.
There’s something funny about seeing pictures of trees being planted next to shots of our new data center in Reston, VA: on the one hand, I’m looking at tender young saplings lovingly held and planted in the soil; on the other, I see stark, white walls, massive industrial cooling units, and rows and rows of server racks.
By the visual alone, you might think that data center space is the most un-Green part of a hosting company’s operation. And while this can be true for a company without a serious commitment to the environment, choice of data center facility and build-out has some of the greatest Green potential of anything we do. That’s one of the reasons we chose to build out our private data center the way we did.
In previous posts, I’ve gone into detail about how the server hardware choices ServInt makes have a huge impact on decreasing our carbon footprint. This is true now more than ever. As a basic example, in the last five years the number of cpu cores we can pack into a single rack of data center space for about the same price has multiplied roughly five-fold while the power consumption and cooling needs for that same rack have remained constant. (And this example does not even factor in the increased processing power of each core!) Committing to purchasing and deploying this new, more efficient hardware greatly reduces out power-to-customer ratio and keeps our carbon footprint in check.
But hardware is just one step. As we maximize the processing power in a rack, we also have to efficiently house and cool that rack. This is where the design of a datacenter really plays into shrinking our carbon footprint. As a general rule, the power required to cool and house servers is typically equal to 30 to 50 percent of the power needed to simply run those servers. Once you’ve picked your hardware platform, keeping the electrical requirements of cooling and infrastructure down is a central Green goal for environmentally sensitive hosts.
In most circles, air conditioning is not simply the punching bag of the Green movement, it is the devil itself. Nothing captures the essence of un-Green like the notion of cooling the interior of a building by literally pumping heat into the outside air… using fossil fuels… and leaving the windows open. But in intelligently designed, purpose-built data centers, we’re talking about well insulated, windowless rooms that are far more efficient than normal office or residential space. Still, when these rooms are filled with servers they can demand more than 40 times the cooling as the same amount of space in a typical residential home. There is simply no other way to keep servers from literally melting down than blasting cold air at them. Our business is hosting, but our byproduct is heat.
The modern data center facility helps greatly in minimizing the build-up of heat and efficiently removing it. From hot and cold aisles and forcing air directly to racks under raised floors to huge heat exchangers that tap into the cold air on a winter day and smart cooling units that are adaptive and work in sync to spool up or down as needed throughout a facility, engineers have come up with some downright ingenious solutions to efficiently deliver cold air to hot servers. And all these improvements have one goal: to reduce the electricity it takes to keep those cpu cores cool.
All of these and many other factors went into our decision about what type of new data center we would open. And they are just a few of the elements of our much larger Green Hosting Initiative, including the trees American Forests is continually planting to offset the carbon we cannot reduce directly.
If you’d like to see some pictures of our datacenters or some of the tree planting we have sponsored in recent years, check them out in our photos section on Facebook.
ServInt opens the Doors on its Newest Data Center
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 McLean data centers as part of the greater ServInt DC infrastructure. Not only does this new facility provide the room to grow that we require as we continue to expand our customer base and product lines, but its location along the area’s primary fiber routes augments our network infrastructure and connectivity at the same time.
If you’re interested in more of the specifics of our newest data center, take minute to check out our press release. And if you’re a current customer and want to know a little bit more about what this new facility means to you visit your customer portal for more details.
Cloud Hosting Series Part 2: VPS to Cloud?
I 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 dedicated server or VPS hosting. We hear things like, “upgrade to our Cloud solution” and “host your website in our Cloud,” as if your website wasn’t working on its current platform, or with the advent of Cloud, your website would stop working all of a sudden.
Don’t get me wrong, Cloud Hosting has its place in the market, and it will become increasingly relevant with time. In fact, as a platform, Cloud will become a necessity over the next few years. But, right now – are you ready for it? Read more
Cloud Hosting Series, Part 1: A Marketer’s Perspective
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, and those of us who are already deep in the trenches of the virtualized data center industry scratch our heads and wonder how any of this applies to “ordinary” businesses. Read more
What exactly is “Managed Hosting”?
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 10 different answers from 10 different companies. As ServInt’s Director of Managed Services, I want to take a minute to explain what managed hosting means to us. You may find that our definition is more expansive than those offered by our competitors.
Let me start with a pet peeve of mine. It really bugs me when web hosting companies use the terms “support” and “management” as though they were the same thing. They are not.
Support is reactive. It’s what you provide when things go wrong. It’s important, but if your goal is to achieve maximum uptime, support alone doesn’t help much — because it doesn’t avert catastrophe; it simply restores order when things go wrong.
