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At MVI Hosting, we believe that a tier-1, carrier-neutral network is not the only thing needed to provide a high-speed and reliable shared hosting environment. There should also be a proper server structure in place to allow for fail-overs and load-balancing. Unfortunately, most shared web-hosting environments today are these cheap, one server does it all solutions which we wouldn't really call a solution at all. Hosting a dynamic, database-driven website with full email capabilities requires more horsepower and robustness than a single server can handle. Hosting on one server alone means that the one server has to handle DNS, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Spam Filtering, HTTP, FTP and SQL combined! That means that if any one of these services gets over-worked, then all other ones suffer. That's why at MVI Hosting, our shared hosting accounts are housed on a multi-server system to provide the best possible speeds and reliability. MVI Hosting has come up with a server infrastructure which allows for maximum reliability while still being affordable. Below is a diagram of our server infrastructure.
The first thing to note about our server infrastructure is that we have a fail-over High-Availability Cluster (HA Cluster) to serve our clients' web pages. This means that there is a dedicated connection between the primary and backup web servers which is used to send a pulse of data, or heartbeat, between the two systems so that they are aware of each other's state at all times. The servers also synchronize all website files real-time throughout the day so that at any given moment, the backup server has the most recent files that have been added to the primary server. If the backup server detects that the primary server is down by lack of heartbeat, it then proceeds to do an IP takeover and assume the primary server's role. This happens so fast that in the event of a failure with the primary server, it is almost impossible to tell that anything is wrong. Of course we know right away and can get the issue resolved and get you back up on the primary server without you having experienced any down time whatsoever. This is something that cannot possibly be accounted for in a cheaper, single-server solution.
A database query can be one of the most intensive operations that a server can do. That's why we have a beefed-up, dedicated database server. This ensures that all of your dynamic website's database accesses are handled as quickly and securely as possible. As you can see from the diagram, our database server is not connected to the internet in any way. In fact, the only machines allowed to access the database server are our primary and backup web servers. This keeps your sensitive data contained in a local, closed-circuit network. Basically, this means that if a hacker were to try to gain access to the database server, they would have to hack their way through one of the web servers to gain access. This adds an incredible layer of security to all of your mission-critical data. |