Monat: August 2020

In recent years, the idea of “high availability” infrastructure has gained more and more mindshare in the hosting space. But as with most technology, a common understanding or agreed definition is a little elusive. Especially around high availability clustering.

In this piece, we will examine what High Availability Architecture actually is, what it is not, and how it works.

After learning the intricacies of high availability and examining some reasons or use cases for HA, you’ll be able to assess whether this new view on infrastructure is the right fit for your organization or project.”

First and foremost, it is important to recognize that all people and companies using hosting services would benefit from high availability. That is to say that everyone would like their websites and applications to be fully functioning and operational online as much as possible.

Downtime is bad, and the difference between a lot of downtime, a little downtime, and no downtime at all usually comes down to what infrastructure fits the budget and how that infrastructure is deployed.

In recent years, however, the notion of high availability has moved past the simple want for high quality hosting and into a more technical realm where advanced solutions are actually built with downtime prevention front and center.

What is a High Availability Cluster?

High Availability Clustering is the use of multiple web-servers or nodes to ensure that downtime is minimized to almost zero even in the event of disruption somewhere in the cluster.

High availability clustering uses a combination of software and hardware to:

1. Remove any one single part of the system from being a single point of failure
2. Increase performance throughout the cluster

Whereas a single shared hosting account or VPS might be felled by the outage of a network switch or a break in the power supply, High Availability clusters have redundancies built in that remove the chance of any single break disrupting service.”

By leveraging shared resources across many machines, no one part of the cluster can break the cluster as a whole.

Software components of the cluster detect if an application or service within the cluster is experiencing an issue, and automatically restart the service or application elsewhere in the cluster.

This process, known as automatic failover, prevents services, sites, or applications from being unavailable until a server is fixed, as is the case in traditional hosting.

How High Availability Clustering Works

In the most commonly deployed version of HA clustering, a load balancer distributes traffic between a number of web nodes that are all serving the same application or website to users.

This load balancing reduces the strain on any one server so that each in the cluster can perform at an optimal level.

Even better, if one of the nodes is compromised or starts to fail, the load balancer can route traffic away from it and to the healthy nodes. As a result, the chance of downtime is significantly reduced and overall performance increases.

HA Clusters are essentially infrastructure that does not depend on any single web-server, power supply, network switch, or in some cases, even a single data center to perform. That way, if any singular event impacts a component of the cluster, the other components can then step in and pick up the slack until the issue is fixed.

Use Cases For High Availability

Highly Available Clusters typically cost more than standard infrastructure, which is why not everyone uses them. That said, there are a growing number of use cases wherein HA makes sense.

eCommerce

For example, consider an eCommerce site that runs regular flash sales. These sales generate often unpredictable traffic surges, and downtime of even a few seconds can result in lost orders and damaged brand reputation.

By investing in HA clustering, even the most popular eCommerce store can be reasonably certain that their website will stay online even during a massive traffic spike.

Financial Institutions

Also, consider a financial institution that counts on having its customer portal available 24 hours per day. If the website and application are offline for too long, customers may think there is reason to panic with regard to their security. At a minimum, they may be inconvenienced enough to consider switching to a competing bank.

As a result, an investment in highly-available web hosting via HA clustering makes a great deal of sense for that financial institution.

Ridesharing

Think about a ridesharing company that needs to power connection between riders, drivers, and headquarters 24 hours per day. If the mobile application ceased working, then riders might not have a way to order service, drivers wouldn’t know where to go, and the company itself would lose scores of useful data…not to mention revenue.

In this case, highly available hosting isn’t a luxury; it’s a requirement.

Is High Availability Right For You?

In the strictest sense, HA infrastructure is for everyone.

Who wouldn’t want to have the most robust and reliable infrastructure possible? Even casual site publishers and hobbyists aren’t pleased when their website is offline for even a few minutes.

But as a practical matter, HA Clustering can be expensive, as each component typically carries additional cost. In many environments, a two-node cluster costs twice that of a one node environment, just as a four-node cluster costs twice as much as a two-node cluster.”

And as the clusters grow, the complexity in managing and monitoring the clusters increases as well. As a result, not all businesses or individual users can balance the expense of a cluster with the benefit of reduced downtime.

In your specific case, the best way to evaluate if highly available hosting is the right choice is to quantify the cost of downtime.

In some cases, like eCommerce sites that literally cannot generate revenue if they are offline, this calculation is simple. Calculating how much revenue can be expected each minute is a pretty good guide to determine how much revenue could be lost for minutes or even hours of downtime.

In other cases, quantifying lost reputation, lost contacts, or lost content is a little harder. However, if your business is dependent on the website to generate leads or revenue, or dependent on web-based applications to drive growth, then the more robust hosting provided by a high available cluster is worth exploring further.

