You may have noticed we weren’t available in late August. And again in early September. Here’s why.
On August 17th, the SperrySoftware.com web servers were migrated from our old hosting provider (Intermedia.net) to their selected replacement, Hostway.com. Intermedia decided to exit the web hosting business. The new web hosting provider was not up to the task, and we had a feeling that they were overwhelmed based on the fact that simple requests were taking several days, and that we were part of “Batch 6”. The main problem was that WordPress (which Sperry Software uses) was not installed on our new server.
After several days of various other problems combined with slow response times, we decided that it would be best to find another web hosting provider. Enter Liquid Web. This organization has its act together and the support is very top notch. We were able to get the site setup and functioning on a partial basis within a few days. A large part of the problems had been resolved when we were able to restore a backup using WPBackItUp‘s plugin, which was a life saver. Having the ability to restore our site back to near normal was essential to our operations. We also hired an expert from Codeable.io to help iron out issues with some of our custom WordPress plugins.
While we were in the process of getting everything back together, hurricane Irma hit the east coast of the United States. Because Sperry Software headquarters are located in Jacksonville, FL, we were without electricity for several days. This was actually a lesser impact than the web hosting issues, because the web server is located in another part of the US and was fine during the storm. The only issue was communication to customers, vendors, and employees. Nonetheless, a tip of our hats to Florida Power and Light for organizing the largest electrical restoration project in US history.
So in summary, we are recovering slowly but surely and we appreciate your patience as we get back to normal operations.