HTN Cloud Hosting
A Better Way to Host
Up, up in the sky – is it a bird or a plane or HTN Cloud Hosting?!
Hen’s Teeth Network is delighted to announce the availability of HTN Cloud Hosting plans. With great pricing, better performance, ready PCI compliance, and a more convenient user interface than our current hosting plans, what’s not to like?
But wait, what is cloud hosting? Actually, if you have been hosting with HTN, you have been “in the cloud” from the beginning. HTN has offered cloud hosting since 2002. We know it well. And now we have put together an infrastructure to provide quicker, cheaper hosting plans in a more varied selection of sizes and features than has been true up to now.
As always, HTN is working with successful and proven industry leaders. Rackspace provides and maintains the cloud servers. The operating system is Ubuntu Linux from Canonical. The user interface is the Plesk panel, well known for its power and simplicity, provided and supported by Parallels. The software packages are up to date. The control panel is flexible and easy to use. Wrapping it all together is a suite of management and monitoring tools crafted by folks who have worked with Unix for 30+ years. And tech support? That comes from the in-house HTN team through support email, an online helpdesk, and our toll-free telephone number.
At this point, you may be eager to devour the facts about HTN Cloud Hosting – all those numbers that folks like to see. Those details are laid out on our site.
Apart from those all-important numbers, we’d like to speak to a few other questions that may be in your minds.
What do we mean by “ready PCI compliance”? The HTN Cloud Hosting plans will pass external scans required by PA-DSS 11.2. Should you have server-hardening needs beyond that, HTN can work with you to address them.
What do we mean by better performance? It can only be described as noticeably snappier than comparable VPS plans. We moved several HTN services to one of these HTN Cloud Hosting plans and all of us have noticed the difference.
The latest versions of basic server components are provided (PHP, MySQL, Apache, etc.). For an added $19/month, there is a library of applications like Gallery, Sugar CRM, WordPress, calendars, etc. that can be selected and installed very easily — entirely through the Plesk user interface. As easily as selecting a program and pressing a button, your installation is automatically configured and ready to use within minutes. It is just as easy to remove an application if you no longer need it.
Across the board, the HTN Cloud Hosting plans offer better, quicker, more powerful performance than the comparable current VPS, Signature, and MPS plans.
So let’s get down to pricing. For those of you on a Signature plan, there is the corresponding Simplicity plan with better performance at the same monthly price point. For those of you on a VPS Starter, there is a corresponding Stratus level with better performance at the same monthly price point. There are more options available in the HTN Cloud Hosting plans than in the current Signature/VPS/MPS lines. You can choose a plan based on processing power, RAM, shared- vs single-occupancy servers, and other features.
If you currently host with HTN, we will be contacting you to schedule your move to the new hosting. In virtually all cases, there will be no cost to you associated with the move. If you do not yet host with HTN, you now have a lot of reasons to think about it.
Great Opportunities
For Webmasters and Resellers
From our first steps in creating the HTN Cloud Hosting Plans, we had webmaster and reseller needs in mind. The Cirrus line can be used by webmasters who have several (or many) sites to host. Reseller plans are available for the Cirrus line, as well. There is no long contractual commitment. Servers are available month-to-month.
We can make a white label version available to resellers that can be branded. Additionally, should you have a market niche - let’s say you host Miva Merchant sites - and you don’t want other e-commerce programs available to your clients in the library of applications, we can customize the “available list” for you.
Contact us for details (866-436-7638).
HTN Welcomes Aaron Niemi
As we mentioned last month, Bert has moved to Tennessee, following his dream to work his farm.
We are pleased to announce that Aaron Niemi has joined the HTN team. He started work with us January 26.
Those of you using PDG Commerce or PDG Shopping Cart may recognize Aaron’s name. He has long been a generous contributer on the PDG support forums. His expertise in PDG software coupled with his experience building and supporting web sites, including sites using other e-commerce packages, make him a valuable addition to the HTN staff. Aaron will be taking the lead on help desk tickets. He will also be working in a variety of roles on new and existing sites.
Check out the staff section of our site for some more information about Aaron.
When you call HTN these days, any one of us may answer, so don’t be too surprised.
Customer Site News
Kristi Lyn Glass is an artist whose site we launched in January.
Kristi uses PDG Commerce version 5. Her creations include SteedBeads (TM), a useful (and beautiful) accessory for horses.
Kristi wanted to have sections on her site that could be navigated to that were not in fact products. Specifically, she has Gallery and Testimonial sections. We made pseudo-categories out of these so that we could use search results, navigation menu items, and breadcrumbs effectively with this non-product content.
Kristi’s site is well worth a visit. Her creations are unusual and visually striking.
Partylab is a site where we implemented some dynamic menu work such that the main categories are shopping bags in the top horizontal nav and the subcategories show in the left nav depending on the main category selected. It is a striking look. And, if you have any sort of celebration in mind, you will want to give this site a visit.
Update Your Newsletter Interests For HTN Cloud Hosting
We will be sending out updates on the HTN Cloud Hosting plans rather frequently as we roll out this product. We do not want to send these to folks who are not interested. And we do not want to miss those who might be interested.
If you want to be included in the HTN Cloud Hosting updates, please update your profile. Press the “change your preferences” link in the footer of this newsletter and then update your account by checking the “HTN Cloud Hosting” checkbox under “interest groups”. Or, should you be reading this on our blog rather than in a newsletter in your email, you can email support@hens-teeth.net and ask that your email address preferences by updated to include HTN Cloud Hosting. You will then be assured of receiving the latest announcements about HTN Cloud Hosting plans.