SoftLayer was nominated for the Best Places to Work in DFW this year. I have no doubt that SoftLayer will win this!

The commitment and loyalty Management has shown to SoftLayer has reflected to the employees. There is a saying “Treat your employees just like customers or even better.” SoftLayer understands that and therefore one of the biggest assets of the company is the employees. The company offers employee break rooms with refrigerators, microwaves, and a various assortments of drinks and snacks. The satisfaction and motivation encourages employees to do a better job which translates into customers being more satisfied as well.

SoftLayer also honors employees who have done an outstanding job for that year and offers a few fun awards for their hard work.

Since we are growing and doing very well in the industry we feel that supporting the community is a key initiative. We recently donated to the Haiti Relief Fund then engaged the employees to get involved also by offering an additional company match.

As previously noted in a few blogs we are also a firm believer of being “green” and not only in the Data Centers. A recycling bin is put in each break room and the employees are encouraged to use them. Employees are also encouraged to print as little as possible to save paper and if they must print they must recycle the paper rather than throwing it away. Except for that really secure SAS 70 affected top secret stuff that must be shredded.

SoftLayer is growing at a rapid pace and who would not want to work for a company that is growing? I feel privileged to work at SoftLayer and embrace the “challenging but not overwhelming” mantra.

Here at SoftLayer, we try to address customer issues as quickly as possible. Recently, I have been faced with a few more support tickets than usual, which got me thinking about an experience in my younger life. Back in the 90’s in South Korea, my buddies and I were in our early 20’s and it felt like we owned the world. We were full of energy and everything was fun. As Korea is a peninsula, the ocean was a big part of our lives. Every summer, we went to the beach together. There are many beaches as you can imagine, and they get pretty crowded during the summer.

Who wants to work or study during the hot summer days? Come on! Heading out for a day at the beach was a lot more fun.

It was one summer that we went to a nice beach (see picture). Some of us brought our girlfriends and some did not. On the way to the beach, one of my friends, Park, who was single and a decent looking young man, told us about his dream that he hoped would come true that summer. His idea was to rescue a girl from drowning and develop this coincidence into a romantic relationship. Yeah, right. The rest of us had trouble taking his dream seriously. Party’s on!

When we got to the beach, he was busy swimming right away. I suppose he should have been. His chances of being the first person to rescue a drowning woman were about as good as winning the lottery. Look at the picture. You get the idea.

We lost track of him for the most of the day and this is the story he later told us. He was chilling out in the water, on the lookout for damsels in distress. While he was dreaming about his coincidental rescue and romance, he heard a desperate woman’s voice just behind him.

“Help! I got a cramp in my leg.”

Instantly, he was in heart-pounding, breathtaking euphoria; thinking: “Wow, today is the day. Heck, yeah. I swam all day. God helps those who help themselves.”

So, off he goes. He turned himself toward the voice with his eyes strained, willing to risk anything to rescue that woman.

It immediately became apparent the girl was not quite his type at all. He muttered under his breath: “God is busy helping other people as usual”. He shouted loudly so she could hear him with no mistake.

“Sorry, I can’t swim very well!”

And he turned and began swimming back in the opposite direction.

He felt pretty bad after he got away from her; so, he looked back. Surprisingly, the lady had managed to swim to shore by herself. He had mixed emotions after swimming back to shore. I told him, “Don’t feel too bad. I think you helped her build up the mental strength and she found the inner strength to overcome the cramp.”

Clocking back to present, I’ve had quite a few support tickets over the past several days here at SoftLayer. It is not at all as bad as the girl’s situation but I’ve felt a little pressure since it isn’t normal and I’ve got other stuff to do.

Looking back on past experiences, I realize I can view the same event in two different ways, just like flipping a coin. It was a lot of pressure in the beginning to deal with the extra support issues; but, now I’ve learned so many things within such a short period of time. Not only have I learned more about our products, like CDNLayer, but I got a better idea of what customers want. So, drawing in tickets isn’t all bad; it strengthens me after all.