Management — and, by extension, managed hosting — is proactive. It avoids problems. Here are some specifics from our to-do list at ServInt: we provide compatibility checks; custom requirement analyses and one-on-one product and platform consultations; custom software installations; port, service and system monitoring; OS system patches and upgrades; and personalized technical advice and assistance. In other words, we don’t just support our customers when things go wrong; we manage the hosting of their sites to try and prevent things from going wrong in the first place.
Web hosting is a service industry. There may be lots of technology behind the solutions hosting companies offer, but the service they provide is what really differentiates their solutions. That’s why you see company after company touting their level of customer service as “heroic,” “fanatical,” “stupendous,” and so forth. Service sells! All I can say is: ask questions. Make sure that when they say “service,” they mean proactive management — not just support — of your online business.
One last thing: to get the most out of your relationship with your managed hosting service provider, stay close to them. Let them know when you’re expecting spikes or surges in traffic, or when you plan to launch a new app on your site. Inform them when you roll out a killer marketing plan, or when your site’s “high season” is about to begin. That kind of information will help them help you.
Photo by Karen Eliot
Explaining Cloud Hosting: A Blog Series on the ServInt Source
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 our customers have noted, we don’t currently offer anything we actually call a “Cloud Hosting” product. Read more
ServInt COO and VP of Marketing to Attend SXSWi — solidifying our cred as the coolest host around ;)
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 the web hosting industry, we’re a company that’s kind of known for keeping our head down and focusing our energies on making sure our customers’ online businesses run like clockwork. Does that make us “cool”? I don’t know — and maybe I don’t care! The fact is, though, we have a lot of very cool customers that are doing very cool things with their web sites — folks like androidandme.com, for example, who’s actually got a really cool SXSWi party planned! — and we’re going to SXSWi to watch and learn, but also to say hello and shake some hands. So if you’re one of our very cool customers, and you’re planning on being in Austin next week, we’d love to see you! Let us know by responding here, or hitting Fritz and me up at our Twitter accounts, @mrcjdawson and @servintfritz.
See you in Austin!
Happy birthday to us: ServInt turns 16!
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 the default way to do business. Even so, explaining the concept in plain English can be difficult. The Internet is, in a lot of ways, an incredibly abstract idea. It is quite literally everywhere all the time; that’s a paradigm that can be tough to condense in a sentence or two.
Last week, the video embedded below made the rounds across the Internet. It reminded me of how hard it can be — collectively I mean — to wrap our heads around an idea as vast as the Internet.
The more things change, the more they should stay the same. Sometimes.
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, HughesNet and the Connexstar enterprise WAN service. I’ve launched dozens of B2B, B2C and Fortune 500-facing products and services in my career, and I’ve run more than a few companies of my own.
Now, I’m starting a new chapter in my professional life, as the Vice President of Marketing at ServInt.
So why am I here? Basically, I’m here at ServInt because I love this company. The people who work here are smart, love what they do, and are easy to work with. But probably the biggest reason why I decided to join ServInt is because I think this company is about to change the face of business-grade web hosting — again. I know this because I’ve spent a lot of time with the mad scientists in the engineering department, the guys on the front lines in the MST — and I’ve had some very long, very interesting conversations with the people who sit in the corner offices here. Bottom line: amazing things are going to be happening at ServInt over the coming months and years, and I want to be a part of them.
One of my priorities is to keep you up to date on the latest developments in the Marketing and Business Development department — so you’ll be hearing more from me as my tenure at ServInt unfolds. Our to-do list is pretty straightforward.
- We’re going to help design products that meet urgent, real-world requirements of the global business community.
- We’re going to forge new strategic relationships with companies who can help us deliver the best possible products and services to our customers.
- We’re going to market and promote our products and services aggressively, but truthfully and with integrity.
In short, we’re going to do everything we can to help this remarkable company reach its fullest potential, while staying true to its roots.
Now — I want to address something that may be on the minds of folks who like things just the way they are. I know that for some service companies, growth can be the kiss of death — and growth is at the core of my job; it’s what I do. Let me assure you that everybody at the executive level in this company is in total agreement: we will not pursue market growth at the expense of service quality. Period.
From my perspective, ServInt’s great market differentiator is the personalized, high-touch service it provides its customers. Losing that advantage would cut my marketing and business development efforts off at the knees — and I can’t afford that. So, don’t worry — nothing will change about the level of service you’re used to receiving from us. We want to grow, and (with your help) we’re going to grow quickly. But, in the ways that are most important to us — the ways that define us as a high-quality customer-care enterprise — we’re going to remain exactly the same.
