Effective March 1st, 2009, we are upgrading our shared hosting plans to include more RAM.  This really applies only to customers who use Ruby on Rails, Django, or another long-running user-created process.  This extra RAM will make more room for your application and give you more breathing room to avoid running over on your plan.

Many have asked our policy on RAM usage and how we enforce the limits.  All of the RAM limits on shared hosting are soft, with a high hard limit to prevent a runaway process with a memory leak to cause problems for other accounts.  If your Rails application goes over your limit by 5 or 10% we do not typically mind.  Since we don’t oversell, the limits are there to help keep resources free for all users on shared hosting plans.  If you start to use too much RAM over the buffer zone we allow for all accounts, we will notify you with options on how to proceed.

These new limits will take effect both on new and existing accounts.

I’m delighted to announce some significant improvements that we have made on the OCS website, particularly in regards to navigation.  The top navigation single layer menu has been replaced with a drop-down menu to aid in faster navigation.  In addition, the bottom of the site now has a mini-navigation area so you can quickly move to other pages of interest.

We have added a new page on our managed hosting service.  Back by popular demand, this service frees you from the headaches of server management and lets you focus on your business.  We have also introduced a managed shared hosting plan which provides support above the standard level of already comprehensive support offered by our shared hosting service.

We are in the process with working out promotions with 3rd party vendors that we’ll be able to offer you for free or at a reduced cost.  I’ll be providing more details on that in our next post.

If you haven’t yet signed up for our low-volume mailing list, please take a moment to do so.  Each e-mail will be loaded with information you can use, including tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your website.