Monat: August 2020

We’re the employees you would hire if you could. Responsive, helpful, and dedicated in ways automation simply can’t be. We’re your team.

Each month we recognize one of our Most Helpful Humans in Hosting.

Justin has been working in the Hosting Industry for just over four years, having started out with Rackspace as a 3rd shift Support Technician before moving to the Liquid Web Support Team. As a Support Technician, Justin helped our customers with troubleshooting and resolving technical issues for a few years, before achieving his career goal of becoming a Software Development Engineer with our Managed Applications Team. When not developing, Justin can be found creating amazing videos and articles for Liquid Web’s Knowledge Base and YouTube Channel (seriously, this guy is helpful).

We caught up with Justin to find out what motivates his enthusiasm at Liquid Web.

Why did you join Liquid Web?

Originally, I worked for Rackspace as a Support Technician on the Cloud Sites Team. When Liquid Web purchased Cloud Sites from Rackspace, I decided to stick with the team. I was happy to learn that the culture and leadership at Liquid Web empowered the Helpful Humans to provide the best customer experience possible for their customers. That’s exactly what we strived to do on our team at Rackspace, so I felt right at home immediately with Liquid Web.

Is there something specific at Liquid Web that you just love?

I love the atmosphere at Liquid Web. Even as a remote employee, I get a real sense of camaraderie with my colleagues. I’ve worked in other places where this was not the case for various reasons. It can be hard to do your best work if you don’t feel connected to your team. Likewise, it can be hard to stay motivated when the cultural values that are discussed are not actually part of the living culture of the workplace.

At Liquid Web, being Helpful isn’t just a catchphrase; it’s a lifestyle focused on helping customers that is embraced by myself, my team, and all those that call themselves the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting.

What’s your favorite part about the company culture at Liquid Web?

There is a concerted effort at Liquid Web to bring people together for fun events, both physically and virtually. Before social distancing, there was always an office potluck to participate in, or a charitable event to be part of (like Extra Life, an event that brings together gamers to raise funds and save children’s lives). And now during COVID-19, we have virtual team building activities, such as Netflix Parties, themed meetings, Happy Hour team meetings, and after-hours games. We aren’t just a company; we’re a family.

The culture at Liquid Web promotes us seeing our colleagues not only as coworkers, but as fellow humans and friends.

In your eyes, what’s the difference between Liquid Web and other employers?

Liquid Web is laser-focused on exceptional customer service and support. Encouraging employees to work hard to ensure that customers’ needs are met, despite the fact that it can sometimes be a time-consuming process, is commendable. That focus on the customer is something that sets us apart in the industry.

As a Support Technician, I was always encouraged by my managers to go above and beyond for our customers. I would take extra time to really understand an issue, and do my best to impart my knowledge to the customer so that not only was the issue resolved, but the customer gained insight and knowledge into how to resolve similar issues in the future.

What is the biggest milestone you’ve accomplished?

I started in the Hosting industry with the intention of becoming a Software Developer. In April of 2019, I achieved that goal, starting work as a Software Development Engineer with Liquid Web. My focus is on Quality Engineering and Automation for our Managed Applications. Becoming a developer was the culmination of years of effort and learning.

Tell us about a truly rewarding experience you’ve had with a customer.

During the data center migration of the Cloud Sites products from Rackspace to Liquid Web data centers, we had some issues with our MSSQL clusters. A long-time Cloud Sites customer called in with concern, as he was having some issues with his sites. I worked with members of our Operations team to help troubleshoot and resolve the issues. The entire process took about two hours, and I was on the phone with the customer during the complete process.

Once everything was back up and working as expected, the customer expressed how pleased they were that we were able to resolve their issues while providing exceptional customer service by phone support as well.

What is one thing you wish our customers knew about their hosting?

I hope that our customers understand the benefits of being on a platform like Cloud Sites or Nexcess. Cloud Sites and Nexcess are extremely robust, can handle a ton of traffic, and automatically handle most of the day-to-day maintenance, freeing up the customer to focus on what matters most to them.

Work aside, what are some of your hobbies?

I love just spending time with my wife and kids. I also enjoy playing video games when I can, with Tetris and Skyrim at the top of the list. While Skyrim is old, there’s something about that game that has fabulous replay value. Tetris is always satisfying. I currently hold the 87th spot on the PS4 leaderboards for the Master game mode on Tetris Effect.

What is your favorite TV show?

I love the 80’s ethos in Stranger Things, and it has a really fun and interesting story that is fantastically written, performed, and produced.

If you could have dinner with one famous person [dead or alive] who would it be?

I would love to have dinner with Groucho Marx. Groucho Marx was a comedian and actor who made comedy films with his brothers, the Marx Brothers, in the 1930’s and 1940’s. If you’ve ever seen those glasses with the bushy eyebrows and mustache attached, you know the iconic Groucho Marx look.

You can follow Justin Palmer on LinkedIn.

The post Meet a Helpful Human – Justin Palmer appeared first on Liquid Web.

Considering Liquid Web vs OVH For Your Next Cloud Deployment?

Complex hosting solutions and cloud deployments are not for the faint of heart. Whether you need geo-redundancy or massive amounts of processing power (or both) it makes sense to endeavor forward only with a trusted hosting partner by your side. French hosting company OVH offers 30 data centers and 34 points of presence (POPs) to serve mid-market and large customers all around the world. These environments are meant to support the most discerning and complicated applications and websites. When it comes to combining cloud instances with traditional infrastructure, OVH is certainly one of the world’s most prominent providers.

