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WordPress News

Site-Building Made Simple: Introducing the Public Pattern Library 

When it comes to website-building, WordPress themes set your site up for success by providing stylish, preselected options for fonts, colors, and layouts. Even though themes provide the overall aesthetic, you still need to build out the posts, pages, and templates on your site. That’s where block patterns come in!

The WordPress.com Pattern Library is your new go-to resource for finding any kind of pattern for your beautiful WordPress website. With hundreds of pre-built patterns to choose from across over a dozen categories, you’ll be covered no matter your website’s specific needs. 

What are patterns?

Block patterns are collections of blocks made to work seamlessly with our modern themes. Need an “About” page? Check. A gallery? Check. A testimonial? Check. How about a newsletter? Check. We have just about anything you’ll need. 

Best of all: for each pattern, the fonts, colors, and spacing will adapt to your theme’s settings, making for a cohesive look. Still, patterns aren’t locked or static either—after you’ve added the pattern to your post, page, or template, you can tweak it however you like. 

A tour of the Pattern Library 

This new public Pattern Library allows you to browse, preview, and easily share or implement whichever design speaks your tastes. Let’s take a look around. 

Browse all categories 

If you want to explore the Pattern Library and don’t have anything in particular that you’re looking for, click through each category to spark some ideas. 

Search for what you need 

At the top, you’ll find a fast and easy-to-use search box, allowing you to find exactly what you need. This is a great option if you don’t feel like browsing and want to jump right into a solution for your specific needs. 

Explore page layouts 

Sometimes you just need the components of a post, page, or template: a header, a “Subscribe” box, a store module, etc. Other times, you want to be able to copy and paste an entire page into existence. Scroll down past the categories and you’ll find our full-page patterns for whole pages: About, Blog, Contact, Store, and more. 

Test the mobile responsiveness for each pattern

When looking through the library on a desktop or laptop device, you’ll see a gray vertical bar next to each pattern. That’s a nifty little slider that we’ve built into the library which allows you to see how each pattern responds to different screen sizes. Using your cursor to move the bar to the left, you’ll see what that design looks like on a mobile device; in the middle is where most tablets fall; and scroll back all the way to the right for the desktop/laptop version. 

Copy and paste to your website 

Like what you see? Simply click the blue “Copy pattern” button, open the WordPress.com editor to the post, page, or template you’re working on, and paste the design. It’s that easy. Once inserted, you can customize each block as needed using the right sidebar. 

Your new favorite page-building tool

The Pattern Library is especially useful if you build websites for clients. Each pattern is built to work with any theme that follows our technical standards, speeding up page-building not just for you but also for your clients—all while maintaining the overall style of your theme. 

In concrete terms, this means that our patterns take font, color, and spacing settings from the theme itself rather than using standard presets. This makes it far less likely for a site to break (or just look off) when you—or a client—experiment and make updates. 

Our goal is always to make your life both easier and more beautiful. This new resource does just that. Check out the WordPress.com Pattern Library today to enhance your website-building experience! 

WordPress News

10 WordPress Influencers to Follow in 2024  

Top WordPress Influencers

In this “Build and Beyond” video, Jamie Marsland highlights 10 WordPressers to keep an eye on in 2024. 

A couple of weeks ago, we shared a list of 15 WordPress developers you should follow to stay on top of WordPress development news and tips. This video broadens the scope and features folks worth following, regardless of your role or experience with WordPress. If you’re at all interested in or curious about WordPress, these are folks to pay attention to.

Interested in a free trial that allows you to test our all that WordPress.com has to offer? Click below:

Remkus de Vries

Remkus is a well-known figure in the WordPress community, recognized for his contributions to WordPress development and his overall expertise in web technology.

Website | YouTube

Kevin Geary

Kevin helps digital agency owners, freelancers, and web designers to learn best practices for UX/UI design, development, and CSS.

Website | YouTube

Tyler Moore

Tyler has free video lessons on YouTube that teach people how to create their own professional website without any coding experience.

