Secure Production Web Sites

Design of production web sites began for us in 1994. Since then we have developed multi-tiered web site paradigm where no host that does not have to interface with the public is housed behind a second tier firewall. This way any potential hacker has to mount a second attack to get your sacred data IF they are able to get through the first firewall. A simple description would be to have your web servers behind a first tier firewall and your application and database servers hidden behind a second tier firewall. Only the web servers are allowed traverse to the second tier. Of course any design will be based on your specific needs, what you are putting at risk, and your budget.

UNIX vs. ????

If you're looking for 5 nines, that's 99.999% uptime our usual recommendation is UNIX. Having done a number of years of computer admin work we've found the initial extra money outlay required for UNIX systems is offset by simpler maintenance which results in less overall admin hours needed per year. This situation is made more dramatic if you are security conscience and your admins are required to keep up with the large amount of patches released by the ???? company.

Sizing and Performance

We can design your web site from scratch or if you already have a site running but need an upgrade of server or communication performance we can help. For customers with the resources we have set up stress tests of the ptototype systems and further tuned and integrated inter-system operations. In some cases $200K of testing software and extensive tuning can save $500K in hardware.