But bigger isn’t always better, and worldwide isn’t always a good thing. With OVH, you’ll have access to global infrastructure, but miss out on some other valuable and essential features in today’s business climate.

Liquid Web provides traditional infrastructure and cloud deployments in multiple datacenters around the world just like OVH does. The primary difference between Liquid Web vs OVH is that we provide full infrastructure management as well, never leaving customers on their own to solve infrastructure problems. Furthermore, whereas we are proud to answer all phone and chat inquiries in under a minute, OVH only offers phone and email support, not giving customers the chance to receive help via onsite chat.

When considering what global infrastructure provider is right for you, it is crucial that your decision be based on more than just hardware and global footprint. It is essential that service, support, and experience factor into your decision as well.

Nobody Includes More Than Liquid Web

Every Fully Managed Dedicated or Virtual Private Server (VPS) at Liquid Web is engineered for peace of mind, with a full suite of performance, reliability, and security solutions included at no extra charge.

Backed By The Most Helpful Humans in Hosting
and the Best Guarantees in the Industry

24/7 Support from The Most Helpful Humans in Hosting 
It’s easy to say you have the best support, but we have the numbers to back it up. Our Support ranks No. 1 in customer satisfaction.

The post Liquid Web vs OVH appeared first on Liquid Web.

Searching for best value web hosting for your next project?

I’ve been in retail long enough to know that price isn’t everything. I’ve also been a consumer long enough to know that companies don’t determine value; people do.

Sure, companies determine the cost of their products and services, but the value is what justifies the cost.”

As a business owner, the decision between cost and quality often falls on your shoulders, and it’s not an easy one. If you are a smaller agency with limited resources, the temptation to trim expenses is powerful, and in some cases, necessary.

Shopping with price in mind is essential for a small business looking to endure and grow in a competitive landscape.

Business owners also know that you get that for which you pay. Nowhere is that more true than in web hosting. Time and again, agencies are finding out that cheaper doesn’t always mean better value.

If you are currently or have been looking for a hosting provider for your business, you’re likely familiar with the price tag associated with managed hosting services.

While managed hosting does cost more than self-managed or shared hosting, managed hosting is the better value.

Simply put: price does not equal value.

Here are 3 reasons why managed hosting is the best value for web hosting.

1. Guaranteed Reliable and Consistent Support

In our article, 5 Signs It’s Time to Find a New Web Hosting Provider, we discussed the need to be clear on the support your hosting provider offers. Also, you need to ensure that support is adequate for your business needs. The worst situation to find yourself in would be to have a real-time need for which your provider cannot assist you.

Your websites, applications, and other online business data are undoubtedly critical. More important than the support you receive is the certainty that your hosting environment is up and running 100% of the time. Even an uptime of 99% can be costly, depending on the services your business offers.

So, just what does that translate to for your virtual business or online presence? Let’s do some basic math.

There are 8,760 hours in a year. 1% of that number is 87.6. Based on this math, we can conclude that 99% uptime, while seemingly a large number, amounts to just over three and a half days that your hosting environment is unavailable.”

Your business cannot afford downtime that long and stay in business.

Managed hosting can provide you maximum uptime, and a guarantee for how they’ll make it right when things go wrong.

2. Expertise You Can Afford

Whether you are hosting apps and websites in-house or with a managed hosting provider, another essential factor is the cost of the support you receive. Previously we covered the costs associated with managing your environment in-house.

There are infrastructure costs, operating costs, and variable costs to consider between managing your own server on-site vs hosting with a managed hosting provider.

Infrastructure Costs

Infrastructure costs refers to the physical hardware used to build out your hosting environment. You may choose to hire an IT firm to do this for you, or have an IT staff do this. No matter which direction you choose, you must weigh the upfront and ongoing costs.

Operating Costs

Operating costs are the ongoing costs of maintaining and overseeing the environment. Getting things in place is only the beginning. Efficiently keeping your setup running is going to prove most valuable, and is why managed hosting is the best value in web hosting.

Variable Costs

Variable costs are the hidden or indirect costs associated with your hosting environment. Planning is the best way to approach any purchase, but you cannot plan for everything. Actual planning builds the unforeseen circumstances into the budget as best as possible.

Hiring IT Expertise Isn’t Cheap

The explosive development in hosting and IT technology, tools, hardware, and software means earning the title of expert in the IT field is a full-time job, and certainly not one for which you have time.

An experienced professional (or a team of them, depending on your workload) to assist with site deployment, migration, maintenance, and monitoring is a valuable asset to your organization. But in-house IT teams don’t come cheap.

In essence, even a single IT expert will cost you an average of $65,000 (average base salary plus benefits and vacation pay) annually, and that’s assuming you have an office space sitting empty waiting for them. Shifting that cost to a managed solution that includes the majority of these services can mean enormous savings to your business.

And I’m not talking about paying for hosting with a separate cost for support. I’m referring to a managed provider like Liquid Web that offers assistance with no additional charge.

3. Flexibility, Scalability, and Agility

There’s a saying that when you stop growing, you start dying. Businesses expect to grow and deserve an environment that can grow with them.

