However, despite its demand, there still seems to be a lot of misconceptions and myths about managed hosting, particularly managed dedicated hosting.

Here are a few popular myths busted.

1. Managed dedicated hosting is too expensive

Considering the fact that dedicated hosting solutions are comparatively more expensive, it’s obvious that people think a managed hosting service would be even more expensive. Managed hosting is certainly going to cost more than unmanaged hosting. But when considering the benefits of such a hosting solution, the extra cost is totally justified.

The web owner won’t have to worry about server maintenance, server upgrades, uptimes, downtimes and technical issues. The team managing the server would be monitoring it 24/7 and performing all the updates and security checks while the owners go about with their business. They won’t have to pay for extra staff or rent space for setting up a server either. Ultimately, it does save them time and money.

2. Managed hosting is only for people who are not tech-savvy

Though it’s the ideal option for people who are not very keen on technologies, it can also be of great benefit to tech-savvy web owners as well. If it’s managed, the web owners, tech-savvy or tech-not-that-savvy, would be from the hassles and challenges of maintaining a redundant server setup.

Technical issues, should they appear, won’t be interrupting their work or taking their time. The service essentially saves time and effort while providing a plethora of benefits.

3. You don’t get to choose the software

This used to be the case in the beginning. And many hosting providers offering dedicated servers design their packages to meet business needs. Reputed providers would be using the most reliable and secure software in their servers promising the best performance. However, you will still be able to install custom software that you require after discussing with your web host. But in most cases, it’d be better to trust in your host’s experience and expertise when it comes to software choices.

4. For that cost, the data will always be safe and secure

This is why people are willing to go that extra mile and pay more for a better hosting solution. Renting a dedicated server means only their websites would be on the server, and they get more control. A reliable hosting company would guarantee the safety of the machine as well. However, the hard truth is that no matter how good the provider is or how secure the hosting server, there are always risks.

A managed hosting server set-up will be constantly monitored to ensure that there are no failures at any time. However, there are circumstances, though very rare, that could result in a short server downtimes, outages etc. even if it’s a cloud hosting solution.

Conclusion

Not many web owners choose to spend time researching a web hosting provider before purchasing a hosting package. Most of them tend to approach popular hosts and make the deal in a jiffy.

Because web hosting is a diverse and competitive sector, as a web owner, you need to be aware of the various myths and facts associated with hosting. These are just a few of the most popular misconceptions on dedicated hosting. Hopefully the article would help you find a better hosting choice.

The post Debunking Popular Myths About Managed Dedicated Server Hosting appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

As a beginner, you can leverage what you already have to make your business known. Here are 6 ways you can do just that.

Social Networking

One of the best marketing tools available for any businessman with big dreams. Social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, if used wisely, can accelerate the growth of your business while garnering loyal followers. Start by creating accounts in popular social media platforms, and then building a profile with information about your company, links to your company blogs and website etc.

Do not rush it and start promoting your business right away. Establish yourself in the online community by posting relevant news articles, and make your presence known in tech forums. Though this approach takes a good amount of patience and time, you will end up with many followers. Then you can promote your business in a way that your followers would become your customers and spread the news.

Search Engine Optimization

Anyone who wishes to start a business online would be familiar of the term SEO. Search engine optimization is what you do to get your website and business noticed by search engines, and have your website ranked high in search engine result pages (SERP).

SEO is not that complicated. You can find a number of articles that explain the general concept, and learn helpful tips to improve your ranking in Google, the most widely used search engine in the world.

Once you understand the concept, you can begin by using tools like Google Analytics to identify the terms people use to search for the services your business offers. Seed those words or ‘keywords’ on the content and landing pages in your website to catch the attention of search engine crawlers, and boost your relevance in searches. Earning backlinks from other reputed websites can give your website a significant SEO boost.

Backlinks

As the name suggests, backlinks are basically links that take users back to your website from another website. Google values backlinks a lot. A couple of high-profile backlinks can give you a great boost in search engine rankings. Earning backlinks won’t be easy. You will need to get in touch with other businesses similar to yours, do favors, and earn backlinks from them.

You can post popular articles related to your products/services from reputed websites, and request backlinks in return. Do not expect results overnight but when you start getting backlinks, you will notice the impact on your website’s rankings.

Email Newsletters

Email newsletter is how you get your message to people who would be interested in the services you offer. Email newsletters are mostly targeted to a specific audience – your subscribers. There are plenty of email newsletter platforms available to manage your contacts, and schedule newsletters to be sent to them. Most platforms won’t cost you more than $30 a month.

