LeaseWeb believes that clients and other stakeholders deserve a clear articulation of LeaseWeb’s obligations and responsibilities to better understand how we ensure the highest quality of service while adhering to the law. Customers are increasingly using technology to communicate and to store private and sensitive information. Like others in the technology industry, we believe it is important for the public to have transparent information about law enforcement access to customer data.

The company policy of LeaseWeb on the subject of internet content is clear. We are content agnostic, meaning we host all content as long as it is legal in the jurisdiction in which it is hosted.
 

Law Enforcement Transparency Report 2012

With the above in mind we are now unveiling the first LeaseWeb Transparency Report, for the year 2012. The goal of this report is to shed light on the following types of law enforcement requests and/or court orders we have received:

• Government requests for customer information
• Government requests for forensic images
• Government requests to remove content
• Child abuse material notices

This data covers law enforcement requests and/or court orders for the separate LeaseWeb operating entities received in calendar year 2012. We only received requests related to our dedicated hosting and cloud offerings. Our shared webhosting, domain name, and IP transit offerings generated no requests.

Of note: In January 2012, the Dutch fiscal police impounded 60 servers owned by one client, a large cloud storage provider, under a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) request from the US government.

The figures above specify the total number of valid law enforcement requests LeaseWeb received in 2012. LeaseWeb rejects law enforcement requests, in total or in part, if they are invalid, incomprehensible, or otherwise have no basis under an appropriate law. Historically, LeaseWeb has only recorded instances in which it produced some data in response to a valid law enforcement request. We are making changes to this practice so future disclosures will reflect total or partial rejections of law enforcement requests.
 

LeaseWeb Community Outreach Project

LeaseWeb maintains operations with a physical presence in three countries. Therefore, we only disclose data in these three countries as we have the ability to validate the lawfulness of requests for these locations. Direct requests from foreign authorities are refused. Normally we will advise requesting authorities on how they can obtain the data: For this the foreign authority needs to file a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) request with the competent authority in the jurisdiction of the operating company that holds the data. LeaseWeb operating companies cannot divulge information held by other LeaseWeb operating companies, as they have no access to this data.

Today’s unveiling of a Law Enforcement Transparency Report fits LeaseWeb’s overall pursuit of a cleaner internet, safeguarded from unlawful material. In 2010, LeaseWeb launched the Community Outreach Project in the worldwide hosting market to support organizations that monitor, identify, and combat sources of spam and cybercrime. This project provides servers and allocates network bandwidth to qualifying organizations identifying internet security threats such as spam, viruses, malware, and phishing.

One of the organizations in the Community Outreach Program, for example, is StopBadware (www.stopbadware.org), a nonprofit anti-malware organization bringing together stakeholders throughout the internet ecosystem and making the internet safer through prevention, mitigation, and remediation of malware websites.
 

Company background

LeaseWeb is a leading Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider serving a worldwide portfolio of 15,000 customers ranging from SMBs to Enterprises. Services include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting, Colocation, and Dedicated Hosting supported by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 50,000 servers under management, LeaseWeb has provided infrastructure for mission-critical websites, Internet applications, email servers, security, and storage services since 1997.

The company operates six data centers in the U.S. and Europe, all of which are backed by a superior worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 3.0 Tbps. LeaseWeb offers services through its various subsidiaries (operating companies), being LeaseWeb B.V. (“LeaseWeb Netherlands”), LeaseWeb USA, Inc. (“LeaseWeb USA”), and LeaseWeb Deutschland GmbH (“LeaseWeb Germany”). For more information, visit www.leaseweb.com.

The post LeaseWeb first hosting provider worldwide to launch Law Enforcement Transparency Report appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

Intel and HP recently selected LeaseWeb to test drive the latest prototype of such a low-power server. They sent over a confidential box to LeaseWeb, some special cables and an instruction manual so we could try out two alpha servers based on this new chip, the Intel Atom S1200 processor. As Manager of Dedicated Hosting, one of the great advantages of my role is that I get to play with this kind of innovative hardware before anyone else, which totally appeals to my inner geek.

The Intel Atom S1200 processor

Before I jump into my discoveries, let’s talk about the idea of Atom S1200 processors: They are low-power, dual-core System on Chip (SoC) processors for microservers. For comparison:

• The current generations of server processors are great for a wide range of data center workloads because of their performance, memory capacity, capabilities, and the flexibility which they provide. They usually average about 17-135 watts of power.
• Intel Atom S1200 processors are low-power server processors, with frequencies ranging from 1.6GHz to 2.0GHz, which clock in at approximately six to eight watts. We find them most suitable for serving basic web content, such as static web pages.

