SolidNode

Amazon Web Services has quietly passed an interesting benchmark: the company’s S3 storage service now hosts more than 100 billion objects. This factoid was noted this morning at Data Center World, when keynote speaker Brian Lillie of Equinix said that Amazon now is hosting 102 billion objects in S3 (Simple Storage Service).

Over the past year, the number of objects stored on S3 has grown from 54 billion to 100 billion, according to Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, who mentioned this startling growth curve in his recent presentation at the Cebit computer trade show in Germany.

It’s a fuzzy milestone, to be sure, as we don’t know how much infrastructure is required to store those 100 billion objects, or how much revenue Amazon is generating from them. But in an industry where we’re used to big numbers, 100 billion is an eye-popping total. By any measure, that’s a huge storage cloud, and likely a sign of things to come.

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Amazon S3 Now Hosts 100 Billion Objects

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There are a several things one should expect from a web hosting provider.  A decent amount of allowable web space, bandwidth limits that aren’t too restricting, and a consistent up-time ratio (preferably higher than 99.9%).  In what is still reverberating throughout the Internet, the web hosting provider DreamHost seems to have severely dropped the ball on the consistent up-time ratio.  What should have been a smooth data migration turned out to be a very poorly planned venture costing the web hosting provider some of its customers.

The Move

A move from Net2EZ to Alchemy Communications was announced as completed by DreamHost on November 24, 2009.  The company proclaimed its success, not knowing the ensuing issues that were about to plague them and their customers.  Starting out with a network failure, the problems quickly began to mount.  According to the technical team at DreamHost, the problems were being attributed to several factors.  The shared hosting hardware had been upgraded, the upgrade did not go as planned, and the support team frankly was at a loss as to how to solve it quickly.

Status, Technically Speaking

Starting out almost immediately and appearing to still be an ongoing slew of problems, the DreamHost status page is rife with network failures, dieing raid controllers, and continuous webmail errors.  For those with more than just a bit of technical knowledge, the offered status page may reveal more into what is going on with DreamHost and its latest move.  The average web hosting customer, however, may find the information a bit overly technical.  DreamHost would go a long way in offering information on a slightly less technical level and truly give its customers information they can use and understand.

Not too Happy

Tech-speak aside, it has been clear that DreamHost customers are less than pleased by the whole fiasco.  Twitter has been inundated with tweets from customers regarding their dissatisfaction with all the errors and resulting down-times.  Some have been content with complaining while others have decided to drop the web hosting provider and move onto a more reliable service.  The DreamHost Twitter account reported on November 30, 2009 that at least 95% of their services and servers were back online.  However, no further reporting has been made since that date (other than 2 personal responses and 1 holiday shopping URL).  As of December 4, 2009 some customers are still reporting web sites that are unavailable.

Final Thoughts

In retrospect, DreamHost could have and should have planned their data migration a bit more.  The support team should have been instructed on what might occur so they could be on the ball and ready to fix issues and errors as they arose.  Most importantly, it may have been in the company’s best interest to not crow about a successful data move until they were completely certain the network was up and running smoothly.

DreamHost may need to do a bit of good public relations to combat the fallout of this data fiasco.  It is uncertain how many customers they may have lost over the past week and how many more they stand to lose over the next couple of weeks.  The web hosting provider clearly needs to wake up and do a bit of damage control.

Popularity: 6% [?]

At the Data Center Jobs Board, we have a new job listing from SteelVault Data Centers, which is seeking a Hosting/Colocation Sales Executive with industry experience and a technical understanding of colo, web hosting, cloud computing and disaster recovery. Click  here for more information or to apply.

Are you hiring for your data center? You can list your company’s job openings on the Data Center Jobs Board, and also track new openings via our RSS feed.

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Data Center Jobs: SteelVault Data Centers

Popularity: 12% [?]

Open source content management systems are beginning to gather quite a reputation and customer base lately thanks to the recent announcement by the White House of its move from proprietary solutions to open source CMS heavyweight, Drupal.  Full service hosting provider NeoSpire has been a long time advocate of open source software and specializes in solutions incorporating Drupal.

