A lot of changes…
Server Migrations Completed :
The Server Migration for the Admin System went very well last weekend and freed the newer server it was on for use by the Clients System. The ensuing move to the of the Clients System to it’s new home has also gone very well. The two systems are cross data active and can be re-set to handle either or their responsibilities within minutes. They are also 6 times faster then where we were this time last year. Very happy with this, so far. The biggest problem with last years outage was the “server support services” (if you could call them that) managing it, delivering support from… well, another country… Nowhere near the server they were trying to physically reinstate. However, now our new servers are in separate “unrelated” Datacentres and are managed by staff inside those datacentres. Clients Downloadable App: The “App” development platform has been selected as a Hybrid platform so changes to the “Web App” are instantly translatable to Apple & Android Device platforms. This means a single Source Code and no “lag” time between updates on all devices. But before this, we must finalise the release of the new Clients Mobile Phone Web Design and functionality. The new design is mostly completed and it will beautifully reflect your Business colours as it does in this demo page: Example Possible Client Session Payment Options:  Admin Application – Stripe Debiting: This work recently paused due the finalisation of Server migrations and the Clients Application Security Update (Security issues always dealt with first, followed by Support). And now, a issue has arisen with a BE feature many of you use to “Save Credit Card” for later Client purchases through the Admin system on your their behalf. The currently Stripe Version on the Admin Application requires an upgrade for Debiting, and this upgrade does not support this method of, shall we say, manual Business “self payment”. So a lot of effort is going into finding a way for the existing Stripe Version to convert the old saved credit card “token” to something usable by the new version. There are a lot of moving parts with this process as we are also implementing it into the existing Ezidebit Debiting system such that there is a simple dropdown of Debit Providers for any Direct Debit, This Debit Provider Dropdown choice will actively display the “merchant fees” associated with each provider allowing you to make a choice on which merchant provider collects the money for you. This feature is the bottleneck to all others and is priority one. Clients Application – Security Breach Attempt: There was a security breach attempt observed 6 weeks ago trying to hack into the System through the Clients Application Schedule page for a couple of hours before we blocked the attackers IP addresses. They didn’t get in. However, we see them trying constantly, and in light of the recent “TicketMaster (see here…)” database breach (I had my TicketMaster Password sent to me by “Spammers” a couple days later), it made me review the page the Hackers were specifically attacking for any weakness. I decided to “double down” on the security of that Clients Application page and get it to access the database in a different way. it has taken some time to get it perfect between both the Sessions Menu and Workshops menu, but is now done and I feel comfortable moving on from that incident. Note: Even if they got in… all sensitive information like Passwords, Credit Card & API Private tokens are encrypted in the BE Database. More Updates tomorrow…:
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| Epilogue
It’s been a very tough year to get things done… no shortage of new Service Providers advertising dream services for cheap, and not so cheap. Only found to be just talk after testing… For the past 6 months, every Weekend from Friday night to Sunday Night, I have been testing server migrations to new providers for data redundancy and until this month, all failed. What young “Sales” emphatically sold as the new definition of server reliability, was either faulty or….actually, it was always faulty! Then they consistently failed to exhibit acceptable base levels of organisation, support competency, or reliable service. The journey has been a frustrating affirmation of my personal perceived trend for corporate service delivery attitudes. So, fallback, start again, next provider. One example of this was when the Direct Debit Access to Ezidebit started “intermittently” dropping out and we received errors saying the service was unavailable. At that point (April/May/June), I had 5 active servers (2 in testing, 3 in production), around $2k/mth, to ensure that any third party provider malfeasance was incapable of creating devastating BE service downtime. I tried out ” Amazon Online Services” as most competitors sit on this platform. A good friend of mine, Microsoft Cloud Services Development Manager for Southeast Asia Region in Singapore (we worked together as Datacentre Help Desk Techs at Australian Meat & Livestock Datacentre Sydney 1991), counselled me about moving to “Cloud Based Servers” said…. “Stan, Don’t do it !! You will regret it” And appears he was, and if I did would have been, very right. So I tested Amazon Cloud to be sure, and they are so very slow… so painfully slow, that any outage would easily cover the wasted time “regularly” spent at your screen waiting for your data. But finallly… a much brighter light… as of last weekend, we have now achieved a Multi provider Redundant Server setup that delivers the security, speed and longevity that I feel comfortable with distributing data safely back to you and your clients. So development can now move forward much more rapidly. Ok,now… the road to downloadable Apps.
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