A major source of frustration for both customers and employees alike has always been the typical development, testing, staging, and production (DTSP) model. The DTSP model is essential for providing the checks and balances necessary to efficiently maintain a high-availability production environment. Our frustrations were towards previous employers. With exception to only one enviroment, not a single other employer was willing/able to implement the critical “staging” facet of the DTSP model. Typical excuses were either a lack of money or time.
I personally believe it was a lack of willingness to solidify the internal processes necessary for a successful DTSP model, as TOCICI has not only a fully flushed-out testing & staging environment, we assembled it for well less than $500 (yep, that's less than five hundred dollars for a complete environment). The lack of a fully-functional DTSP model is common throughout small businesses, including many ISPs, development shops, and other IT related businesses, what's your current services provider's excuse?
A common issue when running low capacity Virtual Private Servers, is running out of memory. One of the first indications of low available memory is a sudden series of segmentation faults (aka: segfaults). Segfaulting is a common occurrence when running out of available RAM inside your VPS.
Before buying or renting your servers, you need to weigh the benefits of either choice, and make a decision on how to handle your IT Infrastructure. This process requires some planning.
One of the most common difficulties in rationalizing the value of managed services, is undervaluing the time and cost of keeping your server up and running. Sure the server itself is relatively inexpensive but ongoing “hidden” costs will easily exceed its initial purchase price:
Once you understand the hidden costs, you'll be equipped to determine which service is right for you.
The economy must be slumbering back to speed, because workloads continue to increase…hence the blog's silence. In just the past two months, TOCICI has taken on a variety of new customers and continues to upgrade & expand systems:
One of TOCICI's hallmarks has been the implementation of a comprehensive documentation and project management website; enabling a comprehensive inventory, project, documentation and billing system, all integrated into a single consistent interface. From the mouth's of customers; the ”…impressive…”, frequently updated, information-packed customer specific sites have proven ”…clean and easy to navigate…”.