While it’s different than our managed VPS or other hosting services, it does give us “street cred” on how to optimize a web site for high performance. We’ve always believed in “eating our own dog food”, so we can assist our customers with technology recommendations.

For existing customers, there is no need to worry about this new direction. We aren’t abandoning our web hosting services. We have over ten years of experience – many hours and money invested in our hosting services. We are still committed to offering, and expanding our web hosting services. Expect new features in the coming year, and some from using Investor Junkie as a test bed for new technologies.

While we already understood how to optimize web sites, we wanted a proof of concept to show customers how to use the various technologies and techniques.

The WordPress blog is lighting fast. This is thanks to the following technologies used:

• Linode Cloud VPS
• HostCube Managed Cloud Service
• StudioPress Genesis Framework
• LiteSpeed web server

We’ve also performed various optimization techniques we can also do for your web site.

One might be wondering how is this blog different than the many other personal finance blogs out there? It’s focus is on investing and entrepreneurship, rather than debt payment and minimizing expenses. The web site is about using investments, and human capital to expand your wealth and knowledge.

Most other blogs out there discuss the basics of personal finance – “spend less than you earn”, “don’t have too many debts”. Sure this is important, but it’s common sense. From our research, most other blogs fail to discuss basic and advanced investment topics. Investor Junkie will be this outlet.

As the financial crisis in 2008 has shown, there is still a lack of education and understanding in finance and economics. We hope Investor Junkie will not only entertain, but also educate on the various aspects of investing, and business ownership. In addition, showcase various technologies we can use on your own web site when hosting with us.

1. Order the hardware
2. Wait for the hardware to be delivered
3. Install the hardware within a data center

It was a tedious and manual process that could span over weeks, and was very costly. Cloud computing solved the problem of acquiring and provisioning new hardware. The additional benefit is if you need hardware for a very short period (ie. a big media event to promote a new service) you can spin up additional instances, and then spin them down when done. So you can potentially save money by not purchasing extra hardware that sits idle.

The more complex issue of managing the software installed on the hardware isn’t solved with cloud computing. If anything, with instances that can only span a few hours, it has made things a much more complex process. From our experience, once a customer ventures into the cloud, these common questions arise:

• How can we make sure our instances are used effectively?
• Are they configured correctly with the software needed to run our services?
• How do we update software on all instances?
• How can we make sure our instances are secure?
• How do we monitor our instances to make sure services are running correctly?
• How can we quickly create new instances with software and configuration already installed?
• How can we safely and securely backup our data?

Empowering Media has system administration expertise for those customers who wish to use cloud computing. From a provider like Amazon’s EC2 service, to Slicehost, we can support them all. We are cloud computing neutral, and can work with any of the major cloud providers.

So for customers who feel they have outgrown the services we offer, or have mandates to use a specific cloud provider; Empowering Media can still assist with your system administration needs. From small business shared hosting, to managed VPSes, to customers who have their own data center or wish to provision hardware within the cloud. We can do it all, and can grow with you, as your IT needs change.

We’ve always believed Empowering Media is offering system administration expertise. Provisioning new hardware is easy; it’s the server management that’s very difficult. It’s the constant software updates, security, monitoring, backups, customer support, and scaling expertise is where we add value. When we first started, cloud computing was just a “pie in the sky” dream (pun intended). We had to no choice but to purchase, and provision our own hardware.

This does not mean we are abandoning our own cloud. On the contrary, we will continue to have our own cloud services. There are some advantages to owning your own equipment within our own data center cabinets. By controlling all aspects of the hardware and software it allows us to offer our services at a much cheaper price.

We have over 10 years of experience in automating, and managing our complex infrastructure. We can successfully rollout any of your technology requirements. We have developed many tools that automate deployment, and management of our network. This is what makes our own cloud network so reliable, but can also apply to third party cloud providers.

Contact us today to discuss your cloud computing needs. Moving services to the cloud can be a complex task, but we can make it easy and a worry free process.

http://hostcube.com/about/refer-a-friend/

This offer is available to any current Empowering Media customer, and you do not need to be a HostCube customer. Our HostCube service is perfect for friends who need dedicated hosting, without worrying about the security, software updates, monitoring and backups. It’s like shared hosting, but get dedicated resources.

Most of our new customers come from existing customers. Customers like our service so much they refer our service to their friends. We figured this would be a great opportunity to make it easier to refer your friends, but also get something in return. There’s no limit on how many friends you can refer. For more information please visit our web page:

Hurry because this promotion ends May 31st 2011.