Email newsletters can also be used to give promotional offers to subscribers encouraging them to try out your services instead of simply advertising them.

Articles

Post relevant articles. Get people to read them. Sit back and watch your business’ increasing popularity. Sounds easy, right?

Not so in practice.

Well written, informative, and interesting articles are not that easy to write. But they do give exponential results. Articles can increase your followers, get them to visit your website via backlinks and increase web traffic, and can enhance your business presence in more ways than you think. Relevant, good quality articles also positively influence your SEO.

A single article can continuously drive traffic to your website. One impressive article is better than having ten run-of-the-mill articles that people don’t want to spend time reading. You can post articles on your websites and on free article-submission platforms to increase followers. Make sure to promote your best articles through social media platforms.

Forums

Forums are online communities where people get together to discuss various stuff. It’d be easy for you to find forums that discuss web hosting. All that’s left is to contribute information, make yourself known, make friends, and build trust with people. If your services are good, they will help get your business more exposure.

The post Web Hosting 101: 6 Ways to Market Your Web Hosting Business appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

Web security experts and web hosting companies have already started rolling out guidelines to web owners to educate them on fortifying their digital defenses. Tech behemoths like Google have implemented advanced firewalls to protect their web assets from cyber-attacks. The search engine giant also recommended measures to protect web properties. Among those, the two most significant measures include:

• Migrating to HTTPS
• Using SSL to secure confidential data and keep them safe from cyber intrusions

SSL and How it Works

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) was introduced by Netscape as an encryption technology to encrypt the connections between web servers and the viewers’ web browsers. SSL secures the connections ensuring safe data transfers, and protects the data from intrusions, tampering, and forgery.

In a nutshell, an SSL certificate is basically a padlock with a cryptographic key. The ‘padlock’ is a combination of small data files that can be installed on a web server. Once installed, the file invokes https protocol and activates the ‘padlock’ to secure connections from a server to a web browser.

To put it in technical terms, SSL certificates use two public keys and one private key. The public keys secure the connection with encryptions while the private key decrypts. The keys add one additional layer of protection to your data, securing your messages from the rest of the world, and from cyber threats.

Types of SSL Certificates

Your web hosting company can give you these 5 types of SSL certificates using the same standard encryption methods. However, each type has its own requirements.

• Single Domain SSL: Like the name says, this certificate protects only a single domain, and therefore an ideal option for small websites that mostly post content. An eCommerce website with a single domain for all transactions can use this SSL certificate for excellent security.
• Multi Domain SSL: A multi domain SSL or SAN (Subject Alternative Names) can encrypt an entire suite of websites – multiple similar domains. However, there is generally a cap on the number of websites this SSL can encrypt, which is decided by the domain registrar.
• Organization SSL: This certificate is akin to Single Domain SSL and can authenticate an organization’s identity. The certificate also encrypts the payment components of an organization’s website.
• Wildcard SSL: This is an ideal option for transaction-heavy websites. It can comprehensively encrypt every subdomain of a single domain.
• Extended SSL: The Extended SSL is the one that grants the most security among all types of SSL certificates. The certificate not only verifies the domain but also checks the legal aspects of the website. Have you ever noticed green address bars for some websites while browsing? That’s an extended SSL.

These are 5 important SSL certificates your website can use. Buying one is quite hassle-free, and you can set one up by contacting a domain registrar. You can also have a reputed web hosting company do it for you.

The post The Various Types of SSL Certificates Your Website Can Have appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

This means you won’t have to rely on expensive dedicated hosting servers, right?

Wrong.

It may seem impressive, but it’s clouded by a lot of myths. We need to dig out the truth behind unlimited hosting before deciding to go for one.

Unlimited bandwidth and storage: Is it possible?

When it comes to digital services and products, the terminologies differ. For example, “unlimited” literally means having no limits or end. But technically, it’s not the same when it comes to hosting. In a nutshell, what they mean by unlimited hosting isn’t actually ‘unlimited’ hosting in the literal sense.

Unlimited hosting is limited in reality.

Let’s get technical.

The idea of unlimited hosting will give people dreams of having terabytes of their images and videos stored on their web host. That will just stay as a dream though, because there are limitations. Take the physical world for starters. You will need unlimited RAM and CPU to make that dream come true. That means you are going to need unlimited semiconductors to make infinite RAM and CPU, not to mention unlimited cables for unlimited bandwidth. And hire unlimited people to maintain those unlimited servers and networks. Hope you get the point.