That means you need to have a provider that is reliable, provides consistent support and affordable expertise, and has the capability to scale your environment to meet the demands of your business.”

What meets your needs now may not be what you will need in the next six months or more. If you are hosting in-house, this can be a variable cost for which you have to prepare. It can also extend beyond your resources, as you may need more office space or possibly different facilities to accommodate your growth.

When choosing your next value web hosting provider, you want to make sure they are not a “one-trick pony.” They may be suitable for entry solutions using VPS Hosting, but can they scale to a more sophisticated environment as your business grows?

Some more sophisticated solutions can include:

• Dedicated Hosting: Completely customizable, dedicated hardware that provides a high level of performance and security.
• VMware Private Cloud: The performance of dedicated hardware and the scalability of the cloud on NetApp SAN Storage, providing a robust environment for DevOps teams.
• Custom High Availability Solutions: Multiple nodes (dedicated servers) on a floating IP address, data replication, and failover. A truly redundant solution for maximum uptime.

All of these solutions are available at Liquid Web.

Managed hosting providers offer the capacity to scale beyond your current infrastructure with minimal downtime.

The reality is you and your clients have different needs. What will happen if you experience a spike in traffic? Do you want to keep bandaging yourself, or do you want a professional that can give your business the care it deserves?

You and your clients’ success depends on your infrastructure. Make sure your business is in the right hands.

Best Value Web Hosting Gets You More Than You Pay For

“You get what you pay for” is often the phrase used to compare the quality of services. It can mean the services are more expensive than you anticipated, or it could mean that you get more value for your money.

As the business owner, you need to gauge if the products and services for which you are paying provide the value required.

Ask the following questions to determine whether managed hosting is the best value in web hosting:

• Could you hire an entire team to build out your hosting infrastructure?
• Could you or your staff learn to maintain the environment and keep it running 24/7/365?
• Can you weather the cost and headaches of scaling your business and the underlying infrastructure?

It can cost you more, in the long run, to do all of these things on your own. And that is why managed hosting is the best value in web hosting.

The post 3 Reasons Why Managed Hosting is the Best Value in Hosting appeared first on Liquid Web.

A Liquid Web Support Supervisor on being motivated by helping others and encouraging young women to explore all tech has to offer.

Calleigh Fisher grew up in Birch Run, a small town twenty miles south of Saginaw, Michigan. It was there that, with the help of her step-father, Fisher built her first PC at just nine-years-old. Encouragement, a strong work ethic, and love of technology were early-planted seeds thanks to her mother, grandfather, and step-father. “They inspired me,” says Fisher, “and gave me a strong foundation.”

Now, Calleigh Fisher’s love of people and technology is put to use as one of Liquid Web’s Support Supervisors. In 2017, Fisher took on the role of Team Lead for Managed WordPress. Then in 2018, she became a Support Supervisor at the same time. It was a challenge, but one she enjoyed. “I’m the support behind the support team, providing guidance and assisting with escalated customer issues,” says Fisher.

Individuals are drawn to the tech field for a multitude of reasons, but for Fisher, it’s the people. “I originally went into IT because I thought I would be able to be more introverted,” she says. “I was very wrong, and that surprised me a lot! I’ve grown to love working with customers and my team members who have helped me come out of my shell.”

The ways in which her work in technology asks her to connect with people has been a pleasant surprise for Fisher, who now thrives on helping others. “Being able to help support people is what motivates me,” she says. “Whether that means being an ear for someone to bounce ideas off of, or just to listen while they go through a rough situation, if it helps my team, I’m here for it. Helping my team succeed after a tricky situation or problem is the best.”

Fisher also loves the problem-solving that comes with a career in tech. “When I was a technician, I never knew what I was going to get in a day— what weird or strange problem I would find and do my best to resolve. While my current position has taken me largely out of solving technical problems, I’ve applied the same mindset as I work through a rotation of needs, taking on issues that may appear throughout the day. My team relies on me to problem-solve and give them back up in tough situations.”

For Fisher, getting to see what Liquid Web’s customers are building and doing with their innovation and creativity is a massive bonus of the job. “I’m not ashamed to say I’ve subscribed or ordered goods from some of our customers after working on their sites!” she says.

As a young girl who grew up keenly interested in technology, Fisher believes that we are just seeing the beginning of what women can and will do in the field. “We’re going to see many more women in tech,” she says. “I was part of the generation where the push for girls to be encouraged in STEM was just getting started. Now, there are so many groups, resources, and programs for young women who are considering this path.”

Her pitch to encourage young girls to consider a career in technology simple: LOOK AT ALL THIS COOL STUFF! “I grew up playing with k’nex, rockets, RC cars, and robots. That was a natural fit for me. I’ve mentored friends of mine who want to get their little girls into technology— there are so many cool programs, specifically with robotics or coding to make games.” For older girls and young women, Fisher says the key to engaging and interesting them in technology lies in encouraging them to exercise their creativity. “Create an app for making your life easier, or design a website,” she says. “Sometimes, it takes doing the gambit of programming, robotics, and design to figure out what exactly you’re interested in. Turns out, I liked system administrator work!”

Her most significant piece of advice to young women interested in tech is to experience many areas of expertise the field has to offer. “There are so many options,” she says. “You just have to find the area that interests you. Try it all. Find your niche. There’s no such thing as too much knowledge. This is a field with many moving but interconnected parts. We need people who thrive in and are thrilled about the areas in which they excel.”