Use an iPod Touch on Verizon's network.

I love Apple’s iPhone, but hate AT&T’s network.  In my opinion, Verizon missed the boat when Apple initially contacted Verizon about the iPhone.  There have been numerous rumors that, once AT&T’s contract expires in 2010, Verizon will get the iPhone.  Based upon previous rumors, don’t hold your breath.  In addition, Verizon now has the Google Droid smart phone, and competition is heating up.  Personally, I don’t expect the iPhone on Verizon’s network anytime soon.  Apple’s rumored iTablet is another story though.

So what is a person to do if they want Apple’s iPhone on Verizon’s network in the U.S.?  The answer is to use Apple’s iPod Touch, with Verizon’s MiFi device, and install Skype.

Apple’s iPod Touch

It’s best to think of the iPod Touch as iPhone’s little brother.  The Apple iPod Touch includes most of the features of an iPhone.  In fact, it has a slightly more powerful CPU because it doesn’t need to conserve battery life for cellular communication.  The iPod Touch is missing:

• A camera (both photo and video)
• Features from the map application (iPhone has more)
• A built-in microphone
• AT&T’s Edge Network (meaning you only have WiFi available)
• Telephone capability
• SMS capability
• iPhone specific apps that use the available hardware (i.e. the camera for barcode scanning)

Most people I know who use the iPhone use it primarily for a mobile Internet device; viewing web pages, reading E-mails and using any installed apps that require Internet connectivity.  Most don’t use the phone, and in fact many people complain about the clarity of phone calls.

Verizon’s MiFi 2200

So the iPod Touch doesn’t have access to a cellular network.  This is where Verizon’s MiFi 2200 comes in.  The MiFi is a small black box with only an on/off button.  A more detailed review can be found on Gizmodo. It’s a simple device to setup, and perfect for a non-techy.  It converts Verizon’s 3G network into a WiFi G signal with a 50 foot radius.  This means devices with WiFi only access, like the iPod Touch, can access the Internet as if in your home or office.  I constantly carry Verizon’s MiFi with me, and it has worked flawlessly.  It’s great not only to attach an iPod Touch, but works with any WiFi enabled device.  I use it with my Apple portable as if it’s connected to our office network.  Previously you had to either purchase a cellular device that used a PC Card slot, ExpressCard slot, or USB port.  Tethering is available with some smart phones, but I consider it too limited and it also sucks the battery life of your phone.

The MiFi allows for up to 5 devices to connect at once.  Uploads and downloads are approximately DSL speed, and depends upon your area.   From my tests, I was able to get Internet streaming radio while on a LIRR train without interruption.  The only down side is the 5GB/month bandwidth allotment, and it can be pricey at $70+/month.  For an Internet junkie like me that uses it for business, it’s a no brainier and worth the cost of the dedicated device.

Skype

For those not familiar with it, Skype allows for free internet telephone calls.  You can communicate (via by voice and optional video) for free when doing Skype to Skype calls.  For an additional fee, you can get outbound and inbound communications though POTS (traditional phone lines).  It’s been available on Apple’s OS X and Microsoft’s Windows for a while.  We use Skype in the office. and it works great as a means to quickly communicate with remote employees.

Skype recently became available on the iPod Touch/iPhone.  So you can now make phone calls via your iPod Touch!  Call quality is acceptable via the iPod Touch.  Unlike the iPhone, the iPod Touch does not have a built-in microphone.  To speak you need to either tether a Bluetooth device, or purchase headphones with a microphone.  Bluetooth functionality became available after version 3.0 of Apple’s software.

Conclusion

To get an iPhone in the U.S., you have an alternative to AT&T’s network. Purchase both an iPod Touch and a Verizon MiFi 2200 and you’ll have most of the features of an iPhone on Verizon’s network.

"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb."

There’s too many passwords to manage and most people resort to is using the Spaceballs luggage combination.  You need one for your web site control panel, one for your free Email provider, one for your bank, another for your E-mail address, another for your bank ATM PIN, etc..  While making the password the same makes your life easier, it also makes it easier for the hacker.  Once they gain access to one account, they can then pick off other accounts you may have.  In addition, many individuals use simple passwords; a common dictionary word, their dogs name, their spouse’s name, or their first born child’s name.  There has to be a better way and there is.  Here are some tips in keeping your accounts secure.