‘Unlimited’ is just a term hosting companies use to bait uninformed website owners. They run the business for money.

So what is it then?

To get a better idea, think about an all-you-can-eat buffet. You can’t eat too much obviously, but you can eat all you want to. Unlimited hosting is similar. You can use as much disk space and bandwidth as you want, but you obviously wouldn’t want that much.

You won’t be able to eat more at an all-you-can-eat buffet once your stomach is rigged to explode. Similarly, you won’t be able to use more ‘unlimited’ stuff in an unlimited hosting plan once a certain limit’s reached.

The hosting provider will most certainly have house rules that you need to abide by while using their ‘unlimited’ hosting solutions. There would be a red zone, where you won’t be able to move further. Once your website hits the red zone using all the ‘unlimited’ resources, the hosting provider would simply pull the plug or pull you back by charging you more for the service. This is how it works.

So it’s a scam by greedy businesses then?

Now you might be thinking that this was just another scam from dishonest businesses. That’s not always the case, because there are bright sides to unlimited hosting too.

A large hosting company will have an inexplicable amount of resources like manpower, servers, bandwidth lines etc. A single website practically will not be able to exceed such an amount of resources in its life. Generally, most websites will not need that much resources to function properly with all features working fine.

In such a situations, many companies would go for overselling i.e. reselling their unused hosting capacity – the remains after websites use up the required resources.

So should we choose unlimited hosting then?

Unlimited hosting may seem like an unethical practice but that doesn’t necessarily mean the hosting company is bad. What matters is an efficient server and reliable technical support. As long as they deliver those two, the companies shouldn’t be criticized for their way of doing business.

So should you go for unlimited hosting?

You can if you want to, after making sure the hosting company delivers quality service of course, and is not a substandard company trying to grab as much money as they can.

The easiest way to decide whether the hosting company’s ‘unlimited’ deal should be taken is to sign up for a trial of the service by spending a little amount of money, and then look at the things you are getting from the service – the support, the quality, performance, efficiency, reliability, resources etc. If you don’t like what you see, you can cancel the service during the trial period itself. You can also check reviews or contact existing clients of the company to get some feedback on their services.

Conclusion

• Unlimited hosting is not practical and is just a marketing tactic.
• The features of an unlimited hosting solution in no way indicates that the quality of the service is good.
• Web hosting is more than disk space and bandwidth.
• A reliable hosting company is what matters in the end.

The post Unlimited Hosting – Myths & Facts appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

And therein lies the catch…

An unreliable hosting service, despite giving your business an online presence, will occasionally end up making it inaccessible to prospective customers at times when they want to check your website out.

So what does people generally expect from a reliable hosting service then?

• Cost-effectiveness
• 99.9% uptime
• 24/7 technical support
• Ability to handle mission critical applications
• Responsiveness

…just to name a few.

But generally people just want a cost-effective hosting solution. Most of them end up availing shared hosting service. For a business, this is actually not a good deal. In the long run, shared hosting just wouldn’t cut it. This leaves them with three other alternatives.

• VPS hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Cloud hosting

Before we get into details, let’s analyze why shared hosting isn’t a good idea for businesses.

Shared hosting’s low price tag is the decisive factor that makes it preferable to many website owners. But there are other variables that people don’t usually bother to consider. First off, shared hosting is not something that promotes the growth of a business. Your website will be sharing server resources with other websites. If a few of those neighboring websites utilize a lot of server resources, your website will be left to function with what remains; and it won’t be enough to guarantee accessibility to your potential customers at all times.

As a matter of fact, it can slow down your website. This is known as the bad neighbor effect. However, shared hosting is easier to set up and is a good start to just launch your website. But once your website starts to grow and traffic starts to increase, you will be forced to switch to a better hosting solution.

The Alternatives – VPS or Dedicated?

You have 3 alternatives – Cloud, VPS, and Dedicated. But in this blog, we will analyze facts and features to help make the choice between VPS and dedicated servers.

Virtual Private Servers

The best way to describe VPS is to think of it as a condo. When you own a condo, you will be responsible in maintaining it. However, you and the others in the building will be sharing a few resources. VPS is quite similar. Your website will be hosted on a virtual private server (a virtual compartment of a physical server). That is your condo. There will be other virtual compartments that house other websites, and each function independently.

