2011 series is hard to keep online
The providers on which 2011 servers are is extremely hard to keep online, because providers with 4 disk 1Gbps 100Tb/Unlimited server offers tend to extremely hard to work with, whether from NL, UK, Germany etc.
This time some servers are offline due to couple DMCA claims and this provider is not allowing us to even check up on the server and demanding we file a counter-claim or terminate user(s) in question - in the past many of these DMCA requests has been bogus to start with.
This is an european company called Swiftway - we have been arm wrestling about which law takes precedence within the Europe: US or European law for the past year.
We've always handled all DMCA and copyright notices as per European and Finnish law as we are a Finnish operator and services provider. You can read about Finnish copyright laws from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Karpela and http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/1961/en19610404.pdf or by googling "finnish copyright law".
Because Swiftway does not give us legal options to handle these requests, or at all we do have to drop them - Unfortunately this is the last provider with 2011 series type of servers, and replacement of the servers is very hard as typically only 2 disk systems are available from providers at the price range we are looking for. Some places do offer servers which could work as direct replacement but does fall very short on other areas (such as basic maintenance of servers) to provide the quality we seek for. With 2011 series we simply cannot lower the disk quantity, nor raise the cost per node.
Some of the trouble with the providers is that we require that we can use the service to the full extent and they are not faulty - it's odd to find that many providers are unable to make basic server installations to the spec with software raid, and other oddities which we find to be ultimately basics.
The cost limitations are another limitation to the choices of providers - which tends to favor those providers which compete with price - not service.
So if you are still on 2011 plan, we do urge you to choose an upgrade, up-to-date service. More information will be available within the week how long the 2011 series will be available etc. and i do hope we can amicably resolve the current issues to bring servers in question back online.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
