WordPress is, some would say, the backbone of the web hosting industry.

It’s extremely customizable, everybody’s heard of it, and it’s far and away the most popular application we’ve seen in use on our servers. Some people even run their entire businesses with WordPress on the back-end.

When it comes to backing up your WordPress sites and the databases behind them, you want the best of the best. You don’t want to have to do it yourself, and while your web host may offer backups (we do!), you’d still like some peace of mind to come from a higher power.

The people who brought you WordPress.com, Automattic, have heard your pleas. Introducing VaultPress!

VaultPress is the most complete backup available today for a self-hosted WordPress blog or website. This means your plugins, dashboard, themes, comments, and post revisions are all safeguarded and ready to be restored.

VaultPress will monitor your WordPress site(s) continuously and store even the most minute details in its virtual vault with excruciating, bit-perfect accuracy.

VaultPress is in a limited private beta period right now so you kind of need to know someone who knows someone to get access to a golden ticket – a colorful metaphor that will grant you safe passage to the glorious promise-land of backed-up data, restful sleep, and a carefree online lifestyle. I’m of course talking about the kingdom of VaultPressia.

Luckily for you…

All new WordPress installations on DreamHost (those that are completed with our one-click installer) will receive a golden ticket in their email just as soon as WordPress has been installed.

If you’ve already got WordPress installed on your DreamHost account – or even if you don’t – keep an eye on your email! If you’re on our “Promotions” mailing list you should be receiving a VaultPress golden ticket before the weekend’s over.

Once you’ve signed up with VaultPress you’ll gain access to an easily-installed plugin for WordPress. The VaultPress dashboard integrates seamlessly with WordPress’ own dashboard and the fun begins just seconds after you install it.

VaultPress’ exclusive beta pricing for services is still in effect. $15 per month (a savings of $60/yearly) gets you comprehensive backup services. $40 per month (saving $120/year!) gets you all that AND continuous security monitoring AND a bag of chips.*

Don’t let the ‘beta’ tag fool you – VaultPress is an impressive feature-rich premium-level custom-built backup solution that we feel is a perfect fit for anyone who uses WordPress. It’s a particularly good investment for anyone who relies on WordPress to help run their business.

Get started with VaultPress today!

*I lied. No chips.

At DreamHost we take gaming very seriously.  So seriously that we’ve ponied up some mad cash for Root-Gaming’s WARZONE invitational.  Gathering the best StarCraft 2 players from North America and Europe, the tournament will hold its final matches this Sunday January 16th 2010 and the winners will receive $3500 in prizes.  Not bad for a few dozen minutes of insane keyboard and mouse clicking, intense concentration and probably several cans of Red Bull or Monster (probably both!)

32 of the region’s top players started off the tournament and Sunday’s final match will determine the first place winner.  He or she will walk home with a cool $2000 while the second and third place winners will win $1000 and $500 respectively.  All matches have been recorded and can be downloaded from Root-Gaming’s website.

Our involvement in StarCraft didn’t just begin with this tournament.  We have been sponsoring the insanely popular HDstarcraft YouTube channel which has an incredible 105 million views and counting.  HDstarcraft regularly blogs about strategy and walks viewers through matches, both great and not-so-great.  You can catch some of his games live on ustream.

In addition to sponsoring HDstarcraft, one of our former interns, Kevin “QXC” Riley, is a top StarCraft 2 player in the United States. Kevin attended Harvey Mudd College along with another top SC2 player, Day[9].  Day[9] also regularly posts his tips and strategies on his YouTube channel.  The four co-founders of DreamHost also attended Harvey Mudd College.  Coincidence? I think not!  An examination of the drinking water in Claremont is in order.

If this blog post and associated tournament replay videos inspire you to join the ranks of professional StarCraft 2 players stay tuned for an in-depth interview with some of the winners.  We’ll try to get them to spill the beans on their best strategies, computer gear and favorite fast food restaurants.  If you have any StarCraft-related questions to ask the players, go ahead and post them in the comments below and we’ll be sure to relay them.

Waaay back in December we made some updates to our One-Click Installer.

You may recall that we now accept submissions for apps to be added to the Installer, meaning that app developers the world over now have a channel for getting wider distribution of their efforts!

We set in motion a Call for Apps contest in December and the response was great.

The entry period for that contest has now ended, we’ve filtered through the entries, and those that have passed our own internal review are now available on our web panel for our many thousands of customers to install and use!

If you’re a DreamHost customer please try them out and then VOTE on your favorites! Just visit the One-Click Installer on your web panel, click the “App Contest” category to see the entries, select an app and look for this little gem to cast your vote:

If you’re not currently a DreamHost customer and are curious as to which apps made the cut, here they are in no particular order:

	Omeka Create complex narratives and share rich collections, adhering to Dublin core standards with Omeka on your server, designed for scholars, museums, libraries, archives, and enthusiasts.
	Vanilla Forums Vanilla Forums are open-source, standards-compliant, customizable discussion forums.
	Textpattern CMS A flexible, elegant and easy-to-use CMS
	Splash Frog Splash Frog is a new, upcoming open source Website Management System that gives you control to have your website the way you want it through a simple, easy-to-use and logical interface.
	MODx CMS MODx Revolution is a powerful PHP Content Management Framework that plays nicely with custom code and helps you build sites faster and maintain them with ease.
	GetSimple CMS GetSimple is an open source CMS that utilizes the speed and convenience of XML, a best-in-class UI and the easiest learning curve of any simple Content Management System out there.
	ComicCMS ComicCMS runs and manages your webcomic website. Really well. It’s powerful and easy!
	XODA XODA is a simple Document Management System targeting end-users and also developers.
	Friendika Friendika is a distributed social network application which runs on commodity hosting platforms – PHP/MySQL/Apache.
	concrete5 concrete5 is a CMS that makes running a website easy. Go to any page in your site and a editing toolbar gives you all the controls you need to make changes.
	Contao Contao is an open source content management system (CMS) for people who want a professional internet presence that is easy to maintain.
	ecoder ecoder is an open-source web-based code editor with real-time colour syntax highlighting. It allows multiple documents to be edited directly online at the same time.
	LimeSurvey LimeSurvey is an open-source survey application. Easy and free!

Voting will close on February 1st, so hop to it! If you’re currently a DreamHost customer, check them out and vote!