Posted by Matt Buck on June 26th, 2008
This week, the governing body for all the internet assigned names and numbers (ICANN) met to discuss a huge problem that faces the internet in the next decade - the provisioning of IP Addresses and Domain Names.
Whether it’s your mobile phone, internet gateway or website, all of these use an IP address. Plus, they have to be unique. Domain Names like www.ebay.com, which resolve to an IP address, also have to be unique. As you may imagine, companies have been buying up domain names constantly and with more and more consumer devices like MP3 players and phones connecting directly to the internet, the scope for unique IP addresses and domain names is now very small. The world is running out!
In order to combat this issue, ICANN is pushing for the complete implementation of IPv6 (providing approximately 3.403 × 1038 unique host addresses) and also custom TLDs (*.ebay, *.ibm etc.) The custom TLDs are especially interesting as not only will this allow companies to express their brand in a more creative way, but it will also free up a large amount of unique names and combinations which are currently not on the radar.
For more information visit the ICANN website.
Posted by Matt Buck on June 5th, 2008
Just thought I’d do a quick blog as it’s been a couple of weeks since we secured the new hosting deal with the data centre and things have worked out really well. Since closing the deal, we’ve deployed several Linux servers at the data centre, each hosting our clients special requirements such as online databases, high-dependency web applications and DNS.
The servers each run CentOS - one of my favorite Linux OSs for its stability and scalability. We’ve made sure each server has 4 processors (AMD Quadcore 9500), 2GB Ram minimum (plenty for Linux) and at least 2 hard drives configured in a mirrored Raid array. If one hard disk fails, the other can immediately take over and our Service Level Agreement with the data centre means that the failed drive will be replaced within 30 minutes. If both hard drives fail at once, which is highly unlikely - 0.0004%, all data is backed up every evening, and data periodically is uploaded to another RatwareUK secure server at a different geographic location. We’ve got eveything covered and we are passing on all the benefits to our customers!
The datacentre and RatwareUK co-manage the servers and have set up IP tables, anti-virus, ssh hardening and the centre runs daily security audits for us. The datacentre also offers excellent internet connectivity to our servers. They are now supplied by Tier-1 bandwidth providers and are just 1 hop away from 4,500+ networks. These new servers are fast and secure!
Finally, we have complete root access over the servers here in Wigan and have added them to our Pro-Active monitoring service. This means that, if the server stops responding, a service fails or there is a security alert - we’ll be advised within 60 seconds.
We are currently in the process of migrating data from our old hosting servers to the new ones. The new hosting servers are the pride of the company this month. At RatwareUK we like a good solution. For more information, please contact us.
Posted by Matt Buck on June 3rd, 2008
I’ve just come across a great new video from Microsoft which details the advantages of Windows Mobile deployment on Exchange. Check out Windows Mobile Video for more information!
If anybody needs any advise concerning Windows Mobile deployment at work, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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