CHICAGO, Oct. 28, 2009 — Chicago-based dedicated and complex hosting provider SingleHop today announced a partnership with Ksplice, a leading enterprise security software firm and the producer of the powerful Uptrack software, which allows for the installation of critical security patches without having to restart – a key capability for the protection against security breaches and an essential tool for a web host like SingleHop.
Ksplice's cutting-edge technology is analogous to being able to replace key engine components on a war-tank during a battle, and doing so without having to stop the tank from moving. According to Andrew Brooks, SingleHop's Lead Security Engineer, "Uptrack allows for a hot-bootable kernel update by using what the software developer refers to as pre-post differencing. Pre-post differencing is used to generate the object code that is used for the hot update and serves as the replacement code." Brooks emphasized the safety and stability of the software when he noted that "halting the CPU for a millisecond is necessary for the update procedure and Ksplice does it safely, accurately, and with safeguards for possible errors. The halting procedure operates on the principle that any threads currently existing on the kernel stack do not contain a return address that point back to that function's text in memory. The safety condition is checked using the kernel's stop_machine facility. If the safety check fails multiple times, the update is not applied and the failure is reported".
SingleHop is the first web host to provide rebootless kernel updates with Ksplice's software and is offering the service for free to all customers running Linux who currently subscribe to the web host's "Kernel & OS Shield" update service and $25.00 per month for all other interested customers. Waseem Daher, COO and Co-Founder of Ksplice, welcomed the partnership by stating that "SingleHop's customers have the distinct advantage that they're with a company that clearly knows how to take advantage of new technologies to improve quality of service. With most hosting companies, you need to choose between security and availability, and while everyone agrees that applying security updates is critical, most web hosts simply can't keep your systems secure without frequently rebooting, disrupting all running applications and causing downtime. Now with Ksplice, SingleHop customers can get top security without the disruption and downtime of frequent reboots."
About SingleHop, Inc.
SingleHop, Inc. is a full-service, managed hosting provider that was founded on the principle of providing reliable, cost-effective, dedicated services. The company was founded by Zak Boca and Dan Ushman in 2006 and currently hosts several thousand websites from around the world. SingleHop competitors include: SoftLayer, ThePlanet, FastServers, and RackSpace. The cornerstone of SingleHop's managed hosting is the a la Carte Server Management Program, which is a full array of transparent management services designed and tested to allow business customers to tailor their level of support to their needs or expertise. http://www.singlehop.com
About Ksplice
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ksplice is an enterprise software company offering to make systems more secure, reliable and maintainable through seamless updates. Organizations use Ksplice Uptrack, Ksplice's first product, to keep their Linux systems up-to-date and secure without incurring the disruption and downtime of rebooting. For more information on Ksplice, see http://www.ksplice.com/
Contact information:
Daniel Salcedo
VP of Communications
Email
312 447 2581
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