Password Strength

By monitoring our hosting customers, we’ve seen many FTP, SSH and E-mail accounts broken into via brute force alone.  While we do have measures to block these types of attacks and monitor for any unusual activity, we recommend using strong passwords.  Strong passwords are completely random (at least 8 preferably 12 characters in length and includes numbers and different case) and then use a different password for each account.

Password Managers

OK you’ve followed our recommendation and use a different password per site.  How do you manage them all? Put Post-It notes on your computer monitor?  That’s a surefire method to announce your passwords to the world.  Your best method is using a password manager.  Password managers are an excellent way to store, create and manage your online and offline accounts.  Even better, many offer synchronization to a smart phone so you can take your passwords anywhere with you.  Depending upon your operating system and needs, you have many options.  Here are a few of the more popular applications and we’ve used all of them at one point in time:

• 1Password (OS X, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Palm support)
• MiniSafe (Windows with Blackberry support)
• SplashID (Windows and OS X, with support to many smart phones)

Out of the above mentioned, personally I like 1Password the best.  It works great on OS X and now has a web browser app that works on MS Windows and even Linux!  So you are able to get your passwords from any platform.

Secure Communication

By default web surfing, E-mail, and FTP are sending your password unencrypted.  This also means any content (E-mails, HTML, personal data, etc.) is also insecure.  If communication from desktop to server is not encrypted, it’s possible someone along the way can intercept it.  To encrypt this communication you are best in enabling SSL.  With the multitude of applications available, I cannot go into details but will summarize what’s needed:

• E-mail client – Enable SSL for IMAP or POP3 and SMTP  communication
• FTP – Use FTP/SSL or SFTP  instead
• Web browser – Make sure the web site certificate is valid and communication is secure via SSL (otherwise known as https:// in your browser URL)

If unsure and using Empowering Media for these services, check with us.  We’ll be more than happy to discuss how to encrypt your communications.

Two Factor Authentication

You are now using random passwords, and you want more security, so what’s the next step?  Two factor authentication is the answer.  It’s military grade security.   In simple terms, it means you need two forms of identification before granting access.   It’s something you know (your password) with something on your person (typically a fingerprint, retina scan, or key fob).  How can this be done via web sites? The answer is OpenID. It’s a relatively new method for web site authentication, and allows for a unified method to login to multiple web sites.   Unfortunately Empowering Media does not yet support OpenID.

We recommend creating an OpenID account with Verisign’s FREE Personal Identity Portal (PIP).  It has a great OpenID implementation and it supports two factor authentication.  Any sites that do offer OpenID you can use the same OpenID for login.  Verisign offers a key fob option with either software you install on your smartphone or by purchasing a RSA based key fob.

For SSH logins you can create poor man’s two factor authentication. First create an SSH based key to login to your account, details can be found here.  Once created move your private key on a USB flash drive.  Your private SSH key is only available when the drive is plugged into your computer.

For an additional layer of security, we can disable SSH login via password and allow for SSH key only.  SSH Keys are a much more secure method than using passwords.  This option is available with our dedicated VPS and server customers.

Securing Your Computer

If you get infected by a virus you might be in trouble.  Many viruses today capture keystrokes from your computer.  Unfortunately most individuals don’t even know they have been infected.  If you’ve been infected, assume any password typed in on the computer has been compromised.  The goal should be to prevent this from occurring to begin with.  First and foremost  keep your anti-virus, anti-spyware and operating system software updated.  Just by keeping your software updated thwarts most attacks.  Both Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s OS X have a automated updates.  I recommend setting this option to check daily for updates.

Anti-virus software is a must.  For Windows systems we recommend: ESET’s NOD32 Antivirus, and on the Apple Macintosh platform we recommend Symantec’s Notron Anti-Virus.  While on the Macintosh it is not attacked as much as Windows machines, expect this to increase with Apple’s increase in market share.

Feedback Loop

For the truly paranoid how can you make sure no other unauthorized people use your account?  You do this by creating a feedback loop.

Let’s discuss a personal example.  At Empowering Media, we have a corporate credit card that someone stole (more than likely via some insecure web site I ordered merchandise from).  The person then proceeded to call the credit card company, pretend to be me, to change my business address to their location and then modify the web site password.  How did we find out of this change? Via an E-mail from the credit card’s web site.  Most financial web sites have methods to contact you if any unusual activity or changes occur.  For at least financial web sites, I recommend you setup all available notifications.

