It’s critical that businesses complement their servers with an investment in a high-quality backup and storage solution.

By Greg Landis

Businesses of all sizes are increasing their use of the Internet on a daily basis. They are using the Internet to communicate, publish content and store and process data with the help of web-based applications. With all of this content and data being created and stored on servers, there is a corresponding need to ensure its safety. Hard drives can fail, servers can be hacked, human error can cause data to be deleted, and the data centers that house these servers could catch fire or become victim to natural disasters or even terrorist attacks. All of these are plausible scenarios that can threaten the integrity of the data stored on a server.

Because of these realities, it is absolutely critical that businesses complement their servers with an investment in a high-quality backup and storage solution. This will guarantee that mission-critical data and content is backed up regularly and protected against technical failure, human error or disaster. All types of organizations need this type of insurance. A single hard drive failure can result in the permanent loss of important content, contact information, sales records and financial data. Such a disaster would be a death sentence for any organization conducting business on the Internet. There are other good reasons to have a backup plan. With the right protection in place, customers can be free to experiment and push their servers to do more without having to worry about the negative ramifications. It also brings peace of mind that contributes positively to an organization’s operations.

Buy data protection from a hosting company

It makes a great deal of sense to buy storage and backup solutions from a hosting company. They already host the customer’s server and data protection is a logical extension to web hosting that can be integrated and run off the same network. Customers also benefit from a single bill for all their IT hosting services and by working with their hosting company, have a single point of contact, a high degree of familiarity and comfort and the ability to manage their environment from a single unified interface.

Customers should understand that backup and storage is typically not included with a standard dedicated server. It is usually purchased as an optional add-on service. However, a problem in the market is that many hosting companies are not aggressive about educating and selling customers about the importance of data protection. Even worse, many hosting companies do not even have an affordable, fully functional and easy to use solution. Customers that value their data and want backup and storage services should look for a hosting company that has the breadth and quality of services they are looking for.

JaguarPC’s Data LockBox

JaguarPC has been in the hosting business for over a decade and offers its customers Data LockBox, a backup and storage solution built on R1Soft’s industry-leading Continuous Data Protection (CDP) software. CDP enables customers to back up their servers by providing near real-time replication of their data. JaguarPC installs the CDP software on the customer’s server and it takes snapshots and duplicates the content and data onto a separate backup server. Because the data replication process is continuous, customers are able to restore their servers to a designated point in time in the event of hardware failure or disaster. CDP provides bare metal restore capabilities – bringing back the original state of the server, complete with the entire operating system, settings and data. No re-configuring or re-installation of the operating system is required.

Data LockBox brings a number of other features and capabilities to the table.
CDP backs up incrementally, copying only sectors of a disk that have changed since the previous backup. Combined with standard compression technology, this reduces storage utilization and CPU overhead significantly and enables the replication process to be completed within minutes. CDP also features full data encryption during transmission and in storage, ensuring robust levels of security. Other features include a MySQL database add-on, true database in-memory backup, event logs, reporting capabilities and support for both Windows and Linux-based virtual machines.

With Data LockBox, customers receive access to a web-based control panel, which allows them to manage their data protection capabilities and instantly restore content directly from the backup systems. Customer can also set backups to take place on an hourly basis. The level of control provided through the management tool gives customers that prefer to be hands-on the flexibility they are looking for and enables them to access their solution remotely and on a 24/7 basis.

Data LockBox supports servers running on both the Linux and Windows platforms and can be used to backup hosted servers, on-premise servers, office workstations and personal computers. JaguarPC also provides back up servers – powered with free versions of R1Soft – to other hosting companies on a white label basis.

JaguarPC has been in the backup and storage business for several years, having been one of R1Soft’s beta testers and original hosting partners. With a long history hosting for the SMB and enterprise community, and a strong technical grasp of storage technology, JaguarPC is uniquely positioned to meet the data protection needs of customers.

