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samedi 12 novembre 2016

Interview With WP Engine Co-Founder, Jason Cohen

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Back in 2009 I had some problem with WHSR loading speed and spent tremendously long hours in looking for the right fix. Eventually the issue was solved by switching my host (Hostmonster was throttling my CPU power) and installing WP Super Cache (part of the problem is caused by WHSR’s heavy traffic loads). Then in mid 2010, I suspected WHSR is targeted by hackers at that time and (again) spent multiple sleepless nights drilling down forum threads and blogposts on WordPress security.

I would have saved my time for all these problems and worries and readings and works if WP Engine (href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/wpengine.php">http://wpengine.com/) existed earlier.

Updates March 2012: In fact I got hook and WHSR is now hosted on WP Engine – click here to read my href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-review/wp-engine/">latest review on WP Engine Hosting.

A little intro on WP Engine Hosting

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Founded by Aaron Brazell and Jason Cohen, WP Engine offers premium href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/wordpress-blog/best-wordpress-hosting/" target="_blank">WordPress hosting with tons of valuable WordPress optimization (security, load speed, updates, as well as plugin recommendations).

In case you are unaware, Aaron Brazell has been an (very) active member in the WordPress developer community. He is one of the frequent speaker in WordCamps United States and is the author of href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470568135?ie=UTF8&tag=emmensetechno-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470568135">WordPress Bible (published early 2010). Jason Cohen, on the other hand, is a serial-entrepreneur who has founded quite a few successful startups including Smart Bear Software and IT Watch Dogs. Jason is also the author of href="http://smartbear.com/best-kept-secrets-of-peer-code-review/">Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review as well as this href="http://blog.asmartbear.com/" target="_blank">awesome blog about startups/marketing.

In this interview, we are going to learn about WP Engine firsthand from the co-founder Jason Cohen. This great Q&A session is a must-read for those who are looking for a reliable WordPress web hosting. So, here goes.

Q&A With Jason Cohen, WP Engine Co-Founder

Hello Jason, it’s an honor to have you here with us today. For start, let’s talk about yourself and your company WP Engine. How would you describe your role as a leader at WP Engine; and, what can we know more about WP Engine?

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“I must leave, for there go my followers and I am their leader.”

To me, a leader leads by example, meaning actually doing work and playing backstop for everyone else, like the pitcher in baseball. Also I’m a terrible manager, which means I’m forced to hire talented, self-directed people whom I implicitly trust and who don’t need “management.” A better title for me might be “tie-breaker,” or perhaps “flogger-slash-visionary” if you’re feeling generous.

They say the culture of a company comes from the top. So if you want to know what WP Engine is like, follow the above philosophy to its logical conclusion. WP Engine is a culture of people who are thoughtful, respectful, and good at their jobs. And hopefully nice.

Wow that’s some great insights. Now, I’m a WordPress fan and I LOVE the idea of having a web host specially built for WordPress. But this (limiting your service to just one specified niche) is not what we see often in the hosting industry. How has the strategy of solely focusing on WordPress users affected the business?

style="text-decoration: underline;"> Focusing only on WordPress means we can do a fantastic job. For example we hire WordPress experts only, so everyone at the company is helpful and knowledgeable when you call into tech support.

Lots of hosting companies answer the phone on the first ring and call that “good service.” Of course if the person on the other end can’t debug the WordPress problem, at the end of the day it’s not helpful.

We know what we’re good at — and what we’re NOT good at! — and we do only the former.

That’s how it affects you — the customer. How it affects the back-end business is that we can be more profitable because we don’t have to diversify technology or talent. American Airlines can’t make money because they service 20 kinds of planes; Southwest and JetBlue are profitable and run only a few models. We’re like the latter; most hosting companies are the former.

WordPress security is one of WP Engine’s main selling points. Can you elaborate in detail what kind of protections are available with WP Engine?

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First, we have security appliances in front of our servers — DoS-protection and IDS (Intrusion Detection System). This alone prevents thousands of a attacks per day.

