The Steadfast Networks Blog

We had noted the demand for more in-depth backup solutions, so we are now providing R1Soft CDP Backups. The CDP (Continuous Data Protection) Backups allow you to run backups much more frequently, as the backups use significantly less system resources than a standard rsync operation.

We have been using this software for the last month on our own shared hosting systems, thus our shared hosting systems are now being backed up hourly instead of daily, and everything has been working beautifully.

Overall, the R1soft software allows you to easily manage your backups through a web based control panel. You can schedule as many backups as you wish, backing up any data at any schedule you wish. This can then be changed at any time directly from the web panel. You can then download this data directly to your home system, restore it back to the server, if the R1soft software is still running on the server, or do a full system restore using PXE boot, through our network.

The cost of this software is $10 a month per server you are backing up and $5 a month per MySQL license. It will work on all Linux and Windows based systems. The R1Soft backup software is also available for no additional charge to all fully managed server customers and can be added to existing backup accounts for just $10 a month, though that would require the old backup account, with all data in it, to be removed.

For the holidays, we are offering our first wide-spread special offer ever, that I recall. We are offering free double RAM and free double disk space on all standard service offerings and free setup on a majority of our servers. Right now, we are planning to run this special through January 2, or while supplies last. You can see all of our dedicated server offerings from here: http://steadfast.net/services/dedicated.php

Hopefully some of you can take advantage of this offer, and Happy Holidays!

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. ;-)

OK, I had said in a previous post that we'd soon be announcing some new changes to our server offerings, so now I'm announcing them. First of all, ALL servers will use Supermicro motherboards and Supermicro cases with hot swap drive bays. Second, ALL new servers will be put on a gigabit internal network, with access to the backup servers. Then the higher end systems, Core 2 Duo E6600 (which is not currently in stock on the new configuration) or better, will be put on a gigabit network port by default and have IPMI, which will offer KVM over IP capabilities.

We are also changing the standard hardware specs. The Sempron 3000+ is being replaced by the Celeron 430 at $109.95 a month, the Athlon64 3500+ is being replaced by the Core 2 Duo E4500 at $149.95 a month, and the Dual Clovertown 5335 is being replaced by the Dual Harpertown 5410 at $439.95 a month. All of those should offer performance upgrades for the same price.

You can order the new servers on the dedicated servers page of our web site.

This press release was issued today regarding our partnership with LiteSpeed Technologies, as we are now offering their web server software with dedicated server packages and on our shared hosting platform:

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) April 2, 2008 -- Steadfast Networks, a leading Chicago based data center and dedicated server hosting provider, announced today its new partnership with LiteSpeed Technologies. Steadfast Networks hosting customers on all services including shared, reseller, and dedicated hosting will experience faster load times and increased speed in their web applications.
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"LiteSpeed's web server technology provides a great incentive for our hosting customers by improving website load times and allowing them to do more with less hardware," said Karl Zimmerman, CEO of Steadfast Networks. "Few data centers and dedicated hosting companies are willing to keep up with the latest technology to help their customers get the most out of their hosting services."

Steadfast added the new web server technology at no additional cost to shared hosting customers. Dedicated server and colocation customers will be charged a fee, but at reduced pricing. The technology will increase web server speed to nearly nine times faster than traditional hosting services running Apache. Customers using PHP based websites will experience faster page load times by as much as fifty percent compared to using Apache.

"By using LiteSpeed's web server, Steadfast customers will immediately see an increase in performance across all their website applications from standard websites to the most resource intensive web applications," said Zimmerman. "Other added benefits of using LiteSpeed Web Server include zero down time graceful restart, support for thousands of concurrent connections, and improved security measures."

The LiteSpeed Web Server technology recovers from service failure instantly, providing longer server and website uptime. Customers still receive the same features as the Apache web server including .htaccess support. In addition, Steadfast Networks is the only H-Sphere shared hosting company to utilize LiteSpeed technology.

"We are very pleased to have Steadfast Networks on board as our partner," said George Wang, president of LiteSpeed Technologies. "Steadfast's technical expertise, knowledge of the web hosting market, and their existing customer base, make Steadfast a great fit for our partner program."

About Steadfast Networks
Established in 1998, Chicago based hosting company Steadfast Networks, delivers high quality, powerful servers through reliable dedicated server hosting, colocation server hosting, virtual private servers, shared web hosting, and dedicated game server hosting. Steadfast's award-winning services and dedicated support staff help customers from all over the world 24/7/365. Customers can choose basic hosting or a customized, fully managed dedicated server hosting solution.

To learn more about Steadfast Networks, visit http://www.steadfast.net.

Media Contact:
Karl Zimmerman
Steadfast Networks
312-602-2689
karl @ steadfast.net

About LiteSpeed Technologies
Based in New Jersey with a satellite branch in Los Angeles, LiteSpeed Technologies is a next-generation web platform company that is dedicated to providing businesses with technology to improve the speed of internet content delivery while reducing operational costs for large web sites, service providers, and enterprise data centers.

For more information, please visit LiteSpeed's website at www.litespeedtech.com or contact sales @ litespeedtech.com.

Media Contact:
Xing Li
LiteSpeed Technologies
(908) 745-2118 x 403
xing @ litespeedtech.com