High Availability at Liquid Web

At Liquid Web we’ve been providing highly-reliable, highly-secure highly available infrastructure for more than twenty years.

From financial institutions to small businesses, from enterprises to innovative startups, our team of the Most Helpful Humans in hosting understand what’s at stake for each business we serve when it comes to powering their online initiatives.

If you’re curious about the benefits and advantages available through HA Clustering, contact us. Our team would be eager to learn more about your business goals, and explore if Highly Available hosting makes sense for you.

Get the Ultimate High Availability Checklist

The post Is High Availability Clustering Right For You? appeared first on Liquid Web.

Congratulations! You’ve gone viral! Your content pierced the public psyche and now everyone is coming to your site for the same thing all at the same time.

It was first coined as the “Reddit Effect,” when thousands of people would read something on Reddit and share it on social media causing a frenzy of interest. Minutes later, your website is crashing and the only thing everyone beyond the first few hundred people get to see is an error message or, worse yet, nothing at all. This unfortunate occurrence was aptly coined the “Reddit-Hug-Of-Death.”

After people have experienced your viral content is when the most engaged (and most valuable) visitors discover you and your brand. Additionally, other content on your site suddenly gains steam.

If properly prepared, the Reddit Effect has pulled brands and individuals out of obscurity and launched them.”

For that to happen, you need to know how to prepare for spikes in traffic.

What Happens During a Reddit-Hug-Of-Death?

If you haven’t got the mechanisms in place with your cloud provider to handle sudden spikes in traffic, the result is a complete shutdown of the site. Implementing these mechanisms at the moment of a sudden spike can take time, can drastically increase costs, and can cause you to completely miss the opportunity.

What if it happens overnight? You could have missed the moment altogether.

From a cloud perspective, the capacity for visitor access to the content is based on the plan you’ve chosen, generally conforming to the normal traffic to the site in any given period. Data is backed up so it isn’t lost, but if traffic suddenly spikes, a crash is inevitable.

Downtime can kill momentum and unless there are adjustments made quickly, the momentum will be gone. This is not the time you want to test the level of service of your cloud provider. It is best to recognize some of the things that could trigger the Reddit Effect and choose a provider who offers services that can reasonably avoid costly downtime.

Planning Ahead for The Reddit Effect

Sometimes it’s impossible to plan for sudden a spike in traffic. As we all know, the internet can be the ever-expanding ouroboros snake eternally feeding upon itself. However, your activities can inform your choices of service plans and mechanisms you implement with your cloud provider.

• Creating Content: If you create blogs, video, or social media content intended to go viral, experts recommend having a high availability environment with a server cluster to avoid downtime due to high traffic.
• Newsworthy Activity and Marketing: When engaging in national media appearances, social media ad buys, and creating digital marketing traffic, a high availability environment and fault tolerance using Managed Dedicated Servers will help ensure uptime during fluctuations in traffic.
• Unwanted Virality and PR: When things go bad, the need to control the message is important and a site crash destroys that chance. Crisis managers cannot rely on news or outside sources to correctly disseminate your full message, so high availability is key.

Load Balancing

Your data is housed on a server and visitors go through a lot of levels at the speed of light to get there. If you employ load balancing technology, once they reach your cloud provider, they are first connected to either managed shared or dedicated load balancers. Using one of many available traffic optimization algorithms, these direct each distinct visitor to one of the web servers in your infrastructure.

How does load balancing offset the Reddit Effect? As traffic to your content swells, new servers can be quickly and easily added to the pool of load-balanced servers.”

Having this infrastructure in place up front can save a lot of time and lost revenue.

Managed Shared Load Balancers

Managed shared load balancers are intended to mitigate growth beyond a single web server. This mechanism is highly reliable, customizable, and you’ll receive full redundancy with automatic failover for your web application.

Managed Dedicated Load Balancers

Managed dedicated load balancers offer the benefits of shared load balancing with additions such as advanced traffic scripting options, a complete API, and high-performance SSL. It ensures that a full set of resources are committed to your infrastructure at all times and scale at your own pace. This increases performance and protects against latency or bottlenecks with dedicated hardware that can cause downtime.

High Availability and Fault Tolerance

A high availability environment is achieved by allocating more than one server and a floating IP address with data replication to keep them in sync as a failover mechanism. Redundancy is the key to allowing traffic to run freely without downtime, even if a server goes down.

No network is perfect, and an outage is possible for reasons far beyond the Reddit Effect, so having fault tolerance in place is an excellent failsafe. Using a Storage Area Network (SAN), fault tolerance houses the basic core functionality of the site on a server, enabling visitors to access the system in the event of the failure of one or more components.

Your Popularity Shouldn’t Crush You

If you’re creating content, advertising, or increasing your social media activity, then definitely consider reviewing your current cloud services package. Along with increased traffic comes increased exposure and scrutiny, so extra security should also be a consideration.

