Two Lessons from History
	GSP has hosted servers since 1994, when the World Wide Web was barely five years old. Two historical artifacts have nothing to do with our company yet say everything about our business. The first is the machine on which the Web began. The second is a railway superintendent's letter about a lost shirt, written in 1900. One is about keeping a server running; the other is about taking care of a customer. Those are still the two things we do.
	The Internet's First WWW Server
	In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist at CERN in Geneva, circulated a short memo titled Information Management: A Proposal. It described a way to link documents across different computers with hypertext. His supervisor, Mike Sendall, wrote three words across the top of the cover page: “Vague but exciting ...” By the end of 1990 the proposal was running. Berners-Lee had written the first browser, the first server software, and the first Web page, and all of it ran on a single NeXT workstation on his desk. That computer was the Internet’s first WWW server. Stuck to its front was a hand-lettered warning that every hosting company has been honoring ever since: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!” The machine, with its warning label and a copy of the annotated proposal beside it, is on display at CERN, where these photographs were taken in October 2018.

The NeXT workstation on which the World Wide Web was first served, still wearing its CERN inventory sticker and the “do not power it down” warning.	The document that started it all: Information Management: A Proposal, March 1989, with the famous “Vague but exciting ...” note at the top.
Click either photograph for a larger view.

	Read the proposal  The original March 1989 typescript, as circulated at CERN, including the handwritten “Vague but exciting ...” annotation (557 KB)  The May 1990 revision, re-typeset by CERN for its document server (212 KB) More than three decades later the fundamentals of hosting have not changed. A server has to stay up, someone has to be responsible for it, and the people who depend on it should never have to think about either. That is what our facilities and network are built for, and it is why every virtual server we host can be configured to run across multiple availability zones with automated, off-site backups. Nobody has to stick a note to the front of it.
	Service, the Old-Fashioned Way
	On September 20, 1900, a passenger on the Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railway stepped off train No. 11 and left behind a package containing a new shirt. Five days later the railway's General Passenger Agent in Cleveland wrote to the Superintendent asking what had become of it. The Superintendent's reply is reproduced here. The conductor had found the package. The station agent at Lester had already forwarded it by express to Zanesville, Ohio. Both had acted the same day the package was left on the train, long before anyone at headquarters had asked. No policy required this. No one filled out a claim form. A conductor noticed a problem, a station agent fixed it, and a superintendent took the time to write it up personally so that the passenger would know. The letter has outlasted the railway itself. That is the standard we hold ourselves to. When you call GSP, a person answers. When you write, a person writes back. Problems are handled the day they arrive, not queued behind a ticket number, and we tell you what we did. It is a small thing to promise, and we have kept it since 1994. Transcript The Cleveland, Lorain & Wheeling Railway Company No. 416  ·  Subject: Property — Loss of W. H. Romoser, Superintendent  ·  Uhrichsville, O., Oct. 1, 1900 Mr. M. G. Carrel,     Gen'l Passenger Agent,         Cleveland, O. Dear Sir:— Referring to your letter of September 25th in regard to a passenger leaving a package containing a new shirt, No. 16, etc., in train 11 September 20th. Kindly note that Conductor Streator found the package and the Agent at Lester expressed same to Zanesville, O., these instructions being received the day the package was left in train. Yours truly, W. H. Romoser Superintendent. Enc. Click the letter for a full-size scan.
	Talk to a Person
	Customer Service is available toll-free at 1-866-GSP-4400, or by e-mail. Existing customers can also reach us through their dedicated account manager. Whether it is a server that must not be powered down or a package left on the train, we will take care of it.