In Summary Use

• Random generated passwords at least 8 characters in length (over 12 characters preferred). Common passwords should not be used
• A different password for each account
• Encryption (SSL) when communicating to web sites asking for your password or other sensitive information
• A password manager that offers syncing a smart phone
• If available, two factor authentication
• Use OpenID
• Feedback loops to notify you of unauthorized usage

By doing all suggested best practices, for the most part, will ensure your online and offline accounts are kept secure.

More comments at Slashdot.

http://news.oreilly.com/2008/08/luke-kanies-wants-to-modernize.html

Errors aside in the transcript, it’s great article.  Administration is no longer a task, but a process.  If you are still doing administration via SSH, it’s time to look at Puppet.

package { "openssh-server":
      ensure  => latest,
      notify  => Service["sshd"],
}
file { "sshd_config":
       name     => "/etc/ssh/sshd_config",
       checksum => md5,
       ensure   => present,
       owner    => 'root',
       group    => 'root',
       mode     => '0600',
       require  => Package["openssh-server"],
       notify   => Service["sshd"],
}
service { "sshd":
       name       => "sshd",
       ensure     => running,
       enable     => true,
       hasrestart => true,
       hasstatus  => true,
       require => Package["openssh-server"],
}

This 22 line recipe does all of the following:

1. Installs the openssh-server RPM via ‘yum’.
2. Automatically upgrades the openssh-server RPM, if a newer version is available.
3. Makes sure the sshd_config configuration file exists and has the proper permissions.
4. Ensure the sshd server starts at boot time.
5. Ensure the sshd server is currently running.
6. If either the RPM is upgraded OR the sshd_config file changes restart the sshd service.
7. If during any time puppet runs again and the server doesn’t match the recipe it will change it back to this state.
8. Perform this task on every server you specify.

While the above recipe hasn’t been tested on other Unix platforms, only minor changes would be required.  Previously to do this you needed to create custom shell scripts, use Cfengine, purchase an expensive software automation tool, or manually perform this on each server installation.  Most options are hacks and not as graceful as Puppet. Package managers, while moved Unix administration into the 21st century (instead of the medieval times of compiling software), still have some warts.  Specifically package managers lack:

1. a good updating procedure.  Installations are well covered.
2. passing your own configuration files specific to your needs/wants.
3. performing the tasks in a specific order, or making sure specific actions occur before an application is installed
4. a service is running and will run at boot time

Things like ‘yum’ on CentOS/RHEL addressed #1 and #3 somewhat, but didn’t address configuration files, and the state of the service.  Before Puppet, it required creating custom RPMs.  With custom RPMs, the issue then became when updates occurred from the distro provider.

Puppet makes system administration a programming task, rather then manual labor process. It’s still very common to see administrators use a SSH prompt to manage each server. Manually performing administration is a time consuming and error prone process.  Puppet allows us a transfer of our best practices, apply our administration experience to the server’s configuration, and allows us to make network-wide installations with ease.

I agree with the notion; “Operations: The New Secret Sauce” (article #1 , article #2).  Puppet makes deployment of new VPS instances quick and exact.   System administrators are skilled individuals, great with keeping operations running smoothly, but usually not good with automation.  Puppet allows to transfer an administrator’s knowledge into a repeatable process.  Automating system administration is the next advancement with Web 2.0, Cloud Computing, SaaS, or whatever the latest trend may be called.  When using our HostCube service, Puppet puts the power of a large operations center like Google in the hands of much smaller companies, Cloud computing, while may address the quick provisioning of hardware, it doesn’t address operations. The ability to automate the install, configure, patch, monitor and backup are important aspects and HostCube does for you automatically and seamlessly.  The bigger and much more complex problem is system administration, not hardware provisioning.

Puppet allows us to Malkovich a setup, over and over and over again.

Existing 10for10 or custom plans may want to migrate to the new HostASite.com plans. Please contact billing to discuss any changes. If unsure, your control panel will display your hosting plan. If your plan is one of the above entries, and not labeled “custom”, it has automatically been upgraded and no action is necessary.

If you’ve outgrown our HostASite.com plans, we suggest visiting our managed VPS service HostCube. Managed VPSes give you dedicated CPU, dedicated memory, dedicated disk space, additional security, customization, and the support you’ve grown to know and love.  It’s like getting a dedicated server but at the fraction of the cost. HostCube VPSes are perfect for the reseller, web developer, or designer who needs to scale quickly and easily and not perform time consuming system administration.

