SA-SCSI (Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface) is the gold standard in storage solutions for web servers requiring enterprise class robustness with high availability and fault tolerance features, especially where large databases and mission critical applications are involved. To ensure our clients are able to get the performance of a dedicated hardware at a fraction of its cost, we  have gone ahead and upgraded all our VPS clients to the new hardware without any additional expense and they are all delighted with the improved performance which is being delivered to their applications, as a result of this upgrade.

The SCSI HDDs coupled with the RAID hardware makes it a very stable and robust platform for hosting VMs on the Citrix Xen Server platform. Furthermore, we have also upgraded the Xen Server virtualization platform to its latest version (Xen Server ver 5.6) which is more stable and has several bug fixes implemented in its current verion. We have also added more storage space to our VPS hosting plans alongwith a higher monthly bandwidth allocation for no additional charges.

Bottom line is that if you are looking for a VPS or would like to host your application, website or mail server on a dedicated server platform, you will be hard pressed to find an offering which could better ours!

Check out our new Linux VPS and Windows VPS hosting plans and talk to our sales team today!

In sync with the launch of our new website, we have also revamped our shared web hosting plans for both Windows 2008 Enterprise and Linux platforms and the new hosting plans are now available online. The new hosting plans have enhanced web space, bandwidth and email id allocations amongst other updates and the key benefits are given below:

• No limits on mailbox quotas: You can now define your own mailbox capacity on a per mailbox basis and the total storage limit allocated on your domain would apply for all users on your domain.
• No limits on web hosting space: For Linux hosting plans, we have removed web hosting space limits. The total applicable limit on your hosting plan can be used your website, emails or a combination of both, as per your choice.
• Additional mailboxes: Starting with the SOHO plan onwards, we have increased the no. of mailboxes on every hosting plan by as much as 50% than our previous hosting plans for no additional charges.
• Latest OS & Control Panel: Industry leading Plesk 9.5 control panel is available to all our clients. We also host ASP/ASP.net enabled websites on Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition for enhanced performance and IIS 7 Support.
• More server storage space: We have upped storage limits on our hosting plans by nearly 50% across the board. The additional storage space is matched by the upgraded hardware to make your websites and applications run better and faster.

These feature enhancements coupled with our commitment to providing our clients with the most responsive hosting support team in the country clearly makes it a win-win deal for our clients.

Want to learn more? Check out our new Linux and Windows 2008 enterprise hosting plans and signup online.

The updated site has had a major overhaul and following are the key changes implemented:

• The backend CMS has been upgraded from Joomla1.x  to Joomla 1.5 which is considered to be the most popular CMS on the planet.
• The site template is built from scratch and cannot be found anywhere else on the web. This gives our site a unique sense of distinction, unlike most other Joomla based websites which use free or commercial templates.
• The site has a clean and uncluttered feel to it and we have placed special emphasis on the typography, navigation system and most importantly, meaningful and relevant content. We have dumped fancy javascripts, over the top graphics and animation which cry out for your attention in favour of a clean, simple and fast loading website.
• New hosting plans (Windows and Linux) and upgraded VPS hosting plans have been launched with this site (more on this in our next post).
• Pages are made SEO friendly to enable deeper indexing by search engines and more visibility for relevant organic searches on the search engines.

This is the fifth major revamp of our website over the past decade and it will be updated on a consistent basis with new services and offerings, so stay tuned with us!

• Revamp our key service sections and make it relevant to our current offerings (VPS, Value Added Hosting and Dedicated Servers).
• Upgrade the CMS platform which is being used for the site backend to its current version.
• Keep the UI of the site simpler with less graphics and color and a greater focus on providing relevant content to our users.
• Enhanced navigation menu and other small tweaks across the site

Here is a preview of the last approved wireframe and we are aiming for a soft launch of our site by the end of July 2010.

Wireframe of the new Diadem Tech Homepage

This is going to be the fifth major revision of our site over the past decade and improving a large website like ours with just a couple of developers requires considerable planning, persistence and numerous obstacles to overcome before you can reap in its benefits. I am hopeful that the upcoming version would last us for atleast a couple of years before we rework it again and I will keep posting more updates as we make progress.

• Summer has crept in earlier this year and therefore ACs will start gobbling up energy sooner than expected.
• Salt Lake, which was supposed to be a VIP area is not going to get preferential status with regards to power outages and would have to face the heat like the rest of the city.
• Overall energy consumption has grown considerably over the past couple of years and would continue to soar. In comparison the supply of additional energy has crept at a slow pace and the deficit only seems to be widening.

Keeping the above factors in mind, we have invested in our own power backup solution, a Honda 2.8 KVA diesel powered generator which should keep our office humming with activity in the event of a power outage or “loadshedding” as its more commonly known in the city.

We were earlier planning to install a large rack of batteries with an online UPS but it was a relatively expensive solution with limited power backup availability. It would have also taken up additional storage space in our office along with periodic replacement of batteries, i.e. higher maintenance costs.

We arranged for a demo of the Honda generators and the Honda salesmen were very efficient and prompt in handling our request and provided us with a live demo which ensured that it would run our PCs and office equipment and scale up as our load increases. This little baby is also environment friendly with restricted CO2 emissions and low running noise, so it should keep our neighbors happy as well!

