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Ksplice Uptrack is available

From:  Keith Winstein <keithw-AT-ksplice.com>
To:  Keith Winstein <keithw-AT-ksplice.com>
Subject:  Ksplice Uptrack general availability
Date:  Tue, 9 Feb 2010 11:01:08 -0500
Message-ID:  <d0314f4e1002090801v6d16d693pc1973472ddfeb4e1@mail.gmail.com>

Folks,

Wanted to make sure you were aware of the Ksplice Uptrack general
availability today -- eliminating the need to reboot Linux servers
once a month to apply security updates. The service is based on new
technology out of MIT that lets the Linux kernel be updated live,
without restarting or disrupting running applications. On the coolness
scale, this is like changing out a car's engine while speeding down
the highway.

Companies like DreamHost, Media Temple and HostGator tell us this is a
big boost, and we're proud to provide the service more broadly.
Attached is our press release we put out this morning. I'd be pleased
to put you in touch with Waseem Daher, our COO, or some of our early
adopter customers. More info is at www.ksplice.com.

Best regards,
Keith Winstein

Business Development
Ksplice, Inc.
48 Pearl St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

main: 765-577-5423
cell: 617-388-2138

====

Ksplice Abolishes the Reboot

* New Ksplice Uptrack service allows system
administrators to update Linux servers without the disruption
and downtime of a reboot



Cambridge, Mass., February 9, 2010 ? Ksplice Inc. today
announced the general availability of its Uptrack service, eliminating
the need to restart Linux servers when installing crucial updates and
security patches.


Based on technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Ksplice Uptrack is a subscription service that allows IT
administrators to keep Linux servers up-to-date without the disruption
and downtime of rebooting.


Before Uptrack, system administrators had to schedule downtime in
advance to bring Linux servers up-to-date, because updating the
central part of a computer's software ? known as the kernel
? previously required rebooting the computer. Until a system can
be updated, it remains vulnerable to security flaws. By allowing IT
administrators to install kernel updates without downtime, Uptrack
dramatically reduces the cost of system administration.


"We've been thrilled with how Ksplice makes us more secure and
available while saving us time and hassle," said Dallas Kashuba, the
co-founder and chief technical officer of DreamHost, an early adopter
of Ksplice Uptrack. "Using Ksplice has improved our response time to
critical kernel exploits from a few days to only minutes," Mr. Kashuba
said.


Ksplice Uptrack is now available for users of six leading versions of
Linux: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian GNU/Linux, CentOS,
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, and OpenVZ. The subscription fee
starts at $3.95 per month per system, after a 30-day free trial. A
free version is also available for Ubuntu.


In 2009, major Linux vendors asked customers to install a kernel
update roughly once each month. Before Uptrack, each such update
required a reboot.


"Why reboot if you don't have to? Reboots are disruptive and require
costly supervision," said Jeff Arnold, Ksplice's chief executive
officer. "Now system administrators can keep their systems up to date
without coordinating outages, and they don't need to come in Sunday at
2 a.m. to take everything down. They can avoid the biggest headache of
server maintenance, with better availability and a smaller window of
vulnerability than ever before."


More than 40 leading Web hosting and IT infrastructure companies have
deployed Ksplice Uptrack as early adopters of the service, which has
successfully saved tens of thousands of reboots to date.


"Like other hosting providers, we've needed this capability for a long
time, but we didn't think that it was possible to apply these updates
without a reboot until we saw Ksplice in action," said Joshua Barratt,
chief technical officer of Media Temple, an early adopter of Ksplice
Uptrack. "This is an exciting change in how we run our systems."


"Ksplice is superb," said David Collins, chief technical officer of
HostGator, an early adopter of Ksplice Uptrack. "It reduces one of the
biggest costs associated with any server ? system administrator
maintenance time ? and helps us improve the quality of service we can
provide to our customers," Mr. Collins said.


About Ksplice: Ksplice is an enterprise software company making
reboots a thing of the past. Organizations use Ksplice Uptrack, the
company's first product, to make their Linux systems more secure,
reliable and maintainable through seamless updates. Ksplice was
founded in 2008, based on research from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. In 2009, the Wall Street Journal named Ksplice the most
innovative security company of the year. Ksplice is based in
Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit
http://www.ksplice.com.


Media Contact:



    Keith Winstein

    765-577-5423 (office)

    617-388-2138 (mobile)

    keithw@ksplice.com (email)

    Ksplice, Inc.



Ksplice and Uptrack are registered trademarks of Ksplice, Inc.




to post comments

Ksplice Uptrack is available

Posted Feb 13, 2010 17:02 UTC (Sat) by Oddscurity (guest, #46851) [Link]

It sounds more like changing the sparkplugs when racing down the highway, rather than the whole of the engine. Impressive nonetheless.

Does anyone know how the kernel devs feel about this technology?


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