Currently tracking 1,100,000 samples

A shiny new server for Sparkle

Sparkle has moved to a newer, faster server.

You'll find Sparkle quicker and more stable.


Sparkle has been running on the same server since it began in July 2008. It did very well for three years but lately -- with all our new customers -- it started to creak and wobble. It was time for a new server.

So over the weekend we moved Sparkle to a new home. You can see the difference it made:

Response time

The chart shows Sparkle's response time: how long it takes to load a page in your browser. On the old server the response time was around 2 seconds. The new server has a response time of half a second -- four times faster!

You can also see the new server is very stable (pay no attention to that blip!). The technical term for this is "lovely" ;)

What does this mean for you?

Sparkle will feel faster and more stable -- because it is. That means it will be nicer to use, and help you get your job done a little sooner. Bonus!

The future

I'm confident I can get the response time down to a quarter of a second. Sparkle will then be very snappy.

Web-based software

This is a great example of why using web-based software is so good: you didn't have to worry about any of this.

We took care of it all -- specifying a new server, commissioning it, configuring it, moving the code, moving your data, updating the DNS, updating the backups, testing it, etc etc. And there it was waiting for you on Monday morning!