Do It With Drupal Seminar

From December 9^th to 11^th, 2009 in New Orleans, the Do It With Drupal Seminar will take place and NeoSpire is not only one of its top sponsors but will be exhibiting as well.  The seminar promises to have some of Drupal’s top developers on tap to teach more about the program as well as information from community building experts.

Patrons of the event can expect to see successful Drupal sites and meet with like-minded professionals, developers, designers and more all intertwined within the Drupal community.  The event will allow interested participants the chance to see the actual workings behind the architect and building of a Drupal web site.  Topics such as building and growing successful web sites with Drupal will be covered.

The cost of this three-day event is $1195 until December 8^th.  Thereafter, walkup registration is $1295.

NeoSpire

NeoSpire managed hosting provides a number of hosting solutions designed to meet the demands of organizations needing a 100% guaranteed up-time.  NeoSpire has been in the web hosting business since 1999 and continues to provide extremely secure and reliable solutions for their hosting customers.  The hosting provider offers several managed hosting options, co-location services, application hosting and more.

One of the more interesting offers by this company is its Drupal CMS Hosting.  NeoSpire offers fully managed Drupal hosting that covers everything from simple web sites to load balanced and redundant set-ups.  The company even has a specially dedicated Drupal support team that are considered the best server admin and tech support people in their field.  Not many web hosting companies available on the Internet sport the same offering or specialized support team.  It is a testament to the security and reliability of both NeoSpire and Drupal.

Drupal

Drupal is an open source CMS program that was initially created in 2000 by an enterprising man, Dries Buytaert.  What initially began as a small news site allowing friends to leave notes to each other gradually grew into the full-blown content management system available today.

The Drupal CMS is extremely extendable with several hundreds of modules to add onto the main program and hundreds of themes to change the overall look.  As an open source project, many third party programmers are heavily involved with the project creating new and innovative modules almost every day.  Drupal users can expect to be able to find just about anything they require within the Drupal module download area.  Administration, e-commerce, file management, statistics, and spam prevention are just a small percentage of what can be found.

Conclusion

A world-class open source CMS program coupled with a world-class hosting solution provider is a dream combination.  NeoSpire and Drupal are, indeed, doing it.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

• Private clouds from Cisco and Savvis.  Savvis (SVVS) and Cisco (CSCO) announced an expanded relationship Monday that will focus on the development of private clouds for the enterprise. Formerly dubbed Project Spirit, the Savvis Symphony private cloud platform will integrate the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS). This new platform will power the industry’s first enterprise-class Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC) with multi-tiered security and quality of service capabilities.  Savvis learned the benefits of the Cisco UCS solution early as they worked with Cisco to develop a reference architecture that will enable enterprise customers to take advantage of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) benefits available in Savvis Symphony.
• Axxana Enterprise Data Recorder to be available through EMC Select. Data protection startup Axxana announced that its Phoenix System RP Enterprise Data Recorder will be available in January 2010 through EMC Select. The Phoenix System RP is a black box solution that was developed in cooperation with EMC’s RecoverPoint and delivers asynchronous data protection over any distance. ”Axxana’s Phoenix System will allow customers using RecoverPoint and CLARiiON networked storage to utilize replication over any distance, while maintaining the ability to recover data without data loss,” said Matt Mainstruck, manager of EMC SelectLast month Axxana secured $9 million in series B funding, led by Israel based Carmel Ventures.
• Enomaly launches cloud service provider edition. Cloud computing provider Enomaly announced the launch of 10 new global cloud computing service providers who have standardized and are powered by Enomaly’s Elastic Computing Platform (ECP), Service Provider Edition.  Called a “cloud in a box” solution for service providers, the ECP service provider edition is designed for carriers and hosting providers looking to build a line of business offering Infrastructure-on-Demand or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to customers.  The platform delivers a self-service dashboard and web-based API to manage virtual servers in whatever quantity needed.  Platform features include a multi-tenant, carrier class cloud platform with support for KVM, Xen and VMware hypervisors, detailed resource metering and accounting, tiered classes of service, a hard quota system and easy integration with back-office provisioning and billing systems.
• ColoHouse completes SAS70 audit. Miami data center and colocation provider announced completion of a SAS70 audit.  The audit focused on control environment, risk assessment, monitoring, control activities and information and communication systems. ”Obtaining our SAS 70 certification allows ColoHouse customers to rest easy knowing that we are following through on our commitment to provide the very best in Miami Data Center and Miami Colocation services, with a 3rd party validation to ensure our customers ultra secure access with a 100% uptime guarantee,” said Chief Operating Officer Alan P. Sabourin.