You will get access to the resources you pay for. Other websites on the machine will not be affecting your website’s performance in any way. It also offers more security than shared hosting, and costs much less compared to a low-end dedicated server.

Other benefits include:

• Scalability; you can add or remove resources depending on your business needs
• Great control and security with root access
• Minimal server load, in most cases, results in a comparatively better performance

So basically this is pretty much a more reliable version of shared hosting. And the only limitation you should be worried about is the reliability of the hosting service provider. If you don’t have complete access to all the resources you paid for, your website will run out of breath at peak loads.

Dedicated Servers

One of the best albeit costlier alternative to shared hosting, dedicated hosting solutions give you a server dedicated to serving your website alone. You will not have to share resources with any other websites. Shared hosting may be prone to connectivity issues, downtimes, and even speed drops. Issues like that don’t exist in a dedicated server.

However, you should be mindful of the amount of resources your dedicated hosting solution provides. It’s primarily of use to websites with high or consistently increasing traffic.

Benefits include:

• More power and control over resources than other hosting alternatives
• Can handle high traffic without any issues
• Reliable and highly secure
• Customizable; you have the choice of using the software and hardware the way you want
• Supports a plethora of scripting languages

There are two things you need to be aware of if you are interested in availing a dedicated hosting solution. First, the amount of resources the server provides you. Make sure your website has more than enough to function even at peak loads. Second, go for a managed dedicated server if you think you can’t maintain the server on your own. If you go for an unmanaged dedicated server, you will either have to maintain/upgrade/repair the server by yourself or hire help from technicians.

Its biggest limitation is that it’s costlier than other hosting alternatives. If by some chance the server crashes, it will take a good amount of time to get it fixed.

Analysis

• VPS is less expensive comparatively and comes with reasonably good features for a low-mid scale website. Dedicated servers are expensive, robust, secure, and ideal for large websites with high traffic.
• Dedicated servers are comparatively more scalable than virtual private servers.
• VPS offers just enough security for a website to function (generally), while dedicated servers offer the best security you can get in the hosting sector.

Conclusion

Let’s make things easier. Ask yourself the following questions to figure out the right kind of hosting solution you will need.

• Is your website small, medium, or big?
• What is your budget to avail a reliable hosting package?
• Once the website grows, will there be a lot of traffic?
• Does your website accept payments for products or services, and does it save sensitive information of registered users in its database?

If your website is big and the traffic keeps increasing, a dedicated server will do you justice. If it’s small and you are not expecting a big spike in traffic, you can manage with a VPS package. If there are sensitive information involved, you would need robust security. A dedicated server is the best option when it comes to security. So basically, your choice ultimately depends on how big the website is, and its demands.

The post Making the Choice between VPS and Dedicated Servers to Replace Your Shared Server appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

And it’s all about time and speed these days. How fast can a vehicle go? How fast is your internet? Does that website load fast? People feel rushed and stressed, and are struggling to keep up with day-to-day activities. It’s no wonder why they prefer something to be done faster just to save time. They fill their lives with smartphones, laptops, and handheld devices for faster shopping, to manage schedules, and even to arrange for cabs to pick them up the moment they leave office.

This speed orientated culture is common across the globe. The faster things are done, the happier people become. This is also the reason why people become quickly frustrated with slow-loading websites. They expect a website to load quickly when they visit.

Website loading time has to do with many other things, according to research. Consider an online shopping website. Every time it loads slowly, conversion rates decline consequently reducing profit.

A few other facts:

• A delay in loading considerably decreases customer satisfaction
• Search engines like Google don’t appreciate slow loading sites. Such sites will have a comparatively lower rank in search engine results
• The faster the site loads, the more likely it is for the user to recommend it to others.

There are proven facts about the potential of a fast-loading website. But that’s not our topic at hand. Basically, a fast loading website plays a part in the success of your business.

So how can one speed up a website?

There are a lot of ways. But before you begin the optimization process, first make sure you have an analysis of the current loading speed of your website. You can use Google PageSpeed Insights for that. This can help you compare the change in speed post optimization. The next important step is to back up your site just in case.

Here are a few ways you can speed up your website without hassle.

A New Web Host

Your web hosting solution could be one of the biggest reasons why your website is slow. So the first thing to do is to analyze your web host to determine if it’s the reason. If it is, you can shift to a different, reliable web hosting provider. Additionally, you can also use services from a web security provider that essentially reduces the load on your web host. Loading files from CDN would become easier as it will bypass the server you use, effectively speeding up the website.

