pasting this to the top post ❤

This was the original intention of the cloud system, however because of the database system we're using (clustrix) we have to give very specific instructions / permissions to each of our servers when they come up. A new version of the database was released recently that permitted a little more broad permissions which allow us to do this. We could have technically always done this on the web server end, but would have still had to log into each of the database servers (3) and make the nodes recognize a supported web server.

Now that can be done automatically and removed the last piece of the puzzle :)

And to your last question: this still isn't a thing that most sites do. DevOps (what this is) software like SaltStack, Chef, etc, have just started to come into prominence in the last two years, which essentially are server automation software. Technology changes daily. Neopets and most other sites still run on physical hardware they have access to. :)

Hmm I've been browsing all day and haven't had any of those issues. :(

I just finished the last of these updates on the webservers tonightat around 1:30AM Subeta time!

Next up is the avatar servers which are already pretty fast :)