Aileen Horwath
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Homepage: http://www.iphouse.com/
Posts by Aileen Horwath
Cloud Computing and Sys Admins
Oct 16th
More and more these days I talk to people who are trying to figure out how and whether cloud computing fits into their business model. Cloud computing is really a new version of the old style of mainframe computing where diverse groups share the computing power and storage of large systems. Cloud computing, ideally, will be engineered to minimize or eliminate single points of physical failure. Physical system failure, however, is only one item of many that can affect your system’s performance and uptime.
Hardware configurations, including manufacturer choices, operating systems versions and configurations, firewall rules and ongoing maintenance of all the above heavily impact the performance and reliability of your systems.
Regardless of whether you have computers in your broom closet, colocated at your ISP or deployed in the cloud, your company needs a good system administrator looking out for your network and machines. Good system administrators know the pros, cons and quirks of different hardware, operating systems and network configurations. They know about possible vulnerabilities first because they are on private security lists you don’t even know exist. They’ve got your back. George Reese of enStratus, expanded on this in a recent post that compares programmers and sys admins.
One of the big differences between an ipHouse virtual machine (which is essentially deployed in a local cloud) and deploying a server with one of the national cloud providers, is the sys admin expertise that comes with your ipHouse machine. We work with you to make sure the system configuration is optimized for your business applications. We can also administer the machine for you, keeping it securely patched and up-to-date.
Happy Birthday RFCs!
Apr 7th
Forty years ago today Steve Crocker published the first Request For Comments – beginning the process of creating universal standards for what would become the Internet. At the time Steve Crocker was a graduate student at U.C.L.A. working with a small group of students and faculty on a simple network that linked four computers at U.C.L.A., the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The development of this primitive, packet switching network, was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of United States Department of Defense during the Cold War and was named ARPANET.
Because ARPANET was developed at universities and funded by the government instead of private industry, the underlying functionality, processes and standards were developed and discussed openly. When Steve Crocker published RFC 1, his first summary of of procedural rules for the Network Working Group, it was truly a request for comments. This open discussion of standards for creating and managing the infant network was unique and greatly shaped the development of the Internet. The rules for how the network operated, and to a large extent how the Internet operates today, are based on a process Steve Crocker refers to as “rough consensus and running code.”
The Internet was able to become the global network we know and love today in part because anyone could freely access the protocols, follow the published standards or RFC’s and join the network. This openness is still a critical component of how we at ipHouse run our network. We are Internet old-timers. Many of us have been on the ‘net and working in this Industry since the early ’90s. Being honest with our customers is one of our core business values. One that we believe enhances the power of the Internet to bring people together.
Speed Testing Your Connection
Jan 27th
Yesterday Minnesota Public Radio did a story on mapping broadband service in Minnesota. Affordable, high-speed Internet connections are becoming a critical component for educational and economic development throughout Minnesota and the world. Both the Blandin Foundation and the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce are working hard to increase the availability of broadband throughout the state.
Because it isn’t cheap to bring broadband service to rural areas, knowing which areas are most in need is necessary to determine where to best spend limited resources. The Minnesota Commerce Department is working with Connect Minnesota to map Internet connection speeds throughout the state and is promoting the Connect Minnesota Speed Test as a way for consumers to check on the truthfulness of their ISPs. While this is a great goal, there are significant technical problems with the Connect Minnesota Speed Test.
Leveraging your Networking Dollars
Dec 8th
Looking ahead to the next year, it looks like the economy will get worse before it gets better. Everyone is looking for ways to maximize profitability without negatively affecting their Internet presence. In an environment where customers may assume you have gone out of business if they can’t reach your web site, now, more than ever, you need a fast, reliable web site and stable Internet access. More >
Power, Power, Power, & Cooling
Nov 19th
Gas prices may be down, way down, but data center power costs are still going up. Data center power and cooling costs are going to be one of the huge drivers of increased IT costs in the coming years. Earlier this year, Network World ran a series of articles detailing the problem. Because servers, switches and routers have very few moving parts, generally power in is equivalent to heat out. Heat that then must be cooled.
ipHouse is working hard to position our network and data center for the future. This fall, we initiated a huge virtualization project. By using high-performance, efficient, virtual servers, we have been able to reduce the total number of physical machines used for hosting email and web services without impacting performance. Mike, our CTO, has been blogging about the virtualization project in his multipart series, “Virtualization and the ISP.”
