InstaCarma has been providing Rails support since 2006. At that time, Rails was relatively new. Hence, there were lots of challenges associated with it. This write-up describes how we helped a start-up Rails web-hosting company* become one of the most reputed Rails hosting brands today. This is an excellent hosting company that focuses specifically on Rails. It had started off with just a couple of servers when they joined hands with us way back in 2006.
The Challenge :
The biggest challenge was that most people were new to rails. Majority of the account holders were people who had just started learning Rails. Providing support to them was not an easy task. Moreover, since the clients are developers, dealing with them needs lot of knowledge. Many Rails hosts fail because support is not very good and developers take their business to someone who knows Rails well. Talent availability in Rails hosting is low as it is a relatively new field. It was not easy to manage servers which have the latest software installed on them. Moreover, dealing with support requests based on a relatively new framework and maintaining the guaranteed uptime was a daunting task.
Rails is designed to serve a dedicated environment. Lots of stuff are cached in memory which makes the sites work faster. The server RAM is utilized more in order to fulfill the browser requests quickly. Therefore,it is very difficult to manage a huge shared environment where hundreds of processes are cached in the memory.
Shared hosting companies usually rely on the fact that users would only use a fraction of the resources guaranteed to them. This does not hold good when it comes to Rails hosting. It is not possible to pack as many users on a server as you can using Perl/PHP. Loads would frantically go up resulting in crashed servers and unhappy customers.
The Solution :
This company teamed up with us for Outsourced Technical Support and Server Administration Services . Everything was ready and the hosting company was fully functional in a couple of weeks time. After signing on the dotted line, a pool of techs were drafted into the team, organized some technical corporate sessions and worked overtime to make sure everything starts off smoothly. We set up special Rails training programs and offered developer level training.
At the same time, we also had a stand-by team who did a great job studying Rails. Soon, we started doing deployments for developers, thus creating a very positive feedback in the developer community. We also ensured robust servers that could handle resource heavy Rails applications. As time passed by, the number of techs working in the team was increased according to the requirements and also to make sure that each and every aspect of the hosting company is working perfectly.
The Result :
Today, three years down the line, they have grown to some 70+ servers. Besides consistent service , the company is also known for adding its own brand of personal touch to further support the requirements of its customers. Satisfied clients constantly appreciate the company’s effort in providing a complete hosting solution with a personalized flavor.
* Name of the client cannot be revealed as per the NDA (Non-disclosure Agreement). References and testimonials are available.
