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About Textvertising.

Dis you know that not all SMS providers are the same. Are you sure that you can trust the company to not share your data? You can trust Textvertising as we are regsitered with Data Protection. 

Textvertising was established in 2001 and was initially one of very few SMS providers. Consequently we are now recognised as a leading provider focused on technology, security and high standards of service with over 41,000 clients worldwide.

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 HTTPS Security
  128 Bit Encryption ensures you of the highest possible security for your data during transit across the internet, and even your company intranet.

In fact, the security we provide is exactly the same as that used by the vast majority of online banks.
   
pointer Equipment & Technology
  We do not use hosting packages or host servers inside data centres such as Rackspace.

Although these services are ideal for many online businesses, they simply cannot offer the high levels of security and control that our internal policies require. In fact, our hardware is located at our secure site at our head office in Preston, Lancashire, UK.

We use not one server, but actually 12 dedicated servers running either Windows Server or Linux Ubuntu. The equipment consists as follows:

  • Dedicated 10Mb Tier 1 Lease Line from BT giving 99.999% uptime with Class C Subnet and 14 fixed IP's plus a backup Virgin Telewest digital SDSL cable line with 5 fixed IP's.
  • Dedicated Ubuntu Gateway Server providing access to our services with 1:1 NAT routing and restrictive access by IP to secure services updated on the fly.
  • 2 load balancing servers sharing web services across 4 servers.
  • Dedicated MySQL server and 2 replication servers.
  • Dedicated e-mail server.
  • Dedicated DNS server.
   
pointer Resilience
  Our dedicated development team have implemented a "plug and play" strategy to our hardware:
  • Our routing servers distribute web services across a number of servers in a pool. Should a server fail, the routing servers detect which server is offline and removes the machine from the pool.

  • All servers in our server pool are identical machines. Should one fail, the server can be hot swapped without affecting any of our services.
  • We use a dedicated Linux operating systems on 10 of our 12 servers. We always have a number of pre-configured Drive Arrays ready to run and on complete failure of an Array, a new Array can simply be removed and replaced. Our OS is intelligent and self-configures the server on power up and reinstates its roll in the pool. In testing, a complete replacement server and a virgin Array can be up and running in less than 3 minutes.  
  • Our air conditioned server room operates with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Should a mains power outage occur, the UPS will retain power to the servers until the mains power is reinstated. The UPS is made up of Server grade battery backups and an offline generator.
   
pointer Backup
  Just like you do, Textvertising take backups seriously.

Our data is handled by MySQL, the worlds most popular open source database engine (the same is used by leading web services such as Google). Our data is replicated across 5 servers - 3 locally (2R1W) and 2 remotely at private addresses (2R) across a dedicated and secure VPN. Replication happens in real time, not once or twice a week as many providers do. Data integrity is paramount importance.

Data stored in MySQL is encrypted using special algorithms making the data worthless to a third party. Our software encrypts and decrypts the data on the fly.

We also "backup the backups" on a 1 x 7 x 28 x 365 day rotation. this means we can always roll back a database easily to almost any point in time.
   
pointer Investment
  Textvertising continue to invest heavily in both hardware and software and constantly adapt services and equipment to keep up with technology and to stay ahead of the competition. A recent investment in new hardware cost £37,000 and an upgrade to our lease line costed in excess of £42,000.
   
pointer SMART messaging
  Textvertising offer high quality message delivery and are the only company to develop and implement our own type of messaging processing: S.M.A.R.T technology. 

This system works in two ways:

Firstly it minimises "SMS stacking" which is where a single connection can only deliver a maximum number of messages per second via its HTTP or SMPP "window". Once a connection is established via one IP the connection is closed to further connections. Each time a client adds their message to the stack, delivery cannot start until that point in the stack is reached. 

Our S.M.A.R.T technology helps to eradicate this by utilising redundant gateway connections over numerous IP's which will automatically spread messages across some or all of these routes automatically depending on load.

Should other messages enter the queue during busy periods, the system will begin sending them simultaneously by threading the messages across all connections synchronously. This gives every client a fair chance of immediate delivery without a significant effect in performance. 

Secondly reading and writing databases and file locking during this process takes up precious time, and SMART allows inbound messages to pool into two "flip-flop" databases. At any one moment, one is live and one is offline while the system processes messages inside. Switching between them happens seamlessly in real time and eradicates file locking. This system works especially well in voting environments where we expect to see massive increases in traffic in a short space of time. In fact the system will handle and process in excess of 10,000 SMS in just over 3 seconds!
   
pointer On Site Training
  Although our services are all based online, talking through our product over the phone is not always suitable for some clients. 

We can offer on site training, help with getting the most from SMS marketing and a full service walk through at a location convenient to you. Cost vary on location, but typically cost between £150 and £270.