Posts Tagged ‘service’

The Super Bowl is over, so now we can all focus our attention on Parallels Summit which is coming up in two weeks.

We are very excited to have SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby, one of the industry’s most successful entrepreneurs, deliver a keynote address this year. I look forward to hearing Lance’s views on the future of the industry in light of the recent acquisition of The Planet. The strategies his team puts in place to capture and increase market share will be of particular interest to me.

Parallels Summit is the leading global gathering of the Cloud industry. More than 1,500 attendees, including hosting companies, communication service providers (CSPs), value-added resellers (VARs), software vendors and web designers from around the world will join forces to discuss trends, strategies and business opportunities in the Cloud. The Summit will take place February 22-24 at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

I appreciate the opportunity to meet and share ideas at Summit with industry leaders like Lance, Go Daddy President and COO Warren Adelman, AT&T VP of SMB Product Management Ebrahim Keshavarz, and Ingram Micro VP of Managed Services and Cloud Computing Renee Bergeron, among many others. This year’s Summit will again give all attendees invaluable access to potential business partners, Parallels technical and business resources, and other industry participants.

Good luck to everyone in winning the three day lease of a Lamborghini. You will no doubt have fun. For those who haven’t registered yet, there is still time. Summit is free – so register today!

See you all in Orlando!

Jack Zubarev
President of Marketing and Alliances at Parallels

Social unrest can affect our ability to serve our customers. In Egypt, the government recently cut off nearly all access to the Internet, so customers trying to access our servers from Egyptian IP space have been largely unsuccessful. How unsuccessful?

I gathered all the netblocks assigned to Egypt (currently around 5.8 million unique IPv4 IP addresses), and I queried our customer portal access logs and API for records of those IPs. We saw a massive drop on 1/28/2011. This coincides with reports on most major news networks that Egypt’s Internet access had been crippled. Prior to the January 28, the traffic was fairly typical.

Then this happened:

Between January 28 and February 2, about 0.2% of the traffic we normally see from Egypt reached our network. That means 99.8% of traffic was stifled by the network shutdowns.

As the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, the Egyptian government restored Internet service, and our logs clearly corroborate that report.

-Jason

Today, SoftLayer released an Advanced Monitoring Solution based on Nimsoft’s Monitoring software suite. In a nutshell the product will give SoftLayer visibility onto a customer’s server at the OS level. In addition to the great product benefit the customers receive, it will add tools to our sales and support staff to troubleshoot, diagnose and systems design.

The core product works through a piece of software that gets installed on a customer server called a robot. The robot in turn allows probes to be run on the server. The different probes collect various data points from the OS and applications. As the probes collect data they pass the information onto some intermediate backend servers, and eventually end up on our brand new HBase data warehouse (HBase is the massively scaled database for large amounts (petabytes) of data). This is the corner piece for the scalability of the offering. So, robot is the main software and the probes are the application watchers that run inside the robot framework.

There are additional features outside of the process mentioned called ‘Offbox Monitors’ or ‘Offbox Probes.’ These are probes that live on servers in the SoftLayer data center. The idea behind these is that we are able to let customers have network services they want to monitor from a remote location. An example would be url_reponse, which monitors if a url is active and passing data (along with some other pieces of data people might be interested in like response time).

What it can monitor? The better question might be what can’t it monitor? The SoftLayer offer comes in three packages – Basic, Advanced and Premium. Basic is a free package that monitors core hardware (CPU, memory, disk) along with simple process and services. Advanced moves into deeper system monitoring, and Premium adds more application monitoring (like databases, web services etc.). This offering is available for hardware, Monthly CCI’s and hourly CCI’s – basically for everything we sell. Customers can order the software from all order forms (external, internal, cci, server etc.) as well as add the service post deployment from the advanced monitoring portal page.

The service offering has two distinctive reporting features that we call graphing and alarms. Graphing allows customers to (yep, you guessed it) graph all the data we collect. For example, we can show a graph of CPU usage over time. Alarms are notifications that services are outside of a predetermined range. For example, you could setup an alarm when CPU usage goes above 90%. Alarms can be tracked from the customer portal, or email alerts (SoftLayer calls this list ‘Alarm Subscribers’) can be setup by the customer.

All the features of the product are accessed via the customer portal, or via SoftLayer’s internal portal. Configuration, graphing, and alarm management can all be done from one management page in the customer portal. In near real-time customers can change configurations directly on their server or cloud computing instance (CCI) for the various data points they want graph and alarm. It’s pretty slick, and it adds to the SoftLayer secret sauce. We have also added a feature that allows the customer to save configurations on a particular server and “redeploy” them on different servers or future servers they may add. This feature makes it easier to scale and customize for a particular customer’s needs.