The primary reasons for using a VPS:

• Dedicated resources (Quality of Service).
• More control of installed software.
• More secure.
• Dedicated IP address.

With shared hosting the hosting provider has to make sure each customer’s hosting configuration performs well. The administrator might be able to perform proactive measures, but in many cases this isn’t possible. This is because each shared hosting account uses the same memory, CPU and disk space. This is similar to a noisy neighbor in a massive apartment building. All it takes is one bad tenant to affect the others. Each customer must share the same resources on a shared hosting server.

Dedicated Resources (Quality of Service)

With a VPS you are allocated a fixed amount of resources (just like a dedicated server) and these resources are dedicated to you. Each customer is separated at the operating system level and another customer cannot affect your VPS. This increases quality of service since you have a specific amount of memory, CPU and disk given to your account. This is also the main reason for the differences in price between VPS and shared hosting.

A common issue on many oversold shared hosting providers is that you are suspended once you use too much CPU, memory or disk space. On a VPS you will never get suspended for this reason. Also, shared hosting’s dirty little secret is that many dynamically generated web pages (i.e. blog, forum, CMS, E-commerce) are primarily CPU bound. On a massively oversold shared server there is only so much CPU to go around.  These providers put 500-600 accounts on each server and for this reason the performance of ALL clients on that server is affected.

Other Advantages of Choosing a VPS Solution Include:

More Control of Installed Software

With a VPS we can customize the software to the customer’s exact specifications. Since software such as apache, PHP, MySQL, etc are dedicated to just your account. Conversely, shared hosting is configured to please the majority and exceptions are not possible. In addition, if you need a service (otherwise known as a daemon) running or custom programming libraries, this is all possible with a VPS.

More Secure

Since each VPS is separated at the operating system level, each customer is running in its own memory, CPU and disk space. This prevents your account from getting compromised when another customer forgets to update to their blog software to fix security risks that have been discovered – if hackers get into their shared hosting account they can quickly move horizontally into your account if you’re on the same shared server.

Dedicated IP address

This is important for any service that uses the source IP address for reputation purposes. This is extremely important with outbound E-mail (SMTP) and significantly decreases the chance of blockage because another customer sent out spam. To put this in perspective, we’ve seen cases where one misguided salesperson sending out less than 200 emails in an email blast has caused IP-based blocking of an entire IP (including all the responsible senders on that IP).

The HostCube Advantage

There’s one advantage that can sometimes be at credited to shared hosting: the provider manages all the system administration. Fortunately, this service is also provided when using a service like HostCube Managed VPS. The components of system administration include:

• Backups
• Service monitoring
• Security monitoring
• Software updates
• Software configuration

There’s no need to worry if your VPS is secure, and is your site running as our managed VPSes give you the best of both worlds: the ability to work as if in a shared hosting environment with the performance of a dedicated server.

Using 777 permissions on a folder means ANYONE on that server can write to it. Hackers LOVE this type of setup. In addition, with mod_php you must have at least 644 perms on PHP files, which ALSO means your files can be read by anyone. This means your MySQL password, key to your merchant account, etc., can be read by any customer on that shared server! If you ask me, not a secure solution.

We use suPHP instead of the default apache/mod_php for shared hosting.

SuPHP
Pros:

• PHP runs as your user/group
• PHP files can have perms of 640 (hiding things like passwords from other accounts)
• Files/folders written by PHP are written as user/group (no apache or other global user)
• Custom php.ini file per site (can add/remove security options)
• Can run php4 and php5 at the same time (on even the same site!)

Cons:

• Slower
• many PHP .htaccess options do not work (since you can have your own php.ini file this make this point moot)

apache/mod_php
Pros:

• Faster (about 25-30%)

Cons

• PHP safe mode isn’t safe
• files written by PHP are saved as the apache process (usually apache/apache user/group)

For our small business web hosting customers it’s a no brainer to use suPHP instead of mod_php, even if we take a performance hit. PHP is the #1 method hackers gain access to customer accounts. So once an account is hacked on a shared server, they can do much more damage with a mod_php setup. SuPHP accounts are much more sandboxed. We’ve had many hacked accounts via suPHP, and none of them have affected our other customers. In the future are going to replace suPHP and use LiteSpeed’s web server instead. It offers the same performance as mod_php and yet the same security as suPHP.

