The Move to a New Server Was a HUGE Success

Minus a few minor growing pains here and there, it went very well, and we couldn’t be happier. We hope that you are as well.

Here is the skinny on who, what, when, and why…

We have been using the same Network Operation Center (NOC) for the past 20 years. We stayed there because we loved how they operated and what they stood for. We even became friends with much of the staff and the owner. Sadly, the person who made that team, who they were (the owner), suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. Things changed, and we didn’t like the path that they were now heading down. So it became time to consider a move.

We wanted to upgrade to a new server because the then-current one was aging, and it was time. Things were not working out, so we decided to make a big change.

We not only moved to a new server, but we also moved our servers from Jacksonville, Florida, to Draper, Utah. Selecting a location for a NOC is not an easy task for us. We want to make sure we select a location that won’t be frequently affected by natural disasters. But it goes beyond a natural disaster, but an outage can also be from things like a simple power outage, to political issues like the riots that happened years ago like those in Minneapolis in 2020 or Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020. Choosing how the power grid is set up, along with many other factors.

We also decided to change some technology, including how the servers are set up, connected, and operated. Everything was designed to take SWS to the future and beyond.

The end result is that we have new servers in a new NOC in a new location, being managed by a new team. We manage server operations, but the NOC team manages the hardware, network, and facilities. This is a huge part of keeping the servers operational. If a drive fails, they address it for us; if there is a power issue, they address it for us. We handle the rest on our end, which makes for a solid setup.