We are uber-happy to announce the 2010 UI RimuHosting website refresh.  And it is not all merely fresh fonts, headers, footers and colors.  We have a new ordering system to make it quicker and easier to get a new server up and running.  Simplified navigation.  A new domain.  And setup-as-part-of-the-order-process.

launchtimevps.com domain: First up there is a new (and possibly temporary) domain name: launchtimevps.com domain.  The rimuhosting.com keeps the old UI for a bit while we continue testing all the functionality on the new UI.

Both sites are  running on the same server and are pointing at the same database.

So you’re able to log in to either of them.  And use either of them (interchangeably).  And all the regular RimuHosting links and pages we tried worked fine.

(If you find a page that does not look or work right, then let us know so we can fix that functionality or css).

New VPS ordering system:  The launchtime UI comes with a brand new VPS ordering system (which we built here).  We have tried to make it as easy as possible to order new VPSs.

In our testing the time to place an order has gone from minutes to seconds for a registered user.

Now quicker and easier with AJAX: The order process is more ajax-y than the ‘old’ system.  This helps us reduce the number of pages you need to plow through.  And it can provide better real time validation and feedback on where you are at in the ordering process.

Sliders: Everyone likes sliders.  So we put them on the launchtime.ri.mu homepage.  Move ’em left and right.  Choose your memory, disk and data transfer.  And our AJAX minions will head back to the server and do a price check for you.  Figure out your pricing/memory/disk sweet spot.  (To the credit of the dev geeks here there was a robust debate about ‘why have sliders if you can just type in the number?’ but the UI glory devs triumphed in that debate.)

Infinity plan: We also introduce the ‘VPS infinity plan’.  You no longer need to choose a particular plan spec to order a VPS.  You simply choose how much memory, disk and data transfer you want.  Then optionally configure things like which data center you want to be in, which distro and control panel you prefer.  And we just figure out the pricing for you.   From 160MB of memory to 32GB.  From 4GB of disk to 48GB.  A choice of Dallas; Sydney; Brisbane or London data center.  You can select a VPS on a low-contention/semi-dedicated host; or if you have one of our dedicated-vps-hosts then you can choose the server to which you deploy the new VPS.

The great thing about our customers is that they run such a variety of different, interesting, complex (and sometimes funky) setups.  We are keen to provide flexible plans.  So you can choose the most appropriate resources and location for your server.  And so you do not need to pay for more resources than you are using.

Immediate setup: With the ‘old’ ordering system most customers waited a few minutes for our sysadmins to kick off the server install.  With the launchtime system the VPS setup can take place immediately after you hit the install button.  So you get to watch the server being installed directly after you hit the install button.  Of course, we remain more than happy to help out installing and configuring apps.  As always.

Simplified: Over the years you accumulate ‘stuff’.  We have many pages on RimuHosting: howtos; descriptions of data centers; vps info; notes about this and that; sales landing pages.  With launchtime we removed most links to those pages.  There is less clutter.  Over time as we find a link or page that people really did need, we can start adding them back in.  But for now, we have mercilessly pruned our related links and menu options.

Why launchtime.ri.mu? Well obviously ri.mu since who does not want a 4 letter domain?  Launchtime since I hope every developer out there has experienced that ‘launchtime’ moment.  When you have been planning, preparing and coding for weeks-and-weeks or months on your new site or app.  And your ‘baby’ is finally ready to ‘go live’.  Maybe its just a beta.  Maybe it is just so you can show it off to investors (or, more likely for most, mates).  And when it comes to launch time you will need a server.  And the team here at RimuHosting works day and night doing everything we can to help our customers get up and running (and staying up and running).  We get the greatest kick out of helping our customers deploy their sites and manage their servers.  And have had the satisfaction of seeing some really cool customers go from a tiny wee server with some beta code to hugely popular sites, often running on clusters of our heavy metal dedicated servers.

So when your app or site is ready for launchtime, we would love to help take your server live.

Transitional notes/FAQ:

• Use rimuhosting.com (for now) if you need to order a dedicated server (launchtime is focused on VPSs).
• launchtime went on a crash diet to shed links and pages that most people mostly do not use when ordering a VPS or accessing their RimuHosting control panel.  So for now if you cannot see what you need, skip over and get it on rimuhosting.com.  e.g. our ever-popular howtos.
• Just for right now we have not made any plan changes.  That is next on my to-do list.  We are hoping to give a good boost to the amount of memory we are offering, at least.  If you order now then no-fear.  The resource change page will let you automatically upgrade to whatever improvement in VPS resource allocations we make.  So you will not miss out.

For the nostalgic amongst you here are some of RimuHosting’s facelists over the years.

First up, this early version from 2003:

A couple of refreshes gets us to our 2006 homepage:

And of course we have the full-RimuHosting-brown design from 2008:

And now the we have the 2010 UI refresh:

That’s our news.  We would love to hear about any issues you spot with the new site.  Or any improvements you would like to see.  And we will see how fast we can help out.