Blog posts from ServInt blog |
370 blog posts:
Feb 11, 2015
Yes, I said “unattended” consequences. In this article, we’re going to look at the potentially disastrous consequences that can result from installing apps and plug-ins and then forgetting about them — especially if these apps require attention or input from you to make them work. Let’s start with a specific, real-world example. A few weeks […]
Dec 03, 2014
Not only do I head up operations here at ServInt, I am chairman and co-founder of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, or i2Coalition. The i2Coalition is highly concerned with Net Neutrality, so I want to put some context around things that you have surely been reading over the past few weeks, months and years. I want […]
Nov 24, 2014
Hi everyone! My name is John Kastronis and I’m the new (and first!) Community Manager here at ServInt. From today forward I’ll be one of the forward-facing contacts between ServInt and the community. I’m here to learn more about what you guys need out of your web hosting company, to make sure that gets communicated back […]
Nov 21, 2014
Shortly after midnight this morning, a crew of bleary-eyed gamers and assorted other cool people set down their joysticks and counted the money they’d raised for the Child’s Play charity. After 158 straight hours of playing history’s most maddeningly idiotic video game, Desert Bus for Hope had raised more than $635,000. To this, as the humble […]
Nov 21, 2014
My son’s school is offering a programming class. After my first introduction to Linux we had fun with the echo command and wrote a script that would say “Hi Fart” he was keen to learn more. He’s too young to attend the class. Instead, he has continued his journey learning Linux with me. It thought it […]
Oct 28, 2014
Starting today, ServInt is officially accepting Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin as payment for its hosting services. Current customers may have noticed this option already in the billing section of the portal as it has been in ‘soft launch’ mode for a week. As always, our top priority is making our customers’ lives as easy as […]
Oct 16, 2014
On September 2nd, we changed our procedures to narrow the circumstances in which law enforcement can request your data from us without a warrant. In addition, we now inform law enforcement that we will disclose requests for our customer data unless a specific statute requires us to keep the request secret. ServInt is committed to […]
Oct 06, 2014
Editor’s Note: As third-party software, ServInt does not support node.js beyond installation. Also, to follow these instructions, users must have a working knowledge of the command line. Click here if you would like more information about logging into your server on the command line. Node.js is an application development software written in and for javascript for […]
Oct 02, 2014
I am very proud to announce that on Tuesday at the 8th annual cPanel Conference, ServInt received the 2014 award for Best Migration Partner during the keynote presentation. We were praised for ensuring quality migrations for all our cPanel customers, and for our migration team’s seamless integration with cPanel’s migration experts. This award meant a […]
Oct 01, 2014
Okay, it’s time for this VP of Marketing to ‘fess up. We haven’t spent as much time as we should have promoting our “PowerPartners” affiliate marketing program. The truth is, when we made it easy for customers and non-customers to join the program; when we added cash rewards (in addition to hosting credit) for new […]
Sep 29, 2014
With Google’s decision to sunset SHA-1 SSL certification many clients have inquired about re-issuing SSL certificates in SHA-2 format. For the validity period of the certificate, we are able to re-issue certificates which were purchased through ServInt. If you’ve purchased a one-year certificate and have six months left until your certificate expires, we’ll be able to […]
Sep 26, 2014
It’s been a busy couple of days at ServInt, but I’m glad to say that our customers are protected against the recently found Shellshock bug. Some background Shellshock is a newly found vulnerability in Bash, the most common application allowing users to execute commands on Linux machines. It’s the environment within which commands are executed […]
Sep 23, 2014
Site speed is all about page load times. But what causes one site (or one page) to load faster than another? The short answer is that it depends on the site and the server. Each combination is unique, but there’s a lot you can do to find your bottleneck. Even to experienced developers, the traditional […]
Sep 15, 2014
As part of ServInt’s SolidFire Site Performance Guarantee, our system resource graphing allows you to track and analyze all of your critical system resources from one convenient dashboard. There are more uses to these proprietary server analytics than simply ensuring that you’re receiving all of your critical system resources. Let’s take a moment to look […]
Sep 04, 2014
In the context of hosting, “Cloud” originally referred to a “next generation” of technology abstraction, something better than basic virtualization. Vendors proposed many conflicting definitions that included a mix of vertical scaling, horizontal scaling, automatic scaling, API driven provisioning, etc. Usually, whatever a particular vendor was offering was that vendor’s definition of Cloud. There was […]
Sep 02, 2014
Today, ServInt continues the ongoing rollout of customer-facing and back-end improvements to our VPS hosting platform. Here’s a status report on our platform enhancements, as of Sep. 1: - Downtime-free OS kernel updates - Available now - Redesigned network core to increase resiliency to attack and hardware failure - Available now - Enhanced, third-party network status update resources - Available […]
Aug 27, 2014
Editor’s note: A reader made the following comment on yesterday’s blog post about our SolidFire Site Performance Guarantee and resource graphs: “I am curious to know what’s proprietary about these graphs given that so many open source tools exist (Munin, MRTG, Nagios etc.) that show similar stats.” We’ve asked one of the chief architects of ServInt’s resource […]
Aug 25, 2014
You’ve heard us talk a lot about what makes ServInt’s SolidFire VPS and dedicated hosting platform the most significant evolution of Cloud hosting technology in many years — the elimination of noisy neighbors, the transition to an all SSD cloud storage solution, and most recently, the implementation of a hosting-industry first: a Site Performance Guarantee that promises your […]
Aug 21, 2014
If you’re a ServInt SolidFire customer, your site will never slow down because of your server. Ever. Did you know that? Have we done a good job explaining that to you? I wonder sometimes. In past blog posts, we’ve examined IOPS, resource contention, disaster recovery, and lots of other very good reasons why you should […]
Aug 14, 2014
Last week I wrote about how ServInt was beating the NSA. Here’s a talk I gave on the same subject in TechWeek in Chicago last month. ServInt cares about protecting our users’ rights. The talk will explain why we care, and what we’re trying to do to fix the “NSA problem.”
