Slicehost

We’re hoping to push out some DNS management features soon. One of the things we found ourselves discussing, is how fancy people want/need to get. This will be a service that should cover 80% of most people’s needs. The other 20% we assume are doing complicated stuff and probably run their own servers or outsource. That being said, we pretty much eliminated some of the typical DNS options such as picking A, CNAME, PTR, MX, NS records. Everything is simple (or so we hope), designate a mail server, set up hosts and aliases. So just looking for some feedback – will this outrage savvy users or is it something you would welcome?

No more wait list, we’ve caught up with the backlog. On another note, several of the regular Campfire chatters are now hanging out in #slicehost on irc.freenode.net, so if it seems a little empty, you might want to check in there. Have a nice weekend everyone!

Scotty over at HostingFu tagged us, so here are 5 things about Slicehost you didn’t know.

1. We became friends at college because we were the only guys double majoring in EE/CS and had all of our classes together.

2. Everything is developed on Macbooks using Textmate.

3. I live across the street from both the NOC and office (downtown STL).

4. We tried to invest in this before starting Slicehost, but couldn’t come up with the funds.

5. Everyday we have a mandatory Ze Frank viewing and celebrate Ride the Fire Eagle Danger Day weekly.

And we tag: Yurii, Tristan, Adrian, Claudio and Daniel – get your 5 things ready guys.

They’re ready! You’ll be getting an email shortly if you signed up via the wait list. If you can’t hold out for that email, stop by the chatroom and ask us for the code (if it’s still in place).

Heads up – emails coming out shortly that will completely cover everyone who has been waiting patiently for a Slice. Sorry for the delay, we had a couple of hardware failures in the new batch and had to do extensive testing to make sure the others were OK. Happy holidays and thanks for your support.

MORE

I wrote this in a hurry, but wanted to share a little more. The servers are installed and running, as is some new network equipment. We’ve made a few backend changes are putting these modifications through their paces. If all goes well, we should be crossing off several customer requests such as extra storage, backup goodies and more in the next few weeks.

It sucks to be sold out. But rest assured, the servers keep coming and we’re working our way through the back order list. The good news: we have our largest server order to date on the books. So if you signed up, it shouldn’t be more than 10 days before you can get your hands on a Slice. Until then – thanks so much for your patience and support.

Ok, so Etch isn’t quite officially final yet, but due to the number of requests for a current 64-bit debian we’ve decided to go ahead and put out the latest version available. Happy Hacking!

We hope to address 2 customer requests with our most recent distribution. First, Debian Sarge – an old and familiar friend. Reliable, trustworthy – ready now for your Slicehosting needs. Second, some people occasionally have trouble with 64-bit compatibility issues, so Sarge is 32-bit. We’ll likely follow this with a 64-bit Etch build after its scheduled release next month. Enjoy!

When we launched Slicehost a few months ago, we knew the weakest part of our plans, when compared to similar products, was bandwidth. Since then, we’ve been working hard to remedy this and today are proud to announce increased limits across the board. The new limits are 100, 200 and 400GB for 256, 512 and 1024 slices respectively. And prices stay the same! A big thank you to our current customers for staying patient while we expanded. Enjoy ;)

Odd problem – some people are locked out of the chatroom while others are able to get in. We’ve confirmed the problem w/ 37signals and they are looking into it. Will update here when it is back up.

UPDATE – chatroom back up.

We sold out over the weekend due to a shipping snafu. New servers are now in place and we’re taking Slices and upgrades once again.

Apologies to anyone looking to buy a 512 or 1024 slice at the moment. We had an order of new servers coming in Friday, all scheduled for deployment this weekend. The shipping got delayed, so sadly you’ll have to wait until Monday afternoon. Email if you’d like to reserve space on the new boxes.

UPDATE: sold out of everything at the moment, we’re building the new servers as we speak and they’ll be at the NOC later today. Sorry for the delay.

UPDATE 2: open for business, servers installed and more on the way.

Data Center Knowledge links to a couple of interesting articles on rising NOC costs. Increased power requirements for equipment and cooling are driving space costs through the roof. It’ll be interesting to see how quickly bigger companies explore virtual computing alternatives. If you’re interested in discussing Slice clusters for your company, please let us know.

Scott from hosting-fu compares a VPS to a dedicated server. Several excellent points, our 1024slice was pitted against an entry level dedicated box. A must read for anyone weighing the pros and cons of a VPS or dedicated machine.