Putting all of the mechanisms in place in anticipation of your burgeoning popularity isn’t aspirational; it’s practical. Keep in mind load balancing and fault tolerance in a high availability environment when creating a cloud services package.

The post How to Prepare Your Website for The Reddit Effect appeared first on Liquid Web.

The new post-pandemic reality is that people are equipped to work remotely at any time. Have you got your coffee or tea? Check. The dog walked? Check. Your young kids understand that mom/dad is busy and can’t be disturbed? Check (but it still won’t work).

You just logged into your personal laptop, your calendar, your company’s intranet, your project platform, and maybe a social media account or two. Unfortunately, today, you have a new work partner logged into your home Wi-Fi, watching you tap in passwords, waiting for something juicy and profitable.

Your IT expert at work is worried because they know your connection is likely not secure. They also know that the addition of each remote worker incrementally degrades security further.

To mitigate security breaches and ensure high availability, they layer security measures upon each other. Depending on the user’s behavior, that still might not be enough.

Start by asking these 6 security questions.

Securing A Remote Workspace

Security should start at home because it can bleed into work. When the company network fails, IT professionals react, fix it, then investigate the origins. If they discover the origin was you, working remotely may not be an option available to you anymore.

Educating yourself on how the security environment works is the first step in saving yourself this embarrassment.

1. Am I Protecting Sensitive Information?

The company portal has security that you don’t have at home. Transferring sensitive data to your machine through your Wi-Fi connection renders you and the company vulnerable.

Only store data to the cloud that you frequently access and avoid storing documents with sensitive personal information particularly passwords, credit card numbers, and intellectual property on free cloud services. Adequate security costs money.

Encryption is the key to protecting sensitive info transfer.

2. Is My Data Encrypted?

Using a third-party encryption application always helps, but when working remotely, Liquid Web automatically offers local encryption of your files when uploaded to the cloud.

Using strong encryption, SSL Certificates keep sites and sensitive data secure. Two excellent options are the universally trusted SSL certificate from GlobalSign, or the Fully Managed service offers Let’s Encrypt as a free, auto-renewing SSL solution.

3. How Do I Manage Passwords and MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)?

The moment you start working from home, any IT professional will urge you to shift how you manage your passwords. Protect yourself and your organization by using complex personal passwords. You can create your own password algorithm, but changing them regularly can be a challenge.

The best way to secure yourself is to use a password service that secures, changes, and manages your passwords for you. It costs money, but consider it insurance for your reputation and personal data.

If it hasn’t already been implemented, your organization should consider multi-factor authentication (MFA) when transitioning to a full or partial remote work model. For example, confirming log-in credentials through an email or phone prompt. It only takes seconds, but it adds a layer that significantly improves security.

4. Am I Securely Backing Up My Data?

Backing up your system and data to a hard drive is always a good idea. That equipment should never leave your house. For redundancy purposes, backing up to the cloud is essential as long as the information is encrypted automatically by your cloud service.

Redundancy is an essential ingredient in a high availability environment. Liquid Web offers Acronis Cyber Backups for Dedicated Servers which provides incremental, differential, and full encrypted cloud backups, making it easy to customize a recovery plan. Backups are stored in a different data center from the server and offer a secure offsite backup solution. Distributing data across two or more drives in a RAID array allows for better performance, reliability, and more extensive data sets.

5. Do I Have Adequate VPN and Firewalls in Place?

Firewalls on most home computers are nice to have. However, if the user is prone to risky online behavior such as downloading random apps or opening email attachments from unknown sources, then those firewalls are, in the words of Sir Elton John, “like a candle in the wind.”

A layered approach, with Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and firewalls, protects your company’s data. By utilizing their own OS, Liquid Web’s hardware firewalls protect systems from incoming attacks, operating independently of the server(s), automatically blocking malware, such as Trojan horses, worms, and spyware.

A VPN offers an extra level of protection that potential attackers need to pass through. It extends geographic connectivity along a secure plane of communication, improving remote worker productivity and opening global networking opportunities.

6. Am I Working in a High Availability Environment?

The high availability environment involves a series of systems, many of which are mentioned here, to keep data safe and constantly available. Without high availability, your work can be interrupted at the most inopportune times, generally during periods with increased volume when high availability is most needed. All of the security measures, including yours, help retain this.

High availability protects servers, ensures uptime, and makes sure that workflow is retained across the organization.

Is My Remote Connection Secure?

Probably not, but as you can see, there are a few things that you can do to protect yourself and your employer from exposure.

Safely storing and backing up data, smarter password management, encryption, and the use of a VPN, along with being very careful with what you open or download, is going to make your IT Manager at work sleep better at night.

Is Your Website’s Availability Crucial to Your Business?

The post The 6 Considerations for Secure Remote Work appeared first on Liquid Web.