Next, we have a forward caching-and-load-balancing layer which further protects the sensitive stuff (like the database and filesystem), while also serving content really fast.

Next, on the back-end systems there’s a slew of stuff you have to do for security from file owners, file permissions, chroot-ing (“jail” for the filesystem), separate database credentials, and so on.

Finally, we keep you up-to-date on the latest WordPress security patches as well as black-listing plugins known to be insecure.

Security isn’t a game you can win, it’s an arms race that you need to constantly and incrementally improve.

That sounds superb. What’s more? On top of site security, what other unique features does WP Engine offer?

We’re super fast. This is not only important for your end users (many hit the “back” button if your site takes more than 2 seconds to load), but also for your Google ranking now that they’re takinghref="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3zmP0W26M0&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank"> page-load-speed into account for search rankings.

We also protect you against traffic surges. We already serve 50 million hits per day, so even if you get on TechCrunch we’ve got you covered.

We’re also the only host to offer a CDN (Content Delivery Network) included in the base price. That means your static content (images, CSS, Javascript) gets delivered from servers all around the world, served closest to the requestor, reducing latency in the browser (faster) and spreading out the effort of delivery (scalable).

We also added some features to WordPress itself. For example, we have a push-button staging area where you have a full copy of your blog to mess around with. Test a new plugin, play with CSS, etc., all without touching your main, live blog.

Jason, WP Engine is a pretty new host. How can customers trust you guys with their blogs? Please tell us more about the company cancellation policy.

The first thing is: It’s easy to leave us. That’s important for two reasons: So it’s easy to try, and so we have to earn your business every month. What does “easy” mean?

You get full filesystem and database exports, on demand. (Besides our nightly backups of the same.) Our contract is month-to-month, so you can just cancel any time. (Besides the 15-day free trial.) Finally, there’s tools on the market like href="http://23press.com" target="_blank">http://23press.com which make it even easier to move a blog — either to us or away from us!

Then of course there’s the fact that we have hundreds of happy customers and we’re growing fast. We got profitable after just seven months of operation so we also have a sensible business model (unlike a lot of hosting companies who “suddenly” close up shop after losing money for dozens of quarters). All this adds up to: We have a sustainable business, so we’re not going anywhere.
Finally, though, in the end trust is earned over time, not bestowed immediately, and that means that yes, it will take time for us to earn trust. Nothing wrong with that.

“I wish to switch to WP Engine out but it seems too complicated/it’s too much hassles/ I am no good in tech/ etc etc”. What would you tell these non-geek but potential customers?

First, we offer migration services for 0, completely hands-free. Second, see http://23press.com for a system where you can move it yourself.

It’s not complicated — you just sign up with a credit card and a new WordPress site is available in 60 seconds. You can migrate in another 15 minutes if you use a tool. And if you don’t like it, switch away just as easily!

We also have a partnership with another consulting shop specifically designed for newbies who don’t know anything but want a white-glove experience. Let us know how much help you want!

Web hosting, without doubt, is a competitive industry. What are your long term plans for WP Engine to win the market? Where do you see the company in next 3 years?

WordPress is a massive market — I don’t feel the need to “win” it or “defeat” everyone else.

Rather, we’ve created an awesome option for WordPress hosting, and our goal is to thrill all our customers and continuously improve the service. There’s room for other awesome hosting companies too! But if your host isn’t “awesome,” then maybe we’re a good option.

Thanks again for your time. Do you have anything to add for this interview?

Thanks for having me!

Site Note

Well, that’s all for our interview. For your reference, here are the hosting packages offered by WP Engine at this time of writing. You can visit href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/wpengine.php">http://wpengine.com/ to learn more; alternatively, you can check out the href="http://wpengine.com/faq/">helpful FAQ here, check it out.

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href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/go/wpengine" target="_blank">Click here to visit and order WP Engine now!

Page 27 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Interview With HostHero Co-Founder, Rahim K

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Basic Introduction
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Ever heard of href="http://hosthero.com/" target="_blank">HostHero? No? Well, in case you are looking for some affordable cloud-based hosting, it’s time to get to know them. Here’s a Q&A session I did with the company founder cum VP recently – it’s a great interview (thanks again Rahim!) and it’s a must read for shoppers who are looking for similar service.