The post Women in Technology: Calleigh Fisher appeared first on Liquid Web.

In 2019, we maintained uptime well above the industry average and standards placed by most hosting companies. That means more businesses stayed online, and more revenue was secured by our customers, than ever before.

In other words, we are resilient.

2019 Uptime

2019 was another extremely stable year for our network, achieving six 9’s availability seven out of twelve months and five 9’s availability for the year, with an annual uptime of 99.9992%.

What is Uptime?

Uptime is defined as the amount of time, usually presented on an annual basis, that our infrastructure was online, available, and successfully operational.

2019 Infrastructure and Network Upgrades

We completed numerous upgrades and projects, including multiple data center hardware upgrades, operating system and other code updates, EOL hardware replacements, and DDoS protection expansion. The DDoS expansion greatly improved and expanded protection for existing and new customers.

We have also continued to step toward clean energy by installing more energy-efficient air conditioners financed by the Lean and Green Michigan PACE program, which began in 2018. This will continue to decrease our carbon footprint while increasing our capacity to keep customers’ servers cool and running smoothly.

The Network team also improved personally and professionally, achieving multiple professional-level certifications from Cisco and Juniper. This educational level and advancement in skill sets are evident in the meticulous preparation and flawless execution of projects and support tasks that ran throughout 2019.

All of these impressive numbers represent all the hard work our Most Helpful Humans in Hosting have put in throughout the last year for our customers, including redundant networks, cooling and power, tier-1 premium bandwidth, on-site security, geographic redundancy, and a team of experts dedicated to monitoring network performance and security 24/7/365.

The post Liquid Web Maintains a 99.9992% Uptime in 2019 appeared first on Liquid Web.

Considering Web Hosting from InterServer? 

When it comes to choosing a hosting provider, you absolutely must consider the full picture. What picture is that? The one that includes support, server management, and performance optimization, in addition to the raw infrastructure you are paying for. A picture that includes uptime SLAs and downtime remedies. Your hosting choice shouldn’t be only about technology, but also the care and promise that stands behind your purchase. Taken in total, choosing a hosting partner based solely on price means coming up short when you need to be at your best.

Choosing Liquid Web means full server management is included, not available at an additional fee. Choosing Liquid Web means an industry-leading 100% Network & Power Uptime guarantee, and 100% remedy for any incurred downtime. Additionally, your infrastructure is monitored at all times, and optimized for performance by more than 300 of the most experienced support technicians, system administrators, and server engineers on Earth.

In contrast, InterServer requires a minimum monthly spend for full stack management and support. And when it comes to uptime and uptime SLA, InterServer allows for almost ten hours a month of downtime before offering any remedy. Can your business really afford to cut corners when it comes to your most important digital assets?

Take a look at the whole picture and see how InterServer stacks up to Liquid Web. From service and support, to our industry best SLAs for network and power uptime, the contrast is clear.

Nobody Includes More Than Liquid Web

Every Fully Managed server at Liquid Web is engineered for peace of mind, with a full suite of performance, reliability, and security solutions included at no extra charge.

Backed By The Most Helpful Humans in Hosting and the Best Guarantees in the Industry

Whether you are a small business just getting started, or a firmly-established enterprise, your next web project is of critical importance. At Liquid Web, we recognize that every digital investment and web project is a big deal. The right hosting partner can help propel your business to new heights, just as the wrong hosting provider can leave you stuck in mud. With the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting, you can count on Liquid Web to be the partner you need as your business grows.

The post Liquid Web vs InterServer appeared first on Liquid Web.

What is a Hard Drive?

All computers need a method to store, retrieve, and share digital information; Hard drives accomplish this task. A hard disk drive stores your data magnetically using one or more rapidly rotating disks or platters coated with magnetic material.

The earliest hard drives were extremely large and very expensive. They were used primarily by government, corporations or learning institutions to accomplish research tasks.

Currently, there are three main types of drives that are used to store data; Hard disk drives, external drives, and SSDs. We are going to be focusing primarily on Solid State Drives (SSDs) but will include information on HDDs as well.

What is an HDD?

An HDD, also known as a traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Fixed Disk Drive (FDD), is a non-volatile, hardware data storage device attached to a computer or server. An HDD magnetically stores, retrieves, and outputs digital information using a series of stacked rotating metallic disks that have been coated with magnetic material. The rotating disks are paired with an actuator arm that reads and writes the digital data to the disks.

Hard drives were introduced in the 1950s by IBM and continue to be widely utilized today. HDDs are still the primary method of digital data storage across all mediums to-date.

Their usage, however, is declining due to the use of the technologically superior SSD drives. This change is due to SSDs having higher storage density and data-transfer rates, lower latency rates, and better overall reliability.

HDDs still maintain superiority in the amount of data storage possible, and remain more economical in cost per bit. However, the differences between HDDs and SSDs are narrowing and soon will only be used in legacy systems requiring a fixed disk solution due to hardware limitations.

Additionally, failure rates for HDDs continue at approximately 2-9 percent per year (based on 2016 numbers) versus SSDs, which only have a failure rate of 1-3 percent per year.

If Moore’s Law continues as expected, the growth rate of SDD data density will continue to increase by 40% per year as it has in the past. Lastly, the market share of HDDs (again as of 2016) was at 70 percent, with SSDs market share increasing to 30 percent.