Website | YouTube

Sabrina Zeidan

Sabrina is a WordPress performance engineer, who’s daily work is to speed up WordPress websites, plugins, and themes.

YouTube

Mike McAlister

Mike is a designer and principal software engineer from the USA. He builds killer products and brands that people love, including the fantastic Ollie WordPress theme.

Website | X (Twitter)

Jonathan Jernigan

Jonathan runs a small web development agency, creates courses, and makes YouTube videos. He started is WordPress-focused YouTube channel in late 2018.

Website | YouTube

Birgit Pauli-Haack

Birgit works as developer advocate for WordPress, curates community voices on Gutenberg Times, and co-hosts the Gutenberg Changelog podcast.

Website | X (Twitter)

David McCan

For the past 20 years David has worked professionally developing websites and in IT management.

Website | Facebook

Paul Charlton

Paul has over 15 years of commercial web design and development experience working on a large range of diverse projects, with clients ranging from start-ups to blue-chip companies.

Website | YouTube

Matt Medeiros

The WP Minute, founded by Matt, is a website dedicated to delivering the most important news and topics from the WordPress ecosystem, keeping WordPress professionals informed, educated, and entertained.

Website | Podcast

Imran Sadiq

Imran has 17+ years of web design and marketing experience. His YouTube channel has over 55k YouTube subscribers.

Website | YouTube

Rich Tabor

Rich describes himself as a multidisciplinary maker specializing in the intersection of product, design, and engineering.

Website | X (Twitter)

Jamie Marsland

Jamie has trained over 5,000 people on WordPress in the past 10 years, and he also makes WordPress plugins. His YouTube channel is dedicated to helping people with WordPress Blocks.

Website | YouTube

Joomla.org Announcements

Joomla 5.1.0 Release Candidate 2

The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the availability of Joomla 5.1 Release Candidate 2 for testing.

What is this release for?

There are two main goals for Release Candidates:

Providing developers with the basis to test their extensions and reporting any issues well before the final release
Allowing users to discover the new features introduced to Joomla 5.1.

For a complete list of known backward compatibility issues for version 5.1, please see Potential backward compatibility issues in Joomla 5.1 on the documentation site.

What is this release NOT for?

This release candidate version of Joomla 5.1 is not suitable for production sites. It is for testing only.

Where to get it?

Download Joomla 5.1 rc2

To always use the latest build of Joomla 5, we invite you to use the nightly build packages (updated every night).

To make it easier for newcomers, you can launch a free Joomla 5 website for testing at launch.joomla.org.

When is the final release due?

Joomla! 5.1 (general availability) will be released on or about 16th April 2024. The planned milestones are:

Alpha

28th November 2023 – done
26th December 2023 – done
23rd January 2024 – done
20th February 2024 – done

Beta (Feature Freeze)

5th March 2024 – done
19th March 2024 – done

Release Candidate (Language Freeze)

2nd April 2024 – done
9th April 2024 – this release

Stable Release

16th April 2024

Please note that dates may be subject to change depending on the availability of volunteers and circumstances beyond our control.

What’s new in Joomla 5.1 Release Candidate?

We are firmly committed to making the next generation of Joomla the best. These are the features that have been committed to version 5.1.

All changes from 4.4 and 5.0
Implement TUF updater (#42799)
Heavily improve dark mode (#42986)
Implement backend dark mode switch (#42221)
Implement a Welcome Tour (#41659)
SEO: Add trailing slash behaviour (#42702)
SEO: Improve URL behaviour with index.php (#42704)
Adding notice to global configuration for additional options in SEF plugin (#42832)
Update Jooa11y Accessibility Checker Plugin with latest Sa11y (#42780)
Improve Guided Tours with new features for required field handling and support for checkbox / radio / select lists as target (#40994)
Add regex validation for fields (#42657)
Add schema.org Generic type (#42699)
Add schema.org Article type (#42402)
Allow custom fields form be manipulates like category form (#42510)
Replace bootstrap modal with new dialog in backend for

