Posts Tagged ‘dedicated servers’

Why Businesses need to be PCI Compliant

Friday, September 18th, 2009

We all want to know that our financial information is protected when shopping at online and traditional businesses. Unfortunately, many people have learned the hard way about fraud after they have lost thousands of dollars. Although businesses have taken a number of measures to improve their security, there are still many online shady individuals engaging in credit and debit card fraud. Online criminals are constantly seeking new ways of gaining access to people’s financial and personal information. The financial cost of fraud is massive. Any business that accepts credit and debit card payment information should comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Businesses need to assure their customers that they are protected by complying with the PCI DSS.

Consumer confidence in how personal information is managed is one of the most critical elements required for a businesses success. Creating and fostering a good business reputation can take years, but destroying it can be instant. A multi-million dollar business can be irrevocably harmed by the loss of their reputation. With the creation of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the assistance that has been much needed has now been developed to secure the use of credit and debit cards. Businesses that process and store customer credit and debit card data are now required legally to be PCI compliant and to conduct business practices under a strict set of rules. PCI compliancy has boosted confidence in spending by implementing twelve strict regulations which protects their customers’ personal and financial information from such threats as hackers, viruses, worms, Trojans and more.

PCI compliance covers a number of areas such as that installing a firewall, including encryption during transmission of card data, implementing regular updates of anti-virus software, and implementing computer maintenance and protocols such as monitoring and testing the networks in order to reduce security breaches.

PCI compliance has provided consumers and businesses with the security and assurance to trust in carrying out business transactions safely and securely online and in person. PCI DSS drastically reduces the risk of identity theft and fraud, thereby reducing customer loss and profit loss.

Increased knowledge of the PCI system and the implemented safeguards and regulations, tells customers that the risk of having their information stolen is significantly reduced. As well, the sizeable fines for non-compliance are a huge deterrent for one who fails to maintain compliancy. Smart Shoppers look for a secure site that is a PCI compliant company. Most people will not do business with an unprotected company.

Because business today depends on electronic transactions and payment processing for the majority of their payments, PCI compliance needs to be the highest priority. A business that fails to register for payment card identity compliancy will fall behind in an extremely competitive business world.

With the expansion and constant development of the internet, consumers are now demanding high quality goods and services with a minimum risk of fraud. Being PCI compliant allows a customer to feel confidant and secure about the purchases they make. Knowledgeable and cautious shoppers look for security when shopping so it makes sense that a business becomes PCI compliant. The result will be repeat customers and an increase in conversions which will lead to an increase in profits.

As credit card fraud is increasing, businesses are becoming PCI compliant. In addition, SAS 70 Type II is practicing audits on a regular basis, combined with Data Centres Canada, a high degree of security is being offered to customers so they may be able to obtain a peace-of-mind to customers.

Thinking of Dedicated Server Hosting?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
by Todd Latiff

Web hosting is when customers who want to run their websites on WWW (World Wide Web) rent or lease space from companies who offer server space. Web host companies usually have gigantic servers with immensely huge storage capacity. As a customer, there are various different types of server hosting options available for you to choose from. One such option is managed server hosting.

What is a managed server? Managed server, as the name suggests, is the process whereby a customers gets to manage their own server. In other words, they simply lease the server from companies that have huge server capacity and then manage it on their own. While there are numerous types of server hosting options that are available, most people consider a managed server to be most effective.

Any customer who wishes to establish a website will need a server. The server for this can be leased or rent from large companies that are specialists in selling server space in the IT business. These web host companies have servers with immense storage capacity thanks to their gigantic server blocks. A customer can make a choice between the varied arrangements, configuration, capacity and many other factors.

Even though the cost to run a managed server is higher than a shared server, one thing that must always be kept in mind is that the benefits are way too higher and in the long run a managed server can reduce your overhead expenses and hence resulting in greater ROI (return on investment).

