The Steadfast Networks Blog

OK, I have given in, and Steadfast Networks now has a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/steadfastnet

Now, I am completely new to Twitter, so give me some time to get used to this. I am planning to use the account only for useful information, such as new product offerings, general business changes/updates, any outage/maintenance information, etc. so don't expect multiple posts a day.

I just wanted to state that as AlphaRed has now declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is ending service tomorrow it is certainly time for any existing AlphaRed clients to get moved out. We again are willing to help, by offering free backup space to any affected users and we do have servers immediately available. Just contact sales@steadfast.net regarding either of those offers.

As for our own status during these hard economic times, business has still been good. We are seeing more cancellations due to the economy, but we are still seeing the same type of growth we had seen previously. The company is in the best financial shape we have ever been in and we are currently only using credit to grow, not for day-to-day operations.

As a note, here is the official notice from AlphaRed regarding their bankruptcy:

This Morning December, 23 2008 at 9:30 AM CST, Alpha Red, Inc. entered Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Doug Brickley of LECG was appointed the Chapter 7 Trustee. The receiver’s duties are to liquidate the assets of Alpha Red and collect past due balances from Alpha Red's current and former clients.

The business will not continue. All services including power, bandwidth, and technical support will be shutdown at 9:00 AM CST on December 24, 2008, tomorrow. We will begin shutting down servers this evening around 8:00 PM CST, December 23, 2008 starting with accounts which have outstanding/past due balances.

If you have paid your bill and are current, you may contact us at support@alphared.com or by phone: (713) 936-2388 to delay your shut-off time until 9:00 AM CST tomorrow morning.

I had been thinking of adding additional bandwidth billing options to our dedicated server offerings, as we always get asked for different amounts, but the list was starting to get too large. To prevent this issue, we have just gone with an overall flexible bandwidth billing structure. You can select the billing method, monthly data transfer (per GB), unmetered (capped), or 95th percentile, as well as the exact amount of bandwidth you want. If you want a 31 Mbit/sec capped line, you can now order that right through our site, and then follow that with a server with 2348 GB of monthly data transfer.

These changes have also been made to prove a point, that we do not oversell bandwidth and that we do not want to over-charge our clients. We allow you to select however much bandwidth you need and at every usage level, you will be guaranteed to be able to use that amount as much as you wish. In addition, we will only bill you for what you actually need. We don't want to stick you with getting a 100 Mbit/sec line when you only need 80 Mbit/sec. If we keep your costs down, we increase your chances of being able to grow your business, and to grow with us, which is what is best for all involved.

You can read about the specifics of the pricing and billing options here: http://steadfast.net/services/flexibandibill.php

Note: Yes, the name of the file, flexibandibill.php, is what we were originally going to call this plan, though it would have been Flexi-Bandi-Bill. The idea was to basically mock all of the horrible trademarked offerings that exist out there, though we figured not enough people would see it as a joke, but would instead think we were just stupid ourselves. Oh well, I guess it can be a fun inside joke between us. ;-)

We are aware that one of our competitors, Alpha Red, is in serious trouble and is likely going out of business. We do not want to see the innocent customers of Alpha Red damaged by these events, so we are offering various offerings to those "refugee" customers.

First, we are offering free backup space to any Alpha Red customers. Then we are offering moving assistance to any customers moving to us from Alpha Red. We can also offer heavily discounted pricing, so that hopefully you can still operate you business at a similar cost level, though we certainly can't match the low pricing Alpha Red was offering across the board. To assist with these migrations, we do have a direct peering relationship with Alpha Red, through the Chicago Internet Exchange. This link is uncongested from Alpha Red's side and has been getting various customers very good download speeds at this time as it is basically acting as a dedicated GigE connection to Alpha Red.

To take advantage of these offers, please email us at sales@steadfast.net

I apologize for the delay in this announcement, but we had been working on several different options until we were finally forced to just pick one. The event should fun time for all and a great opportunity to meet other customers and Steadfast Networks staff while enjoying free food and beverage.

All VPS, dedicated server, and colocation customers are invited to the Steadfast Networks customer dinner on Sunday, July 27 at 6:30PM. This is what had become our now annual "Customer Appreciation Dinner." The event is planned to last until 9:30PM, so if you can't make it early, feel free to stop in later on.

The event will be held at 350 E Cermak Rd, Chicago, IL, in the library on the 8th floor of the building, and we will include a tour of our data center facilities. As the event is on a weekend you will need to enter the building on the North side, across from the building's parking garage, but will still be able to park on the South side of the building.

The menu has not yet been decided, but please RSVP and/or make any requests/suggestions by emailing us at sales@steadfast.net You can also email us if you need directions or have any other questions regarding the event.

Note: If you are coming please RSVP, as we don't want to make the event any harder on the security staff than it already is.