Scheduler task “Run test” (#42746)
Extensions changelog (#42453)
Batch-Dialog in Redirect component (#42355)
Plugin editing (#42447)
Module editing (#42423)
Media editor button (#42288)
Category Modal (#42293)
Contact Modal (#42326)
Newsfeed Modal (#42327)
Batch Modal (#42328)
ContentHistory Modal (#42454)

Add main region and better support for modules in Cassiopeia error page (#42719)
Joomla Update: Improving error handling when writing files (#41096)
Update FontAwesome to 6.5.1 (#42721)
Update TinyMCE to 6.8.3 (#42930)
Strip attributes from images in HTML mails (#42448)
Change type of field “value” in table #_fields_values from text to mediumtext (#42606)
Add support for subcategory levels in contacts category view (#41618)
Add “New Article” button to blog view (#39506)
CLI Improvements

Add command to manage Joomla core update channels (#42597)
Renaming and improving output of core:update:check (#42594)
Improve output of Core Update command (#42601)
Update:extension:check command (#42844)
maintenance database update db structure (42568)

Module conversion to service provider

Mod_banners (#42214)
Mod_multilangstatus (#42845)
Mod_sampledata (#42866)
Mod_frontend (#42853)
Mod_user (#42852)
Mod_login (#42990)
Mod_toolbar (#42838)
Mod_loginsupport (#42827)
Mod_title (#42801)
Mod_stats (#42781)
Mod_wrapper (#42792)
Mod_version (#42814)
Mod_stats_admin (#42886)
Mod_syndicate (#42883)
Mod_custom (#42877)
Mod_messages (#42735)
Mod_feed (#42215)
Mod_tags_similar (#42898)
Mod_tags_popular (#42899)
Mod_latestactions (#42910)
Mod_languages (#42929)
Mod_post_installation_messages (#42987)

Add toolbar buttons in language installation toolbar to go directly to language management views (#42610)
Improve long description output for templates (#42651)
Add possibility to sort subform rows with buttons “up” and “down” (#42334)
Add rebuild button in Tags (#42586)
Improve uninstall of package children extension (#42607)
Improve webservices filter (#42519)
Improve webservice event classes (#42092)
Use generic icon for documents in media manager (#42527)
Rewrite com_associations in vanilla JS (#42771)
Implementing Event classes for PageCache events (#41965)
Fix actionlogs information emails containing HTML links (#40033)
Load plugin group when executing batch tasks (#39013)
Add Global Setting for Form Layout option to custom fields (#37320)
Add SVG support to mod_banners (#41854)
Several JS improvements (#42756, #42755, #42776, #42784)
Update Code style fixer (#42603)
Unit test for WebAsset (#42885)

As it’s a release candidate, we now have a language freeze. From now on, no pull Requests touching the language files will be merged unless absolutely necessary (e.g., by fixing a critical bug). We’re two weeks away from a stable release, so the task is now: test, test, test.

We will not include any other new features in the 5.1 branch from now on. But you’re welcome to propose enhancements and fixes for existing features.

What are the plans for Joomla 5.1?

To learn more about our development strategy, please read this article.

How can you help Joomla 5.1 development?

To help ensure the 5.1 release and our major features are “production-ready”, we need your help testing releases and reporting any bugs you may find at issues.joomla.org.

We encourage extension developers to roll up their sleeves, seek out bugs and test their extensions with Joomla 5.1 and communicate their experience.

Where can I find documentation about Joomla 5?

There are some tutorials to help you with Joomla 5. You can find the existing ones, like creating a Plugin or a Module for Joomla 5, namespaces conventions, prepared statements, using the new web asset classes and many more in https://docs.joomla.org/Category:Joomla!_5.x

We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 5 on docs.joomla.org and manual.joomla.org to help and guide users and other extension developers.

A JDocs page will help developers to see the existing documentation and the documentation still needed.

We invite you to check it regularly, update it and provide the missing content.

Related information

If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the extension developer channel https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/extension-development-room

Where you can join the community of extension developers.

Working with the Joomla Feature Tracker
General developer mailing list
Joomla developer network
Joomla and UI framework

A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the release!

