Sightz Productions is a web hosting "boutique". We are not huge, and we are proud of it. If you are looking for a multinational web hosting conglomerate factory, this isn't it. We offer all the advantages of the monster-sized hosts, including a world-class data center, but add personal service and a genuine concern for your needs.

Don't be fooled by our size. It does not mean that your site is hosted on an off-the-shelf system in someone's basement. Our servers are located in the top data centers in North America. The only difference is that we don't own the entire facility, just a few boxes within it. We pass this extremely low overhead on to you in our prices.

We lease servers in the biggest, most-connected data centers in the world. Check out our server specs here they will blow you away. These servers come with dedicated, 24 hour professional technicians and systems administrators.

Because we are not "married" to one particular data center or type of server, we can shop around for you and place your site on the most appropriate platform, always for much less than doing it yourself. We know where to go and what questions to ask to ensure the best web hosting deals for our clients.

For example, we recently moved clients from a facility when we learned that the parent company was having financial difficulty. This pro-active approach to customer service meant zero downtime for our clients.

You are not a number

You will note that we don't have a trouble ticket system, that's because we deal with you personally. Your problems are our problems. No worries here of speaking to a different person each time you call and explaining things from the beginning each time. If you can get used to not being a "number" and having personal attention, you will like it here. Instead of a trouble ticket sitting there with hundreds of others, if your site has a problem our close group of technicians is probably talking about it over lunch.

 

About Our Servers Sightz Productions' servers are custom-built Dual-Pentium III 1000 Mhz Xeon machines with redundant Ultra-ATA drives, 1 Gigabyte of memory and 75 GB of Internet bandwidth. They run the latest versions of Red Hat Linux and Apache. Files are fully backed up weekly, soon to be daily.
What is your connectivity to the Internet? The Network Operations Center is connected by Verizon™ OC192 fiber, with DS3 service thru Sprint™ and AT&T™, running redundant BGP routing. A third DS3, from MCI/UUNet/ Worldcom™, is scheduled for install in early January 2002, as well as a Sprint™ OC3 upgrade 2nd Quarter 2002. The facility is contracting PPL Telcom™ to install additional fiber (2GBPS+) 1st Quarter 2002. The servers are connected via a 100mbps switch, to ensure full available bandwidth. We run BGP4 & SONET to maintain the speed and uptime. If one backbone line goes down, it will balance the load to the others. If one line gets congested, it will load balance the traffic. SONET technology is a high capacity, 100% fiber optic network deployed in a ring topology with a working, or "hot," path carrying data in one direction and a standby, or protect, path transmitting in the opposite direction around the ring. In the event of a fiber cut or service degradation, SONET equipment at the edge of each failing fiber segment isolates the failure and uses both working and standby fibers to create a new temporary ring. All of this happens within 50 milliseconds. The facility is centered on a Cisco™ 7206VXR Router, with the newest Processor (CPE400), connecting via Gigabit Ethernet to the Hewlett Packard™ Procurve™ 4108GL primary switch.
Do you have battery backups and generators? Our Network Operations Center is backed up and protected by UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) systems. In a very rare case of utility outages, our auto-start generators take over for the UPS system and supply all necessary power for our Network Operations Center. APC™, Tripp-Lite™, & Liebert™ UPS Systems provide the power backups, along with Kohler™ generator systems. The generator is powered by a 500 gallon fuel tank, capable of running without refueling for approximately 80 hours. Failure on any monitoring service results in audible alarms, LAN messages, and alerting our staff paging system.
What kind of security does the the Data Center have? The Data Center is a high security facility. Double metal security doors, with interior gating, protect the main entrance to the facility. The windowsless facility has advanced security, fire, temperature, and flood alarms, directly piped into the Security Monitoring Company via phone, cellular, and internet connections. A Police Station is less than two blocks away, and a Fire Station less than six blocks. A 16-camera digital video system monitors the interior and exterior of the Data Center. This video system is monitored internally at the facility and externally. The video data is recorded live both on and off site, and stored for several months. Visitors and clientele cannot gain access to the facility without employee escort. The physical servers are secured from the visitor's area by huge metal doors, metal sheeting and bulletproof glass. Armed guards are planned for the future.
What about software upgrades and security bugs? The facility handles all software upgrades/patches on the shared hosting servers. We fully follow all trends in the industry, and monitor all support/bug announcement groups. If a new bug or security vulnerability is found, The facility immediately upgrades our systems. The facility auto-updates the Linux systems every night from security patch websites. As new software is released, including new versions of operating systems, The facility evaluates the new software. If the software's new version does not have any security issues, or bug problems, the upgrade is implemented. One of our clients recently switched to our services because his sites at another very large hosting company were hacked because of security loopholes that had been known in the industry for 18 months but hadn't been repaired. If that ever happens here we will close up shop and take up knitting.