Improve Backups with S3

Improve Backups with S3

Perhaps the most important aspect of any system is the backup strategy. All sysadmins would agree that without good backups, it’s hard to sleep at night. Over the years, we have used many different backup strategies at Sourcetoad. My current favorite one is...
When to use Monotonic Time

When to use Monotonic Time

When writing about time and software development, most people think of time zones. This Youtube video does a pretty good job of explaining why time zones can become such a nightmare for developers. Recently, I stumbled upon a whole different issue with time and...
The Economics of Efficiency

The Economics of Efficiency

Sourcetoad develops many different types of applications for many different types of customers. Many of our projects are never intended to be used by vast numbers of users. They are either specialized tools to assist in business functions for clients or are focused on...
The True Cost of AWS: Part 2

The True Cost of AWS: Part 2

Part one of this article discussed the downfalls of running a “VPS-style” site on a single AWS instance. It is strongly discouraged for any production site, by everyone familiar with AWS, including AWS itself. So, the question then arises as to how one is supposed to...
The True Cost of AWS Hosting: Part 1

The True Cost of AWS Hosting: Part 1

As we always like to tell our clients, Sourcetoad is not a devops company. That isn’t our core competency. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t know about devops and provide devops as ancillary services to some of our clients. We just don’t provide it as a main...