When we launched the third version of our site back in 2009 I posted how it took 3 years and all the trials and tribulations that went with it. It looks like I managed to get this process down to just 2 years this time around (ouch). Originally I had allocated this job to a staff member who promised big things but in the end I was let ultimately down and realised that if I wanted to get this done I would need to do it myself. I was so jaded by my last experience that I clung to the belief that this staff member would deliver even though it became apparent that I was being led down the garden path. That’s the problem with Sales Managers – they spin a good yarn. :)
The new site keeps up with latest design trends and is fully bootstrapped for mobile device compatibility. This site should be a breeze to keep updated unlike our last site that had such a complicated backend I dreaded making adjustments and making any changes that in the end I just didn’t bother. That is just not a way to run a website that serves as your shopfront! If anyone is interested the designer is AKDesigner and the owner Ammar is awesome to work with and very patient. He has a bunch of talented designers and they are extremely reasonably priced.
AtomicVPS is officially moth-balled and all clients were transferred together with the support and billing system that we now use on HostNexus. This system is a big improvement and we can integrate just about anything with it. In this next week I’ll have all SSL certificates in there so clients will be able purchase, configure and install certificates with a few clicks. This AutoInstall technology is just fantastic. The server monitor is in there as well as a custom notification system so clients will only see issues relating to servers they have accounts on and these statuses also get mailed out automatically. Plus we can easily send out newsletters to all active clients. Over the next few months I’ll transfer over the billing for all HN clients so everything really will be in one place.
So this is the 4th site in 15 years and the progressions has looked like this:
The January 2003 version had this crazy flash intro as that was all the rage back then.
Anyhow, I’m looking forward to rolling out and introducing some interesting new features over the coming weeks so stay tuned for updates.