A customer has to employ different kind of strategy to mange the managed server and the shared server. There is a marked difference in the process of managing each type of server for the requirement of business of the customer. The managed server provides the full control to the customer regarding choice of application, hardware and the operating system. The shared server is not open to such entire control of customer.

The managed server will require you to spend more in the management of the server. Nevertheless, not only costs are to be considered; but also ease-of-use and other business determinants should also be considered while making a comparison between the different server types. With all the benefits incorporated into it, a managed server will generate more profits to your company.

The other major factor is the security standard of data availed in managed servers. The factor of data security is a primary and eminently important aspect of the website operation for any company. Managed server companies utilize the most stringent security measures for safeguarding data of customers.

A managed server customer will be very specific about the specific requirements of the server specific to the business. This will increase the chances of your business getting successful. This is because you are provided with the choice to make the necessary changes catering to the specific demands of your business. As in the turbulent financial times of the day, a managed server certainly fits in your business plan to enhance your business by cutting down expenses, increase efficiency and reap long-term benefits.

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Why Business Should Have Disaster Recovery Solution Plans In Place

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
by Amy Nutt

In business, it is very likely that times will come when there would be some form of trouble that would result in a loss of data by companies. A typical example is what happened during the September 11, attack on the world trade center where tons of documents were irretrievably lost. While some companies were smart enough to back some of their crucial data up, others basically lost everything.

Imagine a situation where you lose the contract form for a business contract that you really want to any form of mishap. That’s how bad it can get. Any smart business owner should know that while disasters may not be envisaged, it can happen.

Disasters do not necessarily have to be in the extremes such as floods, earthquakes and harsh weather conditions such as whirlwinds or cyclones, it could be just internal fires in the building or mistaken shredding important documents. As a result of the potential harm loss of data can cause, it is very worse to get a disaster recovery solution plan in place. This will ensure that even if all physical documents or data are lost, their soft copies can be retrieved from paces where they are stores.

To effectively plan a disaster recovery plan, certain steps need to be taken. These are:

1. Make an inventory of all potential risks: It is crucial for the IT department of a company to make a list of all potential causes of data losses and the possible solutions. Also included in this should be a list of risks that the company can afford to tale or data that may not harm the company very much of it is lost and those that it cannot with all the preventive measures and damage control measures. If the business is a small company just starting up, the best bet is to hire a team of IT experts to make a quick inventory and present the management with their conclusions.

2. Make a Rating for all of these potential dangers: This is very important in enabling a company decide what is important and what isn’t. A good example of this is a web hosting company with servers locate on site. An assessment of the effects of earthquake as against power outage is likely to show that the earthquake will be ranked fairly low compared to the power outage. So, the rating for each company would be customized to that company as each has its own unique needs and problems.

3.Develop the Disaster Recovery plan: This includes taking note of the time it would take for the recovery plan to be executed and the length of time a company can afford to remain out of reach before losing its customers. For example, a web hosting company that goes offline for just 24 hrs is likely to lose most of its clients to its competition.

4. Test Your Solution: After installing or putting the solutions in place, test the services. But ensure that your clients know about it so they don’t get worried.

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Web Hosting Business Automation

Sunday, July 5th, 2009
by Rich Brodsky

If you’re looking to make money in the web hosting business, don’t get scared away by how competitive it is. Sure the market is over-saturated and a new web hosting company seemingly pops up every 5 minutes, but the market is also huge and growing. Everyone these days either hosts websites or needs websites hosted. You can claim your piece of the pie, grow your revenues and your business without breaking a sweat, if you keep one word in mind – automation.

Just about every aspect of your web hosting business can take advantage of automation. With the wide variety of hosting control panels on the market these days – Plesk, Ensim and CPanel to name a few, hosting customers can create their own email and ftp accounts, check their stats, install software and even back up their own files, all without intervention or assistance from their hosting company. Usually these control panels have a multi-tiered system, with the top tier at the server level provided to the hosting company. Below that would be a reseller level tier, where your resellers can manage multiple domains for their customers. Finally there will be a control panel provided to each end-user, so that they can add their own email accounts, check stats etc. without requiring assistance from the host or reseller.