Jul 30, 2014
Yesterday I was interviewed by Bloomberg News about the effects of NSA surveillance on the Cloud. They wanted to know if we had lost any customers specifically because of the Edward Snowden leaks. This, of course, is a hot topic: how is mass surveillance affecting the cloud, and can we quantify the damage that is […]
Jul 23, 2014
Editor’s Note: As third-party software, ServInt does not support Nginx beyond installation. Also, to follow these instructions, users must have a working knowledge of the command line. Click here if you would like more information about logging into your server on the command line. Nginx offers an alternative to the Apache web server popular with some […]
Jul 11, 2014
Earlier this week, we launched two new tools designed to immediately inform our customers whenever issues emerge that may affect the performance or accessibility of their server. In this brief blog post, we’ll explain how these new services work and how you can put them to use. First, an important detail: both of these notification […]
Jun 29, 2014
It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week at ServInt – the worst we’ve had since 10 years ago, when a fiber cut in just the wrong place brought us offline completely for seven hours. That day was one of the most professionally terrifying of my life, but we learned from it and […]
Jun 26, 2014
There’s an interesting parallel between the way people buy web hosting and the way they buy sports cars. Frequently, the sports car purchaser who doesn’t actually compete in races will buy their vehicle based on theoretical maximum performance capability, examining numbers like top speed, maximum horsepower and so forth to see how fast their dream […]
Jun 20, 2014
If you’ve managed online applications or websites for any length of time, you’ve almost certainly dealt with hardware failures. VPS technology mitigates some of the more common types of failures, and Cloud has mitigated others. But the fact remains, hardware failures — failures of the machines housing and crunching your data — can still happen […]
Jun 17, 2014
There was a time in hosting’s distant past when virtualization and Cloud were foreign words. Back then, the idea that you could put multiple customers on a single host machine and give them all fully partitioned and secure “virtual environments” — environments that looked and acted exactly like a small dedicated server — was novel, […]
May 06, 2014
Last week we talked about the dangers of generalizing about website and app requirements when picking a cloud service provider. Here’s the big question we’re going to try to answer this week: Is it even possible to compare prices between cloud hosting options? An increasing number of large cloud service providers have been trying to […]
May 01, 2014
Last week, a good friend who works at Google sent me a link to a Wall Street Journal story on the price wars that seem to be heating up in the cloud computing and storage sectors. (Editor’s note: WSJ hyperlinks only work once. To read this article run a google search for “A Price War Erupts […]
Apr 23, 2014
In January, ServInt launched our cutting-edge SolidFire SSD VPS cloud storage platform. It is simply the fastest, most highly scalable, and most reliable turn-key hosting solution on the market today. Almost since the day we launched the SolidFire SSD VPS, our customers have been asking when they’d be able to buy a dedicated server with […]
Apr 08, 2014
Recently, a vulnerability was announced with OpenSSL based on a bug called Heartbleed: “This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet. SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks […]
Apr 03, 2014
DDoS attacks sound like something out of one of those cheese-ball 1980s “hackers break into somebody’s computer and ignite a world war three” movies — you know, the ones that feature 400 baud modems and TRS-80s with cassette drives — but “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attacks are very real, and are a growing problem. ServInt, […]
Mar 26, 2014
My son is five years old and a digital native. For the last year or so he’s been saying that he wants to develop video games when he grows up. I’ve acknowledged his desire, telling him that he can develop video games, but that he’d need to learn how to write code and work hard. […]
Mar 21, 2014
Editor’s note: this tutorial assumes you are familiar with working on the command line on your server via SSH. If you’re not, you might want to check out this article first to get your feet wet. In previous Tech Bench posts, we discussed how to install vanilla Minecraft and how to install Bukkit Minecraft, but how can you […]
Mar 19, 2014
Here’s a question: What do these two very common email support request have in common? 1. A VPS user believes that the PHP mail function is not working or that there is something wrong with the mail sending script (Contact Us form, registration form, or an order form which sends an email). 2. A user […]
Mar 13, 2014
Editor’s Note: This Tech Bench: Advanced Topics post assumes knowledge and comfort with working on the command line of your server. If you would like to learn more about working on the command line, you can begin here. After the choices of hosting provider and server package, one of the most important considerations a VPS […]
Mar 10, 2014
Since 2004 there have been only 22 common generic top-level domains (gTLDs) for use on the Internet. One of the side effects of this is the proliferation of startups with weird mishmashes of letters for names. In the coming months, there will be over 1000 new gTLDs made available to the public. Over 100 are already out […]
Mar 03, 2014
This week I have the honor of representing not just ServInt but the rest of the Internet infrastructure industry when I get to moderate the Internet Education Day event and awards ceremony hosted by the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition). At this event, scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 in the Rayburn House Office Building, […]
Feb 27, 2014
There’s a revolution underfoot in the hosting industry, but it’s not what you think. The Cloud has arrived. It has gone mainstream. The revolution I’m talking about is a silent one. It’s a war waged by veteran hosting customers who know the products they want, but see them mothballed or discontinued as they’re forced into […]
Feb 20, 2014
ServInt’s Flex line of dedicated servers launched in 2012 with the goal of providing dedicated server customers the best, most trustworthy hardware in the world, coupled with modern tools that give dedicated server customers the ability to upgrade, downgrade and scale easily to meet changing needs. Today I’m proud to announce the newest addition to […]
Feb 13, 2014
Does your website load slowly? Have you upgraded into a “professional” hosting package only to find that your new VPS lacks the performance you were promised? Lackluster server performance has been a thorn in the side of VPS hosting customers for some time. Many buyers have learned to pay attention to server specs — getting […]
Feb 10, 2014
