Network Redux Blog

We will be performing maintenance on the Forage hardware node.
There will be approximately 30 minutes of downtime as the maintenance is preformed, the device reboots and your container comes back online.

Scheduled maintenance window.

Window: Wednesday September 1st 7:30-8:30pm PDT
Projected downtime: 30 minutes
Activity: Kernel upgrade, BIOS upgrade, Firmware on RAID controller and drives upgrade.

UPDATE - Due to a lengthy RAID rebuild we are extending the window to 9pm PDT

We will be performing maintenance on the Bladensburg hardware node.
There will be approximately 30 minutes of downtime as the device reboots and your container comes back online.
Scheduled maintenance window.

Window: Wednesday September 1st 7-8pm PDT
Projected downtime: 30 minutes
Activity: Kernel upgrade, BIOS upgrade, RAID controller and hardrive firmware upgrades.

UPDATE - Due to a lengthy RAID rebuild we are extending the window to 9pm PDT

On September 16, 2010 our Founder and President Thomas, will be speaking at event titled Cloud 2.0: A Year Later - a Portland area event being hosted by the Software Association of Oregon.  Thomas's presentation topic will be: Architecting Scalable Private Clouds.  Here is a quick excerpt from his presentation outline:

"Real world deployment scenarios from a managed service provider’s perspective. The do’s and don’ts of building private clouds whether with or without a Managed Service Provider. We will look at a real world deployment as a production example."

In attendance should be a good crowd of cloud developers and system architects.  View more details, preview other presentation topics and register to attend.

As mentioned one or two times before, we'll be relocating our Portland-based offices in October.  Our Datacenters will not be moving, just our administrative offices.  We're not moving far, just about 10 blocks NE of where we're at now. Part of our move means moving these big monitors - shown in our current office below:

At the new office, we are going to stack them on top of each other rather than mount them side by side.  Below - I wanted to mock up the final mounting height so Cameron and Thomas could approve:

After the monitor mounting height was final, I went down to our new office and taped off the area for our General Contractor, so he can mount some horizontal beams for us to drill into - these devices are a bit heavy:

Looking forward to the move.

Those of you who have been with us since the beginning, a crisp November in 2004, have seen our public website go through four significant iterations. It began with a red haired guy who I have never met (not all is rendered correctly in this snapshot, but you get the idea):

A very close friend and colleague took this site from start to finish. A simple yet elegant PHP based beginning to our online presence.

Our second iteration was also designed by the same friend and colleague of the first, but put into web form by the talented group (and clients) at Firefall Pro.

Also a PHP based site, the stunning Oregon photography brought a unique approach to an web hosting industry saturated with unappealing imagery.

Moving forward two years, we met with the gents at Base-10 Design and Development (also a client) who built the following:

With a move to Base-10, the core infrastructure was built using Perl/Catalyst.

This site received a very warm welcome from the community and helped launch us into the Managed Hosting service industry.
Approximately 6 months ago, as our team and client base grew, we began to see the need for several new elements to our site:

• Content Management System
• Comprehensive SEO Implementation
• Platform to produce and display large volumes of both internal and client generated content

It would surprise some of our clients to hear that the first three sites did not contain a search or keyword optimization strategy. With a background in systems and networks, SEO was never a concept I took with much interest. As goes for most small businesses, the direction typically comes from the leadership, as a result we simply were not ranking for any of the industries we were targeting.

“Site4” as dubbed by our eccentric Creative Director Mr. Garett Stenson, cannot adequately be summarized in a few paragraphs or pages. As sits atop my desk, a completely stuffed binder of Garett’s work from start to finish.

During the initial design and concept phase we had an opportunity to meet with several local SEO/Analytics specialists. Setting our sights on the talented group at SwellPath Interactive, I was given my first view into what we had been missing these past six years.

242,000 backlinks, Google Page Rank of 7 and virtually no existing search engine optimization efforts… how were we doing it? First and foremost, we had never focused our energy on rapid expansion. The goal and vision was clear. Grow at a steady and sustainable pace as our clients grew. Though we consistently achieved 100% growth year over year, we were able to maintain a healthy and functional relationship with our customers.  Proud that we know them by name and not a number.

Reflecting back on the second version of our site, I distinctly remember its creation. A combination of a close friend giving up what little time was left after long days as a lead/senior designer for an upcoming iPod, and the perfection base brilliance of Scott Park and team at Firefall Pro. I was convinced that this site could not be outdone.

Each iteration of the networkredux.com site had a starting point with strong creativity. Our third site being the creative vision and genius of Ramin at Base-10, was absolutely no exception to the rule.

Moving back into the discussion of site4, Benjamin Diggles (Mr. Diggles, also a client) set on a path with Garett. Over the course of numerous weekends, putting mouse pointer to photoshop, the two men gave birth to what was that to be the impossible.

The Redux experience had been put into a visual. From client satisfaction to our network operations, a bar had been set from the previous three sites and team Diggles and Stenson took this bar, bent it in half and threw it off the balcony of our office building.

This story would not be complete without discussing the backend. Kris Watson of Lumous Media (also a client) was brought on to deliver both the back and frontend functionality. Premised on the Refinery CMS, Kris built the engine which now drives networkredux.com. Along his path he created a substantial amount of customization to Refinery and will be contributing this back to the community. Specifically our Answers page, a custom ruby gem, will be released on github.

Every member of our organization contributed to the design and implementation of Site4. From rewrites/redirect rules to copy writing/editing/proofing. If one monumental aspect of Network Redux was reaffirmed over the past six months it is that we have an incredibly talented team. The most talented I have ever had the privilege of being a part of.

I couldn’t be happier.

Cheers,

Thomas

Back in February 2010 we announced NR's support for Matt Reid and Kontrollsoft Software which is geared at optimizing MySQL performance.  We recently caught up with Matt and he sent us the above video.  Congrats on the progress Matt!

One of our primary Vendors, Force10, recently conducted an in depth Customer Profile of Network Redux.  Read the full Force10 profile here or download a PDF.  Thanks for the writeup Force10!

Read the article on Force10.com

As mentioned before, we'll be moving into beautiful new office space early this fall.  On the way to work this morning I stopped by to visit with the General Contractor and check in on the progress of the buildout.  As pictured below, things are coming together nicely: floor plan is final, metal studs are up, insulation is mostly in, and slabs of sheetrock are next...  

InstantAction, one of our complex Enterprise Hosting clients, last week released a Beta version of Instant Jam – a high performance application they’ve built on our network that combines elements of music, online gaming and social media.  This product is quite groundbreaking and has widespread potential in the industry.  In summary, as their site reads,  Instant Jam is a "free social music game."  We are excited to see where they take this platform in the weeks, month and years to come.

As part of our Managed Hosting service coverage, NR closely monitors and maintains hosting environments with and on behalf of our clients.  We are proactive in our approach to ensure optimal application performance on all levels.  Pictured above is a screenshot taken from one of our network metrics monitoring devices.  This shot was taken on the day of the Instant Jam Beta version was released. Good thing we were keeping a close watch... just take a look at the traffic ramping up! 

Read more about Instant Jam on CNET or visit InstantJam.com to play guitar online.