WordPress Themes, WordPress News, WordPress Plugins

Streamlining Your Content Creation: Adding Images From Your Phone With Ease

The internet is rife with small annoyances, which often lead to breakthroughs in user experience. For example, needing to hit “refresh” or “next page” led to infinite scroll, which is now baked into our media consumption habits. 

Today, we’re excited to share a new feature in the desktop editor and Jetpack mobile app that eliminates one of those small annoyances and makes it a breeze to upload media to your WordPress posts and pages.   

While working in the editor on your laptop or desktop device, you can now seamlessly add photos directly from your phone. 

Here’s how to do it: 

Insert an “Image” or “Gallery” Block on your post/page. 

Click “Select Image”: From the dropdown menu, select “Your Phone.”

Use your phone to scan the QR code: This will automatically open the Jetpack app and then your photo library. 

Choose your image(s): From there, simply click the image or images you wish to add to your post/page.

Click “Add”: Watch your image(s) automagically appear in your desktop editor.

Check it out in action below:

We hope this will inspire you to snap even more photos and share them with the world. 

Joomla.org Announcements

Joomla 5.1.0 Release Candidate

The Joomla Project is pleased to announce the availability of Joomla 5.1 Release Candidate for testing.

What is this release for?

There are two main goals for Release Candidates:

Providing developers with the basis to test their extensions and reporting any issues well before the final release
Allowing users to discover the new features introduced to Joomla 5.1.

For a complete list of known backward compatibility issues for version 5.1, please see Potential backward compatibility issues in Joomla 5.1 on the documentation site.

What is this release NOT for?

This release candidate version of Joomla 5.1 is not suitable for production sites. It is for testing only.

Where to get it?

Download Joomla 5.1 rc1

To always use the latest build of Joomla 5, we invite you to use the nightly build packages (updated every night).

To make it easier for newcomers, you can launch a free Joomla 5 website for testing at launch.joomla.org.

When is the final release due?

Joomla! 5.1 (general availability) will be released on or about 16th April 2024. The planned milestones are:

Alpha

28th November 2023 – done
26th December 2023 – done
23rd January 2024 – done
20th February 2024 – done

Beta (Feature Freeze)

5th March 2024 – done
19th March 2024 – done

Release Candidate (Language Freeze)

2nd April 2024 – this release

Stable Release

16th April 2024

Please note that dates may be subject to change depending on the availability of volunteers and circumstances beyond our control.

What’s new in Joomla 5.1 Release Candidate?

We are firmly committed to making the next generation of Joomla the best. These are the features that have been committed to version 5.1.

All changes from 4.4 and 5.0
Implement TUF updater (#42799)
Heavily improve dark mode (#42986)
Implement backend dark mode switch (#42221)
Implement a Welcome Tour (#41659)
SEO: Add trailing slash behaviour (#42702)
SEO: Improve URL behaviour with index.php (#42704)
Adding notice to global configuration for additional options in SEF plugin (#42832)
Update Jooa11y Accessibility Checker Plugin with latest Sa11y (#42780)
Improve Guided Tours with new features for required field handling and support for checkbox / radio / select lists as target (#40994)
Add regex validation for fields (#42657)
Add schema.org Generic type (#42699)
Add schema.org Article type (#42402)
Allow custom fields form be manipulates like category form (#42510)
Replace bootstrap modal with new dialog in backend for

Scheduler task “Run test” (#42746)
Extensions changelog (#42453)
Batch-Dialog in Redirect component (#42355)
Plugin editing (#42447)
Module editing (#42423)
Media editor button (#42288)
Category Modal (#42293)
Contact Modal (#42326)
Newsfeed Modal (#42327)
Batch Modal (#42328)
ContentHistory Modal (#42454)

Add main region and better support for modules in Cassiopeia error page (#42719)
Joomla Update: Improving error handling when writing files (#41096)
Update FontAwesome to 6.5.1 (#42721)
Update TinyMCE to 6.8.3 (#42930)
Strip attributes from images in HTML mails (#42448)
Change type of field “value” in table #_fields_values from text to mediumtext (#42606)
Add support for subcategory levels in contacts category view (#41618)
Add “New Article” button to blog view (#39506)
CLI Improvements