Our Managed VPS web hosting we give the customer the option to select which PHP setup they want.

• EC2 pay as your go service, while cheap for low CPU/bandwidth usage, can get very costly compared to our fixed plans. With HostCube there are no surprises at the end of the month. Most of today’s Internet applications are CPU bound and EC2 can get very costly in this regard.
• No hardware based load balancer, important for scaling or automatic fail over.
• No persistent storage unless you use their S3 service. Shutdown or the node dies; your data and configuration settings are gone. Using S3 service your disk I/O traffic then becomes network bound and of course is an additional fee.
• When compared to our managed VPSes, you must perform all of the system administration yourself. This IMHO is the biggest added value when comparing services. Our service already includes backups, monitoring, administration, patch management, security, and a control panel that makes many administration tasks a simple click. With EC2 you must be much more involved with the system administration.
• Technical support with EC2 is an additional option. What’s not clear is how much support you really get. Can they assist and give recommendations on how to scale your site?
• Odd instance sizes (1.7 GB of memory, 350GB of storage?) what is that? Computing is based upon the multiples of 2.
• 32-bit by default. We, by default, use 64-bit which is 10-15% faster than the 32 bit version.  It appears you have to use the their Extra Large instance to get 64-bit.  This really becomes noticeable when you use more than 2GB of ram.  Not sure with Amazon but all of our nodes are using 64 bit based Xen.  The hypervisor is really where the performance matters.

In brief, EC2 is really geared towards batch based processing and processing services in low volume. If you need public service access (i.e. web service) and hassle-free administration HostCube is a perfect fit and a much better value.

While the HostCube service has some shortcomings, we are adding services like shared storage, quick (under 15 min.) provisioning and an API in the near future.

On the personal front I’ve taken the initiative to monitor our power consumption, heating and cooling use. I wanted to start monitoring our electrical use house wide, something we’ve done for years with our data centers. Who doesn’t these days with many wanting to be environmental friendly and with rising fuel costs? While the Kill A Watt is a great meter, it can only monitor a device that’s plugged into its electrical outlet. At Empowering Media we use the Kill A Watt meter to monitor a server’s power consumption before it goes into production.

What I always wanted was a method to monitor power consumption for our entire house. I found out such a product exists and is called the PowerCost Monitor. I found out about it on an “old” “Ask this Old House” episode. Simply attach the remote sensor on to your electric company’s meter and the display updates every 15-30 seconds. The setup in my case, with an analog meter, took only 15 minutes. Best of all, is you can plug in your KwH rate(s) from your power company and will tell you how much power it’s costing you up to the min. This means no surprises at the end of the month. This product is also great to determine where the big suckers of electrical use come from. If your wife complains (sorry Jeanne) about how much it costs by leaving a light on in a room, now you will know.

IMHO they completely missed the point and some of the blog commentators caught this. Regardless if their service is open, what they failed to mention, you are the system administrator. With that you have the responsibility of installing software, proactive monitoring, patch management, security, hardening and backups. This is fine if you are a full time system administrator; bad if you are a developer.

Cloud computing is about abstracting the technical details of your SaaS (Software as a Service) or PaaS (Platform as a Service). My favorite statement, “It just works!” applies here. What they are calling “open” is really a myth. Regardless if you have root access or not you still are locked into a specific hosting provider, OS, and the software applications you choose. Anyone that has switched dedicated server providers can attest this isn’t a small task. In addition, with the large amounts of SSH, FTP, IMAP and POP3 attacks we see its obvious proper system administration on a large scale isn’t already happening. What makes them think giving root access will make these other issues better?

Developers, for the most part, care about their development environment. In some cases yes, OS flavor does matter, but in most cases it does not. Developers typically want an environment that works and don’t have to worry about how to install and configure software packages. What’s important then? The development language and the tools that aid in the development. Giving root access to each developer (each on their own mind you) install to and configure a software package wastes time. Wading through docs, wikis, forums, and other online info trying to get a package configured, can be time consuming and frustrating experience. In some cases this requires a lot of technical skill. There has to be a better way. The better way is to offer pre-built configurations of services, programming languages and applications. This is what we offer with our HostCube service. Why reinvent the wheel each time you need a LAMP stack installed? Tools like Puppet automate this process and make it consistent.