The latest numbers indicate that all HDD market sectors are falling yearly except for Nearline storage options. Nearline storage is a hybrid system blending online and offline storage mediums, which expresses that data need not be available immediately but can be brought back online quickly and without human intervention.

What Is An SSD?

A Solid-State Drive (SSD) is a storage device that retains data in flash memory as opposed to a magnetic-based system like a hard disk drive. By definition, “flash memory is an electronic (solid-state) non-volatile computer memory storage medium which can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.”

A solid-state drive is defined by its ability to store information using the reliable attributes of a durable cluster of semiconductors. Because solid-state drives do not depend on moving parts or spinning disks, data is saved to a cluster of memory banks or semiconductors.

The flash drive you carry in your pocket or purse uses this same semiconductor technology.”

Basically, an SSD drive is simply a larger version of a flash drive that is mounted inside the computer/server.

Below, we see a picture of the inside of an SSD drive. You will notice the large black semiconductors mounted to the circuit board. This is where your data is electronically stored.

A Brief History of SSDs

Flash memory has existed since the 1950s, but this technology was mainly used in large mainframes systems, which required a constant power-on state to preserve the contents of the volatile memory. In the late 70s, the rise of electrically alterable ROM technology enabled advances in multiple use case scenarios, which contributed significantly to the modern SSD drives of today.

Although issues with data endurance continued to plague the overall development of its functionality, these concerns have been addressed by the manufacturers. Commercially available SSDs became publicly accessible in the early 90s.

Since that time, open storage space has increased exponentially, making use of more modern technologies to increase speed and reliability. Because of this, solid-state drives have become one of the standard medium in many situations where fast read/write speeds are required.

Comparing SSD vs HDD

Regarding speed, SSDs continue to dominate the growth of the hard drive market because of the ongoing improvements being made to the solid-state drive sector by the major manufactures like SanDisk, Samsung, Sun Microsystems, and Toshiba.

In the server market, SSDs offered faster read/write times, which increased server speed by an average of 95% in some cases. This increase, in turn, decreased page load times, leading developers to invest more functionality in web-based applications, which allowed users to utilize more functional websites.

With the advent of laptops and the expanded use of notebooks, SSD gained a new commercial sector in which this technology flourished.

Projections from 2018 stated that shipments of HDD units would continue to decline over the coming years as SSD usage grows. In 2019, estimates predicted close to a 15% decline overall compared to 2018.

There continues to exist a significant market share for traditional hard disk drives (HDD). As pricing continues to fall and raid array usage provides a large amount of storage space, SMBs often take advantage of the lowered total cost of ownership traditional storage mediums offer. The lower costs associated with large HDDs versus the newer SSDs medium permit a reliable alternative option for many businesses, depending on their needs.

SSD Capacity

There are multiple offerings when it comes to SSD storage space options: portable, pocket-sized flash drives, external SSD drives, and the server-side internal SSD drives.

Western Digital currently offers the world’s highest capacity, pocket-sized, portable SSD at 8 TB. Samsung offers an external SSD with 16 TB of available for a little over $4000.00.

For servers, the Seagate Lyve Drive Mobile Array now provides an isolated, high-performance, 6-bay storage SSD drive array, which is sturdy and easily transported. This mobile array recently displayed at CES features six Seagate’s 18 TB Exos Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording hard drives offering a total capacity of 108 TB.

Liquid Web currently offers multiple SSD options to choose from:

• Two 250 GB SSDs in a RAID1 configuration, increasing up to 2 2Tb SSDs in a RAID1 configuration
• Four 250 GB SSDs in a RAID10 configuration, increasing up to 4 2Tb SSDs in a RAID10 configuration

Liquid Web’s Dedicated Server solutions are entirely customizable for speed, memory, and storage options.

SSD Reliability – Do SSDs Break Down?

SSD drives have no moving parts to wear down or break, which provides better performance and improved reliability over regular hard drives. Additionally, SSDs provide enhanced data integrity and endurance since they retain data even when not powered up.

This being said, SSDs do have a downside. There is a finite number of writes available, which will cause the eventual need for a replacement SSD drive to be employed. Additionally, some drives may arrive from the factory with degraded blocks or pages, which can cause an exponentially faster breakdown and cause the early failure of the drive. Granted, this is a rarity, but it can occur.

Over Provisioning

Modern SSD producers are keenly aware of this issue and, in response, usually add additional memory cells to compensate for this loss. This addition is commonly called over-provisioning and typical for most major manufacturers. This fact implies that in a 120 GB SSD drive, an additional amount of eight GB of NAND memory can usually be added. In enterprise-level SSD drives, some makers include up to 100% of additional over-provisioned memory in order to prevent this problem.

Garbage Collection

Other techniques manufacturers use to prevent issues are called garbage collection. This process identifies when pages become stale and act to copy an entire block that has both good data and stale pages, and then moves the good pages to an alternate block, and then erases the original block entirely.

Trim

Additionally, the OS can use a command called Trim. Trim is a command that is sent to an SSD to signal that specific pages or blocks no longer contain valid data. This command doesn’t remove the existing data, but it simply lets the OS know that data in that cluster can be overwritten. This process continually frees up space by allowing for additional writes to take place in those “open spaces.”

As with all SSD processes, the continual use of these commands increases the number of writes, which contributes to the overall decline of the drive lifespan.

