Dedicated Servers in the cloud with eSecureData

We have tried all sorts of server solutions in our office, with it always seeming to end up with server and hard drive failures resulting in huge amount of recovery and IT work.

We have tried to run a server locally now for 6 years, most recently with Windows Server 2012, and had nothing but issues and problems truth be told.

Our local office just is not setup to have a serious server running in a back office, not to mention the costs in hardware and power over the years.

In our efforts we discovered that servers fail because of a number of reasons which can be split into software and hardware issues. On the software side we found that the operating system froze up almost on a daily basis and the server needed to be restarted. This was our number one issue that we had to deal with on an almost daily basis.

We were now getting more and more into web development with the Army of Flying Monkeys and expanding to more staff  needing access to server resources. We kind of stumbled upon eSecureData and saw that they where unique (which in this market there is a serious number of copycats) compared to their competition. Their simple goal is to offer fast high quality service at cheaper prices than any of their competition. I thought what the heck, this is a no brainer.

So, in late 2014 we decided to can the local server and get our server into the cloud and I have not regretted doing this yet, which is a record for us as we're quite demanding.

So last year we went looking for a solution provider to give us all the normal bells and whistles but with a little bit more than others.

What we were looking for

We were looking for dedicated servers from a long time provider, with some history in the business. We were however looking for a new good data centre for a modern and up to date infrastructure, however alsi wanted it to have been running for 6-9 months to prove themselves out.

The Data Centre we were looking for

One of the most common problems out here in the Pacific, where connectivity is always a little selective, are data connection problems. This can really only be solved by organising multiple providers into your data centre and good redundant switching hardware inside of the data centre.

We had already decided that a data centre failure was much less likely than our own server freezing, but more likely than hardware failures.

We considered all the pros and cons and our biggest hardware problem locally was electrical problems. Electrical problems are the most clearly addressed by any tier 3 or 4 data centre. generators, UPS's and automatic switches are all standard requirements and any good data centre will have them.

Hardware failure 

We have been plagued with hardware failure in our local server. Even with the best equipment, HDD's fail (yes event the new and fancy  SSD ones too), power supplies and event the UPS's supporting them also fail etc.

What we hoped for in the dedicated server from eSecureData  was a good response time to these issues if and when they happened and honest answers on timelines. So far we have been very happy!

Assistance and Online Support

None of our team had any experience specifically in running a remote server, and so good support and help sections was a requirement for us. However we didn;t want over restrictive systems or too much hand holding.

They have unique help section where they put the answer right at the top of the section so you can get it immediately, and if you want to (or indeed have the time!) read the background info below later on.
The help section has literally hundreds of questions in it, so all you need to do is use the search for things like “How to set an Email Alert from a php Script on CentOS” and you get a couple of answers to get you fixed fast.

Their quick reference was a serious advantage so we could get up and running without having to search through hundreds of pages to find the right answer

eSecureData's support team 

eSecureData's support team are brilliant and actually really friendly. Their fast replies to our email enquiries is one of the things that will keep us with them long term for sure. We always seem to get an email answer back within 20-30 minutes if you can believe that. If you have been with any other Data Centre you know you could be waiting up to 24 hours sometimes before you get a reply.

We would have no problem in  recommending eSecureData.com for hosting your website for sure.
Over all we are more than happy with eSecureData and would recommend them for anyone looking for a dedicated server or website hosting solution.

They have provided us with 100% uptime so far  and with the brilliant support we are not planning on moving anywhere!

About ESecure Data

Deciding on a dedicated server hosting company can be a complex matter. eSecureData.com outweighs the competition on several levels. eSecureData offers:

1. Sensible Pricing - eSecureData.com offers pricing so far below industry standards that that we outshine the competition hands down. 

1.  Serious Bandwidth - With unmetered bandwidth, eSecureData.com is here for people who actually plan on having success.