About JaguarPC

JaguarPC, founded in 1998, is an industry-leading provider of web hosting services to small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations worldwide. Customers enjoy the flexibility of choosing from a full suite of hosting solutions, ranging from shared hosting and virtual private servers to dedicated hosting and managed hosting. JaguarPC also operates a reseller program, helping smaller organizations jump into the hosting business or augment their current offerings. Each JaguarPC hosting plan is backed by a world-class data center infrastructure and network, and supported by a rock solid customer service operation. With over a decade of experience, JaguarPC helps organizations realize their full potential by capturing the power of the Internet.

To learn more, please visit: http://www.jaguarpc.com.

This is something that all webmasters know, but may not always think about, especially if they run a blog or a small website: backups are important, and you can never have too many.

Although your site may automatically be backed up if you’re on a shared account, and although you may have a script that automatically backs your site up and stores it elsewhere on your server, you need redundancy. So, it’s important to back your site up manually several times a week.

Servers fail, and anything can happen. If you have a “local backup”, or a complete copy of your site or blog (including backups of SQL databases), then you have one extra weapon in your arsenal to prevent a total loss of your site.

Suppose that you run a blog, or use a blog platform as a content management system. This means that your site is stored in an SQL database, and as such, it could be a rather large database.

If you need to completely reinstall your website, it will be a big task, because you can only upload SQL databases that are up to 2 MB, right? Wrong. Using a program such as Big Dump, you can upload your entire database, whether it is your site, blog, or message boards, all in one pass. This makes recovering your website quicker and easier than if you had to split your database manually, and upload several passes.

The key thing to remember is that in addition to whatever manual processes you have in place, it’s imperative that you manually back up your site several times a week. By doing this, you ensure that your site or blog doesn’t skip a beat.

If you have a website, you may want to allow your users to interact with one another. A message board (also referred to as a “forum”) is a great idea! But which software to use? If you want to go the free route, there are several choices. Perhaps the most popular is PhpBB, which is powerful, but basic. It will allow you to have different categories, and subforums within those categories. You can also ban users, and allow access only to those who register.

Another free option is Simple Machines Forum, which is also a basic forum package. With it, you can set up categories and forums, and you also have the ability to easily censor words and links. It also offers strong user management and permissions administration. Among its many other features, it also allows you to ban users for as little or as long as you need.

Another choice is vBulletin, which is strictly pay software. There is no trial version, and the license is currently $100 a year, while an owned license is $180. With the leased version, you have access to all upgrades for that year. For the owned version, you have access to upgrades for a year, and if you want to continue to get those updates, you’d have to pay either $40, or $60, depending on when you purchase the extension.

vBulletin definitely gives you your money’s worth. You have powerful tools at your disposal, which includes the ability to moderate a new user’s posts until they satisfy certain criteria, which you can establish, based on posts, reputation, and days registered. You can also control which users can see which forums, and you can turn registration on and off at will, not to mention the fact that you can also manually moderate new users, to help weed out the trolls.

All of these packages are fine in their own right, and as for which one is right for you, that depends on your needs and budget. No matter which one you choose, you will need access to the SQL administration (easily found in Cpanel), and the ability to set up a new database, which is remarkably easy with Cpanel.

By setting up forums, you can add a whole new level of interactivity to your website, and that will keep visitors coming back for more.

One service that numerous registrars offer is “private registration” of your domain. What this means is that they substitute their contact information for yours. Of course, you still maintain ownership of the domain, but they act as a proxy for your domain.

But is it worth it? Many registrars charge for this service, after all.

One concern that many domain owners have is the publication of their home address and private phone number, all of which would be available to anyone who looked up their domain in the WHOIS database. The solution to this is simple: get a post office box, and purchase a voice mail number from a service such as Evoice, who offers voice mail numbers for as little as $4.95 a month.

With the problem of privacy resolved, you can then be assured that you, as the domain owner, get important information about your domain. While it is true that spammers love to harvest information for their evil deeds, you should also make yourself available should any legal issues arise regarding your domain. Simply create a separate e-mail address for the WHOIS database, and you will be sure to immediately know about any potential problems with your domain, allowing you to quickly resolve those problems, and avoiding the possibility of losing your domain because you didn’t respond.

Of course, if you run a website that is of a controversial nature, then you indeed may wish to consider private registration, but for the most part, private registration causes more problems than it solves.

There are numerous TLDs out there, and now there’s the .tel TLD, which is being billed as “the new way to communicate”.