SSD Performance

Using SSDs, the data transfer rate will increase your servers’ overall speed and responsiveness, which provides for a more predictable lifespan.

A typical SSD has access speeds of 40 to 100 microseconds, which is nearly 100 times faster than a standard hard disk drive. Increased access speed means programs can run quicker and work gets done with less stress on the server.

Because every storage block is available at the same speed as every other storage block, the rate at which data is accessed and provided is exponentially enhanced. This means that an SSD’s throughput is dramatically faster than an HDD.

SSD Power Requirements

SSDs require less power and cooling than other types of storage media. SSDs produce less heat than a regular hard disk drive, which lowers the need for heat dissipation.

Standard HDDs generate more heat by the mechanical action of the disk. Under load, SSDs use anywhere from 2.5 – 3.5W of power.

Because SSD drives perform better, they spend more time in an idle state compared to a traditional hard disk drive. This simply means that an SSD delivers an order of magnitude of increased efficiency per watt than a standard hard disk drive.

Why An SSD Drive Is Important to You

The benefits of using an SSD drive in your current server setup will be shown in an overall increase in capacity, performance, and reliability. This means that with the addition of this type of drive, the amount of data you will be able to store will increase, with an overall lower total cost per Gigabyte.

If you are rendering graphics or processing video, SSD drives provide a critical time-savings in the overall conversion time of that data. If analyzing significant amounts of information, SSDs offer a drastic reduction in processing time and server load.

Additionally, the ability to stream videos in real-time will dramatically increase, which will allow for no-lag video streaming.

Finally, SSDs provide the required speed, endurance, and stability you need to ensure your information is shared reliably.

The 6 Benefits of Using SSD vs HDD

Overall, the benefits of using SSD vs HDD is that SSDs:

1. Consume less energy/less power
2. Provide higher data transfer rates (as SSDs read data instantly without the need to spin up the drive platter, or move drive heads)
3. Offer higher performance storage options
4. Elevate reliability since the drive contains no moving parts. The storage is contained in memory chips
5. Run processes much quicker, briskly launching applications and programs, and decrease boot times
6. Offer higher storage capacity compared to hard drives

Conclusion

Solid state drives continue to improve and augment data storage options and archival needs. They persist as a highly reliable medium for data persistence and information warehousing.

In terms of performance, SSD expands and exceeds those earlier frameworks of traditional system designs using HDD. The decreasing power needs of a SSD reduce the total cost of ownership as the diminished energy draw will increase savings over time.

Lastly, price points for SSDs continue to narrow, and in time will match those of traditional hard drive models in a price per GB comparison.

Liquid Web continues to recommend SSDs as an efficient and improved option for almost every client need.

The post Understanding the Difference Between Solid State and Hard Disk Drives appeared first on Liquid Web.

Liquid Web’s Executive Vice President and General Manager on creating a virtual team building atmosphere where individuals feel valued, supported, and part of a community.

In my last blog, fundamentals of management, we talked about the fundamentals being more critical than ever given our current global pandemic situation.

Now, as we face the reality of an extended stay-at-home work-life situation, it is also imperative that we maintain a strong community for the sake of our employees.

A company culture in which a worker feels valued and supported as an individual is vital in even the best of circumstances. Given the current global situation, the importance of maintaining your culture and your “community” magnifies.

In my experience, keeping employees motivated and with high morale take priority, and it’s essential to make sure you have these bases covered:

• Ensure each employee knows how they fit into the bigger picture, and how their role contributes to the success of the company.
• Reinforce with employees that management “has their back,” that employees are empowered, can take some risks, and that you’ll be there to support them.
• Take the time to ensure employees feel valued and are compensated fairly for the job they are doing. Sure, everyone would like to make more money, but sometimes that’s not what it’s all about. Make sure their compensation is fair and equitable to their peers for the job they are doing.

And then, to tie it all together, most employees want to have a sense of community – not just from the neighborhood in which they live, but in their place of work, as well. Layering on a strong sense of community in a way that matches your culture can take your team from good to great.

People are happiest when working in an environment that is in line with their values. A company culture in which employees feel challenged and are working alongside people they enjoy creates an atmosphere of positivity and productivity. And a part of liking someone is knowing someone—like really knowing them—on a level deeper than what their role is in the company. In times like this, it is essential that people feel connected to one another.

Here’s where the FUN in fundamentals can come in…

Now is a great time to spend time thinking about how you all stay connected. Here are some things we are doing at Liquid Web to ensure that our team doesn’t feel isolated, and that every single employee knows that we have their back while keeping morale high and infusing some fun into a virtual work setting. A little something for all interests and personality types.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing – hit me up @cawheeler99 on Twitter and share!

Themed Meetings

If you have a recurring meeting on the calendar, consider adding a bit of fun by giving it a theme. Every Friday, wear a certain color. My team enjoys Hat Fridays. Try different themes based on a decade or destination.

Games

At the beginning of meetings, ask someone to send in a photograph. Everyone has to guess who sent it in. When the sender is identified, they get a chance to share a bit about the photo they sent and why it’s meaningful to them.

Gift Exchanges

Draw names using a gift exchange generator, set a budget, and let the fun begin. If budget is an issue, try doing a DIY gift exchange in which gifts must be made using only items that the giver has on hand in their home. This is a really fun way to let employee creativity shine.