As time goes on we will continue to add more probes and more features. This is just the beginning – make no mistake it’s pretty damn cool.

-@quigleymar

Customers are the heart of any business. If you don’t have customers you will not have a business. Here at Softlayer we take the meaning of customer service to another level. Yes, we have a Customer Service department but we don’t view customer service as an event, but rather as a series of interrelated pieces of a process. Many departments within our organization in addition to Customer Service provide a degree of customer service whether it’s to an internal or external customer.

Softlayer employs the “best practice” approach to take the perspective of the customer in all that we do. Since our customers come in through our website, the Softlayer team is continually working to improve the online ordering experience with the customer usability in mind at all times. One of my first tasks here at Softlayer was to “act” like a customer and order a server. I then had to do a write up on the experience. I have to be honest; it required some thought as to what could be improved because this process has been fine tuned as it’s been done over and over again. I thought the website and ordering process was very well put together, intuitive and easy to use.

Another way a customer will experience Softlayer is through our portal. Now, working from the inside, the portal is quite overwhelming at first. As you spend more time on it you realize just how powerful it actually is. We have quite a few developers working on it daily and this is to ensure that the customer has every tool, option, and task at their fingertips so they can get the most from their servers. Being in the internet business we understand that a competitor is only one click away.

Also during my first week here, I spent several days working in the NOC. Aside from being thoroughly awed with our facilities and how neat and organized everything was, I was impressed as I listened to the techs on their calls with the customers. The calls are handled with customer satisfaction as the first priority. Yes, I even heard the challenging calls that were very difficult to handle. The techs remained calm and focused to solve the problem at hand. The quality of work depends on the quality of people in place so if you have any technical problems these are the folks you want to speak with.

According to Wikipedia, “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.”[i] Here at Softlayer we exceed the customer expectations and will continue to implement and improve best practice processes and initiatives to improve our customer’s experience.

So this is my first blog here at SoftLayer. I’ve worked here since February, but I am certainly very familiar with the industry. In a previous life I formed the sales department at one of our competitors and learned about the industry. Even though I worked at a competitor, I never heard anyone speak badly about SoftLayer, and in fact it was the ‘bar’ by which we measured ourselves.

Now that I work here, it is even more apparent how and why SoftLayer is the most respected name in the hosting industry. SoftLayer overall has the best reputation due to its people, innovations, dedication, and motivation of the entire team.

I work in the Customer Service department, and it is my responsibility to contact new clients to ensure that they are not running into any problems and to get some feedback on their experience thus far. I have heard virtually nothing but praise from any client I have spoken to (new or old) about their experiences here.

All in all, the only better thing than hosting at SoftLayer is to work at SoftLayer!

Working for a company like SoftLayer requires a lot of dedication. Our staff is on call 24/7, and is ready to react in any given circumstance. Our BlackBerry’s keep us in the know, and allow us to quickly communicate with each other via email, telephone, and SMS. It is this communication that allows us to rise above the competition.

One specific example of this occurred in the wee hours of the morning. As per usual, communication was established via email of a specific customer issue. Having updated the customer, and established the required email thread regarding the request, I proceeded with business as usual, being sure to keep this issue in the back of my mind to brief the inbound shift once they arrived. I was quite surprised as my phone rang shortly afterwards. It was one of the senior members of our management team. While I won’t name specifics, because it’s quite inconsequential, I was particularly impressed that at around 4:00 in the morning (on a Saturday, nonetheless), they were awake and reading their email. Occurrences such as this aren’t unusual. Our team, regardless of the level of responsibility is always ready to take ownership, or assist when necessary.

This says one thing very loudly, it doesn’t matter how high up in the food chain a member of the team is here. We all take customer concerns very seriously, and work diligently to ensure that customer requests are met in a timely fashion. This isn’t limited to the personnel in the NOC, or our management team. Our Sales team works endlessly to communicate with their customers. It’s not uncommon for a member of our sales team to sneak out while hanging out to answer a phone call or an email to ensure that our customers are taken care of. Our InfoSys and development team are frequently contacted in the middle of the night with issues that require their attention. They resolve those issues quickly, and allow us to continue on with keeping our customers up and running. Suffice to say, anyone who sports the three bars does so knowing that they’re the best in the industry. We all take pride in ownership of the issues, and making sure that they’re resolved quickly so that our customers can be successful.

In a recent column at searchdatacenter.com there was a list presented regarding the 20 universal truths in the Data Center. It’s a pretty funny list, but as an outsourced, on demand data center services provider, we are often catering to the IT operator’s mentality that resides in these truths. We have a good subset of customers that fall into many of these statements and we are continuously working to address, help, and augment—with the idea to help complete the IT story rather than compete with the IT strategy/needs of our customers… Below, I pulled out a few of the “truths” listed and added Softlayer views of them.

