R|com Creative Blog

We are continuing to evolve our hosting and support services. For those of you that have been keeping tabs on our progress, we’re now moving into a new phase. Our monitoring solution is working really nicely and over the coming week or two, we’ll switch it on for all of our servers, applications, and related clients. I must say that being able to check on nearly any capability of any server from my iPhone is really fantastic.

Now, we’re in the process of replacing literally all of the hard drives in our servers that are more than 18 months old. Even though our monitoring capabilities will advise us of drives that may fail in the future, we’ve opted to move to a new, standardized hard drive system. By installing the same make of drive in every server, we can more easily manage performance and reliability. Drive technology has evolved quite a bit, and for many of our drives, replacing them will add benefits such as increased speed, larger cache capabilities, and longer drive warranties.

Once all of the drives have been replaced, we’re going to add several new services which will be available to our clients beginning with our next renewal period. If you’re interested in a preview, send us a note and we’ll arrange a discussion or meeting to review the various options available.

If you listen to the “experts” in technology media, we’re all headed to the cloud. Don’t believe it. Software as a service, or SaaS (also called the cloud) is growing. We use it all the time. But it isn’t the only emerging factor for applications use in the 21st century.

Cloud-based computing offers tremendous upside opportunities for developers. By offering a subscription rather than a disc or download local solution, a relationship with the client is created. Renewal marketing is reduced. Packaging and shipping are eliminated. Service options are increased.

But all of this predicts the user will always have access to the Internet. And, that such access will be of a high quality. Before that happens, the quality of Internet connectivity must not only improve, but stabilize. Mobile companies in particular must put on big-boy pants and recognize their clients for what they are: users of technology, not dependents without choice or options.

There is a group of people who believe we’ll all be living in the clouds fairly soon. A recent survey by Elon University of more than 900 Internet and technology experts found that 71% predicted the majority of people will use web-based and mobile apps by 2020. Working in conjunction with Pew Research Center, the experts predicted that entities like Google will own the airwaves not only as a conduit, but as a destination for personal and business users.

Make no mistake, we’re very strong supporters of Software as a Service. At the same time, the ability to utilize applications on a local level remains equally important. It isn’t a game of lessor or greater – it’s an apple to an orange.

One of the areas where we spend the most effort is website security. It is an expense that goes beyond staffing and equipment. It is never ending. It is to some extent, not winnable. It is likely in fact, that if you have a website, you will suffer through an outage. It will crash.

Overall, our record for keeping websites up and running is excellent. We average 99.958% up-time during the past eight years. That’s high. But it isn’t perfect, so why does this happen?

Website security is so challenging because there are a tremendous number of variables that can affect a site’s performance. The Internet itself, access to the Internet, the health of the hardware in use, the switch, the routers, the cables, the power supply (direct and indirect), the performance of the applications, the impact of users visiting the site, hackers trying to kill the site, etc. We work diligently to ensure we keep all of the above in balance, and it is that balance that provides the greatest degree of comfort and security.

Most clients want their websites to work, and they don’t care how that happens. If something does happen to their site, it is never their fault. We try to encourage that level of responsibility, but internally, we are always studying ways to improve. We’re in the midst of an upgrade, in fact. A new switch system, upgraded cables (we replace them over time, not when they fail), updated OS installations, and continued testing of the network are just a few of the activities under way at the moment. And all of it designed to ensure that the most important thing happen to your website when hosted with us. Nothing.

We’re continuing to make changes to our suite of web tools, including our content management system. The key for us is to keep our software both evolving and in line with current server solutions. To that end, we’ve added some additional security features, and have upgraded the system software capabilities (database, Apache, etc.) to ensure ease of installation or upgrading.

One of the things that always concerns me is the constant nature of web evolution. It always seems to be a matter of tossing what you had in favor of what’s new, and the relative costs that go along with that. We would prefer that our customers evolve as their needs to – but also based on their usage of the tools they’ve engaged us to provide. The net result is that upgrading with our team is painless, fast, and often involved additional capabilities as well.

On multiple occasions each year, we go through all of our servers, review the software being used, and work to ensure there is a solid solution in place to meet the needs of our clients. While we charge our clients for annual maintenance support for their installed applications, there is no requirement for us to maintain the latest versions (or most stable versions) of software for each box. But, as a matter of course, we keep that issue on the table and review our systems on a quarterly basis. It keeps us busy, but it also provides our clients with some confidence that we’re involved in their success.

The new LAFD Museum website uses the Rcom CMS solution.

The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial has launched a new website, created using the R|com Web Manager Pro solution that we provide. This was a big step forward for the LAFDHS, which previously had relied on a combined Moveable Type and static-page solution.

We developed the site so that minimal engineering effort would be required when working with news and updates for the museum. Many of the volunteers are not computer-savvy, so giving them a solution that permits easy access and word-processor simple content creation was key. In addition, the organization hosts a number of events, has photo galleries, and is eager to promote history related to the fire service. The Rcom CMS solution gives them the ability to quickly and easily implement any event details or other content they might like to publish.

Every time an organization takes advantage of a solution like this, it makes me smile, as the ability to clearly take charge of Internet-based communication is so important in today’s hectic social environment. And, since the introduction of the system last month, the museum’s website has had more traffic than it had in the previous ten months. A good step forward.

Our team provided design, engineering, installation and now supports the site with hosting and content publishing. We enjoy supporting the organization and hope you get a chance to check them out: www.lafdmuseum.org

We host a variety of web applications for our clients, ranging from simple websites to multiple database-driven content management solutions across load-balanced sets of servers. As a component of managing and supporting our clients, we often advise them regarding upgrading server software – and on occasion, the advice is, “don’t do it.”

There are several different types of upgrades to server software: bug fixes, incremental upgrades (including features of compatibility), and new versions of software. Each of these has a potential impact on a website or more often, on a web application.

Bug fixes are typically the easiest to address. They resolve problems (or are supposed to). Typically, when such a release is made available, we’ll wait a week or ten days, read the various forums related to the operating system in question and evaluate if the bug fix update makes things better or worse. If better, we’ll implement the upgrade. We never want to be the first kid on the block making the change.

Incremental upgrades are iffy. On occasion, these upgrades can change the performance characteristics of software installed on a box. However, typically by reading through forums or developer blogs, you can establish if there are issues to be concerned with. If, however, we cannot get any relevant information, we’ll hold off for a short while, unless the version of software we’re working with has significant problems (and we haven’t experienced that since 2001). The biggest change we typically see is a user experience (layout) changes.

Many of our servers run operating system software that is one version back. As an example, Mac OS X Server 10.5 is the current version of the OS offered by Apple. Yet, most of our boxes run the latest updated versions of 10.4.x. The reason is that we can better manage the stability of the box for our client. We do have at least one box running the latest 10.5, but on that box is test software, not live apps for clients. If, however, a client requests something specific, we work to accomodate that client’s needs. Usually, however, we strive to keep all boxes running similar versions, updates, etc. It makes ensuring up-time a bit easier and with servers, every time you say “easier” – it’s a good idea to tap wood.