Bonus tip: A good hosting provider will have invested in giving you a great experience by leveraging server-side tools to give your website enhanced performance and security. They will always be available for support 24×7.

Unnecessary Add-ons and Plugins

These two significantly reduces your website speed. You will have to pay more attention to them if you are using open source cms platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal. The number of plugins you use is not necessarily the important factor always. The quality of the plugins you use matter a lot. Plugins that load a lot of scripts or that operates with remote requests should be avoided.

So basically, use plugins only if they are absolutely necessary. If it seems like they are slowing the website down, you will have to either remove them or replace them with better ones that won’t tax your website.

Enable Caching

Active caching boosts considerably boosts the speed of your website. This is because it will store a version of your website on the browser, and serves you that version till you choose to update the website or refresh the version. There are many ways to enable website caching. Your hosting provider might also assist you in determining one.

Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

Make sure your website is hosted in a server that is close to or at the same location you operate from. For instance, some providers host websites in servers located in the US. The owners of those websites in the US will have an advantage here with faster websites. But people from other parts of the world, say from Asia, will not have the same advantage.

This is where CDN comes in. A CDN essentially distributes your website files across interconnected servers in different locations of the world. So the server closest to the visitor’s geographic location will be serving the website to the visitor, accounting for a faster website performance.

Website Theme

Even the website theme impacts the speed of a website. Even if the speed difference is in milliseconds, it is still not something to neglect. It has been proven that changing the theme alone consequently boosts website speed. A theme with a cumbersome code can degrade site performance so much that even a good server configuration won’t be of help.

Optimize Images

Images in your website that aren’t optimized utilize more server resources than optimized images. Because of this reason, the website takes longer to load. There are ways to reduce the size of the image without compromising image quality. This optimization requires you to use a specific set of tools. For WordPress websites, you can use Kraken or EWWW Image Optimizer.

Optimize Database

CMSs that rely a lot on database usage will find this very effective in boosting their website’s speed. However, in most other cases, this is mostly neglected. Plugins that keep increasing data in the database consequently slows down the website. By regularly optimizing your database, and cleaning up the junk files, your website will show signs of better performance.

For WordPress websites, you can use the WP-Optimize plugin. For other websites, you can find manual tutorials in the internet. It can be a bit tedious, but the results are invaluable.

Others Hotlinking Images in Your Website

Each time someone hotlinks the images in your website, you will be losing a portion of your bandwidth since the request is processed by your server every time that someone’s visitors try to view those images. So it’s best to disable hotlinking images hosted by your server.

Conclusion

Assuming you have backed up your website, compare the speed of your website post implementing the suggestions above. Remember that this is not a one-time deal. Owners of websites should be vigilant at all times, and monitor their website activities closely to detect performance drops and rectify them.

The post Not Speeding Up Your Website Will Cost You appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

People normally look for easy ways to do things. Internet made finding things easy. Google made it easier. So right now, the easiest way to find a web hosting solution is to google it. You can search for either ‘the cheapest hosting provider’ or ‘best hosting provider’ or something like that. But the catch is that what you find might not always be the best deal for you.

When it comes to hosting your website which potentially carries the future of your business in it, you should be a bit more careful.

Finding a hosting provider is easy. Finding the right one is a challenge.

If you can nail the right hosting provider, your website will be able to take your business to new heights. Downtimes, slow performance etc. won’t be blocking your way.

Rule 101 to nail the right hosting provider – Do not settle for anything less than that which will truly get the most out of your website.

Here’s one way to find the right provider – Ask questions. Their answers will tell you whether they are good as they claim to be.

1. What’s your security policy?

Their answer should include the security measures they employ to protect the data. Each type of hosting package, may it be shared, cloud or dedicated, will have security features unique to that package. They should be explaining it specifically. You should also ask them how often they do anti-malware/anti-virus scans.

If you are running an eCommerce website or any website that handles sensitive customer data, an SSL certificate is recommended. Those hosting providers who offer SSL certificates should make their way up your list.

2. How reliable are your servers and what can you say about your uptime?

When you approach hosting providers for their services, your catchphrase should be “Downtime is a No No”. After that you can ask them about their server reliability. Their answers should indicate that they have stable network connections with a 99% or more uptime. Below 99% uptime is not recommended. A web hosting operating 24×7 with an uptime score of 99.5% is a great deal.