As part of our ongoing efforts to support Internet privacy and good governance, ServInt is donating the first month of all revenues earned from participating new VPS and dedicated hosting accounts added on Feb. 11 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. We’re taking this extraordinary step because — on “The Day We Fight Back” against NSA […]
Feb 07, 2014
Ensuring application Quality of Service (QoS) is an essential part of hosting in the cloud. Legacy spinning disk storage is not designed to handle the performance variability of multi-tenant cloud workloads. Many cloud hosting providers have made the switch from mechanical spinning disks to a full flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) architecture. SSD offers much faster […]
Feb 05, 2014
Last month ServInt announced the all-new SolidFire SSD VPS, the first VPS product to completely eliminate the “noisy neighbor” problem of disk resource contention. Adoption has been swift, and we’ve learned some interesting things about how SolidFire performs in support of typical small business hosting requirements. It’s good news for you — read on for […]
Jan 31, 2014
Editor’s note: Tech Bench Advanced Topics posts assume a level of knowledge that some readers may not yet have attained. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to open a ticket in your customer portal. Protecting directories using .htaccess is typically a straight-forward and painless process. Create a .htpasswd file, set up some authentication rules […]
Jan 27, 2014
Frankly, as some of you read this you might be wondering why we didn’t post this article last October. Well, last October the blog was chock full of great content on how to speed up your website, how to install Minecraft on a VPS, how to troubleshoot RAM usage, our free RAM upgrade and much more. A […]
Jan 24, 2014
2014 is the year that the free and open global Internet as we know it could cease to exist. If you think this sounds crazy or over the top, I’m sorry to have to tell you it’s not. The root of the problem is straightforward: not enough is being done to curtail NSA abuses, and […]
Jan 21, 2014
In a previous blog post, our CEO went into detail on the reasons why our new SolidFire SSD VPS is so important — to small businesses worldwide, to ServInt, and to the hosting industry at large. I want to take a few minutes to share more information on what makes this platform so compelling from […]
Jan 14, 2014
For almost 19 years I’ve believed that trust should be the foundation of every action we take here at ServInt. I originally set out to share my belief with small businesses by creating a different kind of hosting company — one that strives to find ways for small businesses to succeed and for entrepreneurs to […]
Jan 08, 2014
A few months ago we covered how to install a vanilla Minecraft server. Bukkit is a modified version of Minecraft that allows for, well, modification — including a host of terrific plugins to enhance game play. You can find out more about Bukkit here. Installing a Bukkit Minecraft server on a VPS is as simple […]
Dec 18, 2013
The web hosting market is a pretty saturated one. With software such as cPanel and WHM, it’s very easy to set up a server and begin offering shared hosting packages to people. For less than the average cost of a quick bite to eat, companies are promising unlimited disk space and bandwidth to anyone willing […]
Dec 11, 2013
Over the years, countless businesses have started at ServInt. We are a hub for entrepreneurs looking to turn their dreams into reality. We have talked about Etsy as one of my favorite examples of this, but the list is long. We know what it’s like to start with a dollar and a dream, and we […]
Nov 21, 2013
Earlier today, ServInt signed on to a letter, spearheaded by the Center for Democracy & Technology, that was sent to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate. The letter urged reform of U.S. surveillance practices “by limiting the scope of surveillance and by substantially enhancing…privacy protections, oversight, and accountability mechanisms” — specifically through the enactment […]
Nov 19, 2013
This past weekend, I had to take a long road trip to help somebody with an interstate move. As I often do when I’m struggling to keep my eyes open after many hours on the road, I tuned in some talk radio. As luck would have it, I managed to catch a half-hour or so […]
Nov 18, 2013
New Relic is a resource monitoring tool gaining popularity in the hosting community. It is not uncommon for our customers to ask for help installing this software. In my last article, I explained how to install New Relic’s application performance monitoring. In this post, we’ll look at installing their server performance monitoring. New Relic has a free […]
Nov 12, 2013
If you’re not careful about how you purchase hosting “in the cloud,” you can end up paying a heavy price for the freedom of a scalable solution. ServInt’s Jelastic Java and PHP cloud service is different. It autoscales, allowing you to only pay for what you use. It also allows you to purchase cloud resources […]
Nov 11, 2013
In a previous article, SSH Key Authentication, I explained how to generate an SSH key so you could automatically log into your server instead of using a password. This is convenient for you (no more typing the password) and very inconvenient for potential hackers. If you turn off password authentication (because you’ll no longer need […]
Nov 07, 2013
On October 29, 2013, the USA FREEDOM Act was introduced to end the mass gathering of phone record data by the NSA. H.R.3361/S.1599 is a bipartisan effort authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) that seeks to curb the mass targeting of communications by American […]
Nov 04, 2013
A great way to keep potential threats at bay and make your server more secure is to employ TCP Wrappers. TCP Wrappers are a form of access control you can use – in conjunction with a firewall – to lock out unwanted users and increase your server security. TCP Wrappers are similar to a firewall, […]
Oct 31, 2013
So you want to build your own Minecraft server? Minecraft can be a pretty easy game to set up on a VPS. It just requires a few quick commands before you’re on your way to survival/adventure/creativity! Note: This guide is specific to CentOS cPanel servers, but can be followed for a non-cPanel server as well. […]
Oct 29, 2013
RAM (Random Access Memory) is computer storage that holds the data of running processes (i.e. programs). That data includes the image of the program itself, the data that the program uses to interact with the computer’s operating system, and the data that the program is actually manipulating to do whatever useful thing the program is […]
Oct 23, 2013
Like any other business, ServInt periodically takes stock of the configuration of its products, and makes adjustments to ensure they remain competitive. Unlike most businesses, however, when we make these adjustments, we usually provide them to our existing customers at no extra charge. That’s what we’re doing this time, too. Today, we’re doubling the guaranteed […]
Oct 22, 2013
Many of us use FTP to transfer and modify files server side. In most cases it’s just fine. However, there are situations where you need something more powerful. That’s where SSH (Secure Shell) comes in. SSH will allow you to bulk rename, find, move and copy files, and much more. All with a few simple […]
