Dec 11 2010 update: They’ve posted further updates to their the SimpleCDN site, as well as the SimpleCDN twitter feed (update: the simplecdn.com site is now a parked domain, so I’ve busted the links). From what I gather it looks like they’re doing what they can to help customers transition to other companies. On twitter they seem to be suggesting MaxCDN (using coupon code “simplecdn”) and/or Cloudfront as potential options. MaxCDN’s blog has a mention of the issue (Web Archive), and they appear to be doing what they can to ease the transition for those who decide to move to them.

An unfortunate situation, but it’s nice to see that they’re trying to keep people informed and are working with some of their competition (or… at least competition a few days ago) to help customers move on. I’d imagine SimpleCDN’s business is pretty much toast – something like this would be very difficult to ever recover from.

Popped open one of my sites, and it was taking forever to load… no images. Tried another, and another.

While I use a VPS for the main site, I use HostGator shared hosting for some of my smaller sites, the downloads I provide here, as well as for downloads through my other sites (big and small). It’s hard to beat the unlimited bandwidth provided at the price they offer it. If you’re looking at starting up a website, HostGator might be worth a look (don’t forget to use the coupon code mentioned in the banner above!)

Yep, the CDN wasn’t responding. Turns out SimpleCDN is down. Upon logging trying to hit the admin section of the site, I was presented with the following:

Dear SimpleCDN Customer,
–
I am writing this letter to update you on a situation that has been developing for the past 72 hours between SimpleCDN and our technology and infrastructure providers, SoftLayer and Hosting Services, Inc.
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Two days ago these organizations decided to immediately terminate our contract and suspend service on much of our infrastructure in Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C. This infrastructure constitutes the majority of our delivery network for our value services, including on-demand and live streaming services.
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Absolutely no valid reason or warning was or has been given for this termination, and our best guess currently is that these organizations could not provide the services that we contracted and paid for, so instead they decided that terminating services would be the best solution for them.
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We have already started to take legal action against these organizations, however thus far we have not gotten either party to reconsider their position. As it stands now, certain SimpleCDN services will begin to fail within the next few days as additional services are terminated.
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We believe the actions of Hosting Services, Inc. and SoftLayer constitute a deliberate attempt to cripple SimpleCDN’s current service offering.
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SoftLayer and Hosting Services / UK2 Group also resell “CDN” services at a much higher price point, and it is clear these actions constitute a conspiracy to remove us, and many other corporations affected by their reckless actions, from the marketplace.
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I invite you to contact these organizations directly to voice your frustration and opinions on this matter, while we’ll continue to ensure access is available to key services for backing up your data currently contained on the CDN for as long as possible.
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Hosting Services, Inc. – UK2 Group Contacts:
Jeff Hunsaker
President/COO UK2 Group / Hosting Services, Inc.
jeff.hunsaker@uk2group.com
801.368.3358
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Ditlev Bredahl
ditlev@uk2group.com
–
SoftLayer Contacts:
Support Team at 1-866-398-7638
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Lance Crosby, CEO
214-442-0600
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I understand how difficult this is for you, and for the past two days we have been scrambling to make alternative arrangements, but not enough time has been given to secure additional delivery resources.
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Our support team will be available 24/7 at support.simplecdn.com to answer any of your questions, and assist you with alternative services in any way possible.
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You may contact me directly at: frank.wilson@simplecdn.com or via our corporate number at 800-269-3033 ext 704.
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Sincerely,
–
Frank Wilson
Chief Engineer, SimpleCDN

Well, there goes my cheap CDN provider.

Fortunately I’ve made periodic backups and the VPS I’m on should be more than up to the task of serving everything in the interim – if you’re stuck waiting on images to load on another one of my sites, it’ll probably be an hour or two for the new DNS to resolve, so check back shortly.