I didn't want to litter the forum, but it went well. We are working out specific hosting plans -- shared, low-end dedicated, mid-size dedicated, and high-end dedicated options. All with power to spare. Also, we'll be getting the on-line brochures so you can see all the stuff about the ISP and their facilities.
I was actually surprised by what they had, they had more partnerships, authorized reseller status, and much more facility space than they had 5 months ago when I was last there for a strategy meeting.
I don't see them very often, since I never have problems with the hosting, so I don't keep up with all their expansions. But, if I can get the interest here for these hosting plans, for people interested in solid server and internet connections, our equipment will be moved to the new data center (that I mentioned in another message) and we'll have our own rack, switches, pipe, etc. No sharing with surfers or other traffic bottlenecks.
I tried to bring all the concerns people had with me.
First, we are limiting the hardware to Sun/Solaris platforms. Why? You get more performance per unit of hardware with Sun/Sparc than with Intel for web serving especially. Solaris has some features in it that make clustering and load balancing on a subnet easier and managable. I've been running on this platform for over a year now, and I wouldn't switch! Also, they are primarily a Sun shop, so they have spare parts and extra equipment that helps limit downtime even further. (Yes, Solaris has some quirks, but they are easy to live with. If you absolutely must have Intel or another flavor of Unix, it can probably be accomodated. NT is purely at your own risk -- and all you get is an ethernet cable to the port <G>. You are on your own with that!)
They are also working on ecommerce solutions -- both a plugNplay version for small catalogs, and a transaction gateway option for larger ones. They are working on the hosting plans, and growth paths. As well as automatic configurations for new sites and servers that include MySQL, Perl, the necessary modules, QMail and Links SQL installed (proof of license required).
I should have all the details posted on the FAQ site in a couple of weeks.
The main advantage is that the hosting plans will be specfic for Links SQL based sites, and will be part of a cluster that is tuned for these kinds of sites. Performance across the network can then be tuned and balanced more easily.
The network people are looking into the issue of whether the Sun/Sparc's will run better with local copies of MySQL, or whether a large back-end database server serving a front-end cloud/cluster of webservers will do better. This will all be posted once finalized.
Thanks for the interest!
Anyone else interested, can post or send email. If you have specific concerns, now is the time so they can be considered. I think I got all the major points of what is needed for running a site, but everyone does different things.
I need to reiterate that we are not going to be competing on price -- but on service and reliability. Once the hardware packages are defined, we'll work on support packages that include site setup and installation, maintennance, and on-going support for Links SQL. That way you can get priority problem solving, software upgrades, custom programming, and other services.
While the hosting or co-location services are unlimited, and there is room for any number of physical sites, the Links SQL support options will have to be limited (at least at first) to only a few sites. All sites get setup and installation, but I know I can only handle a limited number of service contracts, and there just aren't a lot of people with deep knowledge of this program around yet.
Anyway, more details when they become available.
http://www.postcards.com FAQ:
http://www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/