Platform Infrastructure

I’ve created and managed many of the platform solutions that are used distribute my virtual businesses worldwide. While my companies are not structured as the size of and Amazon or Facebook, my company’s platform starts off with the same window-a great domain name address. After a visitor enters an address like Nashville.com or searches for our business the link to my infrastructure has changed over the years. I believe in employing the least expensive necessities for the best return. Once a better solution is needed, than it makes sense to quickly upgrade to the demand. Many businesses have failed because of not having the best solutions when they are paying for something they don’t need at that moment.

I started out using the intranet in 1986 while using a service called Prodigy. As the commercial internet came online in the early 90s, I placed PalmSprings.com on a virtual host. The internet was small and slow. I wanted to define my GeoDomain and went about learning HTML. I paid $50 a month to place PalmSprings.com on a server with many other websites. I remember one of the other domain names on the host computer was Film.com. There were doing more traffic at that time then I was but the pages I created for Palm Springs were doing great traffic.

That traffic over time was converted to income when my brother David became my business partner in 1997. We decided to expand our business by creating my websites like Acapulco.com, WestPalmBeach.com and several other domain names. in 1997 the internet was starting to explode. We decided to move our virtual businesses to the AT&T NOC in Irvine California. That was one of the main hubs for data transmission within the US. We purchased computers and built our hardware from the ground floor up. The NOC was a fortress. It was something that look like it came from the movie The Matrix. It was highly secured with hand scanners and guards and highly secure entryways. It was becoming obvious that the internet was becoming huge on many scales.

I learned a lot about being a “webmaster”. I could build a computer server from the ground up. Install the platform like UNIX and add the services I needed to connect that server to the internet. It was time and cost intensive. I compare it to building a home from the ground up. Once you do you, it will change your life forever. Now, I could build any virtual universe I could imagine.

My brother and I became leaders in the domain name development industry. Yes, there is such a thing-those that want to define a word or address and create a vision that will bring visitors and an income. Many are not the corporate types but more like artists and visionaries. With this kind of knowledge, one feels free to use their imagination. Those thought become platforms. Its like having a dream and letting others take part in it.

There came the time that, as a small company, it would make more sense to move out platform to a managed hosting solution. That way another company that computers at at a data center can manage the hardware but we can lease thire servers in order to spend more time managing the software and websites. This solution is working out very well. If I don’t like the hardware of company that I lease from, I can simply move my intellectual property and websites to another provider. I am not burdened by aging hardware and the physical upkeep of the hardware.

Everything now can be managed from my smartphone although I still prefer my big screen desktop. When virtual reality helmets or glasses take hold, that would be the freedom that everyone will gravitate to.