Hey, young single guys out there don’t just walk away from a girl in danger because she is not your type. I guess that’s my point, because I can tell you that my friend remains single to this day.

It shouldn’t be any surprise to people who know SoftLayer that we follow the “Virtual Datacenter” discussions quite closely. In fact, it is awesome to see people discussing what sounds a lot like what SoftLayer already is.

The concept of Virtual Datacenter is that you have all the power of a datacenter at your command without having to worry about the details of actually running a datacenter. Chad Sakac from EMC wrote an excellent post in his personal blog about the transformation to a Virtual Datacenter.

One of the points Chad makes is the abstraction of the physical infrastructure. Quoting Chad:

“Every Layer of the physical infrastructure (CPU, Memory, Network, Storage) need to be transparent. Transparency means ‘invisible’. This implies a lot, and implies that the glue in the middle, like a general purpose OS, needs to provide the “API models” for those hardware elements to be transparent. ”

I latched on to this point because that is what we have been building at SoftLayer for the last few years. We realize that the abstraction of the physical infrastructure not only means that end-users don’t need to know how to manage the physical infrastructure, but that the abstraction can make more efficient use of resources (= money!).

Let’s talk about the advantages of virtualized infrastructure. Without virtualization, provisioning a web-facing server on the network would involve obtaining rack space, a server, licensing and loading an OS, finding a switch port, physically connecting a cable or three, setting up the switch port (I hope you know IOS), getting IP Addresses (hopefully you don’t have to go get more from ARIN), and adding a firewall and/or load balancer (more procurement, cabling, and configuration). Adding storage could be just as complex – also involving procurement, racking, cabling, and configuration. This doesn’t sound very efficient. In fact, it sounds a lot like creating a “circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis, facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load”. It’s been done before and I’ll bet it’s been done better by people other than you.

Using virtualized infrastructure you should be able to perform the task with a few clicks of a mouse or a few API calls and have the functionality you need set up in a few minutes instead of days, weeks, or months. No worrying about procurement, physical constraints, or learning the specifics of network and storage devices from different vendors. All you should have to focus on is the running of your particular application. You shouldn’t have to worry about configuring servers, networking, and storage any more than you should have to worry about chillers, HVAC, generators, and UPS batteries.

Who would win in a fight to the death between a Grizzly Bear versus a Great White Shark.

Yes, we here in SLales, particularly Daniel and myself, have these types of serious debates quite often. Now before you get all riled up about how this would never happen and there’s no way these two would ever even meet, etc, etc, hear me out folks. Daniel said it best during one of our many debates about this important issue:

“I win the lotto and I’m putting this show on Pay-Per-View…. greatest show on earth.”

IIIIIIIIIIIn the red corner weighing in at 5,000lbs, laying 20 feet long – SHARKY! AAAAAAAnd in the blue corner weighing in at 1,500lbs and standing 8 feet tall – GRIZZLY!

The setting would be similar to the UFC Octagon, only twice the size, instead of a cage it will be a solid metal octagon and filled with 4 feet of water so the Shark can maneuver and so can the Bear. Both animals are fully grown adults – the Shark is a female, the Bear is a male – predatory in nature and very aggressive.

My contention would be that the Great White wins this battle to the death for a few reasons:

1. The Great White Shark has been dubbed “an efficient killing machine” on several occasions by many scientists and experts.
2. This ain’t no Salmon Grizzly; this is 20ft and 5,000lbs of fury coming for YOU Bear!
3. Sharky is HUGE, more than double the size of Grizzly.
4. Sharky has rows and rows of teeth that are easily replaceable in a fight to the death, Grizzly has one set and that’s it.
5. Great White Sharks are notorious for their thick skin; the bear doesn’t stand a chance with his teeth and claws.
6. Yes, Grizzly will be more maneuverable, however one bite from Sharky and he’s done.
7. There is a certain 80’s rock band named after Sharky, none for Grizzly.

