JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
OK...saved might be a bit dramatic, but then again I have never minded being a bit over the top from time to time.
But for me, considering this website is like a member of my immediate family, it feels like it.
Just how in the world did we go from a dead in the water, under performing Godaddy set up to a highly efficient new server inside of six hours? It's a pretty cool story, one that shows the power of social media and the value of amazing service.
We relaunched HawkeyeNation.com in October of 2009. The host company we had then immediately began upselling us at every opportunity, saying this build would be best...then a few weeks later, it couldnt handle the traffic, and it was another upsell. Then in early December of 2009, they erased the server our site was hosted on. Gonzo. wiped out. An entire month of stories, message board post, etc, gone. They had a work order to erase a server that was right above ours and accidentally wiped ours. Rough day.
At any rate, let's just say we were put on a pretty good set up after that mess. However, we were not convinced their security was as good as it could be. So we made the decision in November to go with Godaddy. Their security proved to be what they sold us on, however, the rest was not.
We migrated to the godaddy servers this past month, January of 2011. In the last 16 days, we have had four instances where the site crashed. 2/1 and 2/2 were especially non-responsive, and they basically ran out of excuses and said we needed a better server, and they had just the plan for us.
I had posted on twitter that we were having problems and @JordanHojo recommended Host Duplex. He copied @hostduplex saying I might be able to use some help from them @hostduplex responded via twitter, but I was still in a bit of a daze and funk from all going on, not really thinking anyone could help us out of this bind quickly.
Then Sam, the owner of Host Duplex emailed me. We traded a few emails...I went back to work on some things...he then emailed me again around 5:00pm on 2/2. At this point, I felt like our godaddy server was going to suck the rest of the week and I just could not have that. So I gave Sam the green light to migrate things to his server.
I asked him how many days this would take to set up. He said 'Days? We'll have you up and running late tonight.' I was dubious, and dumbfounded.
He worked 7 straight hours and last night just after midnight on 2/3, the site was operational on his servers. An unreal effort and unreal service. I could fill a full page with all he did, but just know I have rarely, if ever, encountered this degree of service in any genre in my entire life, much less something like this that matters a great, great deal to me.
Today, 2/3, he kept fine tuning things under the hood...he spotted an area where the site was drawing down a significant amount of resources, changed something out, and it decreased resource demand by 40% with the same amount of traffic. That's why things have been flying around here.
There are more things he did, most too technical for me to understand. But all I know is Sam and Host Duplex delivered for me in an hour of greatest need, and I have the utmost confidence they will do that going forward.
Their service is managed, and when we have usage spikes, say like signing day, or breaking news that sends CPU demands through the roof, their service is scaleable and we will darn near immediately have more juice and power to handle the demand peaks, and the costs for that are incredibly reasonable compared to other companies I have worked with.
Sam started this company in Iowa City, and he lived in Waukee for a time in his life, so he has Iowa connections. That matters to me, and I think it matters to a lot of us here. They have 24/7 support as well.
Given my experiences with hosting companies, this seems too good to be true..but it's legit and I could not recommend Host Duplex and Sam any stronger. I am paying for their service, there were no discussions of 'I will say great things about u if you give me a deal'. I am paying the same as any of their customers with similar needs. So this is not a paid endorsement; This is something I couldn't wait to do.
So if you or your company has hosting needs, or wonders if they might be able to get better service at a fair price, I strongly suggest you contact Sam at this email: sam.jadali@hostduplex.com
Here is the phone number: Office: 312.957.6000 x121
LINK TO HOSTDUPLEX.COM
But for me, considering this website is like a member of my immediate family, it feels like it.
Just how in the world did we go from a dead in the water, under performing Godaddy set up to a highly efficient new server inside of six hours? It's a pretty cool story, one that shows the power of social media and the value of amazing service.
We relaunched HawkeyeNation.com in October of 2009. The host company we had then immediately began upselling us at every opportunity, saying this build would be best...then a few weeks later, it couldnt handle the traffic, and it was another upsell. Then in early December of 2009, they erased the server our site was hosted on. Gonzo. wiped out. An entire month of stories, message board post, etc, gone. They had a work order to erase a server that was right above ours and accidentally wiped ours. Rough day.
At any rate, let's just say we were put on a pretty good set up after that mess. However, we were not convinced their security was as good as it could be. So we made the decision in November to go with Godaddy. Their security proved to be what they sold us on, however, the rest was not.
We migrated to the godaddy servers this past month, January of 2011. In the last 16 days, we have had four instances where the site crashed. 2/1 and 2/2 were especially non-responsive, and they basically ran out of excuses and said we needed a better server, and they had just the plan for us.
I had posted on twitter that we were having problems and @JordanHojo recommended Host Duplex. He copied @hostduplex saying I might be able to use some help from them @hostduplex responded via twitter, but I was still in a bit of a daze and funk from all going on, not really thinking anyone could help us out of this bind quickly.
Then Sam, the owner of Host Duplex emailed me. We traded a few emails...I went back to work on some things...he then emailed me again around 5:00pm on 2/2. At this point, I felt like our godaddy server was going to suck the rest of the week and I just could not have that. So I gave Sam the green light to migrate things to his server.
I asked him how many days this would take to set up. He said 'Days? We'll have you up and running late tonight.' I was dubious, and dumbfounded.
He worked 7 straight hours and last night just after midnight on 2/3, the site was operational on his servers. An unreal effort and unreal service. I could fill a full page with all he did, but just know I have rarely, if ever, encountered this degree of service in any genre in my entire life, much less something like this that matters a great, great deal to me.
Today, 2/3, he kept fine tuning things under the hood...he spotted an area where the site was drawing down a significant amount of resources, changed something out, and it decreased resource demand by 40% with the same amount of traffic. That's why things have been flying around here.
There are more things he did, most too technical for me to understand. But all I know is Sam and Host Duplex delivered for me in an hour of greatest need, and I have the utmost confidence they will do that going forward.
Their service is managed, and when we have usage spikes, say like signing day, or breaking news that sends CPU demands through the roof, their service is scaleable and we will darn near immediately have more juice and power to handle the demand peaks, and the costs for that are incredibly reasonable compared to other companies I have worked with.
Sam started this company in Iowa City, and he lived in Waukee for a time in his life, so he has Iowa connections. That matters to me, and I think it matters to a lot of us here. They have 24/7 support as well.
Given my experiences with hosting companies, this seems too good to be true..but it's legit and I could not recommend Host Duplex and Sam any stronger. I am paying for their service, there were no discussions of 'I will say great things about u if you give me a deal'. I am paying the same as any of their customers with similar needs. So this is not a paid endorsement; This is something I couldn't wait to do.
So if you or your company has hosting needs, or wonders if they might be able to get better service at a fair price, I strongly suggest you contact Sam at this email: sam.jadali@hostduplex.com
Here is the phone number: Office: 312.957.6000 x121
LINK TO HOSTDUPLEX.COM
