Website Development

Website Hosting

A & G Computer Services uses Rackspace as our preferred Web Site Hosting solutions.  With the highest levels of uptime, excellent technical support, and exceptional service, Rackspace is the only web site hosting company for our clients. 

Our standard hosting package($24.95/Month) includes:

• 4GB of Disk Storage Space
• 400 GB of monthly traffic
• 400 Email Accounts
• 40 FTP Accounts
• Windows Server 2003 Hosting
• Full featured Email Hosting
• Access, MySQL, MSSQL Database Support
• E-Commerce Support 

The following information is provided from Rackspace explaining their hosting capabilities.

"Unlike hosting companies that re-sell bandwidth provided by some distant, third-party computer system, we own all of our own equipment and house it in our own climate-controlled data center. 

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and back-up diesel generator. 

Our UPS system has two main purposes. First, it "conditions" all of the power being fed to our computers, smoothing out spikes and voltage fluctuations and protecting against surges. Second, in the event of a power failure, the batteries in the UPS kick in to run our systems until the auxiliary diesel electrical generator cycles up to speed. In our opinion, operating a hosting service without taking these precautions is unthinkable. But we know that some companies are reluctant to make the necessary investment.

Multiple Tier 1 Internet Providers. 

A Tier 1 provider is a major provider of Internet bandwidth. ATT, Sprint, IBM, GTE, for example, are all Tier 1 providers. Note that this is not the same as a "T1" connection. Tier 1 providers own the "bib pipes" and have built and operate the main Internet "backbones". Using multiple Tier 1 providers means that, should something go wrong with one provider, we will seamlessly and automatically switch to another, with no interruption in service. In addition, all of our equipment --routers, switches, firewalls, etc. -everything we have- is in parallel. Every single piece of network equipment is redundant. And of course, the entire operation is protected by 24-hour monitoring and alerting.

Redundancy. 

Every component in the Rackspace network is redundant to protect against equipment failure.  Should items such as routers, switches, or firewalls fail; the duplicate component automatically takes over the work load without interruption.

Security. 

Every account is protected by intrusion detection systems and firewalls.  There is no added fee for our customers to be protected behind these devices.

High Performance Host Servers. 

High performance web servers are a staple at Rackspace.  The latest technology is always in play.  Your website will be hosted on a quality hardware with the latest in CPU, memory, disk and software capabilities.

Performance

The whole purpose of us getting our bandwidth from Tier 1 providers (and only from Tier 1 providers) is to enable Rackspace (i.e., your website) to be as fast and accessible as it can be. It's like plugging directly into the source:  There is nothing between our data center and the main Internet backbones to slow performance.

As a recent column in InfoWorld  noted, "The impressive power of a Tier 1 provider is its backbone. Tier 1 providers are rock-solid. They provide you clear passage while other providers send you across the bumpy back roads. A Tier 1 provider takes you from the West Coast to the East Coast in one big hop, while others pass you along to various locations across the United States."

The "other providers" are Tier 2, Tier 3, and lesser providers, all of whom buy their bandwidth from Tier 1 companies for re-sale. Getting our bandwidth directly from Tier 1 providers means better network performance, while eliminating the multiple layers of resellers that can cause delays should a problem occur.

Recoverability

At Rackspace, we do a daily "differential backup" of every account. That means, we make a copy of any file that has changed or been created in the last 24 hours. Then, once a week, we do a full backup of every server. We keep four weeks' worth of those backups, two of them in an off-site, lock-and-key storage vault, In the industry, these kinds of precautions are far above and beyond what anybody else in our price range offers. But it means that we can almost always restore a recent copy of any mistakenly deleted file or files, usually at no charge. In fact, the only time that there is a charge is if we have to do an emergency recall from the storage facility, and that is only because the storage facility charges us for such a service."

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