Netflix Watch Parties

This is a fun way for employees to stay connected. We’ve also opened this up to families and have kid-friendly viewing options.

Roulette Hangouts

Groups of 4-6 participants are randomly selected to have a 15-30 minute hangout session to talk shop, interests, or favorite Baby Yoda memes. Sample questions are provided as a starting point to get the ball rolling, but participants are free to talk about anything they want to get the conversation flowing.

Virtual Home Tours

Ask employees to share their favorite part of their home, whether that’s a room, a piece of furniture, or an object. Find out what’s bringing employees comfort in these times when so many of us are housebound.

Art Exchanges

Employees fill out a questionnaire about their interests and personality. They are then matched with an employee from a different location. The two swap questionnaires and, based on the other person’s answers, they paint or draw a small 4×4 piece of art for their new friend.

Volunteer Initiatives

Set up Slack channels based on locations that allow employees to share information about ways to help in their communities.

Hidden Talents

Hosting a virtual Talent Show is an excellent way to get to know your colleagues better. Everyone gets five minutes. Acts can range from serious to silly. Laughter is inevitable and you might just discover a secret opera singer in your midst.

Happy Hour Team Meetings

This is a great way to unwind at the end of the week. Close out the week with a meeting that allows teams to check in about the week over their beverage of choice.

Themed Photo Contests

Every week, choose a stay-at-home friendly theme (like food, pets, from my window) and host a photo contest. Feature the best submission at the start of a team meeting.

Resource-Sharing for Parents and Caregivers

Start a Slack channel for sharing resources like online learning, tips for keeping kids entertained, and how to balance working from home while managing education at home.

For large companies with lots of employees, variety is essential. Try different approaches and see what resonates. One silver lining of these very trying times is that, if we can find ways to forge the connections that this season calls for, we will know one another more deeply—and we may even be more productive—than we ever have before.

Be safe out there, and have some FUN!

The post The Fun in Fundamentals: Keeping Company Culture Alive While Working Remotely appeared first on Liquid Web.

Deepak Sakhrani is no stranger to the tech world. After developing his career with a software development company in the late 1990s, he launched his first web services business venture in 2005, eventually going on to found Hiya Digital in 2015, based in Mumbai, India. Today, Hiya Digital is laser-focused on providing a complete web services solution with exceptional customer service for their customers.

Hiya Digital delivers the latest technology solutions to its traditional business operations, offering one-on-one personalized customer support, which sets them apart from many competitors. Being able to offer exceptional customer service means having a web host with minimal response times.

However, as they scaled their customer and service offerings, their web host support response times started becoming unacceptable. That’s when they began trialing new web hosting providers, including Liquid Web, with a strong focus on finding a host with minimal response times and exceptional customer support.

Response time was minimum as compared to other service providers. Within three months of trials and making some experimental blunders on our own, we knew no other company was able to match the level of support provided by Liquid Web. Hence, we decided to consolidate all our servers and partner with Liquid Web,” stated Deepak Sakhrani, Director.

Hiya Digital realized a traditional dedicated server cost savings of 15-20% after migrating to Liquid Web’s Private VPS Parent servers, and is able to provide high-quality, uninterrupted, and reliable web solutions to all of their customers, every time. Hiya Digital currently boasts over 2,000 customers and over 100 reseller partners, and continues to grow with Liquid Web.

Download the full case study to learn more about Hiya Digital’s journey with Liquid Web.

The post Case Study: Hiya Digital Delivers Outstanding Customer Service With Liquid Web appeared first on Liquid Web.

Product Comparisons

SiteGround

SiteGround begins with its Shared hosting plans.

While shared hosting is not for everyone, there are some for whom this starting point makes sense. Shared hosting is most famous for its low price point. Most users don’t consider the implications of sharing resources and a single IP address across numerous users. Provided these things never become a factor, as they often can, Shared hosting might be a viable option.

Pricing is mainly based on caps and not features. Because there are no set specifications for the plans, users must be aware of the ceilings. While the traffic is unmetered, there are still limitations typically on the connection speed, or in this case, the number of visitors.

Next, they offer both WordPress and WooCommerce hosting, which is another form of WordPress hosting for eCommerce stores. There is no difference between the WordPress or WooCommerce plans and the standard shared hosting in terms of specs, features, or pricing. They are the same plans with WordPress features and optimizations included.

SiteGround Entry Shared Hosting (1 Site)

• RAM: N/A due to shared resources
• vCPU: N/A due to shared resources
• Bandwidth: Unmetered traffic, good for approximately 10,000 monthly visits
• Storage: 10GB
• Price: $3.95/mo Special pricing (Regular pricing $11.95/mo)

Lastly, they offer Cloud Hosting, which would be the equivalent to Liquid Web’s VPS Hosting, and they have Enterprise solutions. Their server selection is not vast, especially with Dedicated servers missing from their offerings and the lack of customization options.

One nice feature they offer is the ability to customize the VPS options at a hefty premium as you add resources. These server options include cPanel/WHM with no mention of unmanaged options.

Enterprise solutions are available and require contacting their sales department to discuss specific needs. They offer highly available solutions with replication and management. They do not offer generic or pre-built plans as they consult to determine the customer’s specific needs.

