Emergency Server Maintenance - gemini.ocssolutions.com

At 5 PM CDT, 3 PM PDT, we will be doing an emergency upgrade to our cPanel server named gemini.ocssolutions.com due to higher than desired load.  The upgrade will take about an hour in total, but the total downtime should not exceed 15 minutes.  Once the server comes back up from the upgrade you will enjoy faster performance.  We apologize for the short timing on this but we felt an urgent upgrade was needed to maintain performance levels that we demand from our hosting infrastructure.

Emergency Server Maintenance

An urgent kernel update that patches a security issue has been released for our Linux-based web hosting servers.  We have installed it and tested it to work correctly, but we need to reboot the machines in order for it to take effect.  Due to the nature of this issue, we feel it is important to proceed with the reboot as early as possible.

We have scheduled a reboot of most of our Linux-based hosting systems at 11 PM CDT on Thursday, May 2nd, 2013.  We expect the downtime for most operations to be up to 20 minutes.

Emergency Power Maintenance

There is an urgent issue that is being addressed by our engineers in one of our datacenters regarding power distribution.  This issue will knock a small portion of our shared and virtual dedicated hosting systems offline for up to 2 hours while it is being resolved.  We deeply apologize for this issue and are working as quickly as possible to rectify it.  We will update this post when it is resolved.

UPDATE (12:11 PM CDT):  The affected servers are coming back online now.

Upcoming Server Migrations

As part of our continuous effort to keep our hardware and software up to date, we will be migrating accounts on our older cPanel servers to new cPanel servers over the next few weeks.  We have a very sophisticated, automatic process for doing this and you will generally not experience any downtime or issues.  We have a team working on this migration and use a two stage process to check for issues before making the final move.

If you use our DNS, which is most likely the case, you will not have to lift a finger.  The entire migration will happen automatically for you.  If you do not, we will contact you with instructions.

Reach Mobile Customers with Affordable SMS Text Delivery

What's the most interactive and often highest performing advertising medium today?

You may be surprised to learn that SMS text message delivery is currently one of the most popular methods of reaching many of your customers.

Now all mobile devices can send and receive text messages, and many modern consumers are now using SMS texting as a primary means of communication.

Sending and receiving text messages for marketing and business communication purposes used to be a cumbersome and expensive prospect.   Just getting started in the field could easily cost a business tens of thousands of dollars.

These barriers exist no longer!  OCS has partnered with ProTexting to open up a new world of mobile communication to our customers.  We encourage everyone to check out the following URL to learn more about how to reach your mobile customers with affordable SMS texting!

http://www.protexting.com/promocode/TXTOCS

What's more, we've arranged to provide a promo code for our customers to save an additional 5% off of any of the ProTexting plans.  The code is TXTOCS.

Don't let the world of mobile advertising pass you by!

OCS Partners With WordWatch to Provide Automatic Google AdWords Management

I have the pleasure of talking to many customers of ours who run web stores.  Part of the day to day operations of most of these stores involves managing Google AdWords.  When you first start out using AdWords, it can be exciting knowing that you're buying advertising that you know will bring you visitors, but over time managing your AdWords can become at best a time sync and at worst an aggravating burden.

That's where WordWatch comes in!  Chris Bauman, VP of WordWatch approached us late last year about bringing their services to our customers.  We knew Chris from working on the Sproutit's Mailroom project and knew how committed he was to providing a wonderfully useful services for small to medium-sized business at affordable prices.  I jumped at the chance that he offered to extend this incredibly useful service to our customers.

WordWatch will automatically manage your Google AdWord campaign for you.  It takes the stress and burden out of doing it yourself and since it can react faster than you can.  Those who initially used it to automate their Google AdWords have found that it also saves them money and can increase their traffic.  WordWatch has shown us that you really can have your cake and eat it too!

Take a moment to watch this short video detailing how WordWatch works:



Then head on over to WordWatch and give it a spin.  They offer a 30 day free trial, so you have nothing to lose!

.ORG Domain Sale - Just $6.99/yr!

We're delighted to announce that starting today, all .ORG domain registrations are on sale for only $6.99 per year. This pricing will continue until the end of the year.

Click Here to Register Your Domain!

.ORG domains are perfect for non-profit groups and organizations, churches, non-profit sites providing help and information, charities, and religious/spiritual sites.

OCS Solutions gives back to our community and those in need.  We are happy to assist charities and non-profit organizations with their technical and Internet needs at discount, or in some cases, as time is available, for free.  If you want more information, please contact us.