The Story of Burning Diode

Burning Diode was the name chosen when the forces behind Aptus Hosting and the original Burning Diode merged in Spring of 2013, bringing together a trifecta of circuit smoking knowledge, experience and creativity.

The partners behind Aptus Hosting and the original Burning Diode have worked together on many projects ever since both companies were founded in 2005. Because of this close working relationship, it made perfect sense to merge the two companies together under one roof.

Our goal is to provide reliable, inexpensive and custom tailored solutions to continuously meet the ever changing needs of our customers.

About the partners:

Michael Finch started his web/graphics/communications career in 1998. In 2005 he founded the original Burning Diode.

William Rex brings many years of experience to the partnership as a Database Administrator, Systems Administrator and Software Developer. He started programming small utilities in Visual Basic in 1994 as a freelance developer. From 1999 to 2001 he worked in project development at one of the largest ISP’s in the Great Lakes region, Voyager.net. From 2001 to 2002 William worked as a programmer at Automating Peripherals Incorporated. From 2000 to 2005 he freelanced as a consultant system administrator and programmer for the now defunct Virtual Web Community Networks.

William is proficient in Linux Server Systems Administration, Database Administration and programming in Perl, PHP, Visual Basic (6 and .NET), HTML, JavaScript, C, C++, Java and SQL-98.

Matthew Boughton owned and operated the successful Boughton Enterprises from 1999 to 2005 when the name changed to Aptus Computers. During this time he has worked as a consultant and network engineer for many small and medium businesses including a small startup ISP called CyberNet which was later bought out by a large conglomerate. Aptus Computers is still in operation providing systems administration, network consulting and other IT services to home users, small and medium businesses.

In 2003 Matthew started working with William as a freelance consultant for Virtual Web Community Networks. In 2005, the owner of Virtual Web Community Networks determined it was no longer commercially viable so the assets and contracts were purchased by William and Matthew operating as Aptus Hosting.

With Matthew heading up business management, sales and project management, William managing the technical operations and custom software development and Michael mastering marketing, communications and design, we have a perfect division of responsibilities that adds strength to the foundation of the company.

Services:

With all three partners having many years of experience with web design, commercial graphics design, web hosting, system administration, network security, Linux servers, Windows servers and backend programming, Burning Diode is in a position to provide a wide range of services to our customers. We pride ourselves in being flexible enough to custom tailor solutions to meet our customer’s needs yet we are small enough to provide the one-on-one customer service everyone deserves.

Some of the services we offer include graphics design, marketing, website design, SEO, website hosting, e-mail hosting, managed and unmanaged DNS services, cloud storage systems, database hosting and management, custom software development, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) hosting, CMS (Content Management System) hosting and customization, Open Source technical support contracts and IT infrastructure outsourcing. We utilize Open Source technology frequently and we give back to the Open Source community by donating money, donating time, submitting bug fixes and submitting code updates. We provide full technical support for any Open Source and custom software that we provide to our customers.

Customer Service Philosophy:

Our primary philosophy has always been customer service first. We strive to compete not only with our prices but more importantly our service. When a compromise needs to be made between price and customer service we never sacrifice service to our customers. When a customer calls Burning Diode they will always be connected to someone in the United States who understands their needs and will take as much time as needed to resolve any problems or answer questions.

We currently have local representatives in Southern Oregon and South Central Wisconsin. We hope to add local service in other markets soon.

Our technology:

Burning Diode uses reliable servers housed in strategically located data centers for optimum reliability and connectivity. Our servers are protected at the virtual level by professional network engineers using the latest tools and recommended practices and at the physical level by a top notch security team using the latest intrusion detection equipment and security cameras combined with key card electronic security.

UPS systems combined with generators provide uninterrupted electrical power in the event utility power fails. Datacenters we co-locate with must have N+1 redundancy for their UPSes, generators and air conditioning systems to prevent any disruption in service.

We require our datacenters to maintain at least three different connections to three different data service providers utilizing at least two separate physical paths leaving the premises. This prevents backhoe fade or even total failure of an entire ISP or phone company from severing our connection to the Internet.

To top it all off, we use quality server hardware that is built for reliability in a demanding datacenter environment. In case of a failure affecting one or more servers we have instant access to backup systems for minimal downtime.

These are all key factors that allow us to protect and keep your data available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.