What’s you guys’ take on the outcome here, do you think Sharky or Grizzly would win?

Daniel, I await your side of the argument sir!

***The views and expressions of these events are completely fictional and meant for entertainment purposes only. ***

When I was 14 I got my first tech job as a tech support guy for a local “mom and pop” internet service provider, from there on out I have been in many data centers in the North West working with multiple companies of all caliber. From National Dial-up Internet Service Providers to small webhosting companies that have had their stuff collocated in many of the area’s datacenters.

When I was about 20 I decided I was burnt out on the internet and wanted to try Central Office build outs for a national telecommunications company installing their fiber and DSL network in Washington and Oregon. The one thing that I learned in the Telco industry is to do nice and neat work. Work that you could trace a single cable in a bundle and follow it from point A to point B.
After a few years of doing the same thing over and over, I figured it was time for me to get back into the Internet as it was way more challenging for my ever-thinking mind.

So I took my nice and neat skills and worked on a contract for Microsoft building out a data center in a top secret location in the Puget Sound. This was by far one of the nicest and cleanest datacenters I had ever seen. After that I went to work for some other area datacenters doing systems administration work. I helped them do a migration of two datacenters into one. I helped build out a datacenter, and I helped by trying to make the datacenter as nice as Microsoft’s along with as neat as the Telephone companies COs.

During this time I really noticed SoftLayer Technologies was Ahead of the Rest when it came to the internet utility hosting Industry. I quickly wanted to learn everything about this company, and being the nerd that I am, figured I should buy a server from this company. I Bought one and went to lunch thinking I might have a call or e-mail saying that my server will be done here within the day. Wow! 45 minutes later? “These guys are on top of it”, I thought.
Then one day I was browsing Webhostingtalk.com (this is my equivalent to your teenager’s myspace.com addiction) and noticed that SoftLayer just released a P.R. about signing a deal with InterNAP for a 10,000 server datacenter in Tukwila so I figured this company’s features are so freaking amazing and cool. “I just need to try to get a job at this location with this really cool company”, I said to myself. I sent off a Resume and a little info about myself. I did not hear back from them for a while. I figured my quick-witted humor may have rubbed the HR department the wrong way, or maybe I wasn’t qualified, or too qualified.

SoftLayer finally called me back. I was as happy as a 10 year old getting a dirt bike for his birthday — they wanted an interview.
So I go in and tour the facility and do my interview with the interviewing committee, I have to say it was one of the most intense interviews I have ever had with the technical questions that was asked along with just a hard interview process, though I left that day knowing I would be getting a call from SoftLayer as I felt I sold myself to them on my skillset.

I have to say it is really relaxing and challenging working for a world-class company in a world-class datacenter. There is a great deal of stress that comes with our job in this industry, and when the datacenter and management have everything in order from the get go and it hasn’t been patched together it makes your job as a Systems Administrator a little less stressful. I do my daily walks of the datacenter in Seattle looking at thousands and thousands of racked servers that are set to standards which is weird when I’ve worked for places that use motorcycle tie-downs and zip ties to secure your rack to make them ‘Earthquake’ ready.

I now sleep at night knowing if there is an earthquake we will be prepared and your data and machines will be safe in SoftLayer’s Seattle N+1 datacenter. We have a wonderful team of build engineers and systems administrators that work around the clock to keep your virtual datacenter up and running. I wouldn’t want to be at any other place for 40+ hours a week!

3 bars for life!

When I was growing up, computers were these wonderful things that sat at the back of the classroom (usually one, or maybe two if the class was lucky). If the school was lucky, there was a “computer lab” where you could have access to the latest and greatest in government approved hardware.

My favorite of the time was the Apple IIe. Our school district had so many of them, they handed ‘em out to classrooms (The school district now uses them as very effective door stops). In fact, I got my start with computers by tinkering with a IIe. My first computer experience was hooking up a printer to a IIe, and the wonder of this experience (plug something in, type a command, and print came out!) completely captured me (I was in first grade), and from that moment on I was completely wrapped up in the wonder of computers.

