Reliability

Fault Tolerance

We use hardware based RAID controllers with hot-swap and hot-spare capabilities and also on-board 128MB cache memory with battery backup. The hard drives in our servers are all 10K - 15K RPM Ultra320 SCSI with Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.). S.M.A.R.T. technology monitors certain characteristics of drive performance and timing. These measurements are used as an early prediction of drive failure. The drives are configured in RAID 5 + Hot-Spare format that offers highest performance and reliability.

Daily Tape & NAS Backup

Our servers are backed up daily on high-capacity data tapes and NAS that retain a full image of our server drives in the unlikely case of a drive problem.  Restoring old data is also available for a small fee.

24 Hour Server Monitoring

Our servers are constantly monitored by special monitoring software that our programmers have created specifically for this purpose. If a service goes down for some reason, it is automatically repaired, and restarted if necessary.

In addition to our special software, our servers are monitored from a remote location. Any problems that are not automatically fixed by our software are reported to our system administrators.

UPS and Generator Backup

In the event of a power loss, our equipment is connected to automatic battery backup systems and readily available generators so that we may continue to operate without any down time.

We have proven our reliability numerous times with previous incidents and we will do it again whenever it is needed!

99.9% Uptime

Our great combination of 24 hour server monitoring, UPS and generator backup, fault tolerant web servers, and our reliable UUNET connection has proven itself by giving us a nearly flawless history of 99.9% uptime. The remaining .1% accounts for standard maintenance and upgrades which is always done during low traffic time frames.

UUNET Backbone Connectivity

All of our servers are in conjunction with high speed network cards and hubs designed specifically for the type of services we provide. We use Cisco routers to give us fast and reliable direct connectivity to the powerful UUNET backbone. UUNET is one of the largest, fastest, and most reliable Internet backbones available to the world.

The U.S. and Asia network consists of DS-3, OC-12 and OC-48 trunks and has been reinforced with OC-12 (622 Mbps) ATM "metro rings" in 10 metropolitan multi-hub areas. In fact, UUNET now has enough OC12 (622 Mbps) miles to circle the earth 10 times!