Hello Rahim, thanks for being with us today. Let’s start with some introduction. What can you tell us about yourself and your company HostHero.

Hi Jerry, thanks for setting this up. My name is Rahim K, and I am a co-founder and the VP of Business Development for HostHero, thus responsible for our vast affiliate network, partner relations, and any marketing initiatives we pursue.

HostHero is a privately owned web hosting provider located in Toronto, Canada. From the beginning, our goal has always been to provide a fast, secure, reliable web hosting solution, with affordable rates. We take pride in offering 24/7 in-house support – no outsourcing – and have heard time and time again that this is a feature that sets us apart. Essentially, we’re confident that we can deliver the best all-round hosting solution, with a backbone built on cloud infrastructure that intersects with elements of IaaS (infrastructure as a service) at a fraction of what our competitors can offer. It’s true cloud hosting, at shared hosting rates.

Click here for more on href="http://www.hosthero.com/cloud-hosting.html" target="_blank">HostHero hosting features.

Hmmm, cloud hosting at shared hosting rates, that sounds interesting. So, who should be using HostHero? Please briefly describe HostHero’s targeted audiences.

Anyone really – that’s the beauty of cPanel.

Whether you are starting your SMB, building a social networking site, or looking to host your own blog/photo/video sharing site, we have a solution that works for you. We have free site-builders with one-click installers (literally), thousands of templates, and a support system that will take you as far as you want to go. At the same time, more experienced users have the added functionality cPanel brings to the table, at their full disposal.

According to the company website, HostHero Hosting is based on clustered cloud computing. How this is done? Can you tell us more about the technology behind HostHero’s operations?

Sure! As I was saying earlier, our servers are built for performance, speed, reliability and efficiency. We have 5 data centers across North America, one in Dallas, one in Seattle, one in Washington D.C, and two in Toronto, Canada (one downtown, and one uptown). Through all of these facilities, we are able to deliver to our clients access to dual-hex core servers that are configured optimally for shared computing. Through closely monitored load-balancing initiatives, and the magic of CloudLinux technology, we have devised a hosting “ecosystem” that gives our users rock solid stability at very low costs.

We looked at the recent surge of cloud computing and how it blended into web hosting, and concluded that there was still a leap or bound to be made; and that’s what we’ve done! Taken existing technologies that are present in shared-resource computing (in this case storage and hosting), and exploited them to the advantage of our clients… for an exceptionally low cost.

Cool. Can you further elaborate on the advantages of cluster computing/cloud hosting – from a user’s view-point?

For starters, HostHero users are now able to obtain what’s considered to be the latest and greatest storage and server solutions, at very cost-effective rates. Cluster computing has rapidly grown into a commercially viable alternative for all companies, not just the ones willing to spend the big dollars. As we grow, we expect to continually educate the marketplace on exactly how feasible cloud hosting can be.

Scalability is probably the next most important benefit to clients; websites can expand at exponential rates and the resources will always remain available. Hard drives or processors for example can be added or swapped seamlessly, never affecting the existing work flow. Further to that point, clients can be sure that there is practically 100% efficiency with resource consumption – all free resources such as RAM, bandwidth, and HD space to name a few, are available when needed. On top of that, the Cloud is designed to compensate should one server experience any set backs, delivering to clients a much greater redundancy than they would ordinarily receive at such a low cost. Prior to Cloud Hosting, hosting clients would need to spend on probably a few dedicated servers to achieve this sort of redundancy.

The list of benefits is long, but I’m sure you get the idea. It’s inexpensive, extremely reliable, extremely scalable, and above all it gives ANY of our clients access to the fastest and most secure hardware available with complete peace of mind.

You mention cloud hosting is for anyone – does your ‘anyone’ include heavy CMS users? For example if I am a Drupal user, would it be very complicated to install (and manage) my Drupal websites on HostHero??