Oct 17, 2013
For this final post on the history of U.S. Internet regulation, we need to look at one of the broadest pieces of cybersecurity policy out there – broad enough to hit just about anybody in the world. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) of 1984 and its increasingly liberal interpretation have led to a […]
Oct 15, 2013
New Relic is a resource monitoring tool gaining popularity in the hosting community. It is not uncommon for our customers to ask for help installing this software. I installed the free New Relic PHP monitoring tool on my own server (mainly for the free t-shirt!). The free account provides you with information on traffic, performance, […]
Oct 09, 2013
The Internet is a seemingly miraculous place for small businesses. These days, there are all kinds of companies offering turn-key e-commerce site design and hosting solutions, all delivered — almost literally — at the push of a button. No design skill? No problem! No technical know-how? Who cares! Of course, behind the scenes, things aren’t […]
Oct 03, 2013
Have you ever been administering your server when all of a sudden, it appears to have mysteriously dropped off the Internet? You can no longer make an SSH connection, your email client times out, and your websites are down! What gives? Before jumping to the conclusion that your server or web host are down, you […]
Sep 25, 2013
At ServInt, we are well into our eleventh year selling the cPanel server control panel. We have been an authorized cPanel Partner NOC since 2003, and believe it to be the best control panel on the market. I don’t think it’s too much to say that we are also the world’s foremost experts in cPanel. […]
Sep 19, 2013
As the name suggests, a firewall is a blockade of sorts, and is meant for security. At its core, a firewall simply prevents unauthorized access into or out of a computer network. Real-world firewalls should be based on hardware or software, A server, just like a desktop or laptop, can benefit from the security a […]
Sep 17, 2013
Any discussion about PRISM centers around the concept of privacy on the Internet. For my third post on the history of U.S. Internet Legislation, I’ll focus in on the laws that govern our privacy online. When attempting to ascertain the state of online privacy, there tends to be a lot of talk about law enforcement […]
Sep 09, 2013
Editor’s Note: This week, we complete our guest series with Larry Ullman’s third installment in his discussion about scaling a website. If you’re just joining us, be sure to check out Part 1: Infrastructure that Scales and Part 2: Code that Scales. As a web developer, writer, and public speaker, I often interact with people of various skill […]
Sep 03, 2013
Editor’s Note: This week, we continue our guest series with Larry Ullman‘s second installment in his discussion of scaling a website. If you’re just joining us, be sure to check out Part 1: The Myths of Going Big. As a web developer, writer, and public speaker, I often interact with people of various skill levels, talents, […]
Aug 27, 2013
Editor’s Note: Once again, it’s time to address a common question that is beyond the scope of even our managed support — how to design a website that scales well. To address this popular topic, we’ve asked web developer, writer and ServInt customer, Larry Ullman, to share his thoughts. As a web developer, writer, and […]
Aug 16, 2013
Over the weekend, my wife got a phone call from her parents telling her that her web site wasn’t working. When asked for clarification, her parents said that “Google has a big warning sign up where your site used to be.” Most of you already know what was going on: my wife’s site had been […]
Aug 14, 2013
ServInt just rolled out a massive, free upgrade for all its Jelastic customers: version 1.9.2. This upgrade has a long list of new features that will make a great product even better, but here are just a few: Improved high availability of the Jelastic cloud. Jelastic has completely revamped its high availability/redundancy systems to make...
Aug 09, 2013
With the U.S. government’s PRISM program, there has been a lot of talk recently about what the government can and will do with Internet communications. What the government can do is limited by the protections granted under various laws governing the Internet. Some of the most important laws governing protections on the Internet are nearly...
Jul 31, 2013
ServInt has an excellent reputation for providing quality technical assistance for its customers. If something goes wrong with your web site, our techs will do everything they can to fix your problem and quickly get your online business running again. That’s great. Sort of. The reason it’s only “sort of” great is because having a...
Jul 26, 2013
Today, we’re inaugurating a new series of short, tightly focused technical blog posts that are designed to be quickly and easily put to use — less exhaustive than our “Tech Bench” series, but just as useful on an app-by-app, tactical basis. ImageMagick — an open source software suite for displaying, converting, and editing raster image...
Jul 17, 2013
Many of you know that ServInt is deeply involved in the fight for intelligent Internet legislation, through my part-time leadership role at the Internet Infrastructure Coalition. I took on that role for two main reasons: one, I care about the Internet. I believe the internet is fueling a global explosion of empowerment that will...
Jul 11, 2013
Editor’s Note: From time to time, we receive questions that are beyond the scope of even our managed support. One of those questions involves how to speed up your website. To address this popular topic, we’ve asked Claire Broadley of WhoIsHostingThis.com to share some thoughts on optimizing websites. Is your site slow? A website that...
Jul 10, 2013
Any discussion of U.S. government laws relating to the Internet and programs like PRISM inevitably begin all the way back in 1986 with the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Written before the birth of the modern Internet, ECPA is a key law that enables law enforcement to have access to data while protecting...
Jul 02, 2013
If you’ve been following the news recently, you may have heard a lot about the US government’s PRISM program, led by the NSA. There has been a lot of talk about what the government can and cannot do (or will and will not do) under PRISM, and — frankly — a lot of fear as...
Jun 25, 2013
If you’ve ever been in the situation where you can’t reach your server and you want to figure out what’s going on, traceroute is the tool for you. Traceroute tracks the route packets take over a network on their way to a given host, recording the hops from the computer you issued the command on...
Jun 14, 2013
Server logs record many of the events on your server. They record /var/log/messages, which has information about named, ftpd and other services, as well as mysql, just to name a few things. When there’s a problem with your server and the cause is unclear, the server logs are a great place to start sleuthing. But...
