CDNs are more and more necessary as the pressure increases to keep your website or application performing at top speed for your end users, no matter where they are located. With rising expectations for speed and interactivity on the Internet and an expanding global marketplace, a CDN can help your website perform as fast for customers across the globe as it does for customers in your own region.

At Liquid Web, we aim to ensure that our customers have access to top-of-line services for any need they may have. Our customers have already seen faster load times and industry-leading I/O performance utilizing our Storm™ Platform in various configurations. However, we are always striving to improve our offerings. To this end, Liquid Web has partnered with the Akamai Edge Network, the world’s largest and most experienced CDN (Content Delivery Network), to provide even faster delivery of digital media content for our customers.

How does a CDN work?

With the Liquid Web CDN, powered by Akamai, fresh content is continuously pulled and cached from your primary server(s) onto strategically-placed, secure servers that are closer to the end user. For example, you might have a primary server hosting your website or application in the United States, but have a large visitor base in Europe. The main content of your website can be stored on a node in Europe, delivering the content to European end-users more quickly and efficiently. The CDN takes in user requests to view your website content and directs them to the closest server on the network.

While static content can simply be stored on the closest CDN node, the network utilizes the fastest “route” back to your primary server(s) to retrieve the dynamic, or changing and interactive, content and then delivers it back to the end user. In addition, secure information is protected and only delivered from highly secure portions of the network.

Liquid Web’s CDN, Powered by Akamai

As an Akamai Client, Liquid Web provides our customers with the ability to increase their global reach over 2,000 percent more than any other previously available option. The Akamai CDN also has an expansive reach, spanning 250,000 servers in over 80 countries and provides a superior platform that is responsible for between 15 and 30 percent of all Internet traffic, worldwide. Other benefits of the Liquid Web CDN powered by Akamai include:

• Significantly bolster speed & decrease load times, worldwide
• Reduces load on your Liquid Web server(s)
• Onsite Heroic Support® available 24/7/365
• Helps scale capacity for changing needs
• Ensuring security while data travels across networks
• Provides visitor reports for analytics
• Improved SEO & conversion rates

The Liquid Web CDN powered by Akamai is your gateway to fast and efficient global access. Our partnership with Akamai ensures our customers have access to a trusted provider with a global reach rivaling anything available, as well as Liquid Web’s Heroic Support® available 24/7/365, onsite. Let Liquid Web customize a plan for your needs and help you serve your global customers faster than ever with our expansive CDN powered by Akamai!

If you’re interested in learned more about the Liquid Web CDN, Powered by Akamai, Live Chat or call our Sales team today at 1-800-580-4985.

With the introduction of our Incubator Program, Liquid Web has the ability to jumpstart a new idea or business by helping startups become established in a competitive marketplace. Utilizing our in-house expertise, we are able to sponsor premium hosting infrastructure and consulting to help businesses during their critical early stages. We offer an on-demand and highly scalable infrastructure, designed to support growth by providing a 24/7/365 Heroic Support® Team and 24-hour Proactive Sonar Monitoring® service to ensure your business will be operational all times.

Not only do we assist businesses at a startup level; we also expend considerable effort to support both small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are already established. SMBs stand to gain significantly by tapping into Liquid Web’s SMB solutions. Our Sales Team will work with you to customize one of our fully-featured, scalable, and tailor-made solutions. Our team can provide your business, small or large, with whatever it needs to succeed and grow.

“At Liquid Web we understand your needs as a business owner,” Sales Supervisor Stefan Nava said. “We haven’t forgotten our roots, and we are here to provide you with the most reliable infrastructure and dependable Heroic Support for any stage of growth. We will take care of you, so you can take care of your business.”

Liquid Web SMB Solution Features:

• High Availability Business Servers
• Our Full Array of eCommerce Solutions
• Access to the Liquid Web CDN Powered by Akamai
• Continuous Backup and Recovery
• Storage Area Networks (SAN)

The high-performance hardware that comes with our Enterprise Class Servers protects those businesses with mission critical systems. When the data and applications hosted with Liquid Web are vital to your business’s operations, downtime is no laughing matter. These solutions provide enterprise class hardware and redundant infrastructure to prevent any single component from causing downtime. In addition, we offer the ability for Enterprise customers to customize and access their hardware as if they were standing right next to it with support for Power Options with multiple redundancy and Out of Band Server Management with IPMI. We understand that your business demands an experienced and always-available team. We’ll make sure your important data is safe with our industry-leading oversight and powerful Enterprise Solutions.