Add command to manage Joomla core update channels (#42597)
Renaming and improving output of core:update:check (#42594)
Improve output of Core Update command (#42601)
Update:extension:check command (#42844)
maintenance database update db structure (42568)

Module conversion to service provider

Mod_banners (#42214)
Mod_multilangstatus (#42845)
Mod_sampledata (#42866)
Mod_frontend (#42853)
Mod_user (#42852)
Mod_login (#42990)
Mod_toolbar (#42838)
Mod_loginsupport (#42827)
Mod_title (#42801)
Mod_stats (#42781)
Mod_wrapper (#42792)
Mod_version (#42814)
Mod_stats_admin (#42886)
Mod_syndicate (#42883)
Mod_custom (#42877)
Mod_messages (#42735)
Mod_feed (#42215)
Mod_tags_similar (#42898)
Mod_tags_popular (#42899)
Mod_latestactions (#42910)
Mod_languages (#42929)
Mod_post_installation_messages (#42987)

Add toolbar buttons in language installation toolbar to go directly to language management views (#42610)
Improve long description output for templates (#42651)
Add possibility to sort subform rows with buttons “up” and “down” (#42334)
Add rebuild button in Tags (#42586)
Improve uninstall of package children extension (#42607)
Improve webservices filter (#42519)
Improve webservice event classes (#42092)
Use generic icon for documents in media manager (#42527)
Rewrite com_associations in vanilla JS (#42771)
Implementing Event classes for PageCache events (#41965)
Fix actionlogs information emails containing HTML links (#40033)
Load plugin group when executing batch tasks (#39013)
Add Global Setting for Form Layout option to custom fields (#37320)
Add SVG support to mod_banners (#41854)
Several JS improvements (#42756, #42755, #42776, #42784)
Update Code style fixer (#42603)
Unit test for WebAsset (#42885)

As it’s a release candidate, we now have a language freeze. From now on, no pull Requests touching the language files will be merged unless absolutely necessary (e.g., by fixing a critical bug). We’re two weeks away from a stable release, so the task is now: test, test, test.

We will not include any other new features in the 5.1 branch from now on. But you’re welcome to propose enhancements and fixes for existing features.

What are the plans for Joomla 5.1?

To learn more about our development strategy, please read this article.

How can you help Joomla 5.1 development?

To help ensure the 5.1 release and our major features are “production-ready”, we need your help testing releases and reporting any bugs you may find at issues.joomla.org.

We encourage extension developers to roll up their sleeves, seek out bugs and test their extensions with Joomla 5.1 and communicate their experience.

Where can I find documentation about Joomla 5?

There are some tutorials to help you with Joomla 5. You can find the existing ones, like creating a Plugin or a Module for Joomla 5, namespaces conventions, prepared statements, using the new web asset classes and many more in https://docs.joomla.org/Category:Joomla!_5.x

We encourage developers to help write the documentation about Joomla 5 on docs.joomla.org and manual.joomla.org to help and guide users and other extension developers.

A JDocs page will help developers to see the existing documentation and the documentation still needed.

We invite you to check it regularly, update it and provide the missing content.

Related information

If you are an extension developer, please make sure you subscribe to the extension developer channel https://joomlacommunity.cloud.mattermost.com/main/channels/extension-development-room

Where you can join the community of extension developers.

Working with the Joomla Feature Tracker
General developer mailing list
Joomla developer network
Joomla and UI framework

A Huge Thank You to Our Volunteers!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who contributed to the release!

WordPress News

A Visit to Where the Cloud Touches the Ground

Hi there! I’m Zander Rose and I’ve recently started at Automattic to work on long-term data preservation and the evolution of our 100-Year Plan. Previously, I directed The Long Now Foundation and have worked on long-term archival projects like The Rosetta Project, as well as advised/partnered with organizations such as The Internet Archive, Archmission Foundation, GitHub Archive, Permanent, and Stanford Digital Repository. More broadly, I see the content of the Internet, and the open web in particular, as an irreplaceable cultural resource that should be able to last into the deep future—and my main task is to make sure that happens. 

