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I’m proud to share another in a series of guest posts written by Lijit employees. This week we present an installment from Mike, who seemed overly excited about writing and sharing this post.
Hi, I’m Mike Merideth, the Director of IT here at Lijit, and I’m going to talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts of how we do what we do. Over the past year I’ve had the opportunity to design and implement the production network and server infrastructure on which Lijit runs. It’s been a great year of challenges and breakthroughs, but if there’s one key architectural concept that has gotten Lijit to where it is today, it is virtualization. We use Xen for our virtualization technology, which has the advantage of being free Software (both in the “free beer” sense and the “free speech” sense). CentOS 5.1 (a Linux distribution which is based on the market leader RedHat) includes this functionality out of the box, and has performed very well for us.
So why does Lijit use virtualization? There are a number of good reasons:
Flexibility: When you’re launching a new web product, it can be hard to predict what pieces of the application will need more resources than you originally gave them, and which will need less. We’re able to change the amount of memory, the number of CPUs and the amount of disk space a server has quickly, easily and remotely.
Availability: Because we use an iSCSI SAN for most all of our storage, we can move virtual servers between pieces of physical hardware. So if we lose one of our physical servers, we can quickly bring up the virtual servers it hosted somewhere else.
Resource utilization: CPUs today are incredibly fast and powerful; far more so than most applications need. Similarly, RAM has become cheap enough that a server with 16 or even 32 gigabytes of RAM is not particularly unusual, or particularly expensive. Running a simple web server on such a system would be a waste of CPU and memory, and therefore a waste of electricity. If you can run several virtual servers on such a system, however, you can get the maximum return on your investment by making sure you’re fully utilizing all of the CPUs and all of the RAM. Which is all tied to…
Cost savings: Colocation is expensive, and electricity certainly isn’t getting any cheaper. Using virtualization means we can get the absolute greatest value out of the rack space and electricity we’re paying for.
As of right now, we’re running about 200 virtual servers on about 25 physical servers. Just a few years ago we would have needed scores of physical servers consuming thousands and thousands of watts of power to do the work we’re able to do in this relatively modest environment. For a startup that would mean a higher burn rate with a shorter runway, and greater stock dilution for the founding stakeholders because of the amount of capital needed to get the work done. If you’re trying to get a tech startup off the ground, you owe it to yourself to see if you can leverage virtualization in your IT architecture. You’d really be crazy not too.
If you managed to read this post without your eyes glazing over, you may be interested in my new Linux infrastructure blog at http://linfrastructure.blogspot.com. I’m keeping notes on my experiences there, in the hopes that what I’ve learned over the past year can benefit others who find themselves in the same boat.
Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews
Tags: guest post, IT, Mike Meredith, virtualization | View Comments
Chicago. The Windy City.
I was under the impression that the nickname came from the weather, but according to Wikipedia, it may also come from the fact that politics is a sport in Chicago, and that there are a large number of windbag politicians that reside there.
So, I am going to join the windbags and speak at the TechCocktail CONFERENCE:
May 29, 2008 – 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST
Kasbeer Hall – Loyola University
Water Tower Campus
25 E. Pearson Street
Chicago, Illinois 60611
My topic? “SEO Has Grown Up: My Quest to be The #1 Douchebag on Google.”
I plan to discuss how SEO has moved past the standard blocking and tackling of on-page content, clean code and relevant links. Personal or corporate brand has become so interwoven into online reputation, that companies can no longer avoid branding as part of an SEO strategy.
Interesting? I hope so. Interested? Register here.
And, hopefully, I wont be adding to Chicago’s nickname much. (Although how cool would it be to say you saw a douchebag be a total windbag in the Windy City?)
Tags: micah, speaking, techcocktail, techconference | View Comments
Often, when I tell people my profession is “Business Development” the response I get is “Sweet! You must get to travel a lot. How much fun!”
Yeah right.
Don’t get me wrong, the best part of my job is the people and you run out of people if all you ever do is deal with the people in your neighborhood (Thats kinda anti-Mr. Rodgers isnt it?). So travel is a large part of the gig.
Last week, I headed out to DC for meetings and TechCocktail. Since meeting people in a one-on-one situation is preferable, Lijit sponsored a “Hangover Breakfast” the next morning for a small group of people.
At the end of the trip, when I was sitting at Reagan National Airport, I recorded a quick video about the trip:
To recap: I left Denver at 6pm, landed in DC at 10pm, was in my hotel by 11:00pm. Woke up and had a series of meetings starting at 9am (9am, 10:30am, noon, 2pm). TechCocktail started at 6:30pm. I was back in my hotel by 1am. I woke up at 6am, went to our breakfast at 9am until noon, when I jumped in a cab and headed to the airport, where I recorded this video. Back at my house in Boulder by 5pm.
Total time in DC: ~40 hours. 4 meetings and 2 events. Not bad, and certainly not out of the ordinary.
Want to work in Business Development? Learn to love airports.
Tags: business development, micah, techcocktail, travel | View Comments
With growth comes the need for more people in order to get more done. We have been feeling the growing pains and have gone through a bit of a hiring streak as of late. Our little startup is definitely getting bigger. While our office is almost at capacity, it only means I have even more people to profile. Today’s victim recipient of this honor is Bill.
Bill is one of those guys that you immediately feel comfortable around. I’m not sure if it’s his easy smile, laid back demeanor or quick wit, but this guy fits in wonderfully around here. I asked him a couple of questions and he was kind enough to provide me with some answers.
1. What is your Lijit contribution?
I’m a software developer-I help build the software that powers Lijit. Currently, I’m working on the search engine side, but in the future I expect to work on all components-search engine, website and adserver.
2. What is your least favorite sound and why?
The theme to ‘Law & Order’ (sheer repetition). Or, the sound of the woodpecker that is currently attacking my house.
3. What turns you on (emotionally, spiritually or creatively) and why?
I really like building things: bicycles, software systems, whatever. When I get to that point where it almost works, I get obsessive about it and have trouble sleeping til it’s done.
4. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt and why?
Bike shop owner or record store owner. I’d love to spend every day playing with my favorite toys (bikes, records) and hanging out with people that share the same interests.
5. Something you’re guilty of…
I still love Devo.
[Interesting side note: Bill and Charlie both hate 'Law & Order' and when he does open his bike shop, Bill can hire Charlie to work as a mechanic.]
It’s obvious that Bill has what it takes to hang with our company. I mean, anyone who can juggle like this…
has got to be good. We’re glad to have Bill around even though there have been a few times when he’s walked in to the office wearing his bike “tights”.
