I wanted to take a moment and bring to your attention the issue of Net Neutrality and the importance of this topic for all website owners. In its simplest form Net Neutrality means that NO form of content is preferred over another. This means a free and open Internet for all. The issues are complex and cloudy. For instance, some people care that medical records are delivered with priority over a Britney Spears video- thus against net neutrality. Others care that their company message is delivered with equal priority- thus for net neutrality. Both points are very valid.

Recently Google and Verizon are working to craft a proposal to apparently barr phone and cable providers from prioritizing certain types of content in favor of their own services. However, saying bandwidth restricted services like wireless could do so if they disclosed their policies. Ultimately, they hope their outline will serve as a framework for the FCC to enforce net nuetrality. The FCC has been trying to enforce/require Net Neutrality (good), but would need to assert more authority over the Internet (bad). IMO

That said, I wouldn’t be too quick to pat Google or Verizon on the back just yet. These two companies are obviously jockying for position in the future Internet. They are in fact on opposit sides so to speak. Their proposal apparently endorses FCC vigilance over the Internet which I am personally not too happy about.

At the same time, phone and cable providers are upset, because after investing billions in infrastructure, they say they should be able to do things the way they see fit. They suggest that net neutraility laws like this would discourage them from continuing to invest in their infrastructure (I get that). One point phone and cable providers mention is that  they need to prioritize traffic just to keep things running smoothly and avoid bandwidth hogs that would slow traffic for others. I can understand this point too. I would likely be upset if I was restricted on how I could use my own equipment.

If net neutrality was taken away, or regulated by the government (or other forces), it COULD mean:

1) Your website may not get equal treatment when it comes to viewability on the Internet.
2) It may mean increased fees to publish a website and get visitors.
3) Decisions about what’s important and what’s not- will be out of your hands.
4) It will take away vital competition in favor of large generic company solutions.
5) Dictate what’s acceptable content and what’s not- censorship.
6) Additional fees, red-tape and regulations to publish content like your website.

As far as I am concerned I am against anything that would prohibit, slow, or otherwise impede my customer’s ability to conduct business online. I believe that there are other solutions that would reduce the government’s involvement, still provide a free and open Internet, but still allow for priortized traffic for important information and that would give phone and cable providers some encouragement to continue to invest. My guess is that this will come in the form of alternate “webs”. Ever heard of the Usenet (newsgroups)? The “World Wide Web is infact a subset of the overall Internet. Likely a new “world wide web” will emerge with premium services and bandwidth. Not really a solution but likely the way it will all go down.

See:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38571113/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_york_times

1) We can virtualize any hardware based server in minutes.

This is probably number one on my list. We can completely virtualize a hardware based server in minutes. This is not only better for the environment (e.g. less power generated = less CO2) but it means that you can replace your outdated server without having to tear-down and replace your website. Your entire configuration is left 100% intact! This is great for someone looking to upgrade or would like to test out some new software.

2) Virtual servers can be built quickly.

Unlike a dedicated server, virtual servers don’t take long to deploy. We can deploy your virtual server quickly and likewise remove it when you are done with it. Think about it like a consumable resource. As such, if you temporarily need two servers to load balance your website during peak traffic times you can do it without the expense of large setup fees and time.

3) Virtual servers can be duplicated /copied / backup exactly.

Did I mention that we can virtualize your hardware based server? Well we can also duplicate existing virtual servers in minutes too. So if you want to stash a point-in-time backup of your server in case of emergency you can. If you want to test a special version of your website without the risk to your production environment you can.  

4) Virtual servers can be extended quickly.

Need more RAM, HDD or Processor speed during peek times? Not a problem we can extend a virtual server with a few clicks and a restart. Likewise, you can downgrade it just as fast. What does that mean? Well it’s like renting a Ferrari for the day. When your date is over you get back in your more economical Prius (= less hosting fees) and cruise along.

5) Virtual servers can be moved easily.

Let’s say the host machine your virtual server is on needs maintenance. We can simply import your virtual server on to another host machine while maintenance is being performed with little or no downtime. Try that with a dedicated server. Your only choice with a dedicated server is to try to reproduce your entire environment by moving your files and configuration to another machine – it’s just not going to happen (easily).

As you can see virtual servers are a beyond cool alternative for those looking to get into a dedicated serveror to upgrade their existing hardware-based server. They really offer so many benefits over traditional hardware-based servers.

We are thinking to add a “community” area for customers and include a customer marketplace, and forums. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

End-users are sometimes intimidated by the ominous sounding name, and naturally have some objections. To clear things up here some some facts:

• It’s free for the end-user.
• It’s supported by most major hosts.
• There are many ColdFusion Web Developers.
• The developers that use ColdFusion are passionate about it.

To clear up some things for developers:

• It’s free for the web developer.
• It’s VERY easy to learn and can applications can be developed fast.
• It includes all of the tools you need now and the in the future. e.g. AJAX without having to learn Javascript!
• It’s made by Adobe and has built-in hooks with many of their products.

To address the last item in more detail Adobe makes Flash, PDF, Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Photoshop. Almost every web developer has one, if not all, of these core web development tools. Why not use the scripting tool made by the same company?

What makes ColdFusion so special is that it’s tag based. While more advanced methods of scripting are available in ColdFusion, most developers (pro’s or not) use ColdFusion tags to accomplish most tasks. In a nutshell they have incorporated all of the behind-the-scenes scripting into an easy-to-use tag.

