In the coming weeks, we plan to migrate our infrastructure from WiredTree to Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The primary reasons for this change are to move to a scalable system that can be expanded as needed during high-volume events (such as the release of an important software update) and to provide a more central geographic server location for all of our users around the world.

To address both of these issues, Watchful will now be served from AWS servers in Ireland rather than our current servers in the US. Based on our tests, we expect that the improved performance offered by AWS will offset any distance-related delays for our American clients. European, Asian, and South-Pacific customers may experience performance improvements due to the reduced distance to the new servers.

Moving to AWS requires minimal technical changes, but one fundamental aspect of Watchful will change: our IP addresses. The new addresses are:

34.250.7.114
34.250.132.64
34.250.203.214

To accommodate this change, we are asking our customers to proactively add these new addresses to their server whitelists while retaining any existing whitelisted IPs. System administrators can usually do this easily from WHM/cPanel (for example). 

Otherwise, Watchers should contact their IT departments or hosting providers and make the request to whitelist the IPs.

In addition, we also recommend that any web application firewalls installed locally on your sites. This includes WordPress plugins such as Wordfence as well as Joomla extensions like Admin Tools and RSFirewall.

To assist with this process, next week we will release a new Watchful client for Joomla, version 1.12. When you install or update, Admin Tools and RSFirewall will automatically whitelist the new IP addresses.

If you have any questions, please feel free to submit a support ticket from the Watchful Dashboard.