Anyway, I graduated to PC compatibles and DOS. Trying to get a grasp on this computer thing, I got a copy of DOS for Dummies. Near the beginning of the book, they had a paragraph that had some important words of wisdom. While I don’t have the book any more, the message is still with me: “This book will teach you the basics of the computer, what you can do, what you can’t do, and what you really shouldn’t ever do. However, for anything you don’t know, contact your local computer guru.”

Computer Guru? What is this “Computer Guru”?

According to Wikipedia, Guru means “Teacher, in a religious or spiritual sense.” And as luck would have it, I was able to get into contact with Computer Gurus throughout my life. These were the computer equivalents of the small town mechanic: you pull up for some gas and Harvey the mechanic walks around the corner. “Howdy! I heard you pull up. You’ve got a bit of a timing issue, and I think one of your spark plugs are bad. I can change ‘em out in a few minutes, if you like.” It’s almost like Harvey has a supernatural connection to vehicles. He can hear issues, he can smell problems… he’s one with the Motor Vehicle Force.

The same with the Computer Gurus I knew. You walked in and turned on your machine, they’d make a “Hmm” sound (in computer science, “Hmm” is similar to the Indian sacred syllable “Aum” or “Om”. It’s ritually chanted by a computer guru whilst contemplating your computer’s connection to the Universe), type some sacred symbols into the prompt, then tell you the problem and offer to fix it. Most times they would happily fix your computer in exchange for a pizza; sometimes just getting a cup of coffee from the ever present drip dispenser could net you a small fix. And if you were truly interested in computers, you could even ask to become a follower of the Guru. You’d spend your spare time in his or her office, ask meaningful questions about the nature of the Universe, contemplate ancient tomes and user manuals, and take care of the mundane tasks of life (like formatting floppies or installing software) so the Guru could spend their time connecting with his or her latest project (generally spent looking at an arcane flowchart or design document and saying “Hmm” a lot). You knew, one day, with practice and patience, you too could become a Guru, have followers to format your floppies, and say Hmm.

However, the computer industry started changing. User interfaces became simpler, USB made the promise of true plug-and-play a near reality… the command line all but disappeared. Computers stopped being a specialized device and became a commodity. Computers were EVERYWHERE. And there was this belief that computers will become so “user friendly” that there was no need for the long learning process of the Guru.

And for the most part, this has happened. Programs are very user friendly now. There’s tons of documentation, and most don’t expect you to have a PhD in Computer Science to understand them. Workflows have become “point and click link” instead of “chant this esoteric string into the command prompt”.

However, sometimes I really miss my Guru. For example, just this last week, my roommate’s computer (which I built) started randomly crashing. There wasn’t a specific program that crashed, and it didn’t crash at a set time. I knew something was wrong, so I tried to diagnose. ‘Course, Vista being user friendly, the computer would automatically reboot, without showing the Bluescreen, except for the subliminal hint of blue to let you know that the computer had crashed. See, blue screens have “Technical Information” (it says so right on the screen!)… and user friendly computers (1) don’t crash, and (2) are NOT technical. So I was stuck with a computer that wouldn’t run, and a bored Roommate who just realized he has a $1200 paperweight.

As Dr. McCoy would say, “I’m a programmer, not a hardware doctor!” Hardware issues are right outside my realm of experience. I longed for my Guru. I knew how to diagnose; I pulled hardware, changed orders of cards, swapped the memory sticks back and forth… all the standard religious rituals for modern computers. I knew that if I could but approach a Guru, tell him or her my issue, they could give me leads to check. I didn’t have the money to buy all new parts at random; I had to work with what I had. I knew I had all the data for a real diagnosis… I simply wasn’t able to pick out the error. Working the next day at SoftLayer, I mused about my lack of Guru leadership. At the end of the day, I turned to a coworker and said “Now I get to tinker for a few more hours on this stupid computer. I wish I knew a Computer Guru!”