From LeaseWeb’s perspective, these processors have twin additional advantages: The S1200 product family supports modern 64-bit operating systems and software, while simultaneously retaining compatibility with x86 software. This means that customers who migrate legacy data over to one of these servers won’t need to implement new software stacks to work within the migrated infrastructure.

The processor’s design enables a much smaller form factor, which can allow for six to eight times the number of servers in a single standard rack. So, one rack can potentially hold over 1000 server nodes, depending on the form factor. According to Intel, approximately two dozen low-power designs, including microservers, storage, and networking systems, are incorporated into the Atom S1200 processor family.

We took Intel’s and HP’s conceptual hardware to our Amsterdam data center, where we wired it up according to the instructions Intel had provided us. We then started testing and ran several benchmarks against other server processors. In the end, we discovered that the power consumption results were most promising. The system we received, which was just a prototype, was fully optimized and had an impressively lean power consumption of around 13 watts. Very promising, indeed! It gives me good hope for the future of HP’s Moonshot server, which was officially launched today.

LeaseWeb is always adding new dimensions to our products and services to improve our technologies so we can better meet our customers’ computing needs for the best possible price. So we really want to hear your feedback. Please tell us which low-power, low-cost servers make the most sense for your workloads.

The post LeaseWeb tests the world’s first 6-watt server-class processor appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

As the system works regardless of the network connectivity of your instance, you can use this to debug the network settings – even when the instance is disconnected. You can use the Console to resolve any Cloud or Virtual Server instance issues, for example, when remote access is accidentally disabled, or a local firewall is preventing you from connecting.

In order to access the Console, you need an up-to-date web browser with HTML5 Canvas support (such as the current versions of Firefox or Chrome). On most Linux and BSD instances, you get a text-based console, while on a Windows instance, you get a fully-functional graphical desktop. To access the Console feature, simply log on to the Self Service Center (SSC), navigate to the instance that you want to manage, click “Manage”, and click “Start console”.

You can also soft-reboot your instance from the Console screen. This action will issue a “reboot” command to your instance and allows your operating system to properly shut down before restarting.

We hope you will enjoy the new Console feature. Please feel free to provide us with your feedback in the comments.

The post New Console feature for LeaseWeb Cloud and Virtual Servers appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

History

If you need any number of virtualized servers for separate services, the LeaseWeb Virtual Server product will get you started. A free firewall provides extra control and enables an additional layer of security for your applications.

This article will talk a little bit more about the LeaseWeb Cloud product, how it helps you build more advanced setups, and using the private network to your advantage.

To recap: LeaseWeb Cloud provides cloud instances that are deployed in your own private network. All of your instances are assigned both a publicly reachable IP address, and a fully private one. Access from the public Internet is controlled via an included firewall. You can use the firewall to refuse general access to your infrastructure, but to allow access from specific networks or IP addresses.

The entire infrastructure is invoiced in a transparent monthly billing structure. You can purchase additional data packs to save on data traffic costs for your entire virtual network.

Setting up your infrastructure
LeaseWeb Cloud is commonly used to construct scalable tiered applications. For example, a customer might use one of their instances to run a lightweight, public-facing web server with separated database or application layers (using the firewall to restrict server access to the web manager via the LeaseWeb Self Service Center).

Building a setup like this is easier than you might think. Just order any number of LeaseWeb Cloud instances, specifying your requirements in terms of size, speed and operating system, and LeaseWeb will deliver these in a new and unshared private network. After delivery, you can immediately start deploying your applications and databases by accessing your instances on the public IP.

Whenever you need to configure database access on the web server, you can use the private IP to make sure your traffic stays private.

Traffic packs
In the example above – or on any setup using our Cloud product – we do not invoice any of the traffic on the private network, saving on bandwidth costs. All of the public traffic (to and from the Internet) on your infrastructure is measured and displayed in our Self Service Center, so you can keep an eye on the traffic your instances are consuming. To avoid unexpected surcharges, you can configure data traffic notifications to alert you if traffic exceeds a given threshold. We usually advise our customers to purchase a traffic pack along with at least one of their instances. Traffic pack pricing starts at EUR 5/USD 5 per month.

Remember, traffic packs are flexible. When you add instances to your network, you can increase the traffic allotment for all public traffic by purchasing additional traffic packs. We calculate and invoice surcharges by measuring against the total of the traffic packs in your network.

