Here's why I really like my webhost...
This email just arrived from ValueTech, where the Gazette (and many of my clients' sites) are hosted:
In Houston, support staff are evacuating and only a core staff of network engineers will remain. Throughout the end of the week and weekend, there will be 24x7 on-site technicians there, as well as NOC (Network Operations Center) staff at our HQ in Greenville, South Carolina who have full 100% remote access to servers themselves.
The data center in Houston has 10,000 gallons of fuel on site and waiting. As an extra precaution, we have even sourced an additional rental generator. While this unit would not be needed for a brief outage, if we were to experience a loss of power lasting several days, we would need to perform normal maintenance on our generators, and this would give us a generator to run while that maintenance is taking place. Maintenance such as oil changes is required under our operating specifications every 100 to 150 hours, meaning that we would need to perform maintenance sometime after 4-5 days.
All total, we have in excess of 10,000 gallons of fuel on site. We have guaranteed contracts for fuel delivery and two fuel depots are located within 2 miles of our facility.
*** SHOULD THE FACILITY GO DOWN : ***
ValueTech has leased two additional heavy-duty core servers and we are mirroring all affected Web sites / E-mail / Databases to our facility in Dallas as well as to our HQ. Should there be any problem in Houston, we will be able to restore service to our clients in almost real time, with only short outages.
*** WE ARE PREPARED ***
Our network operations and data center in Atlanta is ISO 9001 certified for quality and emergency preparedness. We have a tiertiary name server on hand in Atlanta as well as redundant nameservers to mirror our "NS2" server in Houston should service to NS2 be affected.
Should you have any questions, our Greenville office is 100% unaffected and we will be available to answer any questions you have.
You can reach us at xxx-xxx-8818 or xxx-xxx-1921.
Thank you for your business!
Drew Nichols
ValueTech
I blanked out the phone numbers. If you need to call them, you can go to their website.
These guys aren't a huge company...but they take their business -- and their clients -- seriously, and are committed to first-rate service. It's great that they've not only got a plan, but that they also understand the importance of keeping their clients up-to-date on what's happening. I recommend 'em. I also know of a couple of local and state governments that could learn some lessons in disaster planning from them.
Bryan, I wondered if you'd catch that!
Posted by: Eric at September 22, 2005 06:29 AMEric,
I posted a tribute to Texas today. This note from your Hosting provider is typical of the can do attitude the rest of the country needs to learn from Texas.
This from a Transplanted North Dakotan to Illinois.
Lead on.
Posted by: Gene Redlin at September 22, 2005 08:38 AMGene, I won't argue with your basic premise, but my webhost is actually located in South Carolina. They just happen to have a server farm in Houston.
Posted by: Eric at September 22, 2005 09:01 AMWe have the same attitude you describe here. It's an attitude that got America where it was today. Like it or not, you can't run a long-term business on cheap quality. And to attain the kind of quality the "Texan Can-Do Attitude" strives for requires spending money on things that don't have immediate gratification. In this case, I have recieved e-mails from Eric and a few other close partners letting us know how proud they are of the work and more importantly the transparency we are providing.
I love your state and find your pride amusing at times but not in a silly way but a "hot-damn they're on to something with this so-called 'pride' thing!"
The rest of the country could learn a lesson from many of you.
Posted by: Drew at September 24, 2005 06:02 PMAbout the publisher
Random Abbye photos...
Angry Clouds
I am Curious Llama
Ganglia & Brain Cloud
Cabeza del Diablo
Aurora Moreorless
Be careful Who you plagiarize
Coming Attractions
All Thorns, All the Time
Hitchin' a Ride
"...the flower fades..."
Finding meaning in random events
Random Thursday: The Thanksgiving Edition
A Matter of Perception
Reason #21 to wear shoes in West Texas
The Neighborhood:
West Texas Blogs:
[Midland unless otherwise indicated]
Other Texas Blogs:
The Business:
The Church:
The World:
I note that their headquarters is in Greenville, SC. They can't be all bad. :-)
Posted by: bryan at September 21, 2005 10:42 PM