Upgrades and new service models on the way

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Summer has arrived! We have a bunch of news to share, so let's get straight to it.

New full-time person
In the past, we've done our very best to support our users, but we haven't been able to guarantee assistance because we're spread pretty thin. That's changing. We have a new, full-time person starting June 1, and she will be providing support as well as programming.

Upgrade (and new trial registrations) coming soon
The major system upgrade we mentioned in our last post is slated for the week of June 6. There will probably be a few rough days while we work out the kinks. We expect to enable new trial registrations by June 20. This upgrade will allow us to start pushing out a lot of requested features. Which brings me to...

New service models: additional regional and private servers
Most libraries have been happy to run on the shared Libraryh3lp server, physically located in Virginia and running on the Amazon EC2. But we have been receiving increasing numbers of requests from libraries wanting their own servers, or preferring to run on a server physically located someplace else.

A key element in our upgrade is easier management of multiple servers, and so we're going to be able to accommodate these requests.

Shared regional servers

• What we mean by "shared server:" This is how Libraryh3lp operates now. You manage your own users and queues, and all of your data is private, but you are physically running on the same hardware as many other libraries. User and queue names have to be unique across the whole server; if another library has already taken the queue name "reference," you'll have to get a little bit creative ("uax_reference"). Hosting many libraries on the same hardware keeps costs down.
  

• In addition to the current shared server in the US, we'll bring up new shared regional servers in Ireland (Amazon EC2), Singapore (Amazon EC2), and Canada. These new servers will improve performance and reduce latency for non-US libraries.

• No change in subscription fee for any of the shared servers.

• We will move existing customers to a new regional server for free up through July 31, 2011. After that, there will be a one-time fee of $100 to move since we will have to resolve conflicts with existing user and queue names. Please let us know ASAP if you know you're going to want to move to one of the new shared regional servers. (If you move, you will have to change your own web pages and update XMPP clients with the new server name.)
  

Private servers

• What we mean by "private server:" You, or a group of libraries such as a consortium or a collaborative state-wide system, are the only ones running on a private server instance. It means you will not have to compete for the best queue names or usernames. Private servers also provide better fault isolation.
  

• We can work with you on the domain name so that it is something like "help.yourlibrary.edu."

• No activation fee. Moving from a shared server to a private server at any time is free.
  

• Cost is dependent on location of server. For private servers in the US, we will physically locate the server as close to you as we can. Price for US private servers will be $100/month plus whatever the population-based subscription would ordinarily cost.

• We do not yet have a pricing model for non-US private servers, but please contact us if you are interested and we will work it out for you.

• SSL certificates (for HTTPS): Self-signed certs, or certs purchased by your own institution, will be installed for free. If we obtain an SSL cert for you, there will be a fee of $200/yr.

• Sorry, but we will not install the system on your own hardware.
  

Whew! I think that about sums it up for now. If you need to contact us about any of this, please email support@nubgames.com. All prices above are in US dollars.