Absolutely Jerry, in fact a large bulk of our clients are CMS and blog users. We encouage them through our one-click installers for hundreds of templates including Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, PHPFox, to name a few. HostHero makes installation and management remarkably easy through tools such as the previously mentioned cPanel, and an array of other features. We also offer free site-migration and transfer, and coupled with our outstanding level of service this makes setup and management practically seamless for users.

Isolating Drupal for a moment, I can confidently say our end-to-end hosting solution is designed to host Drupal users optimally. Our servers are configured to exceed the minimum Drupal requirements, and we always maintain the latest features and security as per Drupal standards.

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Till date, there are still some unsolved security issues with cloud/cluster computing. Should your customers be concerned with this?

HostHero has been designed not only for flexibility and scalability, but also for security and performance…the best of both worlds. Unlike a standard shared server, where everything is kept on one server, our cloud maintains each component – HTTP (website), MySQL (database), IMAP/SMTP (email) – on its own hardware. If you also consider the fact that we employ Cisco DDos protection hardware firewalls and custom CSF software firewalls, you’ll realize how important security is to us.

Oh, and did I mention that all of our clients data is secured and protected by RAID10 technology? If ever a drive failure occurs, we simply swap in a drive in real-time and no interruption is experienced by our clients – which further backs up my earlier point that our cloud offers FULL redundancy.

"I wish to try out HostHero but I am too lazy/ too dumb/ too busy/ I am no good in tech/ etc etc". What would you tell these potential clients? Does HostHero provide any help when it comes to website migration?

Great question Jerry! We try and go above and beyond here at HostHero, and that includes helping prospective clients join our cloud. As I’ve previously mentioned, we offer free site migration and transfer with real-time support. That’s how we go beyond the norm, by literally doing the work for you! Whether you are an SMB or a blog/CMS user, HostHero has a solution built for you. Regardless of your technical saavy, whether you’re an expert or a novice web admin, through cPanel’s control planel your website can be managed with the utmost ease. It’s no secret what cPanel brings to the table: a highly automated, simple yet reliable tool that works to its full potential on our servers. Whether you want to deploy fully functional video streaming using our built in FFmpeg modules, or explore some of the site-builders with HUNDREDS of templates, having cPanel at your finger tips gives our users simple point-and-click usability.

It takes only minutes now, literally, without and HTML or coding background to get a website up and running with HostHero.

Web hosting is a competitive (but far from being saturated I believe) industry and I know a few cloud hosting providers who offer similar services as HostHero have gone out of business. What are your immediate plans for HostHero to win the market? Where do you see HostHero in the next 2 years?

For the time being, we’re going to be focusing on maintaining the bolstering growth rate we’ve been witnessing. That means more promotions and more incentives for our clients and prospective clients – a happy client is a loyal client.

As we look a little further down the road, HostHero is poising itself to DOMINATE the hosting market as one of the first and only cost-efficient cloud shared hosting solutions availabe. Our goal has always been to educate our clients and prospective clients on how attainable cloud hosting can be, and with more giants (like Amazon and Cisco) emerging with cloud hosting solutions, we anticipate an opportunity for clients to take advantage of our low-cost shared cloud hosting plans. We are the first company that can offer cloud webhosting at shared hosting prices; where can you get cloud hosting at only 3.95 per month?

We wan to capture those customers who think they need to get shared hosting, and educate people on how attainable cloud hosting can be. Look at our Cloud VPS plan for example; nowhere can you find such a powerful hosting plan, with all the shared-computing benefits you expect in a cloud environment, for such affordable rates. Its a true one-of-a-kind solution.

That’s all for my questions, thanks again for being with us today. Before we end, is there anything you would like to add?

The pleasure was all mine Jerry, and thank you very much for taking the time for HostHero today. As a thank you, I would love to offer all of your users a special 25% discount off of ALL HostHero hosting plans. Just use the promo code “WHSR” at href="https://www.hosthero.com/hosting/cart.php?a=add&pid=1">here.

Cheers!

Page 25 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed