Some insight and clarification on ending legacy infrastructure

We’re writing this post to clarify and offer insight into our decision to shut down some legacy infrastructure products.

Please note - Any infrastructure managed at my.joyent.com is not impacted.

When the old infrastructure is turned off, it will affect the following: Shared hosting, any machine that was referred to as an Accelerator, or any machine managed through my.joyent.com.

To help clarify, if you are on a Named server (e.g. Pendrell, One, Alexander, Pine, etc.), then that is a Shared hosting account. These originated from TextDrive and it will be managed again by TextDrive. Joyent will not shut off your Shared hosting machines until the TextDrive migration is complete.

If you have a server that has an 8-character scrambled alphanumeric name (e.g. zuilmnab.joyent.us), and you access that server through my.joyent.com, that server will be turned off at the end of October 31, 2012.

If you have a no.de development environment, this service will also be shut down at the end of October 31, 2012.

We fully recognize that the business decision to end these products has greatly inconvenienced some of our most dedicated customers. We didn’t take this decision lightly; our customers are a community, and some of them are even Joyent employees. “Making the decision to discontinue the service was extremely difficult,” said Jason Hoffman, Co-Founder of TextDrive, and Co-Founder of Joyent. “It was driven by some simple things: the hardware is simply old (6-8 years old), it’s failing, there isn’t an upgrade path from it... and I can’t make the argument as to why it can continue”.

Despite these real but unfortunate limitations of the product, we know that many of you are upset by this decision. We have heard your tweets and comments on message boards, and as a company who truly values its customers, we’re empathetic to your frustrations. This migration period is difficult for all of us. We appreciate those that have been able to look past the frustrations to see the new product is better, and we believe that everyone who migrates to the new environment will benefit greatly from the new infrastructure.

Lastly, please share this with anyone you know who is using or has used the affected products, especially those who may not be connected on twitter and the like. Over the last 3 months, we have made multiple attempts to call and email all of our affected customers, but some of the emails have bounced. Phone numbers have been disconnected and some people didn’t even sign up with real names or contact information. Communication has been complicated, making it confusing for you, and we truly apologize for that. The most we can hope for is that through the communication efforts we’ve made and the community’s assistance in communication, people will not be surprised when the servers are turned off. Thank you for your assistance with this, and your patience with us.

If you need help or have questions, please see the FAQ or contact support@joyent.com



Post written by Joyent