Author Archive
Improve your server uptime with redundant (A+B) power
While XMission has provided our Colocation customers with the option to get redundant power feeds to their cabinets for years, we’re happy to see much more interest lately. Although the lower cost of deploying multiple power supplies (PSUs) to server hardware in recent years has helped increase adoption, experienced systems administrators all know that PSUs […]
XMission Recycling Initiative
As you can imagine, an IT company that’s been in business for nearly 20 years, with dozens of employees and a data center, has the potential to accumulate a lot of junk. Consider, for example, that computers have the lifespan of a banana, the resale value of the tuxedo you wore to your high school prom, […]
XMission Completes SSAE 16 Type 2 Audit
As VP of Operations, I oversaw XMission’s recent SSAE 16, type 2 audit certification. Since this was our first such audit, we decided to limit the scope to the two products where customers would benefit the most: colocation and our Stackable cloud hosting product. In recent years, XMission has greatly expanded our focus on business […]
U.S. Call Center Support Better and Growing
This NPR story discusses something most people have known for years: that the quality of off shore call center support pales in comparison to US-based centers. Interestingly, companies are starting to move support back to the US. Of course, XMission has always provided local support. All of our support technicians are based in Salt Lake […]
Systems Administration Tools Used at XMission
Since 1993, XMission systems administrators have managed a vast variety of software and hardware solutions. While we almost exclusively still run open source software on the Linux operating system, much has changed. Among other things, new technologies like virtualization and fantastic management tools now exist which enable us to systematize and standardize how we setup, […]
XMission Sponsoring UTOSC on August 28 – 30th
XMission is again sponsoring the Utah Open Source Conference (UTOSC), at the Redwood campus of Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). The theme is “HOWTO” this year. The UTOSC site explains, The idea is that within the technology, education, community and business tracks, there will be plenty to talk about. HOWTOs will help others get started […]
The challenges of cooling modern data centers
As computers get smaller and more powerful, data centers face greater challenges to keep them cool. Blade servers, like the new Sun 6048 blade system we recently purchased for a next-generation hosting product we’re developing, are at the current bleeding edge of power consumption and heat output. To exacerbate matters, electricity costs continue to rise […]