Earlier this month, I joined Liquid Web as their Chief Revenue Officer to oversee revenue operations for the Liquid Web and Nexcess brands. I would like you to know why.

Taking this new role, just as the world has turned upside down, is exactly the right step for me. Now more than ever, there is great value in connecting the right solutions with the people who will reap their benefits. Now more than ever, business is moving online and our wide product portfolio can meet their needs, whether they are just getting started, or looking for higher performance solutions to handle new traffic surges. These SMBs are changing our world and a big part of that success depends on their web presence and cloud technologies. I am grateful to have an opportunity to lead an amazing and diverse sales organization that is focused on helping customers not only survive during these times but thrive.

Why The Liquid Web Family of Brands, why now?

I’ve been in the technology space for years now, and I’ve known about Liquid Web’s high-performance hosting, exceptional support, and innovative products. And I’ve competed and lost against Nexcess as they became the industry leader in Magento with their high-performance Cloud and eCommerce expertise. So when Nexcess joined the Liquid Web family last year, I took notice. These two companies are developing the product and open-source platform capabilities that SMB customers and their developers have been asking for. And, I am excited to apply my 20 years of experience to see how we can continue to wow and serve those customers.

You will find me creating a world-class direct sales and partner channel that uses their expertise to understand the needs of our SMB customers and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them. With high-performance traditional, cloud, and hybrid hosting environments and a truly managed, Cloud solution built to optimize Magento, WooCommerce and WordPress sites, stores and applications, our teams have the ability to help our customers choose the best product for their project. And I will be a champion for the products, programs, and processes that help our customers grow their businesses. A wide product portfolio, a reputation for high performance and exceptional support, and a culture focused on the customer … it’s a dream job.

About me. Born and raised in Virginia, but career choices allowed me to call London, Washington, D.C., and Vail, Colorado home. While I started my career as a high school teacher and wrestling coach, I’ve also had the gift of working with Technology winners Microsoft and Rackspace. I was raised in a Fanatical customer culture at both Webmail.us and then Rackspace. Along the way, I’ve been surrounded by exceptional leaders who have helped me develop my own style and method. Core for me is building teams, growing leaders, and serving customers. Being accessible, responsive, and engaged with my team is important to me – and, as we work remote, more critical than ever.

I look forward to meeting our Liquid Web and Nexcess customers. And I look forward to bringing new customers to the Liquid Web Family of Brands. If I can help you, please reach out.

The post Why I Joined The Liquid Web Family of Brands appeared first on Liquid Web.

Lansing, Michigan, April 27th, 2020 – Liquid Web Family of Brands, the market leader in managed hosting and application services to SMBs and web professionals, announced, today, the hiring of Adam Williams as Liquid Web’s Chief Revenue Officer to oversee revenue operations for the Liquid Web and Nexcess brands. Williams brings nearly 20 years of sales leadership experience to his role, which includes leadership roles with technology providers, Microsoft and Rackspace.

Williams will expand both the direct sales and channel organization to handle the rapidly growing product portfolio for the Managed Cloud and Managed Applications brands. Building on the company’s reputation for expert and helpful service, Williams’ goal is to provide the right solutions across the product portfolio for web professionals and agency partners the companies serve. “Finding a company like Liquid Web that takes that personal customer connection a step further is amazing and humbling. I am excited to apply my experience to see how we can continue to wow and serve customers,” says Williams.

“We could not be more excited to add Adam to our team to further champion our efforts to build relationships with our customers, aggressively advocate for the products, programs, and processes to help them grow their businesses,” said Carrie Wheeler, EVP & GM, Liquid Web. “His passion for customers, technology experience, and ability to execute is a cultural alignment that excites us. Adding a leader of this caliber furthers our commitment to powering the online content, commerce, and potential for the web professionals we serve,” said Wheeler.

Building on 20 plus years of success, our Liquid Web Brand Family consists of four companies (Liquid Web, Nexcess, iThemes, and InterWorx) purpose-built to deliver software, solutions, and managed services for mission-critical sites, stores, and applications for SMBs and the designers, developers, and agencies who create for them. With more than 1.5 million sites under management, The Liquid Web Family of Brands serves over 45,000 customers spanning 150 countries. The company has assembled a world-class team, 10 global data centers, and an expert group of 24/7/365 solution engineers. As an industry leader in customer service*, the rapidly expanding company has been recognized among INC. Magazine’s 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies for twelve years. For more information, please visit Liquid Web, or read our blog posts. Stay up to date with all Liquid Web events on Twitter and LinkedIn.

*2019 Net Promoter Score of 67

The post Liquid Web Hires Technology Veteran to Expand Sales Reach appeared first on Liquid Web.

Liquid Web’s VP of Technology on prioritizing safety, maintaining effective communication, and providing excellent customer support during times of crisis.

