Media Temple
Encyclopedia
Media Temple is a website hosting and software application services company based in Culver City, California
, USA. It is a pioneer of "grid hosting", whereby multiple stand-alone servers are linked to provide additional capacity for clients during periods of peak demand. Current clients include Qantas
, Adobe
and Rip Curl
.
of servers
that work together as a team. Traditional shared hosting
like Dreamhost offer unlimited bandwidth, storage, etc. but cap actual CPU usage. A spike in traffic or unusual amounts of bandwidth being used is cause for a traditional hosting facility to shut the site down, as all the resources dedicated for a server will be eaten up by a single website (there may be thousands of websites per server on a traditional host).
Grid computing
allows one to shift a process (or in this case a website) to other servers with more resources available. Media Temple's "grid hosting" can better handle spikes in traffic
as it can assign more servers to help carry the load. This improvement comes with an additional variable cost of "Grid Computing Units" or GPUs (not to be confused with a graphics processing unit
). Customers are able to monitor their GPU usage through their control panel and must pay an extra fee if they go over their monthly allotment. It is a trade off between an unexpectedly higher bill (Media Temple) or from going down (traditional shared hosting) during large spikes in traffic. If one is a content provider, the former is preferred because revenue goes up due to higher spike in traffic, while non-commercial websites may want the latter. The service was launched on October 17, 2006.
Grid-Service is scheduled to be replaced by a Cluster-Server in 2010 (as opposed to a previous schedule for 2009). The new storage system is being designed to eliminate the main source of service instability that Grid-Service suffered from. As of 2010, Rumours have surfaced reporting that Media Temple may opt to implement the features developed under the Cluster-Server brand in development into their existing Grid-Service product.
Media Temple also provides a dedicated hosting service
providing virtual private server
s designed for clients whose websites experience high levels of traffic. According to the company, its clients include Diesel, Adobe
, Rip Curl
, Mashable
, CheeseMind and Qantas
.
Outages affecting Grid Service customers as well as customers of the company's virtual dedicated offerings due to a DDoS attack began in mid-2010, the company has stated that it is working to implement changes to its network architecture, and to work with its partners to prevent future downtime.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA. It is a pioneer of "grid hosting", whereby multiple stand-alone servers are linked to provide additional capacity for clients during periods of peak demand. Current clients include Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
, Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
and Rip Curl
Rip Curl
Rip Curl is a major Australian manufacturer and retailer of surfing sportswear The company was founded in 1969 by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer in Torquay, Victoria, Australia and initially produced surfboards. In 1970, they decided to begin production of wetsuits, with emphasis on transforming...
.
Services
Media Temple's primary business is website hosting for more than 200,000 websites from 40 countries on Grid-Service. Its grid hosting system uses a networkComputer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
of servers
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
that work together as a team. Traditional shared hosting
Shared web hosting service
A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service or derive host refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. Each site "sits" on its own partition, or section/place on the server, to keep it separate from other sites...
like Dreamhost offer unlimited bandwidth, storage, etc. but cap actual CPU usage. A spike in traffic or unusual amounts of bandwidth being used is cause for a traditional hosting facility to shut the site down, as all the resources dedicated for a server will be eaten up by a single website (there may be thousands of websites per server on a traditional host).
Grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
allows one to shift a process (or in this case a website) to other servers with more resources available. Media Temple's "grid hosting" can better handle spikes in traffic
Web traffic
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
as it can assign more servers to help carry the load. This improvement comes with an additional variable cost of "Grid Computing Units" or GPUs (not to be confused with a graphics processing unit
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
). Customers are able to monitor their GPU usage through their control panel and must pay an extra fee if they go over their monthly allotment. It is a trade off between an unexpectedly higher bill (Media Temple) or from going down (traditional shared hosting) during large spikes in traffic. If one is a content provider, the former is preferred because revenue goes up due to higher spike in traffic, while non-commercial websites may want the latter. The service was launched on October 17, 2006.
Grid-Service is scheduled to be replaced by a Cluster-Server in 2010 (as opposed to a previous schedule for 2009). The new storage system is being designed to eliminate the main source of service instability that Grid-Service suffered from. As of 2010, Rumours have surfaced reporting that Media Temple may opt to implement the features developed under the Cluster-Server brand in development into their existing Grid-Service product.
Media Temple also provides a dedicated hosting service
Dedicated hosting service
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server, including choice of operating...
providing virtual private server
Virtual private server
Virtual private server is a term used by internet hosting services to refer to a virtual machine. The term is used for emphasizing that the virtual machine, although running in software on the same physical computer as other customers' virtual machines, is functionally equivalent to a separate...
s designed for clients whose websites experience high levels of traffic. According to the company, its clients include Diesel, Adobe
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
, Rip Curl
Rip Curl
Rip Curl is a major Australian manufacturer and retailer of surfing sportswear The company was founded in 1969 by Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer in Torquay, Victoria, Australia and initially produced surfboards. In 1970, they decided to begin production of wetsuits, with emphasis on transforming...
, Mashable
Mashable
Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...
, CheeseMind and Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
.
Incidents
Media Temple have come under criticism for service outages affecting Grid Service customers. Intermittent service availability has been a frequent problem, In one case, periodical downtime occurred between April 29, 2008 and May 28, 2008, until engineers made substantial changes to the system's storage architecture.Outages affecting Grid Service customers as well as customers of the company's virtual dedicated offerings due to a DDoS attack began in mid-2010, the company has stated that it is working to implement changes to its network architecture, and to work with its partners to prevent future downtime.