No matter where your business is along this hypothetical journey of growth, Liquid Web will be there 24/7/365. We understand how the smallest details can be exceptionally important to your bottom line. The combination of our around-the-clock Heroic Support® and the relentless dedication to customer care from our Sales Team can help you build a solid foundation to support your business and also grow with you as your business expands. In a marketplace of intense competition, know that you can rely on Liquid Web to have your best interests in mind.

If you’d like to learn more about how Liquid Web can support your business as it grows, Live Chat or call our Sales Team at 1-800-580-4985.”

Why are Databases Important?
Databases allow businesses to not only collect and store relevant data, but also to organize it in a way that allows for in-depth analysis. For example, businesses can keep a catalog of items for sale, and organize them by type, price, seasonal demand, etc. As businesses collect more and more data from their customers, and are collecting new types of data, the corresponding need to store and analyze that data has also grown.This era of data growth has been dubbed “Big Data.” Big Data has brought about recent advancements in technology that have vastly increased database capacity and processing power, which means even more informational tools and options for businesses.

Which Database Is Right For You?
Once you’ve established that you need a database for your business, how do you choose between the different options?  There are quite a few databases available, which are specifically designed applications that interact with the user and other applications to capture and analyze data. Liquid Web offers many of these types of databases depending on your specific needs, including MySQL, Microsoft SQL, Percona Server, Cassandra, and Hadoop. See below for brief descriptions of each of these options, but the Liquid Web team is always available to help you find out which of our Managed Database Hosting Solutions is right for your business.

MySQL Hosting
The most popular open source database, MySQL is relatively easy to launch and utilize for a number of projects. This provides a wide range of users with a powerful and versatile tool that can be leveraged to handle projects big and small. Read our Knowledge Base article if you’d like to learn more about setting up a MySQL database.

Microsoft SQL Hosting
This is a very useful and manageable database for those utilizing a Windows server. Similar to MySQL, it can handle projects of any size.

Percona Hosting
Percona serves the same basic needs that MySQL does, but provides enhanced performance and analysis tools.

Hadoop Hosting
If you need a database that allows for the collection and analysis of massive amounts of data, Hadoop may be the perfect solution for you. Built on open source software, Hadoop utilizes cloud computing principles to break down, analyze and reassign big data into resources you can use to your advantage.

Cassandra Hosting
Many databases can handle any size project, depending on how they’re configured, however Cassandra was built specifically for large, mission critical operations that require real-time analytics. While you certainly don’t need to launch a project as expansive as Twitter or Netflix to benefit from Cassandra’s speed and scalability, it’s reassuring to know that it has been utilized to deliver peak performance along the infrastructure of both.

With all of the managed database solutions that we offer, selecting the one that is perfect for your business can be difficult. Liquid Web cannot only help you make that decision, but can also design and install, and configure a custom solution for your needs. Our Heroic Support® team is also available to monitor, maintain and keep your database server running at peak performance. From small, one-server databases to clustered and replicated high-availability databases, rest assured that Liquid Web can help your business attain its data storage goals.

If you’d like to learn more about our Managed Database Hosting Solutions, Live Chat or call our Sales team at 1-800-580-4985 today!

As a powerful and dynamic programming language, much of Liquid Web’s software has been developed using Perl and we continue to use the language today in many of our systems, such as billing, support and monitoring. Our founder and CEO has spoken on this previously:

“Giving back to the Perl community is something we’ve been interested in for some time. As Liquid Web continues to expand and grow, we find the need for more developers proficient in Perl grows in kind. Supporting Perl’s continued excellence ensures that important programs that have proven invaluable to Liquid Web’s success will continue to perform to our specific needs.”

In fact, the need for Perl Developers is still growing even today and our search for talented and qualified applicants continues as our companies expands.

This week’s conference celebrates Perl’s 25th Anniversary, provides various speakers looking at the future of Perl and offers training opportunities for attendees. The training opportunities include: Zero to Perl, Test Automation using Perl, Git for Ages 4 and Up, Web and mobile development using Perl, HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript, Intro to Moose, and Advanced Moose. If you’re attending the conference, let us know what your favorite session was!

If you’re interested in learning more about our job opportunities relating to Perl Development or other opportunities at Liquid Web, visit our Careers page!

While we’ve recently discussed our reseller program, and highlighted one of our more prominent resellers in this space, Liquid Web has an exciting new update to add. Participants in Liquid Web’s™ Reseller Hosting Program will now be able to offer more packages to their clients through a new WHMCS plugin. This plugin will allow resellers to integrate their accounts with our Storm Platform™ API and provides them with the capability to easily resell our Storm on Demand™, Liquid Web™ VPS, SSD VPS and Bare-Metal products.

If you’d like to learn how to install the WHMCS Plugin for reseller accounts, consult our Knowledge Base article here.