Jun 05, 2013
What is Icecast? Icecast is free software that allows you to stream audio over the Internet from you server. Icecast is compatible with Nullsoft’s Shoutcast. Install Icecast The simplest way to install Icecast is via yum. It’s quick and easy, and it’ll be manageable to maintain later. For this example, we’ll discuss installing Icecast on...
May 30, 2013
All ServInt VPS and Flex accounts now come with free malware detection software from StopTheHacker — a service with an annual cash value of $120. Each customer receives one free subscription for each server they lease through ServInt. The free StopTheHacker subscription for ServInt customers includes Basic STH service for one domain complete with a weekly scan...
May 28, 2013
As you dig deeper into server administration, you’ll eventually need to log into your server via SSH as root. Logging into your server as root allows you to easily accomplish many tasks, but it demands a certain level of security precaution. SSH root logins offer a huge potential security vulnerability. The root user is the administrative...
May 24, 2013
What is a bot? Internet bots — or web robots — are software applications that run repetitive tasks across the web. And while they may sound like something out of sci-fi, they are, for the most part, less “Minority Report” than “Wall-E.” While it’s true that bots can be designed with malicious intentions, the most...
May 22, 2013
NetBeans IDE lets you quickly and easily develop Java desktop, mobile, and web applications, while also providing great tools for PHP developers. Now, with the Jelastic plugin for Netbeans IDE, you can develop, test and deploy your Java and PHP applications directly into the Jelastic cloud. The Jelastic plugin for Netbeans is a set of software...
May 17, 2013
Sometimes, the easiest answers are the best. For this week’s Tech Bench, we’re going to take a look at a very common question our VPS users have that happens to have a quite simple answer. How do I increase or decrease my client’s disk space quota in cPanel? Resellers, web designers who host client web...
May 10, 2013
We were just moving some boxes around the office, and I uncovered a time capsule: a stack of ServInt Newsletters from the late 1990s. (We actually sent this newsletter out in the mail, when we all still thought it was clever to call it “snail mail.” Our very first issue in May of 1997 profiled...
May 08, 2013
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on the Jelastic blog. The online shopping industry is gaining popularity all over the world, and e-commerce sites are extremely popular. There are many options available online to build an e-commerce website, but Magento is considered to be one of the most robust, flexible and scalable open source...
May 03, 2013
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...
May 01, 2013
A few week’s ago in the Tech Bench, our Director of Network Compliance, Mike Witty, discussed some of the finer points of preventing your important emails from ending up in your clients’ spam folders. Next, we looked at how to configure SpamAssassin in cPanel. This week, it’s time to turn our attention to configuring SpamAssassin in...
Apr 24, 2013
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....
Apr 23, 2013
Last time in the Tech Bench, our Director of Network Compliance, Mike Witty, discussed some of the finer points of preventing your important emails from ending up in your clients’ spam folders. For this edition, we thought we’d give you a quick how-to on using and configuring SpamAssassin — the spam software of choice —...
Apr 18, 2013
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on the Jelastic blog. Jelastic is growing rapidly, and we are constantly asked how we differ from other Platform-as-a-Service cloud applications on the market. Today we’ll compare Jelastic to AWS Elastic Beanstalk. What is AWS Elastic Beanstalk? Amazon Web Service’s Elastic Beanstalk enables you to deploy and...
Apr 16, 2013
At ServInt we are dedicated to the privacy of our customers and to the creation of sensible legislation that supports our customers but still empowers law enforcement in ways that make sense in the 21st century. It’s one of the reasons we work so hard with i2Coalition to make sure that we influence public policy...
Apr 11, 2013
Editor’s note: A few months ago in the Tech Bench, we featured a support ticket between a customer of ours and our Director Network Compliance, Mike Witty. He had some great advice about controlling spam and blacklisted IPs. A comment on that post about Mike’s preference for the spam software, SpamAssassin, prompted a reply from...
Apr 09, 2013
It’s not often that we pull back the marketing curtain here at ServInt and expose the inner workings of why and how we choose to engage with our customers, but today is a special day. If you follow us at all, you know that we strive to put out blog posts, knowledgebase articles and white papers (like...
Apr 04, 2013
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on the Jelastic blog. It’s often necessary to extend a PHP application across multiple servers. This is particularly crucial when your business depends on the availability of the application. Extending the app across multiple servers provides redundancy, ensuring that when one server fails, it doesn’t bring down...
Apr 01, 2013
In case you didn’t get the memo, March 31st was World Backup Day. You can never have too many backups. Whether you host your sites on a server in your own IT closet or with a company like ServInt — that offers backup solutions for all its managed servers — you should always keep your...
Mar 28, 2013
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on the Jelastic blog. You asked us for it, and we’ve delivered: ServInt’s auto-scaling cloud service, Jelastic, now supports FTP. You can now get easier access to your application files and have a fast, reliable way of file sharing and data transfer to and from your servers...
Mar 26, 2013
Who turns down free money? Really, we want to know that. Our guess is that nobody turns down free, no-strings-attached cash. We’re asking because, everyday, we see forum posts on the Internet recommending web hosting with ServInt, and we see new customer comments saying how happy they are that their friends or colleagues told them...
Mar 21, 2013
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...
Mar 19, 2013
Editor’s Note: This post is part of the comprehensive, free white paper, “How do You Know when it’s Time to Scale? Understanding and Predicting Server Resource Consumption.” You’ve invested in a scalable hosting solution, be it a VPS or cloud. Whether you’ve got a team of developers coding for automated horizontal and vertical server scaling...
Mar 14, 2013
The news on ServInt’s auto-scaling Jelastic cloud keeps rolling in. We’ve just added Apache TomEE, one of the fastest and the most user-friendly enterprise-ready application servers available. Unlike other JEE application servers, TomEE avoids architecture overhead and stays lightweight and as simple as possible. And with ServInt’s Jelastic cloud, it takes just one click to...