In the wake of the pandemic we all know as Coronavirus (Covid19), organizations everywhere are navigating the challenges and issues the crisis has presented. Many companies quickly enacted their Business Continuity plan, but with such an extraordinary worldwide pandemic, is that enough?

The importance of maintaining, reviewing, and reinforcing a strong Business Continuity Plan has never been more evident. With ten data centers across the world and customer support centers in eight separate locations across five countries, preparing for the possibility of global disruption was critical for the Liquid Web Family of Brands even before the outbreak of coronavirus. Our Liquid Web Brands (Liquid Web, Nexcess, iThemes and InterWorx) serve many important businesses ranging from small to enterprise, and for many, being online is their livelihood.

Over the course of the last two months, we have been asked by our customers to share tips on how we’ve worked to manage through this crisis. Like all of you, we had to take our Business Continuity plans from PowerPoint to real life. And we wanted to share some of what we have learned and our documented best practices to help you gather ideas to ensure your business stays protected during any disaster or pandemic in the future. We hope these ideas will help you develop a centralized, coordinated effort to quickly make decisions and ensure that your workforce stays safe and businesses continue to operate.

Create A Virtual Command Center

One of the most important steps to take for the sake of business continuity is to set up a Virtual Command Center. The command center has several roles in a crisis. First is a place for quick tactical and logistical decisions and responses to the continually changing situation. The second and equally important role of the command center is to provide comfort and confidence to the employees and customers that the company is on top of the situation, treating the situation with importance, and protecting the business and safety of the employees.

A Virtual Command Center is composed of leaders from all departments and site locations that meet daily to assess the company’s response, address new government regulations, and to ensure that employees are informed and safe. To be effective, the command center must have the authority to make and implement policy and procedures as the crisis evolves. To be productive, the VCC should not be large, but should include leaders from each key department within the organization, and the checkpoint meetings should not last long. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes should suffice. The point is to have daily touch points with each team lead to keep a pulse on the ground. Visibility and frequent communications from the command center will continue to reinforce the message to the employees and customers that you are on top of the situation and looking out for the best interests of the employees, customers, and business.

Infrastructure & Workforce Readiness

As we are all experiencing Covid19, mandatory Work From Home (WFH) became a reality for all businesses. Ensuring your infrastructure and your team is prepared for a successful execution is critically important. A Business Continuity plan should include these critical areas below.

1. Employee Communications
2. Workforce Management
3. Customer Notifications
4. Supply Chain

1. Employee Communications

Communications

First and foremost, employees should feel safe, supported, and informed. As the current global situation has shown us, things can and do change rapidly. News, social media, and government agencies can sometimes provide conflicting messages. To keep employees aware of developments and recommendations, it can be helpful to create an internal resource center with links to the reputable sources of information. Liquid Web set up an internal site with links to information from the CDC and WHO, best practices to avoid spreading the virus, a copy of all customer and employee communications, as well as a list of the Virtual Command Center team and how to contact them. The goal is to provide a trusted location that employees can get accurate information without the hype.

Sending several employee communications via email with policies, practices, and guidelines is also useful. The goal should be to reiterate that the company leadership is involved, monitoring the situation, and has the best interest of employees in mind.

We also created a Slack channel to help employees have a central place to share any feedback, information, or questions they may have regarding Covid19. Slack is a good option for communication, as it is a great way to instantly community with all employees in chat-like form.

2. Workforce Management

Work from Home

As we saw with Covid19, a shift in businesses moving to work from home has become increasingly important to help stop the spread of the virus. Liquid Web acted immediately by implementing a Mandatory Work From Home effective March 16th before it was a mandate in any state or local governments

To have all employees working from home is new territory for many companies, Liquid Web included. We determined whether or not there were any employees who lacked laptops or workstations at home. We were able to configure and issue devices to those in need. A strong Business Continuity Plan should have clear documentation on how to equip staff in a remote working situation and ensure that they can get online.

Our Network was also tested to ensure none of our employees had any issues logging onto our VPN. Although our VPN was sized appropriately for the traffic, we did upgrade some of our hardware to reduce risk of failure in what was now considered very critical infrastructure. This is also a good time to reinforce security awareness and online safety to your employees. During any kind of crisis, hackers and phishing scams tend to be on the rise, trying to take advantage of the turmoil.

On-Site Required Employees

Many of our customers are B2B organizations and have many clients they are responsible for serving. As a Hosting and Managed Applications company, helping keep our customers business online is mission-critical. Our business requires on-site personnel 24×7 at our data centers to repair and maintain hardware, perform installations and decommissions, and other services related to our customers’ technical infrastructure. By the time the mandated “Stay Home. Be Safe” laws were enacted by local governments, we had already prepared a list of critical data center employees that were allowed to work on site. We used Homeland Security guidelines to create a formal document demonstrating Liquid Web’s critical role in IT infrastructure and communications, and identified named employees who were required to travel to and from their work location to fulfill their role. Should your business require onsite employees, issue letters on company letterhead providing your authority for them to travel to and from work for critical roles. On-site staff should be limited to the minimum required during each shift and employees should be instructed to stay 6 feet apart, wash hands frequently, and use precautions. Non-critical projects requiring on-site personnel should be deferred.