Expanding your infrastructure
Whenever you need more capacity, expanding is easy: just order more Cloud instances on our web site, and we will automatically deliver them into your existing virtual network. Additional instances are usually delivered within minutes, allowing you to scale up rapidly and ensuring you can address your expanding user or customer base instead of worrying about your infrastructure.

Please let us know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions. We love working with our customers, so any and all feedback is welcome!

The post Using the LeaseWeb Cloud to scale your applications appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

History
A recent internal study revealed that our customer support, sales support, and technical support teams were spending a lot of time answering basic questions. In addition, some support requests were taking longer than necessary to resolve as time was consumed in getting the correct information from customers.

From this study grew the idea that a system was needed to replace the FAQ on our website, a system to provide self-help and reference information, and to enhance customer experience. This instigated the Knowledge Base project, and I feel proud to announce that the LeaseWeb Knowledge Base has just gone live! You can access it at https://kb.leaseweb.com.

New wine in a new bottle
The LeaseWeb Knowledge Base, built on the industry standard Confluence enterprise wiki software, replaces the FAQ on our website. We’ve taken special care to guarantee that no information was lost in the conversion process. It won’t stop there. Maintaining the open character of a wiki, any LeaseWeb employee can edit or add content in real time. We will continue to add and expand Knowledge Base content based on the experience of our support teams, improvements to our software, new LeaseWeb offerings, and, most importantly, based on the feedback we receive from you.

Help!
A true Knowledge Base is never complete – it’s always developing – and ours is no exception. However, the new LeaseWeb Knowledge Base is already great place to find reference information and procedures, with the information structured, reviewed, and indexed with your perspective in mind – accessible with just a click on the website.

In short, the Knowledge Base helps us to help you help yourself!

The post The LeaseWeb Knowledge Base is live appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

The most important addition to our product lineup is the new LeaseWeb Cloud product, which combines cloud instances with a private virtual network. This enables you to create more advanced infrastructures while maintaining close control over data traffic consumption and access to your infrastructure.

Once you order a LeaseWeb Cloud instance, we provide you with a virtual network – comparable to a private VLAN – that we use to connect your instances. All of your instances will get a private (RFC1918) IP address in your own virtual network. You can use this network for any internal communication, without impact on your data traffic allowance. The private network is not shared with other customers, so it’s a perfect way to shield communication between your internal systems.

Next to the private IP, we assign a public IP to every instance as well. Combined with the free firewall functionality this gives you an elegant mechanism for controlling access to your back-end systems. As mentioned above, we don’t charge for traffic within the virtual network – we only measure and charge for traffic to and from the public internet. The total traffic allowance for your virtual network can be increased when ordering new instances on the web site: just select any additional data traffic pack, and we’ll add it to the total traffic allowance for the virtual network.

With the introduction of the Cloud product described above, we’re changing our product names, to make things a little bit more clear. The Express Cloud product has been renamed Virtual Server, to make room for the new product.

We’re also introducing some exciting discounts on both new and existing products – take a look at our Cloud products for details.

Going forward, we will launch the same features in the US of course. We will also continue to add new features to both products – as the cloud world is constantly evolving, we’ll be doing the same in our feature set. As always, we love receiving your suggestions or comments– customer feedback is a great tool for further improving our products!

The post Introducing the new Cloud products: Virtual Servers and Cloud appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

The project was made possible by a large group of LeaseWeb people from all over the world. The assembled team included engineers from the US office, as well as Dutch and German colleagues. One of the key steps in our process was the careful selection of experienced engineers orchestrating the network, servers, routers, switches and all the other components needed to build a data center. Our team worked around the clock to ensure the success of this project. We worked at night to minimize downtime and the impact on our client businesses. It meant the team’s work day started at 10 pm and lasted until 5 or 6 am. Part of our team also worked during the day to handle technical issues and client tickets as well as to ensure the setup was completed for the evening move.

One of the main goals during the relocation was to minimize downtime for our customers while having a communication team ready to handle any technical issues or questions from our customers during the relocation. We tackled the challenge by having effective planning, checklists and contingency plans to handle any technical issues during the actual move. The big secret to this efficient migration: instead of transferring each server separately, we disconnected full racks and moved them carefully to their new location! Because each rack weighs about 1500 pounds when full, they had to be rolled in a straight line to our new data center hall. Once relocated, all servers were reconnected to power feeds and network switches. Our engineers then ran tests on the servers and the network while our support team communicated with the customers directly.

We wanted to share with our customers the investment we made to continue to offer a stable and reliable hosting environment, to thank them for their patience and understanding. We hope the movie shows that our teams are fully committed to do what it takes to improve the customer experience. That is after all what Reliable Hosting is all about.

