The Dovetail Hosting environments will be undergoing maintenance beginning at 9:00pm EST on Thursday, July 13, 2006, lasting approximately 4 hours. Due to the nature of this maintenance, there may be downtime. Dovetail's A.V.O.I.D. services will not be affected.

While that paragraph is something that our clients receive in their email, not many really know what goes on the second Thursday of every month.

To prepare for the evening's work, Thursday morning we begin to determine what patches need to be installed, what don't, and what patches may cause issues for our clients and products, like DovetailWRP.  For example, we might not install a Media Player security patch on our servers but will definitely install a security patch for Internet Information Service (IIS).  Using tools such as the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) for the Windows computers and yum for the Linux servers, we create a list of patches for our production servers.

Just prior to the start of our maintenance, we make sure that the A.V.O.I.D. service is online and functioning properly.  While you can discover the nitty-gritty of A.V.O.I.D. on our website, in a nutshell the service brings up a maintenance webpage whenever the live web server is unavailable.  It allows the customers who subscribe to the A.V.O.I.D. service to have important information (such as contact phone numbers) always available even if the website isn't.

Once the clock hits 9:00pm EST, we begin applying patches to the production Linux and Windows servers from the lists we created earlier in the day.  This isn't as easy as it seems.  You may be used to applying patches to your home computer and rebooting several minutes later.  Imagine doing that not only to an entire office of workstations, but also a room full of servers.  It tends to take us several hours to finish the job.

The rest of the evening is allocated for general maintenance.  One month, it might be as simple as updating the network map on the wall and sweeping up the server rooms.  Other times, such as this month, we begin to implement recommendations from our Quarterly Network Assessment.  Generally, we use the extra time after patching is completed to put into production our ideas and procedures which have been developed and staged on our test servers. 

While the monthly maintenance is important, it's only one piece of the puzzle.  We try to stay ahead of the curve by monitoring security email and discussion forums, watching for trends in the industry, and networking with friends and colleagues across the IT spectrum. 

All our efforts help Dovetail provide our clients the best support possible.

   --ben

I was driving back to the office the other day from lunch when I came across a funny thing. On the side of the road was a caution sign indicating there would be street sweeping for the next five miles. I moved into the left-hand lane expecting to come across a few slow-moving sweeper vehicles on the right cleaning up. And if that were what I ended up seeing, I'd have had nothing to add, however the scene I saw had me laughing so hard I almost drove off the road.

As I approached the flashing lights ahead, I passed a Massachusetts state highway truck on the side of the road with a crew standing there. To my surprise there was no sweeper vehicle in sight, but rather one of the crew leaning against the truck taking a break and he was holding a broom! Yes, a broom! I have to imagine that sweeping any road by hand is a nearly impossible task and I assume that the crew was simply doing some clean up that the vehicles couldn't get too. But it still struck my funny bone pretty hard.

After I regained my composure (and control of my car) I got to thinking about the metaphor I had just witnessed. You might have a tool that will do the job, but do you have the experience to know if your selection of tool was the best it could be? Yes my friend on the side of the road with the broom could have swept the entirety of Route 9 West, but he would probably retire before he finished the job.

Whenever I approach a project I ask myself several quesitons:

1. Have I seen this type of project before, and if so, what worked then?
2. What didn't work then? Should I use the same tool again?
3. Is there a related project that might have a similar solution to the one at hand?
4. If the tool can do the job, is it the best tool for the job?
5. Have newer, better tools been built since then?
6. Can I make an existing tool better?
7. Should I build a tool to do the job?

These and other questions (and I suppose their answers) have been developed because of the depth of experiences that I've come across over the years. Using that I think I've typically made the right choice more often than not.

So next time you want to sweep the highway, don't just grab the closest broom you can get your hands on or may never finish what you start out to accomplish.

It occurs to me that when people first contact us here at Dovetail, they are looking for a service. Maybe a host provider or web design company or a provider of content management systems. And we certainly offer those services and products. But I don't think about Dovetail as just another web company. When I started Dovetail it was much more than that. And today that is still true.

Dovetail is all about improving the way people work with companies. Part of our goal is certainly to offer quality at a reasonable price to our customers, but what we really want to achieve is a positive impact on the lives of "regular folk." When web surfers come across a web presence powered by Dovetail, we want them to have a positive experience, one that lets them do something better than they did before.

For example we just completed a new website for a bank here in Massachusetts - Middlesex Federal. This was their first website ever. I think that when their customers visit the site they'll find it professional and useful. They can find out information more easily than before. Potential new customers can get information about their competitive deposit and mortgage rates easily. And we've made sure it's just as easy for bank staff to keep that information up to date.

Another example is a custom printer of bags in Missouri - Bags & Boxes II. They opened up their ordering to the world - their existing customers and new ones alike. It's an integrated online e-commerce site. Yes, we've helped them execute a business strategy, but we've also enabled their target customer to have a convenient way to work with them.

That's a great feeling. And that's what Dovetail is all about!

It's amazing what you can do with the web today. But even with all that's possible, too many companies fall into the trap of ignoring what's practical.

Go back to the basics.

No matter what your goals are for your website keep the three basics in mind at all times... Effective Design, Clear Navigation and Great Content.

Your website design says more about your company in 5 seconds than anything else. Don't worry about creating the next great piece of art - design doesn't have to be art - Good design's role is to establish credibility in a way that fits its intended audience.

Navigation is part of the design - but rather than being graphical design, it's information design. Your navigation has the single purpose of escorting your visitors to the information you want them to see. That's it. It doesn't matter if it's "cool" or "fancy" it just has to be clear - and obvious.

But then there's the content. Content is King! Your site's content is the story of your company - an autobiography if you will. You've got a story to tell and people want to read it. Take the time to develop good content that's interesting and informative.

When you go astray in a web development project, just go back to the basics. Whatever the issue, if you hold it up against the design, navigation and content goals you'll find your direction.

- Mike

PS. If you want more on this topic, check out my Building a Better Website webinar from last August.

Welcome.

I'm Michael Villa (but you can call me Mike). I'm the President of Dovetail Internet Technologies, LLC. My goals for this Blog are simple. Many posts will chronicle what's going on at Dovetail, but I'll also provide personal insights, thoughts, and opinions on challenges, pitfalls and trends surrounding the Internet.

A little bit about me.

Dovetail finds its home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts and I've spent my whole life in Central Mass. I graduated in 1991 from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. After spending almost 6 years working for a local ad agency as a graphic artist, I began working with the Internet in 1996. In May of 1999 Dovetail was born.

It's been a wild ride since then. Over the past seven years I've had a front row seat to the Internet bubble's boon, burst and resurrection. I've had the pleasure of working with hundreds of companies over the years to host and build their websites, and I've been lucky enough to benefit from many lasting professional relationships - a few have been with me personally now for a decade!

I've seen a lot. And I've developed my own modus operandi regarding the Internet. Sprinkled with practical ideas and proven techniques. I look forward to sharing many of them with you in the posts here.

Enjoy!

- Mike