Usually things are set up so that the reseller provides technical support to their own customers, although there are some hosting companies that provide end-user support as well, which allows the reseller even more time to just concentrate on marketing and growing his customer base. Having some kind of automated control panel for end-users is absolutely essential, since not only does it save you time and money, but it empowers your customers to complete many important everyday hosting tasks, without having to wait for assistance from their host.

One of the most challenging tasks for any new host will be to provide technical support to their clients. If you don’t have a basic understanding of server administration and DNS, you may be best served by hiring someone who does. You can find companies to whom you can outsource your technical support needs as well. Generally these types of services use some kind of automated web -based ticketing system to answer customer queries. These web based ticketing systems like Kayako E-Support usually allow both outsourced and in-house support techs to work together while remaining transparent to the customer.

Finally there is the billing and provisioning end of things. There are a lot of well designed applications on the market tailored specifically to the needs of the web hosting industry, such as Modernbill and WHMCS. Systems like these will integrate with your server and control panel as well as with your domain registrar and online payment processor, such as Authorizenet or Paypal to give you a complete automated provisioning and billing system. Usually these systems have their own built-in order form as well, making the entire system truly automated. When a system like this is properly configured, someone interested in your services can view the different hosting plans offered on your website, sign up for the one he chooses, register a new domain name, fill out his contact and payment information and complete the process to sign up.

Then the system generates an invoice which is emailed to the customer. The transaction is then sent to the online payment processor, possibly going through a 3rd party fraud check service on the way and if approved, the domain registration gets sent to the registrar, the account gets provisioned on the server, according to the package and quotas that have been pre-defined in the control panel. Finally the customer receives an email copy of the invoice marked paid, along with a welcome email that contains the login and password information for the hosting account and access information for the client end of the billing system as well. Usually, these orders are placed into some kind of pending queue, awaiting moderation and approval by an administrator, before that final step, to guard against fraud.

So ultimately you have a complete end to end automated web hosting system even at the reseller level that leaves you free to market and grow your business and to support your customers without having to worry about the repetitive tasks of provisioning accounts, setting up email accounts, billing etc. If you’re truly looking to get into the web hosting arena with the hopes of growing your business, then look for a host who can provide you with these kinds of automated services, so you can concentrate on your customers needs and marketing and growing your customer base.

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When Should I Hire a Dedicated Server?

Sunday, May 24th, 2009
by Ricardo d Argence

When you made the decision to start your own website, you faced many different choices. Most likely you were offered many design choices, email addresses, blogging interfaces, and e-commerce choices.

Once your decision is made on everything above, it is necessary to decide about hosting and the different kinds you would like for your website. Most of the people start the computer business in a small manner and hence they would not need too much on the hosting server. A lot of people decide to go with basic or deluxe shared hosting.

The meaning of shared hosting is that many websites are being hosted on a single served. Often, this is all that is needed by a small business owner. What if your level of business increases, or if your clients assume that their information and business will be handled confidentially? Are you nervous about someone hacking into your server and causing damage on your website? Can one ensure that one’s database and server are secure from unauthorized visitors? Definitely, there is. A dedicated server is how you can be sure of this guarantee.

Unlike an unsecured shared server, a dedicated server is different. Shared servers are a popular choice when web hosting companies set customers up for hosting. Each customer on the server “shares” hard drive space and monthly bandwidth. This method causes many security problems with people on that particular server. A dedicated server is the exact opposite.

There is nothing on that server but your website and yourself. Having a dedicated server means it is used only by you. A dedicated server would be a good idea if you are running a highly confidential website such as a banking institution, doctor’s website, high traffic ecommerce site, and anything with content-sensitive material.

