A Platform called Blocks.

Custom built to suit the application and scale as required we now have a new virtual cluster setup to run Blocks.

By admin

After 12 months of R&D and some difficult hurdles we have our new ‘virtual’ hardware setup online and running at a data center in Melbourne’s CBD.

‘Very talented, fastidious and with a good dose of reality is the best description of the Sys Admin consultant Mike Bailey who has advised and implemented the solution using a combination of servers and Coraid networked storage to enable a virtualised cluster. And with all sites migrated and running we can finally breathe easy… phew.

So why the pain, effort and expense?

+ Faster to install with the exact requirements of each client

+ Cost effective. Smart use of hardware and development of tools means we can scale quickly and indefinitely with cost efficiencies.

+ Flexible; we can change the server setup remotely [on the fly] as needs change

+ High redundancy. It’s like seeing double. Power, data, hardware, databases, data, everything is redundant.

+ Faster and more stable. With Virtual servers running processes like image cropping we can share load and assign resources as needed. It also means functions are isolated from the hosting of websites to ensure stability and uptime.

+ Remotely managed and monitored. Nagios monitors a bunch of different parameters with SMS and email alerts to interested parties.

Sounds simple? It wasn’t.