1. Real-World Hard Disks - At eSecureData.com, we don't fool around with tiny hard drives. All eSecureData servers come with real-world drives, ranging from 500GB at the bottom end on up to 12,000GB at the high end. 

1. No-Excuses Data Centrer - We have diesel generators, halon fire protection, multiple backbone-class Internet feeds, 24/7/365 security, 24/7/365 technical staff, AAA downtown locations, biometric and swipe-card access. 

1. Real Intel Quad Core Xeon CPUs. No Celerons - Celerons are fine for low-demand desktop computers, but servers are constantly processing multiple tasks at the same time and Celerons simply cannot keep up.

First peek at the next Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet

Ubuntu 15.04 is here – almost. The first beta of Vivid Vervet has been delivered, and with it have come images of the penguin flock that nestles on this OS.

I looked at Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME and Ubuntu MATE but there’s also Lubuntu and the China-centric Ubuntu Kylin, which I didn’t test.

These are beta releases and should be considered for testing purposes only, but the advantage of these early versions is that features have been frozen and you can get an early glimpse of what's coming for each of the popular flavours in the 15.04 foundation. From this point on, the only changes will be bug fixes.

The biggest news is that Ubuntu MATE has finally gained an "official" blessing from Canonical. That doesn't mean much right now – other than the fact that you can now download it from a Canonical URL – but it is obviously good news for the future of Ubuntu MATE.

Among other things, this will mean there's a now an easy-to-grab daily image if you want to help test and stay abreast of what's new.

If you're dying to try MATE with Ubuntu behind it you can grab the beta, but I'd strongly suggest waiting. The Ubuntu MATE 15.04 beta is very rough and lacks quite a few things you'll find working just fine in, for example, the Mint-based version. That said, some of the more noticeable changes in the last couple of MATE releases – notably improvements to the file managers, like folder colours and customisable sidebars – are present in this release.

Ubuntu MATE: acceptance at last

The key to getting a reasonable experience out of the Ubuntu MATE beta is to install an extra PPA, which fixes some of the problems that occur because MATE 1.8x is not fully compatible with the version of glibc that's in 15.04. Check out the Ubuntu MATE release announcement for details on how to fix that issue.

Despite the current state of the beta, if you have fond memories of Ubuntu 9.10 or so, back when GNOME 2.x was the default desktop, Ubuntu MATE is probably your best bet for recreating the experience (and of course improving on it, since MATE has quite a few nice tricks up its sleeve that were not part of GNOME 2.x).

If the torrent I downloaded is any indication – it had almost triple the number of seeders compared to the rest of the flavors – Ubuntu MATE is going to be a very popular release. That said, I'd wait for the second beta at least before jumping in with both feet.

MATE may be the attention-grabbing newcomer, but perhaps the biggest changes await users of Kubuntu with KDE.

Kubuntu 15.04 will be the first Kubuntu release to default to the impressive new Plasma 5 interface. Plasma 5 is perhaps most notable for its visual changes, which see KDE embracing a more streamlined, "flat" interface, but it's also the first version of KDE to be powered by Qt 5 and the recently released KDE Frameworks 5.

Kubuntu 15.04 defaults to Plasma 5

Kubuntu comes with KDE Applications 14.12. A number of the applications have been ported to KDE Frameworks 5, but fortunately even those that haven't should "fit in seamlessly", according to theKubuntu announcement. I did not encounter any serious problems in my testing, but it is a beta, of course.

One of the more lightweight Ubuntu flavours, Xubuntu 15.04 is shaping up to be a relatively minor release, or at least the portions pertaining to the Xfce desktop are.

A host of small changes in Xubuntu

There's a new LightDM settings tool to control your login screen, some new wallpaper, a series of updates to various Xfce tools like window previews in xfwm4, an "intelligent" hiding mode for panels and much improved support for multiple monitors. The Thunar file manager also gets some improved keyboard navigation in this release. For more details on all the smaller changes, check out theXubuntu release announcement.

First peek at the next Ubuntu 15.04 nester line-up • The Register:



'via Blog this'