Mar 07, 2013
We’ve got some big news about our auto-scaling cloud platform, Jelastic. We’ve just released a major update that makes the ServInt Jelastic cloud more powerful — and more affordable — than ever. To start with, we’re introducing a brand-new cloud product called the “Virtual Dedicated Server,” or VDS, that adds true auto-scaling IaaS capabilities to...
Mar 07, 2013
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is coming. If you haven’t heard as much about CISPA as you did about SOPA and PIPA, you will soon. CISPA needs to change, and we need your help to change it. CISPA is a ‘cybersecurity’ bill that exists in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it’s only a...
Mar 01, 2013
At ServInt, we believe in offering customers the products they want. CentOS is our primary OS offering on our Flex VPS line simply because we believe it’s the best server platform out there. That being said, a lot of you have asked for other options, especially Ubuntu. Well, we hear you. Starting today, you can...
Feb 26, 2013
Editor’s note: A version of this post originally appeared on the Jelastic blog. The importance of performing regular backups of your data cannot be understated. We’ve talked about it before on the ServInt Source, and we’ll keep talking about it as long as there are new hosting customers who have yet to learn the value...
Feb 21, 2013
CISPA is back and ServInt stands firmly against it. This coming week, our COO, Christian Dawson, and his partners at the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2C) are once again heading up to Capitol Hill to speak out against proposed Internet security legislation that would stifle innovation and compromise the privacy of all Internet users. After last...
Feb 19, 2013
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,...
Feb 14, 2013
You’re on the go, but you need to stay in touch with ServInt. We hear you, and we’re here to help. Introducing the ServInt app: ServInt has launched an all-new free mobile ServInt Portal app compatible with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Android devices. The app allows ServInt customers to open, view and manage support...
Feb 11, 2013
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...
Feb 08, 2013
$13,000 That was the cash value of what our top affiliate marketing partner earned in one year with ServInt. ServInt’s PowerPartner program is your portal into our affiliate marketing community. With cash or hosting credits available for referrals, simple, regular payments via Paypal, our proprietary Custom Shop tools to help you land more referral business, and...
Feb 05, 2013
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from a recent white paper about server scaling published by ServInt titled, “How do You Know When it’s Time to Scale?” You can download the full white paper here. The only criterion that matters when when it is time to scale is how fast your sites’ pages...
Jan 31, 2013
Managed hosting companies live and die by the quality of their hosting customer service. At ServInt, we’ve succeeded for 18 years because we always try our best, and our best is some of the best in the industry. No company can be perfect 100% of the time on every interaction, but that must be the...
Jan 29, 2013
Today, we’re launching an exciting expansion of our cloud PaaS offering, Jelastic. Now, in addition to hosting all your Java applications in ServInt’s cloud, you can host your PHP applications with us as well. And it’s as easy as one click to deploy the most popular PHP or Java apps into our auto-scaling cloud platform....
Jan 24, 2013
If you’re like many of our web designers and other affiliate program members, you may have struggled with explaining to your clients exactly which server you’d like them to buy from us. And while it’s much easier with ServInt’s new three-page ordering system, there can still be a lot of explaining to do. Not any...
Jan 22, 2013
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...
Jan 14, 2013
There are times when new product development is hard, and times when it’s easy. When it’s easy, the market presents a series of clear signals that indicate with blinding obviousness what customers really want. That’s what happened to spark the development of our newest product line, the Flex Semi-Dedicated TwoCore and ThreeCore servers. With these...
Jan 09, 2013
The following is an excerpt from a just-published white paper: All You Need To Know About Hosting Discounts and Promo Codes. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” The wag who coined that phrase was obviously trying to illustrate the truism that you can’t get something for nothing. In the world of web hosting,...
Dec 20, 2012
It’s been another big year of web hosting at ServInt. We began the year neck deep in the SOPA and PIPA debate. Our COO, Christian Dawson, lobbied Congress in Washington and was instrumental in pushing back this potentially damaging legislation. The spring saw the release of both our Flex line of next-generation virtualized servers as well...
Dec 14, 2012
Most customers come to ServInt understanding that their need for hosting resources will grow over the lifetime of their website and other online applications. Some have already experienced this, outgrowing a shared hosting service or small VPS plan at another company. And, nearly all customers share the dream of hitting it big — seeing massive...
Dec 11, 2012
Many readers of the ServInt Source are current and long-time customers. But for those of you who may have just found us — or have been reading for a while, but are not ServInt customers — this one’s for you. We recently sat down with our sales team and were talking about some of the...
Dec 07, 2012
The best advice I’ve ever heard is: if your data is important to you at all, then you should back it up. What would happen if you suddenly lost it? How devastating would it be? Backing up is such a simple step, and can potentially save you many hours of work, stress, and possibly your...
Dec 03, 2012
This week’s a big week at ServInt. After a lot of hard work, we have an all-new ordering system for our entire line of products. Not only is it simpler and more intuitive with only three pages for the entire order process, but we’ve also built in some pretty exciting functionality. The Custom Shop allows...
Nov 27, 2012
When you purchase web hosting, you get two things: a platform (server, network, software, etc.) and service (migration assistance, technical support, best practice advice, etc.). The platform is cheap. Hardware is powerful and inexpensive. Network connectivity bought in bulk is peanuts. What costs money is quality customer service. Is your plan a managed plan? Does...
Nov 19, 2012
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...
Nov 08, 2012
Just about every hosting customer with a virtualized product, whether they know it or not, has been migrated from one server to another at some point. Some of these migrations — hardware migrations within a web host’s own infrastructure — are so simple and commonplace, that most customers don’t know when or if they’ve ever...
