Let me start by apologizing for the title of this article, as it was my lame attempt at techie humor!  With that out of the way, let’s jump directly into the heart of this article.  Dell has just launched the new PowerEdge 200 (PE R200), not to be confused with the noisy little droid from Star Wars.    With testing within our environment scheduled to be completed by February 1st, 2008, we’re looking at an official kick off for the PE R200 in mid to later this year.

Technical specifications of the Dell PowerEdge R200 as we will be offering it:

Processor:  The R200 will feature a single Quad Core Intel Xeon X3210 2.13 GHz processor with 2×4MB Cache and a 1066 MHz FSB.  In short… raw power!

Memory: The R200 will come standard with 1GB of DDR2 800Mhz of memory.  With 4dimm slots, this machine is capable of supporting up to 8GB of RAM using 4×2GB sticks of DDR2 800Mhz memory.

Hard Drive:  The R200 will be offered as a SATA based machine and can house up to two 3.5” 7200RPM 3Gbps SATA drives.    The drive sizes that will be offered in this machine will be 160GB, 250GB, 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB SATA based drives.

RAID:  With two drives installed, you will have the option of having your drives configured in a RAID 1 or a RAID 0 array.  The R200 features the new, very much improved SAS6iR controller card.

Network Adapter:  As with all of our Dell offerings the R200 will come standard with On-Board Dual Gigabit Network Adapters.

The R200 will be the most powerful single processor machine that FastServers.Net has offered to date.  And it will be offered at a VERY affordable price.   This machine will work great as a single application server, a web server, or even a database server for companies with small to medium sized SQL databases.  Interested in learning more about the R200?  Get in touch with us for more information on this new state-of-the-art server. Call our team at 866-753-3278, or email us at sales@fastservers.net.

In closing, I would like to add that this article was not intended to bash or make R2D2 look bad or weak in any way, shape, or form.  R2D2 is my favorite droid of all time, and I would love to see what he would be capable of running on one the of the new Intel Xeon Quad Core processors the R200 features.  Just think…. It would be like a droid on roids! (And probably a very angry one at that.)

Data Center Expansion in Chicago
By Mark Luptak (mark@fastservers.net)

As of the end of January 2008, FastServers.Net will have allocated additional space in our Chicago facility. Located at 427 S. LaSalle Street, the new space will allow for the company to continue adding additional managed servers and collocation services at an increased pace.

The former Western Union building was constructed in 1919 and significantly renovated in 1999.  The latest space will have increased power and physical capacity, while remaining centrally located. It offers excellent floor loading capacity, multiple electrical feeds from ComEd, and significant riser space for diversity into and within the facility.

FastServers is now offering Chicago solutions that can deliver up to 150 Watts/SF to customers. In addition, the extensive base of communications firms already at the facility, including Savvis, Level (3), Qwest, AT&T, and Cogent, provide an excellent opportunity for content delivery networks to interconnect and directly access carriers and Internet service providers.

Shortly after the deployment of Windows 2003, there was a great buzz/debate within a number of IT camps on what Microsoft would do to top the latest OS.  Words like Asteroid, Longhorn, and “final release of desktop/server OS” were slung around the Internet.  What would be the next evolution of the OS?  With their transition from Option Pack to embedding IIS into the OS, how would they enhance their web infrastructure?  Their slogan of ‘Where Do You Want To Go Today’ left us all wondering, where exactly are they taking us?

We will soon find out!  The next server operating system from Microsoft will soon be released to the masses.  Windows Server 2008 will be available for all come the end of February, and FastServers is anxiously awaiting its release.  We have been working feverishly to document, troubleshoot, and implement the new environment into our service offering.  Our target is availability for customers by the end of the first quarter, 2008.  We are committed to continuing our Windows hosting platform for customers as we prepare for the long awaited release of this new offering.  Just as the transition from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows 2000, Windows Server 2008 will take on us on another journey into the ever-expanding reach of Microsoft.

