October 2008

Adhost News and Tips - October 2008

Redundancy Update
SANS Training Program for the CISSP Certification Exam Class
Client Spotlight
Seattle Internet Events

Update on our initiatives to achieve redundancy throughout our email, domain name (DNS), and Web hosting services:

As a part of these initiatives, Adhost has been working very hard to continue to upgrade our email services and systems to achieve our goal of providing high-performance, always-available email services. In the last year, Adhost has achieved redundancy targets throughout virtually all of our systems for email. Of particular note, Adhost is pleased to announce that we have implemented a hot-failover mechanism for drive systems that store users’ POP/IMAP mail. This mechanism provides for virtually instantaneous transfer of services from any single device that may encounter difficulty to a waiting, redundant device that is fully up-to-date with users’ data. Additionally, this change gives Adhost the ability to scale our mailbox storage system to meet demand in a nearly limitless fashion without interrupting service to our customers.

From a physical perspective, the Adhost email architecture now comprises well over 30 high-powered servers, storage arrays, load balancers, etc. divided across our two data centers. This means that Adhost is positioned to provide ongoing services for email, DNS and other services in the event we have an adverse event that impacts an entire data center. In the near future, we will be migrating the remaining redundant Web services architecture that is currently housed in a single data center so that they too are redundant across our data centers.

In other email developments, we are getting good reports back from users about our on-going efforts to reduce the amount of SPAM that is actually getting delivered into their mailboxes. We are glad to hear that our efforts on this front are having an effect. However, the load of SPAM continues to be impressive from a numbers standpoint. Our data show that we are now blocking 97-98% of all attempted email deliveries as SPAM or other nefarious activity.

SANS Training Program for the CISSP Certification Exam Class

Michael K. Smith, CISSP and GISP, as well as Adhost’s CTO, will be teaching the SANS +S™ Training Program for the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) Certification Exam Class beginning on October 23, 2008. This is a Mentor-led class that meets every Thursday from 6 to 8 PM for 10 sessions. The classes will be held at Adhost’s Fisher Plaza Facility. Learn more.

Client Spotlight

Adhost designed and developed the first site for Onlinemetals.com back in 1999. After nine successful years and an acquisition by ThyssenKrupp Materials, it was time for a ground-up re-design. Read more.

Seattle Internet Events

Oct. 10: PSAMA Luncheon - Organic vs. Paid Search:: Their strengths, weaknesses and why you should use both
Oct. 11: The Seattle Weblogger BigFoot Blogging Conference
Oct. 29-30: Seattle Secure World
Oct. 31: SCORE Web Analytics Workshop: So Who's Visiting Your Website Anyway?