We'll begin then, if you please, by discussing storage:

- our initial storage architecture was based on RAID 6 SATA hard disks. This has been upgraded to RAID 60 on SAS disks. Since everyone prefers hearing about performance rather than norms and acronyms, know that our disks' access time has been divided by 3! This in itself is wonderful, but in addition to this you will also experience a far better quality of service.

And the network?

- As we preferred the color of the diodes on the Cisco switches better, we replaced all of our old switches by those made by this well-known brand. Actually, it was not just for looks that we did this, and the experts among you will know the truth. Those would be some expensive diodes! ;)
- We have also installed a second data center which is nearly finished, and which will really allow us to go crazy with redundancy, backups, fail-overs etc... more about this in due time.

All this is just wonderful: a hosting platform that has offered an excellent level of service for over 9 months now, including a massive upgrade three months ago (correct me if I am wrong, dear Beta-Testers). And all of this as part of the beta! (even though not all of our customers have migrated to the famous new storage architecture! This will be done in the coming weeks, when the new customers, the non-beta testers if you will, will be comfortably installed directly on the SAS disks).

Wait! Stop throwing the tomatoes at me! Let me finish! This is the part where I mention money :)

All the recent changes and improvements in our network have obviously been at a cost. And since you, dear customer, have stopped being naive a long time ago, believing that you can give away a domain name just for fun or sell high-quality hosting for a buck without any trouble in the world, you are quite naturally going to ask me how much a Gandi hosting share will be once we are in the final version of our hosting service. The truth is that service and reliability have a cost.

Don't worry - I'm not going to dwell on this topic. I know what it's like to skim over a text, looking for an answer among the many lines; your eyes involuntarily jump around the page, in the hope of catching a number somewhere, the one you are looking for...

Yes, I know that I am playing with you here. So I have written the magic number in letters, so that it discretely blends into the surrounding text, so that you have to read everything. Enough said - I hereby announce the price excluding VAT of sixteen dollars (twelve euros, or nine pounds fifty depending on your currency) per month. Well, there you have it! Sixteen dollars excluding VAT for a share as you have come to know and love it with all its flexible options, while simultaneously being beefed up by SAS and thus having all its resources improved overall.

And if I constantly stress the flexible aspect that you are already familiar with, it is because we have also created a special offer for a new type of share that is part of the same technology, but without the flexibility in both time and price: an "annual share". Annual shares are purchased for a contractual period of one year, but are only fourteen dollars (ten euros or eight pounds) excluding VAT per month. An annual share is therefore purchased for an entire year for fourteen dollars a month, or one hundred sixty-eight dollars per year. Think of this share as the first one that you purchase in order to keep your cost to a minimum, and play with adding more or less shares depending on your needs.

The cherry on top is for the beta testers. In order to thank you for your confidence, your trust, and also your patience at the beginning (here I am thinking about the famous filer 13 incident), we are going to keep giving you Beta rates until the end of the year. I nonetheless must mention that the annual share, (the one that is fixed for twelve months), is not covered by this reduction - there have to be some limits! ;)

Of course there will be some that will be unhappy with the rates. Those that honestly thought that our rates could remain at six euros per share forever... Realistically however Gandi has had to make major investments to offer a level of service that is worthy of its name in both technology and level of service, and these investments have had a direct impact on the price of a share.

We honestly believe that we are providing a high-quality service at a price that is within the reach of the public. The future will show you that you made the right decision to give us your trust; we are sure of this. And are working hard to make it come true. We have also kept in mind those of you who do not necessarily need all the power of these resources to launch your project. But require just a little bit of power. We will soon start to talk about an offer that we have been working on that is specifically designed for those of you that fit this description: a way to create a professional-quality website in the blink of an eye.

Innovation, my friends, innovation :)

PS (Stephan): So that our enthusiasm is not seen as simple arrogance, I feel the need to stress that we are doing our utmost to deliver the best quality of service, but that nobody is perfect. We may have the best machines in the universe, white rooms with millions of square feet at our disposal, pipelines capable of absorbing everything that moves etc... but there is always room for improvement.

You can, however, be sure of two things:

- that our infrastructure and technology can respond to meet the varied hosting needs of the general public

- that we are and will be doing everything, no matter what the circumstances may be, to serve you as best we can.