Nov 06, 2012
Editor’s Note: This is a repost of an article written by our COO, Christian Dawson, that originally ran on the i2coalition blog on 11/5/12. 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....
Nov 05, 2012
Have you been thinking about cloud hosting? We have. A lot. We’ve launched our Java cloud PaaS product, Jelastic, and we’ve been incorporating cloud technologies and automation into our VPS IaaS line to increase scalability and redundancy while at the same time getting pretty close to true zero-downtime migrations. And we’re continually working with partners to...
Oct 29, 2012
The Washington DC area is a funny place to live for many reasons, and one of those is certainly its officially panicky reaction to any tiny incident of inclement weather. Out-of-towners are frequently perplexed by decisions to close schools and other institutions when things turn a tiny bit snowy, or windy, or rainy. This storm,...
Sep 26, 2012
I’m excited to announce that we have a brand new function in our customer ticketing system: customer ratings and ticket reviews. All too often in our industry, customer service is essentially a one-way street. Or more accurately, it’s two one-way streets with both the customer and the service provider trying to fix a problem by...
Sep 17, 2012
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...
Aug 23, 2012
Question: What do ServInt, “father of Java” James Gosling and autonomous, globe-trekking, wave-powered floating robots all have in common? Answer: Jelastic! James Gosling, the author of the Java programming language, recently spoke about his new venture: using Java to program the robots built by Liquid Robotics that are right now sailing the oceans of the...
Jul 31, 2012
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...
Jul 23, 2012
Last week, ServInt put out a joint press release with VC fund Runa Capital announcing a program to offer discounted ServInt hosting and advanced infrastructure consultation to Runa portfolio companies, a kind of grant program for their slate of startups. We announced at Hosting Con and put out a simple joint press release for industry types. The...
Jul 16, 2012
It’s become a truism for most people that the Internet has changed the world. Let me be the first to stand up and say: No, the Internet has not changed the world. People have changed the world. The Internet is only the tool they used. From email to Google and Wikipedia to Twitter and on, the...
Jul 05, 2012
As the summer sets in, it’s time to announce our second finalist for the 2012 Sextant Award: TLC – The Treatment and Learning Centers. TLC truly exemplifies the spirit of the Sextant Award. Named after a trusted technology that has helped humankind find its true course for nearly a thousand years, the Sextant Award honors...
Jun 28, 2012
Here’s a question we’ve seen a few times: “How do I allow directory browsing in a directory of my choosing and insure that directories on the site are otherwise non-browsable in WordPress?” Let’s say, for example, that you want to load a directory of images and allow only that directory to be publicly browsable....
Jun 18, 2012
Since its passage in 2001, there has been a lot of media attention given to critics of the Patriot Act at home and abroad. Privacy and government accountability concerns have been raised over some of the provisions of the Act, and in recent years, these concerns have been co-opted by some European hosts who have...
Jun 12, 2012
Two weeks ago, at the start of a European publicity tour, I announced that ServInt was opening a European data center in Amsterdam. The interest in ServInt EU and the level of pre-orders we have received since then has been impressive and gratifying. We are now officially selling servers in our ServInt EU facility. As...
Jun 08, 2012
A ServInt VPS is a powerful server. There is quite a bit of customization you can do to make it suite your needs. Today, we’re going to discuss something many international customers don’t even know to ask about: how to change your VPS language and location settings in SSH. Don’t know how to log into...
Jun 04, 2012
ServInt announced some of its biggest news in quite some time last week: the opening of ServInt EU and our new Amsterdam data center. As we continue to take preorders and prepare the full-scale launch, we’ve gotten a few questions from customers who are having trouble choosing between ServInt DC, ServInt LA and ServInt EU. So...
May 31, 2012
One of my favorite bands is an essentiially defunct group called NRBQ. On their 1978 album “NRBQ At Yankee Stadium,” there’s a track I’ve enjoyed, and, in my role as marketing guy, quoted from many times over the years. The track is called “Ain’t No Free,” and — to the accompaniment of a rollicking New...
May 23, 2012
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...
May 11, 2012
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...
May 07, 2012
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...
May 01, 2012
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...
Apr 25, 2012
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...
Apr 20, 2012
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...
Apr 17, 2012
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...
Apr 06, 2012
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...
Apr 03, 2012
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...
Mar 30, 2012
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...
Mar 27, 2012
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....
Mar 22, 2012
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...
Mar 20, 2012
“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”...
Mar 16, 2012
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...
Mar 13, 2012
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...
Mar 08, 2012
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...
Feb 20, 2012
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...
Feb 16, 2012
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...
Feb 14, 2012
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:...
Feb 10, 2012
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...
Feb 06, 2012
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...
Jan 30, 2012
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...
Jan 27, 2012
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...
Jan 24, 2012
? 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...
Jan 23, 2012
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...
Jan 20, 2012
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...
Jan 18, 2012
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...
Jan 16, 2012
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...
Jan 13, 2012
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...
Jan 12, 2012
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...
Jan 10, 2012
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 —...
Jan 05, 2012
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...
Dec 29, 2011
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...
Dec 27, 2011
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...
Dec 22, 2011
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...
Dec 19, 2011
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...
Dec 16, 2011
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...
Dec 12, 2011
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...
Dec 08, 2011
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,...
Dec 06, 2011
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...
Dec 01, 2011
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...
Nov 28, 2011
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...
Nov 21, 2011
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...
Nov 18, 2011
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...
Nov 17, 2011
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...
Nov 14, 2011
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...
Nov 10, 2011
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...
Nov 07, 2011
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...
Nov 04, 2011
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...
Nov 01, 2011
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...
Oct 28, 2011
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...
Oct 24, 2011
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...
Oct 21, 2011
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...
Oct 11, 2011
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...
Sep 21, 2011
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...
Sep 15, 2011
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...
Sep 08, 2011
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...
Sep 01, 2011
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...