#2 – Upgrading Hardware is cheaper than improving Software – In the Softlayer world our services cater to this theory as a baseline for our offerings. We are constantly allowing customers to ‘right-size’ their compute needs and we are able to do this because of the robust compute offering and the flexible structure embedded in our business model.

#9 – Bandwidth is the same as energy. As more is provided, more is used – We have seen bandwidth usage grow almost threefold over the last 4 years and it’s a result of the internet applications demanding more bandwidth for things like video, voice, etc. Also, linear pricing models allow bandwidth to be less of an unknown and move towards a very predictable usage model.

#14 – It is always costlier and more time-consuming to wait and fix it later – Being able to quickly assess through metrics and functionality reviews, we fully subscribe to if it’s broke, fix it quickly and remove the legacy of the deficiencies. We are all human and will make errors and mistakes and being forward enough to recognize and repair these will continue to ensure your customer, employers, and employees that you have a handle on your business. Have you seen Lance Crosby’s printer stand?

#15 – By the time the CEO has learned enough to ask about a technology, it’s no longer a strategic advantage – My Favorite and have you met Lance Crosby?

#16 Exactly what you want will cost you more that you budget – In the spirit of full disclosure, our CFO, Mike Jones, takes our numbers that we budget for purchases and adds the “actual factor” to it of a +20-30%!!

The list of 20 is well worth the quick read and as I did the first time reading, I would imagine that many of you feel like you could have written this yourself. IT and Data Centers are tough. The goal for all of us is to increase efficiency, reduce costs and ensure that we spend more time moving forward and progressing rather than spending the bulk of our time fixing the past!!

Being the “cell phone person” here at SoftLayer has its challenges, to put it mildly. I thought that working with mostly boys (yes, I meant to say boys) would be a breeze compared to a bunch of women (we tend to be a bit ummm, picky?). I was terribly wrong! They are WORSE! Especially with gadgets like cell phones, considering the field we are in. For some reason a lot of them think that because they can configure a server they also know exactly what is wrong with their phone without actually troubleshooting it at all or why they MUST have this phone or that phone.

Reboot?! Why?! Hmmmm that was one of the first things I learned to ALWAYS do. I learned this from Jacob Linscott, my first IT guy back in 1997, who I work with once again; he is our Director of IT – Linux. I learned very quickly that I had better not EVEN think about calling him until I had rebooted my computer. Amazingly enough, I’d say the odds on a reboot fixing the issue with both computers and cell phones is very high, but that’s about the only thing that is similar in regards to issues between the two. I have been amazed at the multitude of varying issues as well as the information you can find online to fix a phone without having to call the carrier; and, that is a real life saver!

What baffles me is that everyone seems to know what’s wrong with their phone without actually researching it. When I say “So you Googled that and found info that said it was most likely the issue?” I get “nah, I just think that’s it.” I just shake my head, take their phone, and walk away. I Google my rear end off all the time! I am as specific as possible when I do a search. Such as, “my 8320 can send SMS, but is not receiving them.” Seems obvious, right? Wrong!

One would think the Geektopia of staff we have would do the same, WRONG! There is a world of knowledge and information out there regarding any number of BlackBerry and iPhone issues if you simply just take a few minutes to type your issue into a search engine. Heck, you don’t have to use Google, you can use whatever search engine you want! I’ve sent out emails regarding tips and tricks, the problem I seem to have is getting people to actually read the info. Admittedly, we get hundreds and hundreds of emails a day, some days thousands, depending on what group lists they are on; so I’ll give a little slack. It’s simply a case of missing the obvious, like when you are trying to fix a computer and it won’t work and it turns out to be the simplest thing that was forgotten, happens with phone issues too. Everyone just goes into panic mode when their phone isn’t functioning, amazing how we lived without cell phones just 20 years ago.

When SL was starting up just a few years ago, our VP of Sales was the cell phone person and he wasn’t too thrilled. He couldn’t WAIT to pass it on to someone else. I was the chosen one or sucker, depending how you look at it. I remember sitting in my cube my first week at SL, which wasn’t too far from his office, and giggling when he had to call the carrier and deal with some phone issues. I don’t giggle anymore. They told me by no means was it a punishment, taking over this particular job duty, but some days I wonder—especially the days when I get stuck on the phone for hours and hours trying to get a phone fixed, repeating myself over and over to 5 different people in 5 departments! It’s a source of some major meltdowns to say the least.