Customers of Resellers will be able to:

• Deploy/Restart/Restore servers
• Automate a customer’s request to cancel a VPS
• Manage their domains
• Automate emails and billing integration
• Integrate merchants to Paypal and other tools, such as Maxmind or eNom

This WHMCS plugin takes a great deal of complication out of reselling our entire product line by allowing for VPS deployments to be created automatically and even pre-configured for resellers’ customers. In addition, a customer can then view their instance’s bandwidth and monitoring information from within the WHMCS client area. This is a new level of automation and service that is guaranteed to make life easier for resellers – as well as add value to the services they can offer.

Want to learn more about WHMCS with API Integration to our Storm Platform™? Live Chat or call our Sales team at 1-800-580-4985.

At Liquid Web, we know how critical environmental consistency is to your server’s health, which is why we employ N+1 redundant cooling systems to ensure our Data Center environment maintains a constant temperature and humidity level year round. Our cooling systems will keep your servers at the optimum temperature, no matter how high the thermostat reaches this summer.

Our environmental processing systems include Liebert Precision 22-ton up flow air conditioning units that contain independent compressors and cooling loops to further enhance fault tolerance and reliability. These units control temperature and humidity within the tight ranges recommended for IT equipment to avoid over-heating or static electricity issues. In addition, air filtration systems actively remove particles from circulation and cycle the entire data center air supply in a matter of minutes.

These complex machines were designed to run all day, every day, so we keep every cooling unit running at peak performance with regular maintenance. Each Liquid Web Data Center also has multiple emergency generators waiting on standby as a back up to our power systems, featuring over 24 hours of autonomous runtime before requiring refueling. These generators further ensure the safety of your servers in the summer heat in the event of a power outage.

At Liquid Web, we design, build and maintain an ideal server environment, all with our clients in mind. Protecting your server from the Michigan and Arizona summer heat is not a problem with our highly redundant systems. Our focus on redundancy allows our network to rapidly self-heal failures without interruptions to connectivity. In addition, we own all of our own infrastructure which allows us to provide our clients fast, secure and reliable performance at all times. No matter how much you suffer from the heat, you can count on the Heroic team from Liquid Web to keep your data cool and safe.

Not only do we keep your servers cool, but we will have some pretty “cool servers” handing out our HOT chili at Friday’s Lansing BWL Chili Cook-Off! Stop by and say hello!

Dedicated Servers
Our traditional dedicated servers are our most powerful offering, providing customers with a dedicated environment where they can customize the resources they need. Customers can select exactly how much RAM, hard drive space, and processing power they want, and are able to add to these resources over time. In addition, dedicated servers allow customers to add products and services only available to dedicated products, such as:

• Guardian Backup
• Hardware Firewalls
• Bandwidth pooling behind a Private Network
• SAN
• Hardware Load Balancers
• Locked Cabinets
• A+B Power

Storm Servers
Our Storm Platform is perfect for the client with changing needs and fluctuating traffic who can provide better service – in the most cost-effective manner – with flexibility and the tools to scale on the fly. With our Storm Platform, customers can launch servers and storage volumes to build a complete and scalable cloud environment for their website or application. In addition to easy scalability, with our Storm Servers customers only pay for what they use, based on a per-day pricing. Customers can create and destroy Storm Servers as they need them! Other features of our cloud product include:

• Easily upgrade or downgrade
• Create deployable server images
• API enables programmatic access to server
• SSD available for High Performance Environments
• Move between Storm VPS & Storm Dedicated
• Bandwidth included

Creating Storm Servers can be done easily, in just a few steps. If you’re interested in a Storm Server for your web application, read our informative Knowledge Base article to see how it’s done.

Hybrid Hosting
A third option open to our customers is to combine the power and customization of a Managed Dedicated Server (physical) with a Storm Server (cloud) with Hybrid Hosting. The combination of paramount durability with the easy scaling and pay-as-you-go control of Storm Servers, all within the same wholly owned data center, adds a level of personalization to our customers’ cloud hosting experience. It provides customers with the ability to customize everything from server specifications, storage devices, load balancers, and firewalls in a manner that is exclusive to our hybrid hosting environment.

Benefits of Hybrid Hosting with Liquid Web:

• Customizability
• Dedicated Load Balancers
• Enhanced Memory Capabilities
• Directly Attach to Storage Networks
• Dedicated Firewall

All three of the above mentioned hosting solutions are great options, depending on a specific customer’s needs. Having our highly skilled technicians at your disposal means that you don’t have to waste time and money guessing which solution is right for you. Our sales staff and Heroic Support® teams are always available, 24/7/365, to help determine the best way to outfit your hosting needs.