3. What’s your backup policy?

You may have heard of hosting companies offering regular backups. When you are about to hire one, you should ask them to define that ‘regular’ they are promising. Many companies back up the data once a day. Some more than once. But there are hosts that don’t actually perform daily backs. This question will let you know which category the host in question belongs to.

4. What if there’s a power outage? Will you be accountable for it?

Obviously there will be Yes and No answers. Regardless of what the answer is, you should keep pushing by asking them to explain. If the answer is and when they start explaining, inspect when the company holds themselves responsible and when they don’t.

It’s also wise to ask them if they can be flexible enough to amend this clause if necessary. This could be useful when there is a power outage due to factors beyond the host’s control. Ask them if they would charge you in such a scenario.

5. Is the service scalable?

Depending on the type of your business, your web hosting requirements will vary. Some could do well with a shared hosting plan while others may require dedicated servers. Ask the host about the web hosting services available, and then ask them about their scalability.

There could be policies for scaling up or down. If the hosting provider doesn’t give a lot of hosting options, you may have to leave your current host and find a new one that can properly accommodate your website without affecting its performance. Depending on whether your business shrinks or grows, you will need to scale the hosting plan appropriately.

This is why it’s best to approach a host who provides a range of hosting options that you can upgrade or downgrade to depending on your business requirements.

6. What are your customer support policies?

This is a question that you can ask both the host and their present or former customers. Technical support and timely customer service are very important factors that define the quality of a host’s service.

They should be quick to respond should their clients need help resolving a technical issue. Reliable hosting companies offer 24×7 customer support including holidays. Make sure to ask them about their response and resolution time.

Other customers of the host can give you a review of the host’s quality. Also, don’t forget to ask them how you can reach out to them when necessary.

And now for the last question

7. What if I am not satisfied with your service?

Ask the host if they have a trial package for you to test their service. If they don’t, enquire about their customer satisfaction policies and whether they provide any kind of guarantee for their services.

If you are dissatisfied after you start using their services, and you want to migrate to a different hosting provider, you need to make sure the hosting provider wouldn’t complicate the migration. You should know if they offer a refund policy and how they can help you move your stuff out to a different server.

End-note

As I mentioned before, it really is challenging to find the right hosting provider. The results are worth the time you spent researching. These questions can help you identify the host that’d be perfect for your business. However, it doesn’t mean that these are the only things you can ask a host related to the services they offer.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask them. They are obligated to answer your queries. Don’t take a call trusting their words alone. Check the feedbacks of their customers as well (Plan B). Good luck.

The post 7 Essential Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Web Hosting Provider appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

The basic survival kit for businesses in the digital world

For a business to survive in the wild, harsh environments of the digital realm, it requires

• An appealing website
• A dependable web hosting provider
• Excellent marketing and SEO strategies
• Patience

Now, the first one in the kit is a no brainer. A website is basically the business’ identity in the digital world. It generates revenue, acquires more customers, retains them, and is capable of more. But there is a catch. For the website to be effective, it needs a home – a place where it will be secure and nourished.

This is where the second item in the kit comes into play.

(The third and fourth item in the kit are another story for another time)

A Dependable Hosting Company

Dependable can mean anything good, like reliable, safe, supportive, secure, robust…

The company makes sure you have the right web hosting service for your business so that your website is at its best at all times. This means great server response times, excellent uptime, adequate bandwidth and storage, 24/7 customer support etc. But these are all obvious facts anyone familiar with web hosting would know.

So what does it mean for your business if the hosting company is not that dependable? For starters, surviving the online business world becomes difficult.

Your website becomes vulnerable to a number of threats.

Threat to Data Integrity

Business emails, financial transactions, customer feedbacks, customer credentials… These are all data that feeds a business. In the case of your business, you could use these data for a lot of things from improving operations to optimizing business strategies. You don’t want this data to fall into the wrong hands or lose it to malicious programs like viruses or malware.

A DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack on the server which overcomes even the firewall means chaos. Even the administrator won’t be able to access the data in most cases. A hacked server which automatically keeps sending spammy emails is another example. The email service provider might block the DNS server from where the spammy emails originate. This means authorized account holders won’t be able to send mails.

If your hosting company isn’t competent, this could ruin them and your business in no time.

Physical Threats

The host will have the servers secured at remote data centers in most cases, promising that your data will be safe. But there are a lot of hosting providers out there who still doesn’t have the right security measures to prevent unauthorized access to their data centers.