My coworker smiled and asked what the problem was. I told him and he looked at the ceiling. “Hmm” he said. “Could be a power supply issue. Maybe the power coming out of the supply isn’t clean and it’s resetting the motherboard.” Just then, another coworker walked around the corner.

“What about a power supply?” he asked. The first coworker told him the issue. “Hmm,” he said, looking intently at the wall. “I bet it’s a RAM issue. I bet your ram is bad. Swap it out with some good RAM and see what happens.”

So I went home and crosswired some power supplies. Rebooting the machine, I finally got a bluescreen that crashed itself, locking up the computer and letting me read it. “PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA” “Page Fault?” I thought. “Hmm.” My roommate walked in. “What are you doing, meditating? Have you fixed it yet?”

We went to Fry’s and bought some new RAM sticks. Going home, I popped ‘em in and started the machine. And it worked! It’s been running 6 days nonstop. My roommate was really happy. I was finally able to look up the bluescreen message up on the Internet. Sure enough, that specific error almost always pops up when there’s bad ram.

So, where have all the Gurus gone? Where else? They all work at SoftLayer! Whenever I’ve had a software or hardware issue, or an operating system issue, I’ve found somebody here who knows the issue. They look at the wall, say “Hmm”, sip their coffee or Monster (depending on their level of enlightenment), and give me the answer. The guys here are at one with the Network. The DC guys almost seem to be able to FEEL a power issue or a drive problem before it happens. Slales is able to think about your problems and provide a tailor made solution to help. And Development is where all the action takes place; we get to write all the behind the scenes magic.

“You must be some kind of Computer Genius!” shouts my roommate (lucky for me, he’s gotten to play some Call of Duty 4, so he’s already forgotten the previous week of frustration). “No, not yet.” I respond. “I’m working on it, but I’m not a Guru yet.”

Somebody…Anybody…I need a Whataburger!!

If you haven’t been to a Whataburger, I’m sorry. It’s an amazing fast food chain that sells not only the freshest made-to-order burgers, but they’re also open 24-hours a day, and their breakfast is second to none (Chris Menard has a clinical addiction to their taquitos). The problem with this is that they only exist in the South. I’m in the North. In Seattle, Washington to be precise—accompanied by our go-live team to manage our newest datacenter and make sure the launch goes smoothly.

On the bright side (no pun intended, it hasn’t stopped raining since we landed), it has. We have assembled an amazing team, the datacenter is absolutely spectacular, and the locals have been very friendly. Efficiencies we have built into our normal daily operations over the last two years have basically allowed us to “drag and drop” our datacenters as needed, where they are needed without having to reinvent the wheel every time we launch. Since the deployment is simple, we can focus on service upgrades—like the latest 40-Gigabit rack-level connections—while we roll out a new facility. Connectivity you could use…say…to look for a Whataburger near you http://www.whataburger.com/one_near_you.php (I look every day). We’ve already flown through our first historic Seattle Truck Day, and had a second one to boot. We’re provisioning droves of machines for new and current customers who are taking advantage of our network architecture, tools, and StorageLayer to create their own custom solutions. In a nutshell, we have brought a new DC online and maintained the ability to provide our customers with the same cutting edge hardware and innovative utilities that they have come to expect in Dallas.

On the darker side, with everything is going so well, it leaves a lot of time to sit and think about a tasty Whataburger. With jalapenos. And bacon. Ugh.

‘Twas the night before Seattle and all through the office
people were stirring, even the bosses.
The Dev guys were grinding on code one last time
in hopes all the errors for sure they would find.

The servers were powered and cabled and racked
and it took us a while to get them unpacked.
And Mike with his checkbook and Gary his stash
both paid our vendors a whole lot of cash.

When out in the parking lot the bass was a thumpin’
I sprang from my chair cuz I knew he was coming.
Over to the window I flew like a flash
pulled down the blinds and made a loud crash.

The lights on his truck gave off a strange orange glow
and I could see some weirdness just down below.
When what to my tired overworked eyes did appear
it was a great big guy and a whole lot of beer.