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Roundup: Savvis, Axxana, Enomaly, ColoHouse

Popularity: 6% [?]

Once a web site has been established and is ready to roll, an important piece of software that might make the road to success a bit easier is a good control panel.  Control panels allow web site owners the ability to administer their accounts via a web interface.  Of the many programs available, DirectAdmin is one control panel that is easy to use, stable and is competitively priced.

User Features

On the user end of things, DirectAdmin has a number of helpful features that make administering a web site a thing of ease.  Five different menus are presented – e-mail, ftp, dns, statistics, and sub-domains.  FrontPage extensions can be easily enabled or disabled by clicking a button.  Instead of using ftp, users can opt to use the built in file manager to upload files and create new directories.  DirectAdmin also has an advanced tools section where users can install SSL certificates, view server information and even enable site redirection and domain pointers.

Reseller Features

For resellers, DirectAdmin is an administrative gift.  New hosting accounts can be created instantly and current accounts can be modified or deleted as needed.  Predefined account packages can be created allowing even quicker account creation.  The built in ticket support system is designed to allow resellers to contact all resold account owners in case of system wide messages.  IPs can be allocated and name servers can be personalized.  All in all, DirectAdmin works well for resellers.

Administrator Features

Server administrators benefit greatly from DirectAdmin as well.  Resellers and admin accounts can be created quickly, predefined reseller packages can be set up, and IPs can be easily allocated all within the administrator’s portion of the DirectAdmin program.  Every aspect of server administration is controlled through the control panel making the life of an administrator just a bit less hectic.

Overall Features

DirectAdmin comes bundled with a ticket support system.  When logging into the system, administrators and support staff will be greeted with how many messages are waiting to be attended to.  The ticket support system can be configured to send e-mail notifications when a ticket has been created.  DirectAdmin is set to update live which means no more having to manually download and install new versions of software.  A quick click on the “licensing/updates” button performs the update without hassle.  The control panel program is also completely customizable allowing web hosting providers to make their “premier” control panel unique and part of their web site theme.

Cost

Pricing for DirectAdmin is split into several options.  For $29 each month, web hosting providers can opt for a monthly license.  To save a bit of money, providers can go with the yearly option offered at $200 per year.  The most economical over time is the “Lifetime License.”  For a one-time fee of $299.00, web hosts can outright own their own copy of the control panel software.  This last option also comes with 90 days of technical support.

Final Thoughts

Administrating a web site, reseller site or an entire server should not be a chore.  DirectAdmin is one control panel that takes the hard work out of being a web site owner and makes it fun again.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Even businesses can get into the holiday spirit.  One such merry web hosting provider is WebNet.  This web hosting company is getting itself and customers in a festive mood by offering some fantastic deals good through to the end of the year.

About WebNet

With beginnings in 2002, WebNet Hosting, LLC is a privately held web hosting and e-commerce provider located in Rockville, Maryland.  The web hosting provider has distinguished itself as a leader in the industry by providing rock-solid support and 24

Popularity: 6% [?]

Mission West Properties, a major player in Silicon Valley real estate, is planning two major data center projects in Oregon, citing the state as one of the country’s most attractive areas for data center development. Mission West (MSW) is a major public real estate investment trust (REIT) headed by billionaire investor Carl Berg, who said he believes the data sector is poised for major growth.