For more information, call 1-800-580-4985 or Live Chat with our Support or Sales team today.

We recently announced the release of Liquid Web™ Mobile, a handy, streamlined version of our Management interface for use on your preferred mobile device. As the release is a beta version, we have been working hard on updates and bug fixes over the past few weeks. After much hard work, we’re now proud to announce the latest release includes a few much-desired features that allow customers to launch new servers and make payments through our mobile management interface!

At Liquid Web™, we know our customers are busy and are often managing their account while on the go. These new features make handling your account easy and seamlessly fit within your busy life. Liquid Web™ Mobile was designed with convenience in mind, allowing users to communicate with support, review their account overview, dashboard and event history all on their preferred mobile device! The addition of bill payments and the ability to launch new servers increases the appeal of our mobile management interface and provides our customers with exactly what they need.

As you explore the new features, let us know any thoughts, comments, or questions you may have about the site as a whole. You can find an easy-to-use feedback feature under the “More” area of the mobile site and we sincerely hope you’ll utilize it. Your feedback will be instrumental in shaping future versions of Liquid Web™ Mobile!

To access the mobile management website and take advantage of the new features, visit Liquid Web™ Mobile or click the “Mobile Site” link in the lower right-hand corner of the full management site.

Server Name Indicator (SNI)
While each SSL Certificate previously required its own dedicated IP address, SNI indicates what hostname the client is connecting to at the beginning of the SSL handshake process, allowing a server to have multiple certificates installed on the same IP address. Therefore, users on shared servers are able to install their own certificates without purchasing a dedicated address.

Multi-Domain Certificates (UCC/SAN)
For those without operating systems that support SNI, an alternative is available. The latest update also supports multi-domain certificates, which allows users to add multiple domain names to a single certificate. Those multi-domain certificates can then be installed onto shared IP addresses. In addition, users can create self-signed, multi-domain certificates and can generate a signing request to take to their SSL provider to have a permanent certificate created.

These updates mean a simpler and more usable SSL certificate installation process is now in place for both cPanel and WHM. Running e-commerce operations is safer and more reliable due to Liquid Web’s SSL Certificates and our 24/7/365 Heroic Support® staff! Want to know how these new SSL Certificate improvements will affect your web application? Our knowledgeable Sales and Heroic Support® teams are available around the clock to answer your questions and help you navigate through any variety of software changes and updates.

Call 1-800-580-4985 or Live Chat our team for more information on how you can take advantage of the new SSL improvements!

Our Sonar Monitoring™ team focuses on the prevention of, as well as immediate response to, service interruptions, whether they be software, hardware, or network-related. This is accomplished by utilizing a robust set of proprietary system level health and service monitoring tools to constantly ensure your server’s optimal performance through the early detection of problems. In the event that an issue is identified, our Sonar Monitoring™ Team responds immediately, reducing downtime and repairing any issues proactively, in many cases before the client is even aware of the problem. Because of their quick responses, our Sonar team also enables us to provide the industry’s leading 30 minute hardware replacement SLA. The Sonar Monitoring™ team provides the following services:

With the bulk of service failures prevented, and nearly all remaining service failures corrected within minutes, the team operates as a persistent proactive manager of client service consistency. Without Liquid Web Sonar™, service failures or severe service degradations lead to reactive support. This results in restorations that are initiated without clear understanding of how to repair the base cause. Our Sonar Monitoring™ Team eliminates this issue by carefully evaluating all critical statistics leading to the failure and therefore solves problems that could live for many months even with the most vigilant competing managed providers. One of those statistics is your server’s bandwidth. Not only does our Sonar Monitoring™ Team watch this data as part of their work keeping your services up and available, but you can monitor it too. To learn how to read bandwidth graphs for your server, visit our Knowledge Base. These graphs can be used to give you a general idea of traffic patterns and the amount of data you are distributing, as well as alert you to any sudden spikes or troughs in usage.

Working hand in hand with our Sonar Monitoring™ is our DDoS mitigation service. Through this service, Liquid Web™ not only monitors your traffic 24/7 and spots a DDoS attack as it begins, but we also have the tools to mitigate it. The combination of these two services provides our clients with a unique and powerful shield that can transform the potential for complete shut-down into minimal, if any, downtime.

At the end of the day, our customers’ servers are up and healthy, through the efforts of our 24/7 Sonar Monitoring™ team. Our proactive approach means we’ll spot a problem before it takes your site down – and in most cases have it fixed before you’re even aware it existed. Our Sonar Monitoring is just another facet of our top-notch Heroic Support® to ensure your server is responsive at all times.

For current customers, Sonar™ can be accessed through Liquid Web’s™ management interface.