Business Continuity Plans should also include documentation related to advanced cleaning and disinfecting procedures, as well as “First Infection” documentation, identifying procedures to follow upon the discovery of an on-site employee contracting the virus.

3. Customer Notifications

Our customers rely on our technology infrastructure, and even more so now as people around the world are moving their interactions online as they follow stay-at-home guidelines. It is important to quickly address any concerns customers may have with an email out to your customers. Liquid Web’s CEO sent an email to its customers, summarizing the company’s readiness, and letting them know that we are in this together. If there is anything your business can do for your customers, a nice gesture can go a long way. Many of our customers are SMBs and freelancers, and we knew they would be impacted by what has been happening. We offered to waive any bandwidth overage fees in a gesture of goodwill for our customers suddenly experiencing higher online volumes. It also makes sense to add a page on your website where customers can access the latest from your company on how you will serve them during this situation, how your products and services might help them as the business environment changes, as well as access to helpful information and resources. Consider referencing that link on your website homepage and on your invoices to remind your customers that they can get the information they need in a central location.

4. Supply Chain and Inventory

In planning for a crisis such as this, remember that your business partners and suppliers may also be facing similar challenges. You need to consider if your supply chain could be affected, and how to prepare for a potential disruption. Even with the best workforce planning, if your supply chain is broken, your business and customers will suffer.

As a growing hosting provider, Liquid Web is a capital-intensive company and requires significant hardware to meet the demand of our customers’ technology needs. With so many unknowns and the pandemic affecting a majority of the countries in the world, we quickly decided to increase our hardware inventory levels to protect against supply chain disruptions and address potential increased demand as more work is moved online.

Rising to the Challenge

As companies all over the world move forward navigating this pandemic, a Virtual Command Center is invaluable, allowing companies to continually monitor and adjust to the latest news as needed. We must all assess new events and information, new government mandates, and our internal operations processes to ensure continuity. While our documentation and business continuity preparation in advance certainly aided and facilitated our execution, I believe that our quick and decisive action was the most instrumental factor in ensuring that we could successfully rise to the challenges presented by this crisis, both for our employees and our customers. Leading our Virtual Command Center, I am reminded that a business is only as good as the expertise, diligence, and discipline of their employees. It has been rewarding to see the dedication, empathy, and care with which this team of leaders has displayed as we work through this remarkable situation.

The post Business Continuity During A Pandemic appeared first on Liquid Web.

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.

Corey Wagner is our Senior Affiliate Program Manager at Liquid Web, where he has been focused on helping our Affiliate Partners for almost six years by providing valuable growth and strategy. Corey has been enjoying a path in the Technology Industry for almost 18 years and considers his Web Hosting career with Liquid Web an inspiration.

We sat down with Corey to learn more about what he is up to these days, including helping print 3D face shields for Sparrow Hospital frontline healthcare workers during his spare time.

Why did you join Liquid Web?

I wanted to work for an organization that actually cared about their customers and employees, and Liquid Web seemed like a great place to find both of those attributes. I had heard about Liquid Web from a good friend of mine named Gordon. He was always talking about the free drinks, company events, and Nerf gun wars happening, and how much he enjoyed his career there. I knew it would be a great fit for me too.

What draws you to the hosting industry as a career?

Working for a web hosting company means working on diverse projects and with different teams daily. Liquid Web is a global company and in a given week, I can work with different people from all around the world. Everyone has different ideas, business models, and views, but at the end of the day, everyone needs hosting. I’m happy Liquid Web has given me the opportunity to be part of the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting culture we have built. No project is too small or challenging for us to help with.

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

I love the culture and how much the organization gives back to its employees. Covid-19 brought on new challenges for everyone, but Liquid Web immediately took action. In order to help flatten the curve, they instituted a mandatory work-from-home policy, which protected the employees. You can tell leadership truly cares about each one of us.

Culture is a big thing in our company, so when the work-from-home policy was implemented, our Culture Committee immediately implemented fun activities we could participate in remotely. The Committee set up events like Netflix Parties, Mario Kart Competitions, Trivia, and fun Slack channel groups with different topics. It has made a world of difference for employees.

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

I love that we have the ability to share memes/gifs in a Slack channel with colleagues, and it isn’t seen as off-limits or unprofessional. A friendly environment is encouraged between all levels while at work, which really brings enjoyment to our projects.