A dependable hosting company would have 24/7 physical security, biometric access and deployable emergency protocols to protect this data. A data center without adequate security means your data is accessible to those who have access to the data center.

Server-related Threats

This is something you should give a lot of importance to. The server is supposed to give 100% uptime for websites. But that’s technically not possible. A reliable host server will offer an uptime of 99% or higher. Anything lower than that is looked at with doubt in the industry.

Apart from this, the server may experience a lot of technical issues. You would want your host to resolve the issue immediately before it starts to affect your website’s performance. An unreliable hosting company means you can’t expect them to fix it all in time.

A dependable hosting provider on the other hand will have a team of professionals ready at all times to answer your calls and troubleshoot the issues.

Conclusion

A dependable web hosting provider works akin to a bank. Banks secure your valuables in their lockers. There will be many lockers. But a user can unlock only those lockers that he’s authorized to unlock. Security protocols ensure that. The bank is responsible for providing that level of security to safeguard those valuables. A dependable host does the same.

Even in a dedicated server hosting solution where the server houses only your website, and there is no other user in the server who can access your website’s data, there should be security mechanisms to secure those data should someone try to access it externally. A dependable host will have that.

So basically, the difference between a dependable host and an undependable one is that the former ‘will’ have everything required to keep your website and its data safe and secure, while the latter ‘should’ have those things to fulfill the same purpose. ‘Will’ and ‘Should’.

So back to our topic…

What is the future of your business without a dependable hosting company?

Honestly,

THERE IS NO FUTURE!!!

Start with a dependable hosting company by your side, and you will only have to focus on your business, and not on keeping your website intact.

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Your website can get blacklisted for a lot of reasons. Google does it too. Too often. An estimated average of 10000+ websites get blacklisted daily by the search engine, mostly because of malware infections, exposing sensitive information etc.

So what happens once a website gets blacklisted?

The website owner will panic. The web hosting provider will have their hands full cleaning up the mess and getting the site back to running condition. This can be a bigger problem for businesses that don’t have advanced security specialists or monitoring tools for their website. In many cases, they won’t even realize that their websites have been blacklisted until it’s too late.

Analyzing the problem

Let’s consider the case of those businesses that can’t afford to implement security measures good enough to alert them when their sites get blacklisted. Most of the time, the owners come to know of the mishap after getting alerts from their browser or search engine when they try to access their sites. And chaos ensues.

Once a website gets blacklisted, time is of the essence. For businesses, every minute lost with a blacklisted website could mean not only lost revenue but also damage to their reputation. SMBs and startups suffer more as they won’t normally have wallets heavy enough to get through the ordeal.

A blacklisted website might lose its organic traffic from marketing which in turn negatively impacts the sales. As for the web host, the situation stands to undermine their credibility.

Fixing the problem

If it’s because of a malware infection, it could take more than a few hours, maybe even days, to remove it completely and cleanse the website. And that depends on the severity of the infection, and whether the website has an effective backup mechanism.

Removing infections and restoring backup is just step 1. The second step involves convincing Google to ‘unblock’ the website.

A simple 2 step fix right? Easier said than done.

The unblocking process may take hours.

Where web hosting providers come in

They have their work cut out for them. A blacklisted website of one of their customers can impact the providers’ business as well. Generally, many website owners tend to think it’s the hosting platform’s fault that they can’t access their website, when the website is blacklisted. Regardless of the reason for getting blacklisted, it wouldn’t be easy for hosting providers to get the website off the blacklist.

Reliable web hosting providers may have a plan to follow in case of such emergencies, to remediate the problem and minimize the damage. There are a lot of effective tools providers can use to get the de-blacklisting process done as fast as possible, thereby garnering the trust of clients. Good hosts won’t be using a lot of resources while fixing the problem.

Blacklisting problem can be a mess but it won’t be giving anyone a hard time if the site owners use powerful backup tools. They can restore the website to the way it was, with adequate support from the web host.

To remediate the problem quickly and efficiently, and have the websites back in action, the hosting providers should be aware of the following:

• Using good antivirus programs to quarantine malicious files from on administrators’ systems.
• Change passwords for everything that presently uses a password including logins, FTP, CMS accounts, databases etc.
• Make sure clients have installed latest versions of the applications and software they use including the OS.
• Delete all modified files added to the server after the issue was first identified. After deleting all the files, perform the complete system restore. Cloud-based backup/recovery features make it easier for hosting providers.
• Request Google to review the website again and remove the website from the blacklist. Google Webmaster Tools is required for this.

