Thomas Fuchs, creator of the script.aculo.us JavaScript library and the Freckle online time tracking site, posted a great page of useful services a couple of weeks back. These are sites and tools that Thomas and Amy Hoy have found to be invaluable in running their Freckle SaaS (Software as a Service). From Web site and server monitoring, to log management, to email tools, there’s about a dozen or more products that come highly recommended (and not all necessarily cost).
I’ve used a couple of these myself, but some of the concepts haven’t even been on my radar. For example, it never crossed my mind to offload the actual act of sending an email, but there are some strong arguments for doing so. For starters, having another server send your email can be a lot more reliable (I’m looking into that myself for my Yii book Web site).
In the list, Thomas explains the role each tool serves. Even if you don’t have these specific needs (yet), give the post a quick read just to see what other people are doing and what should perhaps be on your radar for your existing or next project.