SiteGround Entry Cloud Hosting

• RAM: 4
• vCPU: 2
• Bandwidth: 5TB
• Storage: 40GB
• Price: $80/mo

Liquid Web

Liquid Web does not offer shared hosting. In addition to VPS Hosting and their customizable Dedicated server options, Liquid Web offers Cloud Dedicated servers as well.

Cloud Dedicated servers provide a middle ground between VPS and Dedicated hosting with the best of both worlds. The ease of scaling via the cloud with resources similar to a physical dedicated server can be beneficial to business building custom applications or resource-hungry websites like marketplaces or forums.

One stand-out feature is the choice between control panels for their Fully Managed options as well as management levels. You also have your choice of the operating system, which SiteGround does not offer.

For Fully Managed Linux servers, control panel options are InterWorx, Plesk Web Pro, or cPanel with their new tiered pricing structure. Fully Managed Windows servers offer Plesk control panel only.

Both of the operating system options have Core and Unmanaged servers options available as well.

• Core Managed: For those that need management of the core systems but don’t need a control panel, Core management is perfect.
• Unmanaged: For those that need managed hardware and can handle the software on their own, Unmanaged servers work great.

Under the Liquid Web Family of Brands, Nexcess, a Liquid Web company, offers Managed WordPress and Managed WooCommerce options based on an automatically scalable cloud infrastructure. It is a reliable, redundant, and scalable cloud solution built for the complexities of managing WordPress environments. The plans are built to perform unlike any other provided with multiple choices from which to select.

Finally, Liquid Web also offers managed Enterprise Solutions. In addition to dedicated environments, high availability, and redundancy, there are also solutions for meeting the requirements of HIPAA-Compliance. A Private Cloud solution for virtual machines powered by VMWare is available as well.

All Enterprise solutions are custom and require contact with the Enterprise sales team to determine the proper fit. There are sample configurations that can be seen on our site, but any orders will need a consultation first to ensure compatibility with the customer’s project.

Liquid Web Entry VPS Hosting

Liquid Web Entry Cloud Dedicated Hosting

• Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5
• Clock Speed: 3.6 GHz
• RAM: 7.7GB DDR4
• CPU Cores: 4
• Storage: 220GB SSD RAID 1
• Bandwidth: 10TB
• Price: Check current pricing

Liquid Web Entry Dedicated Hosting

• Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6
• Clock Speed: 3.9 GHz
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• CPU Cores: 4
• Storage: 240GB SSD RAID 1
• Bandwidth: 5TB
• Price: Check current pricing

Support Comparison

Support is an area that both these providers shine. They both have full management, 24/7/365 support, full server stack support, service monitoring, and migration assistance. On paper, there seem to be similar support offerings that might lead those searching for hosting to go for the cheapest option. However, if you dig a little deeper, you find the differences that truly matter.

True, SiteGround has an impressive SLA and remedy for when they fall short on uptime. SiteGround’s SLA is a customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for downtime, or any network, software, hardware or equipment failure.

But SiteGround only guarantees 99.9% uptime annually. If they miss the mark, they only provide one month of free hosting for an uptime of 99.00% – to below 99.9%. Customers also get an additional free month of hosting for every 1% of uptime lost below 99.00%. They also offer Monitoring for their services as well.

Compare that to Liquid Web’s SLA guarantees.

Liquid Web has several pages on their site dedicated to Support in addition to their Service Level Agreement page. There is an SLA for Support requests, which offers a credit of 10 times the amount missed if initial ticket responses are not within 59 minutes.

Liquid Web also offers a 100% Power and Network Uptime guarantee, and a 30 minute Hardware replacement SLA. If uptime falls short, they credit customers 10 times the amount of downtime. Likewise, faulty dedicated server hardware will be replaced within 30 minutes of identifying the problem or the customer is credited 10 times the amount of extra time.

Partner Program Comparison

Liquid Web offers four different partner programs: Reseller, Web Professional, Affiliate, and Refer-A-Friend.

With the Reseller program, members get discounts on servers, free SSL certificates, and a free WHMCS license, among other benefits. The Web Professional program provides similar benefits to the Reseller program. Additionally, Web Professional partners get monthly commissions based on theirs and their clients’ monthly recurring costs.

Liquid Web also has Affiliate and Referral programs for those that want to refer and not offer products and services. The Refer-A-Friend program gives customers a flat payment for referring friends or family to Liquid Web. Affiliates get access to promotional referrals through banner ads, links, and the like. Affiliates can run campaigns and use several tools to earn commissions for conversions. All Partners are assigned a Partner Manager to assist with their journey as a partner of Liquid Web.

SiteGround’s partner program consists of its Hosting Affiliate Program. Similar to Liquid Web’s program, referrals get rewarded with commissions. What is unique about their offering is that they provide weekly payouts without a minimum payment threshold. That means that if you only make one sale you still get paid.

The withhold period for payment is 30 days, the length of their money back guarantee period. Affiliates get several tools as well as provided documentation to make offering hosting products easier.

Additional Services

Liquid Web also offers other services such as Email Hosting, Windows Hosting and support, and free migration assistance for all fully managed servers for as long as you are a customer. SiteGround doesn’t have an add-on for Email, doesn’t offer Windows hosting or support, and has only the first migration free on specific plans.

Bottom Line

When similarities are this close, you have to read between the lines. Having all the information at your fingertips allows you to make a more informed decision. Likewise, having a hosting provider that gives you more options ensures that there is a solution for any need you have as your business grows.