ServerBeach Steps in to Bolster Server Capacity

Last night I posted here and to my personal blog about Spanning Sync's popularity problem, and ended with an open invitation for any interested vendors to step in and help:

So tomorrow morning I'll be looking to beef up our infrastructure in a big way. I don't have time to comparison shop, so I'll be provisioning more hardware from our current provider, ServerBeach. But if another vendor wanted to be the hero in this story, there's a great opportunity.

As it turns out, one vendor did step in as the hero in this story. This afternoon I got a call from ServerBeach VP Robert Miggins, who said he had read about our need for a lot more processing power and wanted to work with us to help.

The result of our conversation is that we'll be bringing some serious hardware online with more than enough capacity to reopen the public beta and take us through our launch.

Much credit is due to ServerBeach—and to Robert himself—not only for listening, but also for being willing to accommodate the unusual flexibility needs of a modern web startup.

Our new hardware should be online and fully operational by tomorrow. When it is, I'll post a note here.

Update: We want to make sure we don't run into the same problem again, so we're carefully planning how to reopen the public beta while at the same time bringing our new servers online. We may also work a new release of the client into the mix, so this will take a few days longer than we first expected. Look for v1.0b12 to be released tomorrow (Friday) and the public beta to reopen this weekend.

Comments

[David C.]

Sounds like great news! I can hardly wait. How kind of them to help out!

[Milos]

Great! Now we're a step closer! Yeah!

[Mitch]

Charlie,

Its great to hear that serverBeach is stepping up and helping out! Your service is great and I have enjoyed being part of the private beta. I can't wait to be able to tell everyone who hasn't been able to use it yet about it

[Bill]

Is anyone else having a problem unstuffing the zip file?

[Charlie Wood]

Bill,

Some users have reported trouble opening the ZIP file with StuffIt Expander. Try right-clicking on the file and choosing "Open With > BOMArchiveHelper". Or you can get really old school and use the "unzip" command in the Terminal. Let me know if you're not able to open it.

Regards,
Charlie

[Jason]

Hey Charlie,

I've been dying to try Spanning Sync! I can't believe it's so close to going public for real (I missed the faux public beta by 4 minutes)

When you say some serious hardware, how serious are you talking?

Thanks,
Jay

[Shaahin]

Great tool, unfortunately I can not remove the menu-bar notification icon, using the "Standard" command-drag way. It can not be even turned off, because you need to Sync first, to have the "Off" option available. I'd also suggest a submit button" right after the email-password input forms, currently it is a bit confusing. Cheers!

[Bill]

Charlie --

That did the trick. Thanks! Now I just have to wait for your servers to come online. :-D

[Charlie Wood]

Mitch--Thanks!
Bill--Working on it!
Jay--Three TRS-80's and an Atari 400! ;-)

[Charlie Wood]

Oops, forgot one:

Shaahin--thanks!

[Eugene Khoo]

Birthdays don't seem to sync for me.

[Charlie Wood]

Eugene,

Which direction, iCal to gCal or gCal to iCal? Please click "Reset...", then "Create report...", and email the resulting file to beta@spanningsync.com with a detailed description of what you expected to happen and what actually happened.

Thanks,
Charlie

[Peter]

How much longer :)

This is the answer to my PDA prayers

[roger]

Looking forward to this a LOT. I'm a new mac user (swtiched) and am loving it - but want to use the functionality of google. So waiting with baited breath (but not holding it) :)

rog

[mac]

Isn't tomorrow today? I check this website every 15 minutes - please hurry up you wonderful people...

[Bill]

Anyone else think that Vicky, above, looks like a spammer? :-(

[Nicholas Knisely]

Just so I'm clear - I had managed to start syncing before you closed down the public beta. Since you've closed it down again, am I no longer able to use the service?

If that's the case, when you re-open the beta, will you be phasing people back in at random?

[Charlie Wood]

Nick,

If you successfully logged in to Spanning Sync while the public beta was available, you can still use it. All we did was turn off new user creation. So if you performed a sync (or even got to the point where you could), you're sill registered.

Regards,
Charlie

[Randall]

Bummer. I was hoping to get in on the open beta when it opened for the short time the other day, but I wasn't at the computer. Now I have to wait a few more days...

[Agos]

On this side of the world is already the 2nd!
I'm jocking :) Just wanted to let you know that in old europe someone is hitting ⌘-R too :P

[B.B.]

Yeah, I've bookmarked this blog now, waiting anxiously! Your app sounds great, can't wait to try it.

[BabyGotMac]

That's great news! Well done ServerBeach.
:)

[mediaphile]

I'm anxious to take part in the public beta, but this outage brings up an interesting point--since this service obviously relies on your servers to work, does that mean my Google login and password are traveling through your servers? And if so, is this really necessary for such a service, or are you just trying to limit the service in such a way that you can control the market?

[Peter]

No... please... don't make me wait longer! Can't handle it anymore... :-)

[ckpetrus]

I have developed a deep fear of being gravatared.