The post How to migrate 3000 servers in 3 nights appeared first on LeaseWeb Blog.

Internet traffic is growing fast. More people are making use of wireless devices, such as smartphones and tablets. Cisco predicts in its Visual Networking Index that Internet traffic from these devices will exceed traffic from wired devices by 2014. Moreover, peak Internet traffic is growing more rapidly than average traffic. Cisco’s index reports that peak traffic will increase nearly fivefold by 2016. These developments put a large pressure on the capacity of IP networks. For organizations already dealing with high amounts of Internet traffic (such as a hosting provider), a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) connection to an Internet exchange is a good solution.

However, networks that (want to) make use of ten or more 10GE connections at an Internet exchange, do not always replace these with one 100GE connection. So let’s take a closer look at the advantages of 100GE.

LeaseWeb was one of the first parties to establish a 100GE connection at the AMS-IX – just like they were one of the first members to use a 10GE line at the exchange back in 2005. An important reason for them to select a 100GE connection instead of adding more 10GE connections is the improved bandwidth utilization. A 100GE line allows ten times more traffic to flow through one line than through one 10GE. As a result, the latency decreases and Internet performance improves considerably.

The 100GE line also allows organizations to more quickly increase their capacity. This is particularly convenient when, for example, a website’s traffic grows with unexpected rapidity. At the same time, the improved scalability makes the connection easier to manage for the network engineers, because they do not need to add an extra 10GE line every time they want to increase capacity. The 100GE connection already supports more capacity from the onset, and (at least for now) offers enough bandwidth.

Last but certainly not least is the decrease in costs. You pay less for a 100GE connection than when you use 10 or more 10GE ports. It could even save you a considerable amount of money at full capacity, which is money that can then be used for other purposes.

Change in our industry doesn’t always happen overnight.  We have experienced that the uptake of certain port types can take some time. Besides a lack of knowledge of the benefits of a 100GE port, the high costs of the essential equipment (and the optics in this equipment) could be another reason for the slow uptake of 100GE ports. Due to the fact these costs are declining we predict that more organizations will transfer to one or more 100GE ports in the future.

For more information about 100GE ports, get in touch with LeaseWeb, or leave a comment below!

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Is it really Murphy’s Law at play on days I forget my smart phone? The train doesn’t leave on time, I’m going to miss the connecting bus, and to top it, I can’t check on my phone when the next one leaves.  All conceivable emails flood my mind instead of my Inbox, and I’m not even sure if I should be in a meeting at that moment.

Or maybe it’s not Murphy’s Law at all, it’s probably regular law at play – what we call our normal routine life. We feel less uncertain and anxious – that’s what being mobile is all about. We are secure in the thought that no matter where we are, and how unpredictable the situation turns, we are always connected and in control!

About mobile websites

Current websites are often not designed for use with mobile technology. Their layout is too big for the screens of handheld devices, the images take too long to load, and we’re not even talking about the underlying technology.

Mobile websites are designed specifically for smaller displays, and accessed over the Internet, typically using Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G. From checking transportation schedules, weather updates, restaurant reviews, to making reservations and online shopping – optimizing your website for mobile use is definitely the way to go.

Business benefits

For me, as long as I am mobile, I really don’t think much about mobile-optimized websites and their benefits – I just take the optimization for granted! But there are many reasons for businesses to optimize their websites. Here are a few of them, courtesy of the enthusiastic explanations I received from some of the heavy mobile users within LeaseWeb.

• User experience – As the products and services available over mobile are precisely designed for handheld devices, it provides you with an enriched user experience.
• Convenience – No need to rush to your computer to get stuff done – you can do business over your phone while on the move!
• Brand – By launching your services over mobile, you create a brand identity by standing out as a contemporary organization.
• Reach – You generate more business as it is done anytime, anywhere!

Globally recognized organizations such as LeaseWeb, with their focus on customer satisfaction, considered all these benefits before launching the beta version of mobile-optimized SSC environment to the public.

Stay mobile with LeaseWeb

This Christmas, we give you “beta” control over https://m.secure.leaseweb.com! With the launch of the public beta, you can stay connected with your LeaseWeb products and services 24×7. We will continue to make more features available in the mobile SSC environment, all with the same enriched user experience. From managing your settings and Inbox notifications, to filing tickets and other functionalities – everything is just a mobile-click away. Let us know what you think in the comments below, or send your feedback directly to support@leaseweb.com.

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