Today we launched our FrogSAFE V4 Platform, or "V4" as you may have heard it referred to in recent months. Starting today, visitors and new customers will sign up directly to the CVSDude V4 Platform.

"SAFE" stands for Secure Application Fusion Engine, which describes our core competency- delivering multiple version control and issue tracking tools through a single, unified interface. The design process, development and testing, and release of our new Platform has required tremendous effort- and will continue as we iterate over the coming months.

System highlights include:

• Complete system and user interface redesign
  
• Clean, fast UI (AJAX) that supports per-project SVN, Trac, Bugzilla and DAV repository configurations
• Activity Feeds & user profiling
• Upcoming API release
• Greatly improved system speed and reliability, due to improved server management software layers. Our cluster-based infrastructure is optimized for each hosted application.
  
• Built-in integration with Trac, Basecamp, Lighthouse, and FogBugz (via SVN commit hooks)
• Our "10/100" Backup and Recovery System, which includes 10-minute backups of most recent changes, daily downloadable backups (configurable  through your account), and daily restore snapshots for past 100 days
• Rationalization of our hosting products into three Product Editions, oriented towards small developer groups, mid-size collaborative teams, and Enterprises
• A new subscription payment system, that allows you to manage your own subscriptions from within CVSDude, and pay by VISA/AMEX/Mastercard. Incidentally, our online payment system is delivered by Zuora- a customer of ours and a PCI-Compliant market leader.

To raise awareness about of the benefits of Subversion hosting and SaaS, we have revamped CVSDude.com to include over 70 pages of technical, security and product documentation, screenshots, cost savings, Code of Conduct, and more. We are also launching help.cvsdude.com, a wiki-based support system that offers user guides, tutorials, and technical support contacts. This is just the start - CVSDude is far behind on whitepapers and open source project support. 

Finally, CVSDude is proud to announce our new Green Offset Program. We have put funding and strategies in place to preserve large tracts of rainforest in the Solomon Islands (working with former academic colleagues at the University of Queensland, Australia). By supporting community-run rainforest preserves that are preventing  commercial logging activities, this project conserves  endagered biodiversity while completely offseting our company's carbon footprint. UQ researchers estimate that CVSDude is ensuring "burial" (sequestration) of 450 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2009, vs. company hosting and activities that total at most 150 tonnes. So rest assured that you are "doing your part" with Carbon-Neutral infrastructure, and if you feel so inclined, we invite you to donate to the program during signup or through your Billing settings.

Finally, some important issues about how migrating to the CVSDude V4 Platform affects you:

• Our V4 Platform has been in Beta since July 2008, and is already serving 120 accounts and 2000+ live users. The migration process has minimal customer impact
• Existing customers will be contacted by email in the coming weeks, and for planning purposes will be asked to schedule a preferred two hour migration window 
  
• Migrations are typically completed in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy - and please send through your thoughts by posting...