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

Liquid Web truly takes care of its employees. A few years back, I incurred some health issues which led to me having brain surgery, and my Liquid Web family created a GoFundMe page to assist with all the health expenses. (Thank You All!) Something I was tremendously thankful and forever grateful for. Their support made it possible for me to focus on getting better instead of worrying about financial difficulties. This is what makes them different – it’s the people.

Tell us about the most positive experience you have had at Liquid Web.

Earlier this year, I knew I needed to help somehow with the shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) that frontline healthcare workers needed. I decided to put my 3D printer to use and print out face shields to donate to Sparrow Hospital, which is a local hospital in Lansing, Michigan. I uploaded a few pictures to my personal Facebook page sharing my work, and a few days later, Liquid Web made a donation to me to purchase an additional 3D printer and materials. I was pleasantly shocked and grateful for that donation. I have been able to double my output and provide some additional PPE equipment for our heroes on the frontline fighting Covid-19.

Not only did Liquid Web donate to me, but they also made an initial donation to No Kid Hungry, and will continue to donate $10 for every order we receive until May 31st.

The donation to my project and helping feed children around the nation shows how much Liquid Web cares about our communities. The company really means what they say… being the most helpful humans.

What is the biggest milestone you’ve accomplished?

Taking over the Affiliate Program and continuing to grow it to the present has been truly fulfilling. I have been with Liquid Web for almost six years now, and it’s amazing to see the growth trajectory we have made in that time.

What are you known for at Liquid Web? What do people specifically come to you for?

I am usually pinged when anyone has questions about our Affiliate Program. Even though we have a team to help out with questions, I am usually the one singled out, which I love. It is good to be thought of first and be the go-to person on a team.

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

I would love for them to see how happy most of us are to go to work every day and how it doesn’t even feel like a “job.” It feels much more like a career where we are able to make a difference and help business owners grow in ways they absolutely need right now.

We’re laser-focused on making sure our customers have what they need to continue to grow during this time, including becoming part of our Partner Community as an Affiliate, or adding other services such as VPN capacity, a Content Delivery Network (CDN), or security services. Hackers know this is a vulnerable time right now for many small businesses, and owners need to be vigilant about cybersecurity threats that may surface.

Work aside, what are some of your hobbies?

I love working with 3D printing Also, wood working, car modifying, and photography.

What is your favorite TV show?

Star Trek: Picard is an amazing show. I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with my Dad, and this is basically a sequel/reboot of the franchise with a lot of nostalgia sprinkled in.

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

Keanu Reeves or Tom Hanks would be top picks. Both are known for being very kind and generous people. I love both of them for their acting in movies and would love to share a meal and conversation with either/both of them.

You can follow Corey Wagner on LinkedIn.

The post Meet a Helpful Human – Corey Wagner appeared first on Liquid Web.

Considering HostGator for Your Web Hosting?

When it comes to infrastructure for your agency or organization, it can be easy to make a decision of convenience. Instead of asking “what is the best choice for us” you might ask “what’s the worst that could happen?” What other reason would there be for choosing a hosting provider that doesn’t offer server management, doesn’t offer performance optimization, and doesn’t offer the best possible uptime for your website and applications?

However, when push comes to shove, choosing the least expensive option for your hosting infrastructure almost never works out. Whether it be poor support or unplanned downtime, cutting costs by choosing a host like HostGator can have catastrophic consequences. Unmanaged infrastructure can mean unforeseen technical problems. Irregular backups can mean you don’t have the most recent version of your website or application. And unmonitored services mean that there could be problems lurking on your servers and you might never know.

Your infrastructure investments deserve better. You deserve a partner that manages and supports your infrastructure so you can focus on building your business.

With Liquid Web you’ll get the hosting sector’s only 100% Network and Power Uptime guarantee for managed hosting services. Additionally you’ll have access to the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting, our team of more than 300 support technicians, system administrators and server engineers. You can count on automatic backups, proactive monitoring, and performance optimization. And if you need a hand? We promise a human will answer your phone call or chat inquiry in under a minute. That’s just the start of the difference between Liquid Web vs. HostGator.

Nobody Includes More Than Liquid Web

Every Fully Managed Dedicated and Virtual Private 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

We didn’t get the reputation for being the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting without reason. Rather we earned that reputation over two decades of supporting businesses and technologists the world over. Our support technicians, system administrators and infrastructure engineers work every day to ensure that Liquid Web continues to provide the right solutions to support our clients no matter where their digital strategy takes them.

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

Liquid Web’s Vice President of Sales on doing meaningful work, creating her own path, and how her sons keep her motivated to do work she is proud of.

Courtney Skarda endeavors to bring her best self to work every day, a sentiment she learned from her parents. Raised as an only child, her parents sacrificed so much for her growing up. “The work ethic and perseverance my parents have modeled for me my entire life is an inspiration,” says Skarda.” Growing up, my parents would always encourage me to sign up for different classes and skip out on the norm. “I remember a time in high school my mother forced me to take a computer science class instead of a home economics course. Being one of two females in the class was a bit intimidating, but I am happy to have had that push from my mother to help me step out of my comfort zone. I owe my parents for instilling that in me – step up and be a leader in all things,” Skarda said. Her mother always wanted Skarda to find the tools to do things herself, and not to ever rely on anyone else.