Many financial institutions and medical institutions use dedicated servers to host their websites. You can acquire a dedicated server simply by requesting one from your hosting company. But beware, unlike shared hosting, dedicated server hosting can be quite costly per month, because you have a complete server for yourself. There isn’t anyone or any other entity to split or share the cost with you. Check with your current hosting company to see what dedicated server plans they have to suit your website hosting needs.

There are many benefits to using a dedicated server. Security is one of the main benefits. You dont have to worry about people hacking your website anymore. The complete server and everything inside is yours. You have maximum storage space, more bandwidth, data transfer, and above all you have your own control panel.

Most control panels use Plesk Cpanel. And with the Cpanel come the many choices in software, for instance: WordPress, PHPBB, Joomla (CMS), Drupal, Siteframe, phplinks, MySQL databases, phpAdmin, apache, and the list goes on! However, as mention before dedicated servers can get very expensive. Sometimes it’s cheaper to get a dedicated server as opposed to renting shared space per month and per year.

Consider all these things before you choose and then ponder over them for a while. Before making your choice to switch to a dedicated server or to stay with a shared server, decide whether or not you can risk any compromises in your website’s security. If security is not an issue as much as lots of bandwidth, then maybe you could upgrade your shared server.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. If you deal with credit cards and other personal information on your site, you should really consider switching to a dedicated server hosting plan.

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A Look into the Best Dedicated Servers

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
by Calvin Wapasa

A simple search for web hosting on the web would have made you familiar with the large amount of ads for dedicated servers. If you’re a newcomer to computers and/or website hosting, you might know what this terminology refers to. A dedicated server hosts only your website; so you are, in essence, hosting your own website, with complete control of the bandwidth, space and security of the server.

In most cases, the provider will give you the equipment that you need as long as long as you continue to use their service. Frequently, and usually, the server provider will extend use of any equipment a website owner might need, in exchange for the continued patronage.

Better deals typically await a person purchasing a dedicated server if they go with an annual rate as opposed to a monthly one. It is not uncommon for providers to charge hundreds of dollars a month. For this reason, many choose to pay annually to attempt to save some money, but if you do so, you should know that this method carries risks that paying monthly does not.

You do face a risk when you pay your fees annually, even if you are able to save some money. A major concern is if the service provider you chose ends up going out of business, leaving you with out dated equipment. Another concern is that if you are unhappy with your service provider (or their customer service or) then you are still stuck with them for a full year.

If you want a great deal on a dedicated server, you’ll want to shop around before you buy. You’ll want to ensure that you have a provider who can give you great service as well as a great server. In the event of a server breakdown, you want to make sure that you can contact someone for help right away, otherwise you stand to lose a lot of money.

If you are lucky, you will be able to find a dedicated server provider who does not charge start up costs. You will have to upload your website onto the server in order to get it running, and many companies will charge you a fee for this. Admittedly, many people may be reluctant to pay what is a large fee to get there website and server going, but they should remember that it is strictly a one time fee. Once you have paid the start up fee, that’s it, and you’ll only have to pay the monthly fee from there on out.

Remember not to skimp on service while you are trying to save money as you start up your website. The best dedicated servers are reliable, offer excellent customer service and have large bandwidth and space. For this reason, it is naturally very important to make sure you have adequate bandwidth and space while you shop for your budget server. With some companies, you might get even less than that which you would get on a shared server.

A good place to start searching for quality dedicated servers is by searching on the internet. You can also discuss the best kind of providers with other website owners and try to get an idea about which providers they think are the best. Remember that good customer service is as crucial to the maintenance of your business as is the expanded bandwidth and space that your own server will provide.

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Data Management and Business Relations Dedicated Hosting for Your Online Business

Saturday, April 11th, 2009
by Melissa Humphreys

Now when shopping for a dedicated Web hosting server, you might be confused by the “managed” and “unmanaged” lingo. With an unmanaged Web hosting account, you or somebody in your company will need to know how to deal with the server first hand. That is when hiring a system administrator might come in handy. Then they can worry about all the server side problems and configurations.