There are many threats to a website. Getting blacklisted is just one of them. This should make it clear why it’s important for every web host and site owner to have tools at the ready to get their websites and their data back online, should a mishap occur.

The post Website Blacklisting: How Hosting Providers Can Help with That appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

Striking a balance!!!

Striking a balance between on-premises and off-premises computational systems, the business operations, the storage and the time to the cloud…

If it sounds complicated, let me assure it’s a bit more complicated to put into practice. But businesses do manage somehow. Now things have gotten easier thanks to the evolution potential of cloud technology.

Cloud computing has been intriguing IT people and corporate decision makers for years now because it can give that balance they have been seeking. Many of them realized its potential. Still many are reluctant to shift to the cloud because of security concerns. Having all the data in the cloud logically means they’ve been made accessible to almost every one right? On the contrary, no they aren’t. But that’s another story for another time.

I am here to introduce you to one of the latest evolutions of the cloud which impacts web hosting – The Hybrid Cloud.

A lot of companies that took the leap of faith by adopting cloud technology for their businesses are having a great time now. Still there’s some confusion regarding the necessity for various cloud solutions to meet a wide array of client needs.

We will consider the web hosting needs for now, which brings us to…

Hybrid Cloud Hosting

It’s a web hosting model that employs both public and private cloud services.

Let me put it this way.

You know how good dedicated servers are when it comes to security. You are the single tenant in a dedicated hosting server, which essentially means robust security systems and all the server resources for your website alone. Now combine that trait with the many benefits of public cloud. The result is Hybrid cloud hosting.

Still don’t get it?

Okay, let me cram it up in a nutshell.

Hybrid cloud hosting provides an absolute solution for an organization by coupling private and public cloud.

You might be thinking of the benefits now? How is it better than a dedicated server or a public cloud service? Well for starters, you don’t have to deal with any limitations of both.

Let’s look at the benefits to give a better idea.

Benefits of Hybrid cloud to give you a better idea

1. The right solution for the right job

Public cloud helps you deal with spiking traffic with a scalable service where you pay as you grow. There will be other tenants in the environment. Dedicated server is where you are the only tenant – a service ideal for a moderate control over traffic and for mission critical applications requiring advanced security.

With that said, let’s start thinking about the many use cases of a business. Different types of applications of a business will have different sets of requirements. While a public cloud can aid start-ups, handle web traffic spikes, and benefit test and development, it has limitations when it comes to security for mission critical applications.

Dedicated servers can give that but has limitations when it comes to handling applications with variable demand patterns.

Hybrid cloud combines the benefits of these two to provide the solution you need when you need it. Dedicated, public cloud and private cloud servers essentially function as a single platform providing a one size fits all solution. Technical barriers are not going to be a problem. Trade-offs are so insignificant that they are negligible.

End result – More focus on growing the business and reaching your business goals.

This same benefit brings us to the next one.

2. Enhanced business agility and flexibility

Public cloud aspect of the hybrid cloud solution aids you in times of heavy usage effectively reducing the likelihood of outages and minimizing downtimes. Host the applications in the development & testing phase temporarily till you can decide where to host them permanently.

When it comes to hosting, customers may expect a lot. They will want the services to be seamless. This is where the ‘self-service’ aspect of hybrid cloud comes into play. The customers will get the scalability and cost efficiency benefits of a public cloud (off-premises infrastructure) while housing their key applications on a private cloud. This way, the customers will have more control, allowing them to determine even the scalability of the service by themselves.

End result – Enhanced business agility and flexibility for their enterprises. Meanwhile hosting vendors won’t need a lot of technical staff, and can focus better on priority requests.

3. Improved security

Almost all of the security concerns a business will have can be addressed by combining both cloud and dedicated resources. When it comes to securing personal information of customers and their transactions, businesses used to rely on a dedicated hardware (because…robust security systems). Cloud wasn’t an option.

Now that hybrid cloud is here, they can have sensitive information totally secured on a dedicated server while still retaining the scalability and high performance of the cloud.

End result – Security benefits of dedicated server and scalability/performance benefits of the cloud combined will let them seamlessly conduct business and financial transactions in a secured, agile environment.

Conclusion

Everything you read till now is what hybrid cloud offers in the web hosting department. It’s a solution that gives power to customers while meeting the varying demands of businesses whenever necessary. You basically pay for what you use while having your business run in a high performance, scalable, secure and responsive environment. The self-service aspect is what makes it intriguing.

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