Updated Jul 2023
Rocketspark’s hosting: how we keep your data safe
Where are Rocketspark websites hosted? On some old computer crammed into someone’s closet, sandwiched between the shoe rack and the laundry pile??
Not quite. In fact, not even close. Since day one, we’ve made it a priority to get the best hosting solutions for our customers to ensure your data is as safe as houses. Here’s the scoop on Rocketspark’s web hosting…
Where is my website?
With all this talk of “the cloud” these days, you could be forgiven for thinking that the internet is some kind of ghostly vapour floating off in the ether. I mean, where is a website exactly?
The web is actually much more earthbound than the airy-fairy language might suggest. A website is hosted (read: located) on—surprise, surprise—a computer, a specialised computer called a server. And since a server, like all computers, is an actual tangible object, an amalgam of plastic and metal, it’s susceptible to the same threats faced by most physical objects: fire, flooding and human tampering.
That’s why we’ve always sought out premium server facilities (data centres) engineered to ensure the total safety and security of your website data using superior systems called virtual private servers (VPS). Data centres have hundreds of connected computers. Instead of housing all your precious website data on just one physical computer, your data is much more spread out—and, therefore, so is your risk. Plus, your network “uptime” is much better (pretty much 100% with our data centres) and you can easily expand as your data needs grow.
Our data centres: miltary-grade bomb shelters for your data
We use the services of two data centres: Pax8 in New Zealand, Rackspace in the UK and Australia and Amazon Web Services in the US. These are the data centres used by some of the big guys: Air NZ, BNZ, Vodafone, Xero and Domino’s Pizza (Rackspace, UK). Your Rocketspark site is hosted at one of these three locations. Both centres are protected by sophisticated, state-of-the-art security systems and facilities.
Pax8 (NZ)
Security: 24/7 on-site security
Surveillance: CCTV monitoring of facility
Access Restrictions: Swipe-card access only
Fire Protection: Early-warning smoke detectors
Environmental Protection: Industrial air-conditioning
Building: Concrete walls, floors and ceilings
Rackspace (UK & Australia)
Security: 24/7 on-site security
Surveillance: CCTV monitoring of facility
Access Restrictions: Keycard, biometric scanning, and badge protocols for access
Fire Protection: Advanced fire suppression system
Environmental Protection: Flood detection and HVAC air-conditioning
Building: Unmarked facilities for low profile
And that’s just the highlights. Both Web Drive and Rackspace have a ton of other security measures to ensure that your data is kept safe. It’d take a Mission: Impossible-esque heist to get in and do any damage—and even then it probably wouldn’t work.
Amazon Web Services (US)
Learn more about AWS security https://aws.amazon.com/security/
Rocketspark backups: an extra level of protection
Your data really matters to us because we know it really matters to you. That’s why we haven’t skimped on hosting and that’s also why we’ve got a rigorous backups and security system:
Only a select few are authorised to access our servers.
One month of daily database snapshots are kept and stored in multiple locations.
Seven days of daily images of our server on standby are kept, which we can revert back to quickly.
Daily and monthly snapshots of your website’s images and files, which means a quick recovery if you happen to lose your data.
Content changes to your site are recorded so that if you accidentally delete some important content, we can restore it for you.
All coding of your website is automatically stored in the cloud and changes to it are tracked so that we can revert back to an older version if needed.
Top hosting means top speeds
Data security is crucial, but one positive spinoff of getting the best hosting is that you also get the best speeds. Our data centres are connected directly to all the major internet providers and their lightning-quick network infrastructure, which means faster browsing of your website (which, in turn, means higher rankings in Google!). Plus, we make sure your site is hosted at the data centre geographically closest to you—NZ-based sites hosted in NZ, UK-based sites hosted in the UK, AU-based sites hosted in Australia—to keep things moving along like Speedy Gonzales. ¡Ándale!