Security is another good reason to go with a dedicated Web hosting server. With a shared Web hosting server, some things on the server itself are more open to see. Within a dedicated Web hosting server though you can keep more things to yourself and locked down for only your eyes to see.

Having your own Web hosting server also provides you with a more cost effective way of hosting more than one domain. You can split that Web hosting server up as many times as you want, depending on how much space each Web site needs. True, you could do that with a Web hosting reseller account too. The only problem is a reseller account is still on a shared Web hosting server. As long as you are on a shared Web hosting server you are going to have reliability problems.

With a managed dedicated server though, more of those worries are in the hands of the Web host you bought it from. The only problem you might run into there is you want to make sure your Web host has a good quality staff of folks who know what they are doing when they are working on your dedicated server.

With that being said, you can also expect to see greater performance from your Web sites. Without sharing the server’s resources with 10 to 100 other people, your pages will come up quicker, your scripts will run faster, and it will be as if your entire Web hosting experience was on steroids.

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Be More Dedicated To Your Business Business Data Solutions Manage Your Business with Dedicated Server Technology

Monday, March 30th, 2009
by Juce Huley

Dedicated servers are usually used for web sites that have grown beyond the basic standard web hosting account, and require a more comprehensive network. They are also used by larger companies that need separate systems for mail, web, and database servers.

Web hosting companies may have their sites spread over one or several servers. Dedicated servers are generally kept inside of data centers, so that they may be monitored by service providers.

A single computer on a web hosting network that is leased or rented, and dedicated to just one customer, comprises a dedicated server. A service provider will monitor the computer’s hardware, network connectivity, and routing equipment, while the customer generally controls and maintains the server software.

Web hosting companies may have their sites spread over one or several servers. Dedicated servers are generally kept inside of data centers, so that they may be monitored by service providers.

In the web hosting industry, a dedicated server is usually defined as the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, located on-site, within a web hosting company’s premises.

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Just What is a Dedicated Server?

Monday, March 9th, 2009
by Jillian Hewlett

In the web hosting industry, a dedicated server is usually defined as the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, located on-site, within a web hosting company’s premises.

In most cases, for compilation of related company web sites, that may develop a considerable amount of traffic, a dedicated server is usually needed. In many cases, the server may be configured and operated on a remote basis, independently located from the client company.

A single computer on a web hosting network that is leased or rented, and dedicated to just one customer, comprises a dedicated server. A service provider will monitor the computer’s hardware, network connectivity, and routing equipment, while the customer generally controls and maintains the server software.

Dedicated servers are usually used for web sites that have grown beyond the basic standard web hosting account, and require a more comprehensive network. They are also used by larger companies that need separate systems for mail, web, and database servers.

Web hosting companies may have their sites spread over one or several servers. Dedicated servers are generally kept inside of data centers, so that they may be monitored by service providers.

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Just What is a Dedicated Server?

Sunday, March 8th, 2009
by Kimberly Uteve Lora Jackson Beverly Hughes Clara Pottinger June Smitha Terrance LaHavy

In the web hosting industry, a dedicated server is usually defined as the rental and exclusive use of a computer that includes a web server, related software, and connection to the Internet, located on-site, within a web hosting company’s premises.

In most cases, for compilation of related company web sites, that may develop a considerable amount of traffic, a dedicated server is usually needed. In many cases, the server may be configured and operated on a remote basis, independently located from the client company.

A single computer on a web hosting network that is leased or rented, and dedicated to just one customer, comprises a dedicated server. A service provider will monitor the computer’s hardware, network connectivity, and routing equipment, while the customer generally controls and maintains the server software.

Dedicated servers are usually used for web sites that have grown beyond the basic standard web hosting account, and require a more comprehensive network. They are also used by larger companies that need separate systems for mail, web, and database servers.

Web hosting companies may have their sites spread over one or several servers. Dedicated servers are generally kept inside of data centers, so that they may be monitored by service providers.

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