You see, we have about 130 phones throughout the company in four different locations. Dallas has Corporate and the DC and of course Seattle and WDC. So a lot of phones, a lot of folks, a lot of issues; from “My phone got ruined when I went hiking wearing khaki’s and got caught in a rain storm, the rain soaked through and ruined my phone, can I have a better one now?” to, “I lost it at the Christmas Party, sorry” to “If I step on it, does that mean I have to pay for it, because I want a better one?!” Yes, those are just a few of them, and obviously some of my favorites.

I, with the help of a few others, just recently upgraded 31 phones; Lance our CEO is cool like that. You see, the 31 were 8700c BB models, or fondly referred to as “coasters” around here. Of course they were spread across our four locations, so this required lots of coordination with someone on the other end of the line. This upgrade took over a month due to device issues (new phone to market at the time).

The guys in the Dallas NOC all know better than to laugh as they hear my cursing due to being on the phone for countless hours; or if they do, they’ve gotten much better about hiding it.  The point of all of this is to remind you that if you have a company cell phone and it has issues, be kind to your cell phone person and know that you are not the only one with an issue. Cell phones break. Cell phones die. Cell phones get dropped on the ground, in the toilet, or, my favorite, thrown across a room in anger every single day. So if your cell phone person can’t get to you RIGHT THAT MINUTE, try trouble shooting it yourself. No, not installing things, but maybe just try and look up your issue, and let them know what you found. Send them the link or print it out. It will make their day. Trust me on this one!

Nothing’s worse than trying to use someone’s website when you absolutely need information right now, and it’s unavailable. Last semester when attempting to figure out where the heck my classes were located, the school’s website was crippled by the influx of new freshmen that were trying to do the same. Imagine over 20,000 people trying to access this site at the same time, and because of this, the site is rendered practically useless.

We’ve had customers of ours face all sorts of hardships with their sites. Whether they’re featured on a popular TV show, or they’ve seen an unprecedented rise in traffic due to such sites as www.digg.com and www.Slashdot.org (commonly referred to as the Digg effect, or being ‘slashdotted’ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slashdot_effect> ) it’s often difficult to get a new dedicated server online quickly enough to mitigate this effect. Imagine that instead of tens of thousands of college students, its tens of thousands of dollars! Quite the predicament, right?

Not a problem though! Cloud computing to the rescue! CloudLayer computing instances are able to be rapidly deployed to provide additional resources should they be required. Even better, if you only anticipate a short burst, you can grab a few up, use them while they’re needed, and then toss them, all while only being billed by the hour! With cloud computing administrators can quickly react to changing situations. We offer several solutions in our bag of tricks, including Dedicated, Bare Metal Cloud, and CloudLayer computing. With proper planning and deployment, your site can be profitable regardless of the situation. This includes a popular product, blog, or the first day of college.

Back in my younger days I had taken on a few new hobbies that strike fear into the hearts of most mortals; Auto Mechanics. While working on vehicles, especially your own, can be terrifying imagine placing a necessary part on incorrectly that would eventually lead to failure and possibly serious injury to yourself or others. Luckily I had some backup while working on my truck. The individuals at the auto shop, that I did most of my work at, were knowledgeable and always willing to help (when they could get to you).

One specific experience rings loudly in my head to this day (for more than one reason, as you will soon find out). While driving around San Diego, I noticed a rather unnerving grinding/squeaking noise emanating from one off my wheels. I quickly headed to the local parts store to pick up a new ball joint and proceeded to take on the attempt to fix it.

Long story short, after some nuts, bolts, cuts, and bruises, I finally got to where I needed to remove the part. One of the techs there suggested using a hammer to bang it out of the coupling (or whatever it’s seated in). Thirty minutes later, I was tired, frustrated, sore, and deaf. Come to find out there was a perfect tool at my disposal, which cut the job down to approximately five minutes. One of the individuals at the shop told me that “no one had been able to make it work”. Needless to say, I made a liar out of him.

Similarly, we provide the resources that allow our customers to quickly and effectively attack a possible situation and fix the problem. Our technicians are the best in the industry and our primary focus is to ensure that customer satisfaction is at its highest. We have several tools at our disposal and offer those tools, and guidance on using them. Also, much like the staff at the auto shop, we try and point our customers to the ‘tricks of the trade’. We have an extensive knowledge base that can assist with day to day problems.

Quite on the contrary, though, we never discourage using certain tools because we don’t think that they’ll work. As anyone in IT can attest to, just because something doesn’t work the first time doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a lost cause. With the right instructions and a little bit of patience, a little can go a long way. The trick is to use the correct tools for the job. While an ICMP request will tell you that the server’s online, it won’t give you the reason for outages like output from /var/log/messages or event viewer would.

Luckily, I don’t think I’ll be changing a ball joint on my car any time soon but I’m always learning new tricks and tools that I can use to further enhance my proficiency and I’ll always be happy to share those tricks to you; our loyal customers!