With his size and his stature, so calm with a grin
I knew in a moment it really must be him.
Faster and faster he came up the walk
he was hootin and hollerin and popin a top.

“Now, Miller! Now, Bud! Now, Coors! and Coors light!
On Corona! on Busch! On Lonestar! and Red Stripe!
To the top of the stairs! To the top of the world!
Drink away! Splash away! Slosh away all!”

Like molasses before a new fallen snow
he made his move to the door, be it very slow
Up in the elevator to the top he flew
with all of the beer and some pretzels too.

And then in a flash I heard in the hall
a pop and a fizz, did he drop them all?
As I ran down the way in hopes for a beer
I stopped in the hall for I knew he was near.

He was dressed in a pimp hat and humming tune
and his clothes were all black with 3 bars on his plume.
A few cases of beer he was trying to hold
and he kept grumbling something about it being cold.

His eyes how they stared; his eye brows so slanted
the beer must be heavy; cuz as he walked he panted.
I knew right at that moment; and just had to pause
I knew at that moment I had seen Lancey Clause.

He handed out beer with a groan and a scowl
he dropped one on his toe and screamed OOUU!
He spoke not a word but kept to his work
he filled fridges and coolers; with nary a burp.

After leaving a trail of beer all around
he went back to the elevator and headed down.
A clank and a thud as he dropped his keys
He went through the door and banged one of his knees.

I heard the door slam on his truck down below
and the tunes of the 80’s started to flow.
But I heard him yell as he drove out of sight
"sell a Seattle Server, Sell them all tonight!"

As I watched the Dallas Cowboys dismantle the Green Bay Packers last Thursday night, I noticed an ever so slight – almost invisible – passing of the torch from Brett Favre to Tony Romo. It became quite clear – Football is a young man’s game.

As I sat and pondered what that must feel like for Brett and his crew, I noticed frightening similarities between hosting and football. Hosting appears to be a young man’s sport as well.

Now, before you guys (there I go again) pile on and beat me down – hear me out. I am not saying that Brett and his older brethren are washed up and incapable of playing football – but I am saying, their primetime has passed and any future success should be considered borrowed time on a great career coming to conclusion. Facts are facts – professional football is a very physical and mental job and the youth + skill appears to outweigh age + experience.

This leads me back to hosting. A world full of very young and extremely talented players. An industry where degrees and certifications come in a distant second behind skill and innovative thinking. I often find my thirty-something (barely) resume on-the-line with both new and old competitors. I can assure you, the young competitors terrify me, and the older ones typically bore me.

The recent interviews for potential new hires here at SL are eye-opening. Young Guns coming out of high school with Cisco Certs, college students working on cutting edge technologies and of course – the prodigy that shows up from time to time who was born to design and innovate beyond all our wildest dreams.

I often tell Mike, our CFO, that technology is changing the rules of business and how things will be done going forward. In Mike’s accounting world, graduates come out of college with lots of book knowledge and very little experience and gain experience over their career. In the technology world, I would argue the younger talent holds more technical knowledge (book or real world) than the older more established crowd What I bring to the table is business and technical experience; but I find myself learning more and more technology from my younger team members everyday. It’s a never ending battle to stay on the leading edge – but I wonder – how long will it be before I hand the torch?

Go Cowboys!!

When we first opened our doors, Jeaves and Josh used to split 24-hour shifts in the DC to provide 24×7 support coverage, and there was a “napping couch” in the office for the occasional overnight work shift up in Plano. Most of us had a toothbrush if not a change of clothes in our desk drawer, and a fun Friday night entailed sitting around a whiteboard talking numbers, and coming up with new ideas for the datacenter.

Team SoftLayer is much much larger now, but the spirit is much the same. This picture is from a swingin’ SL party we had a few Thursdays ago, where the office got together to label power cables for the new Seattle DC. There are members of Dev, Sales, Accounting, Marketing, & Management here working together. It makes me so proud.