Aug 25, 2011
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...
Jul 27, 2011
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...
Jul 19, 2011
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,...
Jun 27, 2011
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...
Jun 17, 2011
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...
Jun 08, 2011
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...
May 25, 2011
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.”...
May 20, 2011
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...
Apr 28, 2011
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...
Apr 27, 2011
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...
Apr 21, 2011
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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...
Apr 15, 2011
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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,...
Apr 12, 2011
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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...
Apr 06, 2011
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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...
ServInt COO and VP of Marketing to Attend SXSWi — solidifying our cred as the coolest host around ;)
Mar 04, 2011
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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...
Feb 16, 2011
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...
Feb 09, 2011
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...
Feb 04, 2011
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...
Feb 01, 2011
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,...
Jan 14, 2011
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...
Jan 03, 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...
Dec 29, 2010
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...
Dec 16, 2010
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...
Dec 06, 2010
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...
Nov 23, 2010
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...
Nov 18, 2010
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...
Nov 17, 2010
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...
Nov 04, 2010
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...
Oct 22, 2010
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...
Oct 13, 2010
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...
Oct 08, 2010
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...
Sep 23, 2010
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...
Sep 17, 2010
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...
Sep 15, 2010
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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...
Sep 09, 2010
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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...
Sep 01, 2010
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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...
Aug 12, 2010
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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...
Aug 10, 2010
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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....
Aug 04, 2010
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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...
Aug 02, 2010
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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...
Jul 16, 2010
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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....
Jul 14, 2010
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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...
Jul 06, 2010
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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...
Jul 01, 2010
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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. ;-)
Jun 30, 2010
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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...
Jun 23, 2010
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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....
Jun 15, 2010
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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...
Jun 15, 2010
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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...
Jun 11, 2010
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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...
Jun 10, 2010
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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,...
Jun 09, 2010
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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...
May 27, 2010
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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,...
May 26, 2010
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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...
May 25, 2010
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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...
May 21, 2010
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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...
May 18, 2010
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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...
May 12, 2010
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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...
May 11, 2010
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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...
May 10, 2010
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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...
May 07, 2010
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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...
May 04, 2010
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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...
Apr 28, 2010
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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...
Apr 27, 2010
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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...
Apr 26, 2010
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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...
Apr 23, 2010
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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...
Apr 22, 2010
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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...
Apr 21, 2010
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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...
Apr 19, 2010
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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...
Apr 05, 2010
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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...
Mar 29, 2010
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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...
Mar 23, 2010
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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...
Mar 22, 2010
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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...
Mar 19, 2010
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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...
Mar 16, 2010
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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...
Mar 09, 2010
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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...
Mar 04, 2010
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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...
Feb 23, 2010
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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,...
Feb 13, 2010
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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...
Feb 05, 2010
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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...
Feb 02, 2010
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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...
Jan 25, 2010
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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...
Jan 20, 2010
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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...
Jan 15, 2010
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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...
Jan 07, 2010
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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...
Dec 30, 2009
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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...
Dec 23, 2009
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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.
Dec 17, 2009
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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...
Dec 15, 2009
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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...
Dec 02, 2009
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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...
Nov 25, 2009
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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...
Nov 23, 2009
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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...
Nov 18, 2009
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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...
Nov 16, 2009
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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...
Nov 13, 2009
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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...
Nov 10, 2009
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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...
Nov 06, 2009
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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...
Nov 04, 2009
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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...
Oct 30, 2009
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var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};Braaaaaaaaains… Happy Halloween from all of us at ServInt! Photo via Icanhazcheezburger.
Oct 27, 2009
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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...
Oct 21, 2009
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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...
Oct 14, 2009
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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...
Oct 11, 2009
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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...
Oct 07, 2009
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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...
Oct 06, 2009
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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...
Oct 01, 2009
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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...
Sep 28, 2009
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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...
Sep 23, 2009
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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,...
Sep 21, 2009
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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...
Sep 21, 2009
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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,...
Sep 17, 2009
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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...
Sep 15, 2009
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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...
Sep 09, 2009
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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...
Sep 04, 2009
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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...
Sep 04, 2009
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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,...
Sep 04, 2009
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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...
Aug 28, 2009
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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...
Aug 27, 2009
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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...
Aug 25, 2009
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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...
Aug 25, 2009
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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...
Aug 21, 2009
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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...
Aug 17, 2009
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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...
Aug 13, 2009
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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...
Aug 10, 2009
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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...
Aug 07, 2009
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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...
Aug 06, 2009
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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...
Aug 05, 2009
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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....
Jul 31, 2009
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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...
Jul 27, 2009
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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...
Jul 22, 2009
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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...
Jul 20, 2009
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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...
Jul 15, 2009
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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...
Jul 10, 2009
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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...
Jul 09, 2009
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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...
Jul 09, 2009
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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...
Jul 08, 2009
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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...
Jul 07, 2009
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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...
Jul 06, 2009
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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...
Jul 02, 2009
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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...
Jun 19, 2009
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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...
Jun 17, 2009
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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...
Jun 05, 2009
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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...
May 29, 2009
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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...
May 11, 2009
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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...
Apr 24, 2009
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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...
Apr 23, 2009
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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...
Apr 22, 2009
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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...
Apr 21, 2009
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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...
Apr 20, 2009
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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...
Apr 15, 2009
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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...
Apr 01, 2009
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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...
Mar 24, 2009
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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...
Mar 18, 2009
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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.
Mar 14, 2009
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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
Mar 13, 2009
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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...
Mar 12, 2009
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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...
Mar 10, 2009
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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...
Mar 02, 2009
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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
Feb 26, 2009
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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...
Feb 25, 2009
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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...
Jan 29, 2009
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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...
Jan 26, 2009
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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...
Jan 12, 2009
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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...
Jan 12, 2009
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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...
Jan 12, 2009
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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...