Security enhancements: Network Access Protection (NAP) and Identify and Access (IDA) are new features that give administrators additional security from external/internal connections from other computers.  These features offer protection all the way down to local and remote users.

Easy to manage web server: IIS7 will provide the next step of hosting reliable web applications and services.  Providing greater flexibility and control, IIS7 also provides simplified management and powerful diagnostic/troubleshooting capabilities that were add-ons in previous versions of the powerful web server.

Optimizing workloads: Windows Server 2008 was built from the ground up allowing deployment, implementation, and management to be an easy transition for customers working with Windows 2003.  With its Server Manager, customers will enjoy the ability to simplify their configuration and ongoing management.  Coupled with PowerShell, the new command-line shell (CLI), administrators will easily automate a majority of their existing workload, securely spreading across multiple server farms if needed.

GUI or No GUI: Not into the GUI interface?  Windows Server 2008 now allows administrators to run without a graphical user interface, minimizing disk and service footprints while reducing attacks for services that are not needed/wanted.  Specialize your environments rather than trying to decipher which one is which.

There are a multitude of advancements that Windows Server 2008 brings to the table.  More information will be delivered via our blog and forums in the upcoming weeks.  Needless to say, we are excited with the new release and look forward to our official rollout of Windows 2008 into our environment.  Other upcoming Microsoft offerings include SQL Server 2008 and more enhancements to the Microsoft Exchange product offering.  Stay tuned.  2008 will be another banner year for all!

Here we are, a happy, fresh set of months.  And, after nearly reaching 70 (!) degrees earlier this month in Chicago, most of us are poised to plummet into tundra-mode in the coming days and weeks as we continue to run the wintry gauntlet.  As such, we’ll be utilizing all of our extra time to finish reflecting upon ‘07 while making sure we’re aptly tuned for a much more progressive and exciting ‘08.

To be sure, last year was vastly important for FastServers- our efforts to phase out legacy environments in both the Linux and Windows arenas were quite successful, and we do appreciate your cooperation and patience throughout those very necessary migrations!  With your assistance, our ability to expeditiously condense and expel those systems which are so increasingly difficult to secure has made a tremendously positive impact on operations, ranging from an overall, quality of support per issue, in addition to time-to-resolution for both Priority and Standard threads.  Fully-supported operating systems are much preferred
by our engineering team, as you might expect.  What’s on deck?  Well, a heavier push (alongside imminent migrations from 3.x/4.x) towards RedHat Enterprise & CentOS 5.x, as well as a likelihood in added “Managed” support for FreeBSD… and, most intriguingly, we hope to provide Windows Server 2008 options, with- *gasp* cPanel’s launch into the Microsoft dimension before we wrap up the spring.  A variety of interesting adventures and subsequent advancements are on deck!  With the launch of our UltraGuard Suite and the final, vital cogs of our network being deployed in this past quarter, we’re poised to innovate extensively within our current, supported environments while gradually and responsibly expanding upon our service offerings.

The goals of this new year can only result in very, very good things for our customers.  Keep an eye peeled for all of the latest announcements!  By staying in sync with our engineering aspirations, you’ll be fielding environments that are safer, faster, and much more functional than the alternatives.

It’s great to have you on board.
Best of luck…

One of my good friends works for a major marketing firm specializing in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Well “works for” sounds like he grabs people who know what they are doing coffee. No, this guy more or less runs the SEO division of his company and is in constant high demand. (Parents take note: if your college kids are marketing majors and you want to do them the greatest favor of their lives, steer them in the direction of SEO.) Well onto my point. “Gilbert,” as we’ll refer to this guy, showed me this diamond in the rough which, well for lack of my ability to use certain less than FCC approved words, caught his goad.

Behold: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22504312/

Now Gilbert is a somewhat opinionated guy when it comes to this stuff. Somewhat in the way Rush Limbaugh is opinionated when the name “Clinton” is brought up. For entertainment purposes I’ve copied and pasted a post from his personal blog with about 30 edits to bring it up to FCC standards, Enjoy!

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