Below highlights some of the new additions we believe will provide greater convenience, transparency and control over your cloud hosting account, the very next time you login:

Faster, Easier Cloud Server & Account Management

• Condensed, sortable and searchable server, ticket and user list view
• Efficient management of servers, tickets and users directly from the list
• Quick visibility into each cloud servers performance and threat level
• Custom tagging for faster, more granular identification
• Data Center location displayed for each cloud server

Consolidated Network Tab & Pooled Bandwidth

• Bandwidth billing now based on outgoing transfer ONLY
• 1 TB of outgoing bandwidth included with every account
• Pooled bandwidth usage and reporting available at an account level
• All IP addresses allocated for your account identified by server
• Premium bandwidth carrier status available in real time

Performance Increases, Streamlined Invoices & Improved Load Balancer Options

• Increased performance and faster response times across the entire portal
• Streamlined invoices for simpler review with the ability to the expand details
• More invoice export options to better fit your workflow and record keeping
• More load balancer options to better fit your applications’ performance needs
• Add and/or clone Load Balancers on demand through the portal

Login now to experience the next level of convenience, transparency and control over your Secure Cloud Servers. If you have any additional suggestions, requests or questions, feel free to call 877.262.3473 or create a ticket.

If you’re not a FireHost customer and want to know more about Secure Cloud Hosting and the MyFireHost customer portal, chat with one of our engineers today or visit FireHost.com to learn more.

Months in the making, our new corporate office embodies FireHost’s stance on security and takes our commitment to secure, contiguous support a step further. The following precautions contribute to the facility’s mission critical infrastructure and hospital-grade redundancy, designed to help us serve our customers to the very fullest under a variety of circumstances.

• Fully operational internal data center
• Backup generators
• Multiple Internet providers
• Secure keycard access with role based control
• Video surveillance

The new headquarters provides a solid foundation for us to provide unwavering, managed support 24x7x365. “This space is locked down tight and impervious to power outages. It’s comfortable, functional, and it will help us serve our customers more reliably,” explains Chris Drake, FireHost CEO.

Demand for a larger, more industrial corporate office is driven by our recent growth. The new facility has capacity to accommodate our current team and the new, FireHost employees we anticipate hiring over the next several years.

Here’s a few pictures of the new FireHost HQ.

With that, we’re pleased to announce our expansion into a new data center facility in April 2011. The new facility is located in Richardson, Texas and represents FireHost’s third data center footprint in the US. The new facility brings a serious set of top-notch security, connectivity and redundancy features that will not only benefit our new customers, but also our existing customers who will migrate from our current Dallas facility.

Here are some of the major benefits you’ll experience with our data center expansion:

Redundant Connectivity Infrastructure

• Diverse fiber entry and intra-building fiber paths
• Fully redundant internal network distribution
• Multiple 10 Gbps connections from multiple premium carriers

Redundant Power Infrastructure

• Complete 2N Electrical Infrastructure
• Redundant Utility Feeds
• Redundant Transformers in Ring Configuration
• Redundant Power Distribution Units (PDU)
• Redundant 2,000 kw Diesel Generators
• 72+ hours fuel supply onsite with priority re-fueling status

Safe Environmental Infrastructure

• N+1 Centrifugal Chiller Cooling
• VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus) throughout
• FM-200 Fire Suppression System
• Dry-pipe pre-action sprinkler system
• Full electrical monitoring
• Under the floor water detection system
• Control and Monitor 32,000 points in the facility

Secure Premises

• On-site personnel 24/7
• Biometric and card security system
• CCTV video surveillance system with DVR recording
• Man-trap entry and badge-only access
• SAS70 Type II Certified
• PCI Certified
• ISO 900:2001 Certified

These features also lay the foundation for providing our HIPAA compliant, PCI DSS compliant, and high-availability customers an even more robust infrastructure upon which to build their critical disaster recovery plans.

We’re nothing short of thrilled with the new facility, and are looking forward to expanding the security, connectivity and redundancy we provide to every customer.

All existing FireHost customers will be receiving more details over the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the scheduled expansion. As the scheduled expansion nears, you can follow the progress by visiting our public status page or by logging into MyFireHost where you can communicate with our engineers directly.

• How much storage space is being used.
• How much memory is being used.
• If you have enough processor power provisioned to meet your traffic flow and web application objectives.

In addition to viewing server resources, you can now reboot and shutdown/startup your Secure Server autonomously, without contacting our support engineers. This feature in particular gives Account Administrators and Technical Contacts the power to restart a server if it’s non-responsive for any reason and facilitate software upgrades on your own schedule.

With the enhancements live today, you can store custom comments and instructions for each Secure Server too. Customers can use this to communicate internally when several developers or technical administrators are present, and FireHost support engineers will be able to reference the instructions you enter any time they’re working on your environment.

Chris Drake, CEO and founder of FireHost sheds some light on how the new functionality meets our objectives. “We broke from the managed hosting tradition when we posted pricing on our website. In the spirit of total transparency, we’re now letting clients see their hosting resources. Even more importantly, we’re giving them the power to control their Secure Server on the fly. We believe customers should see their actual usage over time and reboot when they want, so they can make decisions to scale up or scale back their hosting as needed.”

This latest MyFireHost enhancement (live today) advances our goal of total transparency for our customers. The next time you login to MyFireHost, you will have access to the new features and functionality.

If you have a suggestion or would like to provide feedback on the customer portal, please relay it to us using this short survey. http://bit.ly/aqAy05

Right away, many business owners, designers/developers, and IT professionals “got it” and signed up on the spot. We enjoy providing exemplary protection for our early adopters, but we won’t rest until the entire web hosting community understands that security, scalability, and affordability is for everyone, not just a select few.

Overall, the mission has been well received. As any “pioneer” would expect however, Secure Servers have been met with mixed reviews, particularly from die-hard dedicated hosting proponents.

In an effort admonish any remaining doubt from those who still have reservations about this new way, we created NoMoreDedicated.com. From here, you can:

• Watch real stories from real people told in their own words and decide if dedicated hosting is the best solution.
• Take our short, informative test to determine if dedicated hosting is right for your hosting needs.

Once you see the facts, we’re confident you’ll want to give Secure Servers a try, so we make it easy to do so.

• Secure Servers can be provisioning within 24 hours of validating  your order, and
• There is no lengthy hosting contract to which you must subscribe.

If you still have reservations, that’s fine. We respect your opinion and any doubts you may have about adopting a new way to protect your business. Even if you’re not ready to join the movement full stop, we request that you follow the movement that’s putting an end to overpriced, insecure, and inflexible dedicated hosting. Big change is on the horizon.

Follow: @NoMoreDedicated HashTag: #NMD