“As a result of cloud computing, we believe the demand for Web hosting will increase dramatically in the next two to three years,” Berg recently told The Registry.

One of the properties is in Ontario, Oregon, where CDH Consulting is seeking to buy 66 acres of land to build a major data center. CDH, which is headed by industry veteran Chris Hardin, is partnering with Mission West on the project. The Ontario City Council is expected to vote tonight on the proposed $1.3 million land sale, according to local media.

The second site has not been publicly identified. One possibility: Local officials in Prineville, Oregon have been in discussions with a site selection company representing a ”well known, well funded company” planning a major data center.

CDH has been scouting Oregon data center sites for several years. In early 2008 it leased vacant land within the Port of Morrow in Heppner, Ore. for evaluation as a data center site.

Mission West owns more than 100 properties totaling almost 8 million square feet, with major tenants including Apple and Microsoft. Berg told The Registry that the company’s plans call for two 200,000 square foot data centers. The projects were sparked by interest from a “former tenant who is an expert on web hosting.”

Hardin told the Argus Observer that the search for a tenant for the Ontario project has already begun, but could take nine months to a year. Ontario City Manager Henry Lawrence, who flew to California to tour one of Berg’s facilities, told the paper that the city’s economic development team have been working on this deal for about six months.

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Mission West Targets Oregon for Data Centers

Popularity: 6% [?]

Northern New Jersey has been an active data center market, driven by demand the financial sector. It looks the area will soon have yet another large data center, and a financial firm is rumored to be the tenant. Last Thursday the Passaic County Planning Board gave conditional approval for a plan Russo Development to build a 284,342 square foot data center in Clifton.

The project is slated to be built in a former Automatic Data Processing facility on Main Avenue in Clinton. Russo Development has not identified the potential occupant, but Clinton officials have told local media they expect the tenant to be Credit Suisse, which has met with township economic development officials.

Russo has built more than 1.4 million square feet of data center space in northern New Jersey, including two recent projects for global financial institutions and another for managed hosting provider Cervalis. These data center projects have all been “greenfield” new construction developments with the shell/core and utility infrastructure designed and built by Russo. The Cervalis site is Russo’s sixth data center project since 2001.

Clifton is already home to the Mountain Technology Center, which houses data centers for Telx and Automated Logic. Equinix, Switch and Data, Savvis, HCL America, New York Internet, Datapipe and NYSE Euronext are all building or expanding their data center operations in northern New Jersey.

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Russo Plans Large North Jersey Data Center

Popularity: 12% [?]

In the UK, one of the largest web hosting and domain name providers recently grabbed one of the biggest dedicated hosting providers.  Namesco Limited acquired Poundhost as of November 19, 2009 with assurances all around that no discernible disruptions or changes would be noticed by Poundhost customers.  The combination of these two companies is one that is consistent with Namesco’s tradition of acquiring leaders in web host providers and domain name registrars.

Namesco

Namesco began as two separate internet entities – Names.co Internet Services Limited and Webcall.com Limited – back in 1996 and 1997.  The two were combined in 2000 and became Namesco Limited.  Namesco is a subsidiary of the Italian services firm, Dada SPA.

The company has a long-standing tradition of “evolution through acquisition.” In 2004, Namesco acquired Simply.com Limited, another domain registrar in the UK, and added over 90,000 domain names under its wings.  A year later, the company acquired NDO Limited and was able to greatly improve its clients connectivity.  In 2008, Namesco snatched up Register365, Ireland’s largest web hosting provider at that time.

Through its strategic acquisition, Namesco has managed to claw its way to being the fourth largest domain name and web hosting provider in the UK.

Poundhost

Poundhost Internet Limited received its name in 2001 when the company started offering web hosting services the cost of £1 per megabyte.  The company desired to fit the need of providing high quality internet hosting while simultaneous being cost effective.

A part of the BlueSquare Data Group, this dedicated hosting provider prides itself on bypassing third party support and second tier network providers and has its own 24

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