Windows Hosting Cloud is now online and fully integrated

We're delighted to announce that our Datacentre Hosting Cloud is now online, fully integrated and tested, and available for everyone.  Based on Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V, and IIS 8, it is the most reliable, the most secure, and the fastest hosting system ever produced by Microsoft, and it's available to all of our customers for no extra charge.

As well as bringing greater reliability, more resilience, almost instant recovery from hardware failure, and performance-on-demand, we've introduced new systems to complement our cloud.

New Backup Systems
For managed Dedicated Server, managed VPS-Dedicated Server, VPS, and shared hosting customers taking advantage of our new cloud system, we've introduced a new backup system that includes Continuous Data Protection (backup in real-time) with versioning (snapshots at chosen intervals) as well as extremely fast standard backups (with versioning) to different backup arrays for greater data security. Additional costs may apply to CDP backup and increased backup frequencies.

New Virtual Switch-based Security Systems
As well as hardware firewalls, and Windows Server 2012 firewalls, we've intoduced a new firewalling system that works at the virtual switch level.  We're offering it to all shared hosting, VPS, and managed Dedicated Servers moving to our new platform - for free.  This new system not only helps to increase the security of inter-VPS and inter-server traffic, it also provides high-level anti-virus and anti-malware protection for all systems.  Integrated Intruder Detection systems are also available for an additional cost.

Free Smartertools Bundle worth over $800
For all VPS and Dedicated Server customers moving to our new hosting platform, we can provide the latest Smartertools Bundle (Smartermail Professional 50 Domains/250 users, Smartertrack Professional 2 Agents, and SmarterStats Professional 50 sites) which can be integrated into the new control panel and used in place of our existing email services where relevant.  We will even provide free backup email servers for your email server installation.  This offer is limited to one bundle per customer.

PHP and MySQL hosting that outperforms Linux
You may have been told that PHP and MySQL is for Linux servers.  This couldn't be further from the truth. The performance of PHP and MySQL  on our cloud platform is phenomenal and easily outperforms many Linux installations.  With inbuilt support for FastCGI, URLRewriting and a fast PHP caching system, if you want real performance for your PHP sites, Windows Server 2012 on our hosting cloud is the answer.

Systems like Drupal, Magento, Joomla, and Wordpress all benefit massively from our cloud system's support for PHP and MySQL, and they all run super-fast on it. 

New Control Panel
With HELM no longer being developed, and its lack of support for modern operating systems and software, we've introduced a new Control Panel.  User testing has suggested this new Control Panel is easier to use than HELM, it provides a greater control of your hosting environment and domains, and works with/controls the latest versions of software.  The new control panel is integrated into our existing systems and is available to all hosting customers moving to our new cloud-based system and upgrading to servers running Server 2012 or greater. 

Our new control panel is available hereSome videos on how to use it are available within our new online Support Portal

Please Note: Some of the information and articles in the above knowledgebase link only relate to the systems that are using our datacentre cloud system and for those who have upgraded.

Rebranding to RACKTEAM 
As many people will know, our rebranding to the name Rackteam has been planned for many years.  Over the next few weeks and months you will see this branding appearing more and more on our web sites, control panels, newsletters, and other areas. 

Although it's new branding it is not a new company, and Network Online Limited is still the company you are dealing with.  Apart from the changes to our branding there will be no change in the way we operate. 

Upgrading to our new Cloud Hosting System
Over the next few weeks we'll start upgrading web sites and servers to our new platform.  In almost every case the upgrade to web sites will be performed with no downtime or interruption to service as we move one-site-at-a-time to new systems and servers. 

For web sites that cannot be moved without a small amount of downtime, we'll carry out the upgrades at a time that causes the least disruption.  In most cases, disruptions or downtime will only be a few minutes while we transfer databases to newer versions of the software.

We'll take care of the upgrade and transfer to the new systems, but we will co-ordinate the changes with you to ensure you are fully informed about what is happening at all times. 

If you are a dedicated server, or VPS customer, it is not compulsory for you to upgrade.  You can maintain your existing set-up if you prefer but you will not be able to take advantage of our new security or backup systems, the new control panel, the Smartertools Bundle, or the massive increase in performance.

When we're ready to start the upgrade we will be in touch with you to co-ordinate the move and to give you more information about what we'll be doing.