I recently took a trip to one of Automattic’s data centers to get a peek at what “the cloud” really looks like. As I was telling my family about what I was doing, it was interesting to note their perception of “the cloud” as a completely ephemeral thing. In reality, the cloud has a massive physical and energy presence, even if most people don’t see it on a day-to-day basis. 

Automattic’s data center network. You can see a real-time traffic map right here.

A trip to the cloud

Given the millions of sites hosted by Automattic, figuring out how all that data is currently served and stored was one of the first elements I wanted to understand. I believe that the preservation of as many of these websites as possible will someday be seen as a massive historic and cultural benefit. For this reason, I was thankful to be included on a recent meetup for WordPres.com’s Explorers engineering team, which included a tour of one of Automattic’s data centers. 

The tour began with a taco lunch where we met amazing Automatticians and data center hosts Barry and Eugene, from our world-class systems and operations team. These guys are data center ninjas and are deeply knowledgeable, humble, and clearly exactly who you would want caring about your data.

The data center we visited was built out in 2013 and was the first one in which Automattic owned and operated its servers and equipment, rather than farming it out. By building out our own infrastructure, it gives us full control over every bit of data that comes in and out, as well as reduces costs given the large amount of data stored and served. Automattic now has a worldwide network of 27 data centers that provide both proximity and redundancy of content to the users and the company itself. 

The physical building we visited is run by a contracted provider, and after passing through many layers of security both inside and outside, we began the tour with the facility manager showing us the physical infrastructure. This building has multiple customers paying for server space, with Automattic being just one of them. They keep technical staff on site that can help with maintenance or updates to the equipment, but, in general, the preference is for Automattic’s staff to be the only ones who touch the equipment, both for cost and security purposes.

The four primary things any data center provider needs to guarantee are uninterruptible power, cooling, data connectivity, and physical security/fire protection. The customer, such as Automattic, sets up racks of servers in the building and is responsible for that equipment, including how it ties into the power, cooling, and internet. This report is thus organized in that order.

Power

On our drive in, we saw the large power substation positioned right on campus (which includes many data center buildings, not just Automattic’s). Barry pointed out this not only means there is a massive amount of power available to the campus, but it also gets electrical feeds from both the east and west power grids, making for redundant power even at the utility level coming into the buildings.

The data center’s massive generators.

One of the more unique things about this facility is that instead of battery-based instant backup power, it uses flywheel storage by Active Power. This is basically a series of refrigerator-sized boxes with 600-pound flywheels spinning at 10,000 RPM in a vacuum chamber on precision ceramic bearings. The flywheel acts as a motor most of the time, getting fed power from the network to keep it spinning. Then if the power fails, it switches to generator mode, pulling energy out of the flywheel to keep the power on for the 5-30 seconds it takes for the giant diesel generators outside to kick in.

Flywheel energy storage diagram.

Those generators are the size of semi-truck trailers and supply four megawatts each, fueled by 4,500-gallon diesel tanks. That may sound like a lot, but that basically gives them 48 hours of run time before needing more fuel. In the midst of a large disaster, there could be issues with road access and fuel shortages limiting the ability to refuel the generators, but in cases like that, our network of multiple data centers with redundant capabilities will still keep the data flowing.

Cooling

Depending on outside ambient temperatures, cooling is typically around 30% of the power consumption of a data center. The air chilling is done through a series of cooling units supplied by a system of saline water tanks out by the generators. 

Barry and Eugene pointed out that without cooling, the equipment will very quickly (in less than an hour) try to lower their power consumption in response to the heat, causing a loss of performance. Barry also said that when they start dropping performance radically, it makes it more difficult to manage than if the equipment simply shut off. But if the cooling comes back soon enough, it allows for faster recovery than if hardware was fully shut off. 

Handling the cooling in a data center is a complicated task, but this is one of the core responsibilities of the facility, which they handle very well and with a fair amount of redundancy.