This is a small step in our continued efforts to ensure that our support services are available round the clock for your business .

Also, the way Paypal has handled this situation is a bit appalling. Rather than intimating the Indian account holders in advance and assuring them of a resolution, they are first reversing the received funds back to the users and *than* informing the sellers of this issue.

While I am sure Paypal is working hard to resolve this issue as they have the financial strength and their brand image to safeguard, this raises some valid questions on how reliable are these online service providers in India. If this can happen to Paypal, what stops Gmail, Facebook and other such online providers from blocking access to their services to Indians?

As these firms are operated from outside India and are not governed by Indian laws and regulations, their failure to comply with any present and future law and regulations in India, might force them to rescind their services to their users in India.

My advice for avoiding such a situation from adversely impacting your business would be to read the fine print for all such online services which your business depends on and have a Plan B in place in case these services are unavailable one fine morning, as in the case of Paypal.

Update: The head of Paypal APAC region has posted an update on this issue, whch can be viewed at www.thepaypalblog.com.
There has been quite a bit of criticism for the post on Paypal, which can be viewed on the EvenHorizon1984 Blog.

Starting with a fresh coat of paint, new flooring, window blinds, carpentry and masonry work, we went on an overdrive to get everything completed before the New Year. Fortunately, the work progressed as planned and on Jan 01, 2010 we shifted back to our ‘Office 2.0′.

We are all extremely pleased with the results of our efforts and here are some pics of our revamped office for our clients and associates whom we may not have the good fortune to meet on a one to one basis.

[View with PicLens]

Here are some takeaways which I gathered from this assignment:

• Meet all the people who would work on this project (multiple times in advance) to ensure that they provide you with fixed quotes for the work and the scope of work has been agreed upon.
• Keep a buffer of atleast 25% for time and cost overruns as some amount of scope creep is inevitable.
• Ensure that all materials are bought in your presence (or someone you trust) to ensure that you get the right quality at a reasonable price.
• Avoid contracting work to promoters as they tend to over inflate the cost by about 50% in comparison to working with individual specialists (carpenters, painters, etc.).
• Create a project schedule (who will work on what and when) a week in advance and try to build in some amount of buffer between them. Create sub-tasks within a major task to break down all activities into small, unique tasks.
• Pay on completion of agreed milestones.

My best wishes to you for a successful 2010 and at Diadem Tech we are excited with the opportunities and challenges which the New Year brings to us!
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At Diadem, we have worked hard to build a strong foundation for our web hosting service based on an untiring and a long term commitment to enable our clients to avail the most efficient hosting services which they have come to appreciate and trust from us.

In keeping with this continued focus to providing our clients with innovative web hosting services, we are pleased to offer our FREE web hosting service to clients booking a .IN domain with us. Our FREE web hosting plan is a win-win  proposition by enabling our clients to evaluating our hosting services and upgrading to a paid solution, after they find our services to meet their needs.

.IN domains are gaining in popularity and if you already have a .com or any other extension booked for your organisation, you should definitely consider a .IN version of that domain as well. This offer is also relevant for companies located outside India who wish to have a presence in the Indian market and a .IN domain is a great way to begin promoting their foray into Indian markets. More details and signup options are available on our Free Web Hosting page but as this is a limited period offer, I urge you to book your domain early to prevent any disappointments.

Free Web Hosting worth Rs. 999 with every .in Domain Registration.

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• Get adequate sleep – go back to your usual sleeping pattern.
• Get back to the gym – start with light weights and cardio workouts.
• Eat home cooked food – keep it light and oil free.
• Interface with your clients and coworkers – they are all in the same boat as you are.
• Take it easy for the next few days – slide yourself in slowly and avoid going head on with your work.
• Archive the memories – photos, video, cards. Share them or put them away in your closet.
• Writeup a small list of things Todo to make your next Diwali brighter.

From all of us at Diadem, we wish you all a Happy Diwali and a sparkling New Year ahead!

As Amit’s core focus had shifted in outsourced web development services, he wanted his clients to be taken care of by someone he could trust and depend on and that’s where we came into the picture. Our decade long expertise in managing managing servers, websites and underlying systems enables us to provide our clients with reliable and secure web hosting services. This capability will come in handy to ensure that all Catchcal clients continue to get the reliable hosting services and also get access to the latest web hosting tools and technologies which we have been providing to our clients.

This being our third webhost acquisition over a span of 5 years,  it would enable us to further consolidate our position as a leading webhost from this region and stay focused on providing enhanced levels of support on a personal basis at a significantly lower cost than other comparable web hosts in India.

To celebrate this event, we are offering a flat 20% discount on all our domain and hosting services which is purchased online through our website, www.diadem.co.in. Simply use the promocode 20OFF and get a 15% discount on your next website hosting or domain name purchase. Please note that this offer is only valid till the end of this month, i.e. 31 Aug 09, so make the most of it while this offer is available.

Stay tuned for more service offerings and promos from Diadem Technologies over the next few weeks!