Basically, this TLD is available from numerous registrars, and it, according to the registrar’s website, “allows individuals and businesses alike to store and manage all their contact information and keywords directly in the DNS without the need to build, host or manage a website.”

The registrar offers the ability to conceal contact information, allowing domain owners to make that information available only to parties they choose, through “friend requests”.

Although this seems like a nice idea, it could be considered by many to be merely a novelty. Given that there are so many TLDs out there already, another yearly cost with little real advantage may not be considered to be wise by most. But regardless, it is a service that’s being offered, and the .tel TLD is available at registrars such as Dynadot, and Network Solutions, just to name a couple.

This new .tel TLD, by the way, is not to be confused with the .mobi TLD, which is intended for websites that are coded specifically for mobile devices.

You may have heard about VPS hosting. What is it, and why should you care?

If you need the power of a dedicated server, but can’t afford the price, there is an option. A “virtual” dedicated server uses software like Virtuozzo. A key advantage to a VPS is that it divides a dedicated server into several dedicated servers, by dividing resources such as disk space and RAM.

Virtualization is a great way to enjoy the power of a dedicated server without the cost. With Jaguar PC, you can have a VPS account for just under $20. And you still get all of the options you normally would. You can still choose your operating system (CentOS, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora Core, or Suse), and your control panel software ( cPanel, Interworx, DirectAdmin, or Plesk).

You also get complete root access, which means that you have the exact same administrative access that you would on a dedicated server, so you retain complete control of your domain (or domains).

Just because the price is low, it doesn’t mean that the quality is. We only use the finest components to construct the servers, so you can rest assured that you’re still getting quality service at a fraction of the cost.

Given that you can still host multiple domains with a VPS, this choice is a perfect way to gauge your site’s traffic, and determine whether or not a dedicated server would be in your best interest. The options are endless with a VPS, and with our friendly and eager staff ready and available to help you on your way, choosing a VPS through Jaguar is the right move!

Please tell us a little about yourself.

Im 32, a father of 3, and when I’m not shackled to a desk I enjoy spending time with the family, fishing, and playing guitar. Anyone that knows me will tell you I’m very big on core values in every person we hire, and every project we take on. Core values such as honesty, integrity, and respect are often set aside in the modern world and particularly behind the veil of anonymity of the internet. I believe this is precisely the area where people should adhere to those values the most. If you do, a reference is as easy as saying “google me”.

Can you summarize your educational experience for us?

I graduated high school in 94 and joined the Airforce in 95 where I spent 7yrs learning and growing as a person. I took some college while in the USAF but eventually the demand and excitement of JaguarPC led me to exit the USAF and go at hosting full time.

What do you consider as your accomplishments up to this point?

That I’ve managed to keep a healthy marriage, raise 3 kids, and all while running a very demanding business for 10yrs. Hitting milestones such as 100, 500, 1000 servers has been exciting as well.

Any failures you’d like to tell us about?

Nobody grows as a company or person without some failure. More importantly though is the lessons you take away from the experience. One big failing in the past was letting my excitement get the better of us by not planning properly for our growth. There is no growth worth hurting a reputation built up by a decade of hard work. Now we work our hardest on preserving that ideal.

What is your primary occupation?

Whatever my staff, clients, and partners need from me. I wear the CEO title but the truth is that even with 75 people working for me I still enjoy getting involved in the daily activities where it all got started. Our company is all about reflecting that person touch.

How do you manage your time? Will you describe what you do on a daily and/or weekly basis?

Between my wife and my iPhone I’m able to stay on top of things pretty well most of the time. My week involves a lot of email between my staff, management meetings, networking with other professionals, going over reports from the various areas of our companies, and of course some daily interactions with clients on forums, instant messengers, and the phone.

Do you oversell?

We don’t, except for our shared hosting plans. None of our reseller, VPS, or hybrid plans have any features that are oversold. The shared technology we use and our vast experience lets us manage the shared environments so well that we simply never run into the tiny things some watch all the time like disk space. Simply put, we just can’t run out of disk space. Even as we speak all our clients could increase their usage immediately by 500% and it wouldn’t cause alarm. Like cell phone minutes and bandwidth, the prices of storage are so minute these days its hard to justify placing a limit and letting a 2tb system only collect dust while 80% of the space sits wasted. Overselling as a means of marketing actually is the best way we can tell clients “use more, if you don’t nobody will” . And our system is setup so you have to have 80% of an initial quota actually used before you request more, but you can request more as many times as you want and its automatically added.