Data connectivity

Data centers can vary in terms of how they connect to the internet. This center allows for multiple providers to come into a main point of entry for the building.

Automattic brings in at least two providers to create redundancy, so every piece of equipment should be able to get power and internet from two or more sources at all times. This connectivity comes into Automattic’s equipment over fiber via overhead raceways that are separate from the power and cooling in the floor. From there it goes into two routers, each connected to all the cabinets in that row.

Server area

As mentioned earlier, this data center is shared among several tenants. This means that each one sets up their own last line of physical security. Some lease an entire data hall to themselves, or use a cage around their equipment; some take it even further by obscuring the equipment so you cannot see it, as well as extending the cage through the subfloor another three feet down so that no one could get in by crawling through that space.

Automattic’s machines took up the central portion of the data hall we were in, with some room to grow. We started this portion of the tour in the “office” that Automattic also rents to both store spare parts and equipment, as well as provide a quiet place to work. On this tour it became apparent that working in the actual server rooms is far from ideal. With all the fans and cooling, the rooms are both loud and cold, so in general you want to do as much work outside of there as possible.

What was also interesting about this space is that it showed all the generations of equipment and hard drives that have to be kept up simultaneously. It is not practical to assume that a given generation of hard drives or even connection cables will be available for more than a few years. In general, the plan is to keep all hardware using identical memory, drives, and cables, but that is not always possible. As we saw in the server racks, there is equipment still running from 2013, but these will likely have to be completely swapped in the near future.

Barry also pointed out that different drive tech is used for different types of data. Images are stored on spinning hard drives (which are the cheapest by size, but have moving parts so need more replacement), and the longer lasting solid state disk (SSD) and non-volatile memory (NVMe) technology are used for other roles like caching and databases, where speed and performance are most important.

Barry showing us all the bins of hardware they use to maintain the servers.

Barry explained that data at Automattic is stored in multiple places in the same data center, and redundantly again at several other data centers. Even with that much redundancy, a further copy is stored on an outside backup. Each one of the centers Automattic uses has a method of separation, so it is difficult for a single bug to propagate between different facilities. In the last decade, there’s only been one instance where the outside backup had to come into play, and it was for six images. Still, Barry noted that there can never be too many backups.

An infrastructure for the future 

And with that, we concluded the tour and I would soon head off to the airport to fly home. The last question Barry asked me was if I thought this would all be around in 100 years. My answer was that something like it most certainly will, but that it would look radically different, and may be situated in parts of the world with more sustainable cooling and energy, as more of the world gets large bandwidth connections.

As I thought about the project of getting all this data to last into the deep future, I was very impressed by what Automattic has built, and believe that as long as business continues as normal, the data is incredibly safe. However, on the chance that things do change, I think developing partnerships with organizations like The Internet Archive, Permanent.org, and perhaps national libraries or large universities will be critically important to help make sure the content of the open web survives well into the future. We could also look at some of the long-term storage systems that store data without the need for power, as well as systems that cannot be changed in the future (as we wonder if AI and censorship may alter what we know to be “facts”). For this, we could look at stable optical systems like Piql, Project Silica, and Stampertech. It breaks my heart to think the world would have created all this, only for it to be lost. I think we owe it to the future to make sure as much of it as possible has a path to survive.

Our group of Automatticians enjoyed the tour—thank you Barry and Eugene!
Ultranet Domains Hosting Blog

We’ve begun a little remodeling

That blog title is the understatement of the year for us so far. We’ve decided to build out our front-end site quite a bit differently. Our choice this year is WordPress. That does not mean that we’ve abandoned any of our beloved CMS systems. But having spent many years hosting and supporting many CMS systems the decision came down to this, it’s the only one that works with a couple plugins we have to use to accomplish many of our company goals.

Don’t worry, the core shopping cart is always safe and sound underneath and can be accessed as usual from https://shop.ultranet.domains.

So as they say, pardon our dust. We’re working hard to bring you more information easily searchable.

Best Regards,
–www.Ultranet.Domains
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