Once Skarda graduated from the University of Texas – San Antonio, Skarda heard an employment ad on a local radio station for a job at Dell. The interview process was intimidating being one of a few women, but her parents’ words always grounded her, “be a leader in all things,” Skarda says. Skarda did get the job, and it was a great experience for her career. From that point on, she says, every experience tested her ability to learn, adapt, and pursue the career that she wanted. “From training— where we had to put together a computer— to addressing my fear of outbound calling, to learning how to have the courage to say ‘I don’t know, but I will find someone who does,’ to dealing with layoffs, I was learning how to manage people and create my path as a woman in tech. Every day was a lesson.”

Skarda was successful in her first year after college, and spent the first seven to ten years of her career focusing on the things she was good at, celebrating her natural strengths and ability. There were some challenging times fitting into a male dominated workforce but Skarda always leaned in on her strength as a strategic thinker. Once she accepted that she was different and that it was ok being a female, she took more confidence in herself and looked at it as an advantage instead of a disadvantage. “I saw the differences as opportunities. I knew that I could bring something unique to the table, and a different perspective that could be valuable. From that point on, I began learning to celebrate my differences and drew attention to them, instead of hiding or trying to change”, Skarda said.

A fantastic example of the ways in which Skarda has paved her own way came after the birth of her first child in 2004 when she elevated issues facing employees coming back from Family Leave. As a result, policies were changed to make re-entering into commission-based roles fair for mothers, fathers, and anyone returning from medical leave. “I was terrified to speak up, worried about the potential damage to my career,” she says, “but knew that I wasn’t the only person struggling. I knew there had to be a better way to ensure that this part of the workforce could take important time to be with their family and heal, and still have their role secure in the company.” Her work had not gone unnoticed, eventually landing her on a spot in San Antonio Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list, and having her accomplishments highlighted in San Antonio Woman Magazine.

Now, Skarda brings her passion to Liquid Web as Vice President of Sales, creating an environment where her team can create great relationships with prospects and customers alike by learning about their companies, their needs, and building technical solutions that help them grow their businesses through technology. “It all begins with a helpful person who is committed to creating an amazing sales experience by listening, building trust, and providing a valuable solution,” she says. She loves the pace of working in tech, and especially appreciates Liquid Web’s commitment to both their employees and their customers. “I have been blessed to work for tech companies that have been as focused on customer service as they have been on technology. Ultimately, this allows me to focus on the people part of my work as much as the operational side.” She is grateful for those who choose to work alongside her at Liquid Web. “I am committed to making our environment a positive place where people can learn, grow, and realize their dreams. I want to build an environment where each individual can see their impact and feel recognized and valued because of it.”

Skarda knows that the future of women in technology belongs to those willing to build the roles and work environments they want. “I am so impressed by the confidence and sense of self that the next generation of women in tech have,” she says. “I came from a time where I thought I had to fit in, or ‘not rock the boat.’ It took me years to develop the confidence that I see in the women who are entering our field today. The ultimate future of diversity in technology belongs to everyone. We all have to be committed to continuing the hard discussions and making our workplaces a community where everyone can thrive and feel included.”

Skarda’s three life lessons:

1. Being a leader, you get to work with a variety of different personalities, but have come to learn that you can’t teach passion. A leader’s goal is to help your people find their passion, and then lead them to success. You can’t force people to do things they don’t enjoy. Expand on your people’s strengths and lean in on that.
2. Nice is telling people what they want to hear. Kind is telling people what they need to hear, in the manner that they can best receive it.
3. Be self-aware enough to know where you shine and where you implode. Be smart enough to have trusted mentors/advisors that will check your blind spots for you (even when you don’t ask), and be vulnerable enough to listen to them and ask for help.

Skarda believes that every person has to seek out and acknowledge what their non-negotiables are. Meaning, the things a person will not sacrifice in life or in their careers. Skarda believes that as a human, a parent, and a leader, her responsibility is to continue to grow so that she can be the best person that she can be for herself and for her two teenage boys. “My boys are my world, and they are part of my motivation to continue to be the best person for them,” Skarda says. In order to do this, she seeks out new things, new experiences, and different points of views, even from them. She lives by these words from Walt Whitman, “take in everything around you, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.”

She encourages those interested in tech to discover what their unique talents are. “Figure out what you bring to the table that no one else can. Know your strengths and devote your time and energy to developing those qualities. Your job is to figure out how to use your unique strengths to help solve the problems around you… again and again.”

The post Women in Technology: Courtney Skarda appeared first on Liquid Web.