"We are pleased to announce that due to customer demand, XCalibre have now
rolled out a cost effective MySQL optimisation package for our managed
dedicated server customers.

With some optimising of your XCalibre hosted dedicated MySQL/Server, we
can significantly improve the performance/speed of replies to the queries
being made by your website.  Sites will use less resources and perform
queries with a higher efficiency level thereby returning searches with
greater speed enhancing the end user experience.

The optimisation package is priced at £149 plus VAT for Setup and £50 plus
VAT per month.

What is included:

 *  Various techniques are employed to better manage the interaction
between websites and the database

 *  Caching, buffer management, timing management.

 *  Less CPU and memory usage.

 *  Reduced network congestion and latency.

 *  Identification of bottlenecks.

 *  Monthly review reoptimising where appropriate and sending monthly report.

 *  Feedback will be given to flag up problematic queries.

Please contact sales@xcalibre.co.uk Telephone 01506 606000 if you would
like to take advantage of this offer or for further information contact
support@xcalibre.co.uk.

MySQL optimisation does not fall within the scope of our managed services
entitlement and is classed as a package add-on.

This service does not apply to customers hosting websites on our shared
web servers."

Good news for XCalibre from WebHostDirectory! We've been voted among the top three providers of Dedicated Servers by visitors to their UK Dedicated Server Directory.
Here's the glowing profile about our service that has helped us to win yet another award from WebHostDirectory. And many thanks to all those who voted for us!

We've recently added some new faces to our team at XCalibre, so we thought we'd let one of them tell you a bit about himself and what it's like working here...

Hi My name is Tabassum Sharif, I prefer to be called Tabs. I am the Operations manager here at Xcalibre

I have worked in IT for more years then I would care to let on and have loved every challenge. I am married with 3 boys and they are my drive and motivation, I believe in leading by example at home and at work, tackle every obstacle with a smile and a friendly and approachable manner.

I am Ex-REME and this is where I started my career in challenging IT situations.

I have been progressing in management since 2003 and believe that I have found my true calling – people and process management. I have a team of 10 direct reports, but have my eye on taking over the world….

I love the hands on progression of understanding the drive and motivation for each of my staff, channelling it into a working and viable achievement path for self improvement. Identifying key strengths and weaknesses with solutions to overcome and improve. Leading to not only a key asset to the company, but a team player and a potential excellent candidate should they look to progressing their career with another company.

I run a fairly relaxed, fun and informal atmosphere. There are open debates and knowledge sharing with frequent brainstorming…where everyone’s participation is welcome.

The challenges faced here are the same as in every company,
• Communications,
• Staff perception and ownership,
• Customer focus,
• Morale

The rewards are being recognised not just by my own staff but peers, customers and superiors that I have made a positive difference. That the path we have chosen to take is reaping rewards for all and improving our standing in the industry.

Santa’s Christmas servers

It was the month before Christmas and all through the XCalibre Sales Office …………. things were going MAD!

For some reason the phones have been ringing off the hook, the quotes have been flying out the door and the orders have been flooding in.

Could this be some strange pre-Christmas shopping rush, and will there be a lot of sad little faces on Christmas morning when the little darlings rip open their very own Dedicated Hosting Solution instead of this year’s version of the Cabbage Patch Doll or Eagle Eye Action Man?

Or maybe, the panic is easing and businesses are moving forward and planning ahead for a busy new year, by utilising service providers and cutting back on in-house resources.

Whatever the reason, here in the XCalibre Sales Office, Christmas has come early, much to our delight.

Bring on the Egg Nog, Mince Pies and dodgy woolly jumpers.

Jacqui

Why this customer chose to host with XCalibre

Rather than hear me talking about XCalibre, here’s what customer Niall Giggins of BrightThings has to say about their exciting application, SocialGO (http://www.socialgo.com/ ), and how they came to host it with us.

First Niall explains what the app is about. "SocialGO allows people to easily create and run a feature-filled social networking website of their very own. Site owners are given control of all aspects of their site, allowing them to decide who can join, what they can do and offers full control over the site’s appearance. SocialGO can be used as a stand-alone or can simply be bolted onto an existing website if need be.

"SocialGO runs on a proprietary suite of server software developed by a development team based in the UK. We worked closely with XCalibre at key stages of the development to custom-build a network of servers specifically designed to run the SocialGO platform. SocialGO also leverages the flexibility offered by XCalibre’s FlexiScale platform to provide development server clusters, failover and peak traffic absorption.

"This combination of proprietary software, custom hardware and virtualised servers allows the SocialGO team to be able to develop and run their platform in an extremely fast and cost efficient way."

Why we chose XCalibre

Niall explains, "During the early stages of development, we tendered out our initial network plans to over 20 hosting companies around the world of various sizes. Of the responses, the team at XCalibre initially stood out to us as they showed a genuine interest in contributing to the development of the platform. Eventually, through good communication and excellent technical reference, XCalibre helped us smooth out some of the finer points of our server strategy and won the contract to build and maintain our custom servers.

"We found XCalibre to be a company that was well established enough to be able to meet our high requirements, but still of a size where they had not become a corporate machine that was only interested in sales. We soon built good relations with many members of the team there.

"Another huge selling point for us was the FlexiScale cloud computing platform. Early in the development of SocialGO we experimented with many of the on-demand and cloud computing platforms available, but found their APIs not easy to optimise for the sort of infrastructure we were developing. In this respect we found that traditional dedicated servers with LAMP stacks were much better suited. With FlexiScale, however, we were presented with on-demand LAMP capabilities that we use to build full mini clusters for development and testing, individual failover services and as additional capacity during peak times. FlexiScale gives us all the abilities of regular servers, but in an on-demand package."

The SocialGo server solution

Niall describes SocialGO’s server solution: "XCalibre hosts a range of custom-built application, database and content servers for the SocialGO platform, as well as providing load balancing, firewall, SAN and networking infrastructure. The FlexiScale platform provides the ability to quickly set up small clusters of virtual servers for platform research as well as a range of failover and peak time load sharing capabilities. FlexiScale alone saves a great deal of time and money by offering the capability to provision five servers for two days, and then delete them. The combination gives us just what we need as a server solution and the support of a great team at XCalibre."



Big thanks to Niall and everyone at BrightThings!

Tony