For example, if you want to send an email using ColdFusion you write:


< cfmail to="someone@someplace.com" from="me@somewhere.com" subject="My Email Subject" >
Hello this is an email sent from ColdFusion!
< /cfmail >


Wow! That’s easy compared to PHP or ASP.NET. Generally it’s substantially less text to write- but in most cases it’s just plain intuitive compared to other scripting languages. Note: spaces have been added after the greater-than and less-than signs so it will display in this blog post.

For those of you who are current ASP.NET or PHP developers you’ll find this is the case with almost all tasks. If you are thinking that equals less abilities or less sophistication you’ll be surprised to learn about the plethora of available tag parameters, integration of OOP techniques, and web service components that are also available.

For amateur web developers this is an excellent way to jump right in and get the job-at-hand completed without learning complicated scripting techniques.

To learn more about ColdFusion visit Adobe’s website:

http://www.adobe.com/coldfusion

* Remember that that you don’t have to buy, or even download ColdFusion to try it, it’s already enabled in your EPhost web hosting account and ready to try today.

Virtual Server technology has been around for some time. We had previously setup a virtual server a couple of years ago, but decided to scrap the project because the ratio between the number of virtual servers and the cost of the host system was off. It was actually cheaper to use hardware based servers. Now, the ratio is there because of mutli-core CPU’s and enhanced virtual technologies.

This is a big step in the right direction. It will pave the way for us to consolidate our servers and reduce our power and rack space consumption.  This is key if we are to remain competitive. In some ways we were disadvantaged because we have been in business so long. Newer startups, using virtual technology, have options that we never had. Virtually speaking, it might be possible to reproduce our core web hosting services on a handful of servers instead of 10x that many.

We hope to be able to offer customer-facing solutions using virtual technology within the next 3 months.

VMWare Virtual Servers

You can think of virtual servers as a server within a server. A virtual server is an independent isolated operating system that lives inside another server. Multiple virtual servers can reside on the same physical server. Usually they are referred to as the Host system (physical server) and the Guest OS (virtual server). Each virtual server operates entirely independent of one another and for the practical part independent of the Host System. What makes this situation so unique is that there is literally no difference between a virtual server and physical server– not to mention that the same physical server can host many virtual servers.

What makes this possible is a lightweight operating system that is pre-installed on the Host system (physical) called a Hypervisor. The hypervisor is responsible for dishing out the physical resources like CPU, RAM, NIC and HDD space in a specific manner to the independent Guest OS’s. You can think of it like a layered cake with the hardware at the bottom, the hypervisor next, and the guest systems on the top. There are several hypervisors that are currently available. The two primary ones right now are from VMWare and Microsoft. Microsoft calls it Hyper-V and VMWare calls it a Hypervisor. Currently the both are competing for market share. At EPhost we currently use VMWare, but we plan to use Hyper-V as well.

What’s make this possible overall has been the creation of multi-core CPUs that are optimized for virtual servers. Mutlti-core CPU’s are very similar in that the same physical CPU is actually a collection of 2-4 cores each operating as its own CPU. To the operating system, it actually sees multiple CPU’s even though there might only be one physical CPU. You should note that the number of cores is not directly related to the number of virtual servers. So it’s possible to have 20 virtual servers using the same 4 cores.

The net result, no pun intended, is the ability to have many virtual servers within the same physical machine. This provides a number of benefits. First, it gives rise to the consolidation of networks, thus reducing CO2 emissions required to power and cool servers. Second, it provides an excellent platform for users to quickly deploy server environments, makes it easier to migrate servers, and offers the ability to host various OS types such as Microsoft Windows and Linux Red Hat on the same machine.

Virtual Servers can also be used as Virtual Desktops allowing companies to deploy and destroy employee workstations as needed. Employees, will use thin-client computers to transparently dial in to a central server to see their normal desktop. This keeps information secure and reduces valuable IT time required to deploy a work station.

Virtual Servers shouldn’t be confused with Virtual Private Servers (VPS). While they are sometimes used interchangeably they are different. VPS based environments are similar in that they provide an isolated OS environment to the user, but they ultimately rely on splitting a single operating system into several parts. A well known vendor of VPS technology is Virtuoso by Parallels. Parallels is known for making the self-titled software that allows MAC users to switch to using Windows on their MAC. The primary difference between the two is that  virtual servers are divided up at the core hardware level (using the Hypervisor) making better use of resources, while VPS is done at the software level.

At EPhost, we’ll be using real Virtual Servers and NOT VPS technology to drive our consolidation efforts, and to offer dedicated servers at a lower price point. We will continue to provide standard hardware-based dedicated servers for those that need all of the server resources. However, using Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology we will also offer the ability for dedicated server customers to virtualize their physical server to make better use of resources.

One aspect behind our new website and this blog has been to make sure that you are aware that real-people do exist behind my company, and that we aren’t just some faceless enterprise that offers web hosting and web design. There is nothing worse to me than seeing someone get caught up in a web hosting or design situation only to find out that when times get tough, the company that was so attractive in the first place, falls short of offering any real help or advice. That’s just not how we operate.

When considering various mediums for sharing ideas with you we decided against, for now, using a forum system on the site. While a generally good idea for customers to share and exchange ideas– I’ve often seen where it becomes both a crutch and a diversion for a company. Instead of providing good customer service they become referrers of people to the forum. Instead on working on customer solutions that benefit everyone, they are fielding specifics from the handful that use the forum. Until we are able to devote the time it’s off list for now. Instead we’ll be focusing on the blog, writing helpful knowledge base articles, and producing video tutorials.

There are so many things that I have learned about the Internet and business over the last 12 years and I am excited to be able to share them with you. Please take a moment to register on the blog to get the latest posts and, most importantly, to be able to comment and share your experiences.

Best,

Joe Rebis
President
EPhost, Inc.