Tell us about your control panel, is it based on cPanel and what makes it special?

In our shared environment we use cPanel exclusively, but for VPS, hybrid, and dedicated servers we offer and support a wide range of control panels and software. We have developed a proprietary platform that ties into our servers, billing, software, ips, staff, and pretty much our entire operation. I wouldn’t want to imagine running a company this size and complex without it.

As part of your managed services you propose monitoring, does that include proactive responses?

Yes. And we have some really exciting improvements coming to our operation in the next 30days that will improve that response greatly by adding new methods of alerts and new tools for clients and our staff to respond to those alerts.

You propose VPS solutions on JaguarPC and yet you operate wowvps.com too, why?

Wowvps.com was started off for two reasons; we didn’t want to mix our managed Virtuozzo offering in jaguarpc.com with the unmanaged xen VPS offering. And we wanted a fresh place to kickoff our VSControl software that took years to develop and perfect. We will begin offering the software to the public this year. Finally there is a xen based vps hosting control panel that hosts can rely on.

You have offices in multiple cities and you have also remote technicians all over the world, how do you manage them?

With our software, and my great management team. If I had to manage a staff this size on my own it would consume my day. I empower the managers of the various departments to give them a chance to really make a difference in peoples lives and in the companies growth.

Do you own your data centers?

Not yet. We run colo cages, racks, and other specialized agreements with facilities in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, the UK, and Singapore. We are expanding to other cities as well as currently planning our own facility.

You have a very active community, how did your business benefit from it?

It hasn’t stopped benefiting from it yet . Our clients are equally as awesome as our staff. Often clients are eager to learn things for themselves or just might be curious about something. When they take those issues to our community not only does it reduce our own support load, it builds a sense of community, adds content, and perpetuates itself.

What can we expect from JaguarPC in the future?

We love taking the lead and pushing boundaries of what defines a product. We were right out front pushing vps long before most even knew what it was. In fact I had to request from the owners of WHT to get vps categories and forums added many years ago. We plan to do more of the same and push the envelope of whats possible. This year is no exception, we have some great deals coming very soon made possible by a few unique partnerships we just finalized.

What does the future hold for Greg Landis?

Only God knows for certain but I’ll keep doing what I do best. Because its working for me. I do plan to continue pursuing our larger plans, building data centers, and diversifying Landis holdings in many other non-hosting related opportunities as well. So far I’ve been very fortunate and enjoy spreading it around. Ask me again in another 10yrs

JaguarPC, a leading provider of end-to-end web hosting solutions for over a decade, today announced the launch of its new comprehensive rewards program for JaguarPC customers to earn points towards rewards such as service credit, free hosting, upgrades and more.

“JagRewards” consists of a points-based client loyalty rewards program with various points for different actions. No expiration dates on JagRewards points means customers can redeem points for a variety of benefits including free product and service upgrades.

One of the most attractive features of JagRewards is the retroactive application of points for existing customers, which rewards long-time loyal customers of JaguarPC. The retroactive feature is automatically applied to all JaguarPC clients. Long-time customers of JaguarPC will be pleasantly surprised to find pre-populated balances in their rewards account based on the bills paid and time with JaguarPC through the years.

JagRewards awards points based on criteria such as length of time with JaguarPC, services and plans purchased, payment history and referring new customers. Some sample reward points include:

-2,500 points for signing up with JagRewards -2,500 for each referral
-1 point for each dollar spent
-250 points for each month you do not require support -50 points per month as an active client

Points can be redeemed for extra services and features on their accounts or credits for outstanding bills. Some examples include service credit, free hosting and hosting upgrades.

“JagRewards is all about thanking our loyal customers and having fun while doing it,” says Greg Landis, president of JaguarPC. “It’s an opportunity for users of JaguarPC to experience the solid reliability and dedicated service we offer while making and saving money at the same time. It’s a win-win situation, and we’ll be looking to constantly evolve the program based on feedback we receive.”

