• Scalability: What if after some time you need a larger server? More memory, more space, more CPU resources... or if you want to load balance with 2 or multiple servers? Virtual servers make it easy to execute required up- or downgrades speedily and effortlessly.
   

• Reliability: How do you handle a hardware failure, such a hard disk crash? Backups on dedicated servers help... but downtime is not always acceptable.
  
  At our data centers, local failover is covered by default. All physical servers in our virtual infrastructure are connected to the same SAN (storage area network) where all virtual machines are stored. In case of hardware failure on the server where the virtual machine is running on, this is automatically restarted on a separate physical server. This process generally requires only a few minutes.

Servers Cluster:
We use only enterprise-grade servers from leading brands, such as Dell and HP.

Storage Cluster  (SAN):
We have implemented a Storage Area Network (SAN) with a capacity of more than 100 TB. This is being used for all virtual servers' data. The SAN ensures increased performance and availability with redundant RAID controllers and redundant fibre-channel connection to the servers. Each array in the SAN is composed of 7 to 15 SAS 15 Krpm disks in RAID 5 or RAID 10 configurations.

Our cluster of servers is connected to the SAN through a fibre channel network. In case the physical server where your virtual server is running on goes down, the virtual server is automatically restarted on another physical server.

Operating System Supported:
Our virtual servers can run a wide range of operating systems, including Linux (for example Red Hat, Centos, Ubuntu, Gentoo or Debian), Windows and Unix.

Security:
A cluster of Cisco ASA firewalls protects our infrastructure from external attacks. We also have Snort based IDS (Intrusion Detection System) devices attached to our aggregation switches. They monitor the external traffic and send specific alerts to our Cisco firewalls to block malicious traffic and intrusion attempts.

In addition, we provide DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks prevention and mitigation to all customers as part of our support service.

Customer Service:
Technical support is one of our most important and appreciated services. With extensive knowledge and experience in Linux, Unix, Solaris, or Windows systems, we can provide rapid response to basic and advanced requests, as well as our best effort to help you with any application level issue.

Our capabilities include:

• Linux/Windows/Unix system administration

• DDoS troubleshooting

• Data migration

• Scripts debugging

• Programming support (PHP, Perl, C/C++,etc..)

• Database administration

• Software installation

• Kernel patching

• DNS management

• Physical-to-virtual server migration

• Security auditing and patching

• Backup maintenance

• Abuse investigation

Our helpdesk operates 24 x 7 x 365.

Fault Tolerance/High Availability:
Our virtual servers run on a cluster of physical servers, not just one server, and we use VMware HA to monitor and detect virtual server failures and automatically restarts them on a new hardware node of the cluster in case of hardware issues on the original node.

Scalability:
You can order a particular virtual server configuration today - and tomorrow you can upgrade it easily and fast to larger one or change specific configuration parameters with minimum or zero downtime and most important without having to reload your server or reinstall your application and data. You can also move to a faster CPU without having to reboot the server. This is really impossible with physical dedicated servers. When it's time to upgrade hardware, you have to go through the standard procedure of backing up the old server, setting up the new one and restoring all data.  If you have to do memory, hard disk or CPU upgrades... the process is the same and requires maintenance, downtime, and additional costs... with virtualization it's just a couple of clicks and you are up-to-date to the latest technology.

Most important, we regularly refresh our hardware with new faster servers and storage equipment. Our customers regularly get their virtual servers upgraded free of charge and without any major impact.

Server Failover:
Local failover in cases of hardware failure is covered by default.

All physical servers in our virtual infrastructure are connected to the same SAN (storage area network), where all virtual machines are stored.  In case of hardware failure on the server where the virtual machine is running on, this is automatically restarted on a separate physical server. This generally takes only a few minutes.

If needed, we can also create a remote backup, which is a full backup image of the hard disk of your virtual server.

Maintenance and Software Updating:
We conduct regular maintenance on all server, storage and network equipment to upgrade the infrastructure and perform security checks. We schedule emergency maintenance 24 x 7, to replace faulty parts or install critical patches on servers or network equipment.

For example, we set up all our virtual servers running on Windows with Microsoft Windows Update service enabled and configured to install security patches every night at 3:00 a.m. local time. Software updates and critical patches for Plesk are available and installed through Parallels' Update service, also installed and enabled by default on all of our Windows/Plesk servers.

Easy Resolution of Issues:
Virtual servers have all the required data encapsulated in an image file. It's much easier to move and manage an encapsulated server to create backups, investigate issues and perform other specific maintenance activities.

Network Monitoring:
We have detailed network accounting info for each one of our servers. Usually, when a customer reaches a sustained rate of 50 % to 75 % of the allowed capacity, we inform the customer so he can decide to upgrade. If the customer needs a network rate graph for a particular virtual server, please let us know and we will generate an Excel or PDF file. We can also provide hourly network rates for the day, week or month.

More Value for your Money:
To compare virtual server prices with the ones of dedicated servers, for example, you can get a dedicated server for US$ 200.- per month, and you can get a virtual server for US$ 200.- per month... well, the dedicated server for US$ 200.- is most likely a low-end commodity server, with low-end disks and low-end connectivity. A virtual server for US$ 200.-, on the other hand, is a piece of a high-end enterprise server and a piece of a high-end SAN.  If you wanted to get the same level of reliability, scalability and performance of a virtual server, you probably would have to pay much more than 10 times the same amount for a comparable dedicated server.

Tomorrow's Technology Today:
Virtualization is considered by many to be the next big thing. Data centers and enterprises are rapidly embracing this new technology, which not only provides all the above mentioned benefits, but it’s also an energy efficient technology which helps to reduce power utilization by 80% and consequently CO² emissions.

If you need more information about our data centers, please let us know.