Let me sidetrack for a minute and discuss the differences between system administrators and programmers. I’ve worked on both sides of the fence and from my experience, most developers make poor system administrators, as do many system administrators (sysadmins) make poor programmers. The mindsets are completely different. Developers care about how quickly they can develop their code and bring it into production. Sysadmins care about the stability, reliability and security of the service they are responsible for. As you can see, these two mindsets are always at odds with each other.

To solve this conflict, I believe in the traditional three tier development methodology. They are:

• Development – code that’s in flux and to “try out” new things
• Staging – some state of code that is stable and in testing before production
• Production – live code that’s being used by users, customers, vendors, etc.

This tiered environment allows for the best of both worlds and is recommended when a customer wants root access to a production server. Unfortunately I have seen many developers perform all of these tiers on their production system! In all of but the smallest of projects, this can lead disaster on many levels.

Creating a VPS for development is where I personally believe developers should/could have root. Let them play in their sandbox, break things and test out new code. Staging (which should mirror production configuration) and production should be managed by system administrators. In my opinion, developers, at least with production, should not have root access. At HostCube the value added is we perform the software installs, proactively monitor, patch management, security, hardening and backups. That’s what we’re experts in and have invested many years developing tools to automate this process. We also do realize unmanaged VPSes serve a valuable niche.

• We can quickly upgrade a VPS (memory, CPU and disk space) the next level plan. Downtime is usually only a few minutes.
• Hardware is virtualized. Upgrading to more powerful hardware is transparent to the VPS.
• Redundant hardware. Power supply, CPU, memory, and hard drives all have spares. Should a component fail in most cases it will not affect a VPS.
• Hardware RAID 10. Many more hard drive spindles are available to store data, which improves disk IO performance.
• Pay as you go/grow. You only pay for the resources you need. You can upgrade/downgrade at any time.
• Less power consumption. For the customers who are concerned about the environment and being “green”. VPSes use less power when compared to dedicated servers.
• Higher server density per rack unit. The amount of VPSes you can fit in 2 rack units (otherwise known as 2U) would normally take 16 – 20Us. Since we pay per rack unit, this allows us to offer VPSes plans at a cheaper rate.

The limitations of a dedicated server are:

• Adding additional hardware/resources can lead to long periods of downtime
• Operating system configuration is tied directly to hardware. This makes it harder to swap different hardware, especially with the Microsoft Windows operating system.
• Must configure hardware to plan for future growth or peak usage periods. This means more money and resources wasted
• In many cases other vendors use software based RAID. Your CPU must do the RAID processing, which leads to more overhead.
• Most dedicated servers do not have redundant hardware.

Our VPS Plans are designed be better than dedicated servers in every way but at a fraction of the cost. Keep in mind, not all providers use quality high-end hardware like we do. Unfortunately a VPS can be placed on any type of hardware and in some cases other providers use the same low end servers as VPS nodes. All of our VPS node hardware is designed for five 9′s uptime (99.999%) and achieve this with ease.

VPS technology has improved dramatically over the past few years. We believe they are going to replace most situations where a dedicated servers were once needed. This isn’t to say VPSes should replace all servers. There are complex hosting situations when you should stay with a dedicated server:

• High disk IO (i.e. SQL server)
• CPU bound processes (i.e. application layer server)

While VPSes can be used in low volume situations, the virtualization overhead doesn’t make these situations the most efficient use of the hardware. We’ve designed our VPS plans specifically to make it apparent when a dedicated server is needed. Once you outgrow any of our VPS plans, in most cases it’s time to move your site to either a dedicated server or multiple VPS configuration.

http://blog.fastmail.fm/2007/12/05/sending-email-servers-best-practice/

Our anti-spam service use these guidelines as part of our first level of spam protection. If your setup does not follow these guidelines, expect issues sending Email to our anti-spam service. From our experience the only mail servers that don’t follow these guidelines are Microsoft Exchange servers. No Unix MTA (sendmail, exim, postfix, qmail, etc), no ISPs (yahoo, AOL, hotmail, etc), or any other groupware product has had this issue. It appears MS administrators and Microsoft live in their own Internet bubble and don’t follow standard Internet protocols or RFCs. Either they don’t setup forward/reverse DNS, or an invalid SMTP HELO (ie server.local) These basic guidelines have been around for at least 7 years.

If a legit Email is getting rejected from our service, more than likely it’s because of this reason.