To learn more and sign up for JagRewards, please visit www.jaguarpc.com/services/rewards.php.

About JaguarPC

JaguarPC, based in Houston Texas, provides high-quality Internet hosting solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, prominent individuals and non-profit organizations worldwide. JaguarPC’s core portfolio comprises information technology and business hosting services, as well as programming services. JaguarPC’s complementary subsidiary business is Devpond software, a web software company. JaguarPC is owned by Landis Holdings Inc., which also includes WowVPS!, ResellerZoom and HostingZoom. Learn more at www.JaguarPC.com

“911 Executive Escalation Service” and new Continuous Data Protection add-on “DataLockBox” bring peace of mind in demanding times

HOUSTON, TX. October 22, 2008 – JaguarPC, a leading provider of end-to-end web hosting solutions for over a decade, today announced the launch of two new services focused on enhancing customer experience and satisfaction. For companies requiring immediate issue resolution, JaguarPC is offering 911 Executive Escalation Service (911 EES) which provides direct access to the company executives. Customers can also directly access DataLockBox powered by R1Soft’s Continuous Data Protection (CDP) backup for only $2.50 a month.

911 EES is a premium offering with a dedicated toll free number which directly connects clients of the service with top executives in JaguarPC’s management team. It provides the ultimate peace of mind for businesses where 100% uptime is an absolute necessity. 911 EES is the failsafe to bypass JaguarPC’s multiple customer service options in the event immediate resolution is required for clients with intensive resource requirements.

“Serving the customer is in our DNA, and the new 911 Executive Escalation Service is an extension of this philosophy,” say Greg Landis, President of JaguarPC. “Every member of our executive team is customer service personnel first and foremost, including me. This new service guarantees that enterprises which demand high availability will always have immediate resolution.”

DataLockBox is available for all JaguarPC clients on shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated/colocation hosting plans. Clients can access the add-on inside their control panel and choose to restore files 24×7 off the actual backups from JaguarPC. For dedicated hosting clients currently subscribed to R1Soft backups, DataLockBox gives them the ability to manage their backups online, set intervals and restore points.

“With the current economy stuck in a slowdown, we’ve made it our top priority to focus on ways to help our customers succeed,” continues Landis. “These two new service offerings are the beginning of many more to come which will enhance our user experience. At JaguarPC we’ve made a strategic decision to focus on continual improvement of internal processes and customer service initiatives. Both 911 EES and DataLockBox help reduce areas of stress for our clients so they can focus on addressing their core business challenges.”

JaguarPC also offers high availability hosting for semi-dedicated or reseller hosting, with custom failover add-on option for added comfort and security. Certified failover experts are available around the clock. Combined with 911 EES and DataLockBox, customers can rest knowing their web sites are in good hands.

About JaguarPC

JaguarPC, based in Houston Texas, provides high-quality Internet hosting solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, government agencies, prominent individuals and non-profit organizations worldwide. JaguarPC’s core portfolio comprises information technology and business hosting services, as well as programming services. JaguarPC’s complementary subsidiary business is Devpond software, a web software company. JaguarPC is owned by Landis Holdings Inc., which also includes WowVPS!, ResellerZoom and HostingZoom. Learn more at www.JaguarPC.com.

###

Media Contact: Edward@FirecrackerPR.com, 949-500-6422, www.FirecrackerPR.com

Since I started using ssh remotely to manage servers like 12 or so years ago I have been in love with its power and what you can do with a few command lines. In the last 7 or 8 years many web based control panels have appeared making life easier for the end user. One would expect that ssh would go obselete now that you can do things with a few mouse clicks. Not really.

Last night I was trying to activate an IP by setting “Active in IWorx-CP” to yes under IP Management of Nodeworx but it gave me blank screen. There was no error. I could not see anything in logs. So I fired a ticket with interworx support and here was their response:

Try running this script and see if adds the IPs as expected:

~iworx/cron/ip.pex—sync

Yes, finally something to do via shell. So I did and it resolved the issue. Moral of the story, the real thing is still linux shell