Do You Need Dedicated Hosting?

Has your online business grown to the point where it exceeds the offerings of a shared hosting environment?  If so, it might to time to upgrade to dedicated hosting.  Often referred to as a dedicated server, dedicated hosting is a solution where you have the entire server to yourself.  The hosting provider monitors the hardware, routing equipment and network connectivity while granting you control over the server software. Though more complex and expensive than shared hosting, leasing a dedicated server gives you the unparalleled flexibility and control needed to run a thriving business that experiences a high volume of web traffic. Check out who’s got our Best Dedicated Hosting Award!

Because of its highly technical nature, many online business owners elect to outsource the administrative tasks of their dedicated servers to experienced IT professionals.  Despite the costs and complexity, dedicated web hosting can serve numerous benefits to your business, especially if you have the resources required to maintain the server.  Below are just a few of many advantages you will enjoy with this advanced web hosting solution.

Faster Server Response

One of the biggest knocks on shared hosting is slow server response time which is the direct result of sharing the machine and associated resources with other customers.  In this hosting environment, the performance of your site could suffer drastically if another site experiences a sudden boost in traffic. This spells bad news for your business when potential clients stop by and are greeted by pages that take forever to load.  With dedicated hosting, you have the server all to yourself, allowing you to plan for traffic levels and any other scenarios that may impact server response time.

Flexibility

What most business owners love about dedicated hosting is the flexibility it grants.  In a shared web hosting environment, you are limited to the operating system, software and technologies provided the web host.  A dedicated server allows you to choose your own operating system be it Windows or Linux, as well as customized software applications that best suite your business.

Scalability

Scalability is what you need to support the growth of your business.  Whereas options for upgrading are limited on a shared server, dedicated hosting allows you to scale up or down at any time.  With this hosting solution you can increase the amount of storage space, RAM processors and even purchase additional bandwidth to support an increase in web traffic.

Security

Security is one of the biggest reasons to consider dedicated server hosting.  Try as they may, a shared website hosting provider can never guarantee the security you get with your own server.  A dedicated server will be as secure as you make it as firewalls, virus protection and other security mechanisms can be installed.  The security of your applications and client data should be of the utmost importance if you are running a business.

Conclusion

Aside from all the benefits, you should also know that dedicated hosting isn’t suited for everyone.  For instance, if you are running a small ecommerce website with low to medium traffic, a shared server is probably the best option.  After establishing your business to a point where it requires more flexibility, only then should you consider moving up to dedicated hosting.

Peak 10 Makes Enhancements to Raleigh Data Center

Peak 10, a managed hosting service provider and independent data center operator, has enhanced its national image with advanced solutions through a recent partnership with PowerSecure and Process Energy.  This partnership has resulted in a custom power generation and protection solution that will allow Peak 10′s data facilities to continue the essential support customers need in today’s business economy.  Due to its continuous success in the Triad and Triangle regions, the provider is adding to its raised floor space in the Raleigh facility to compensate for the expansion.   The new power solution is designed to provide scalability on both the utility and generator levels, virtually eliminating power constraints in the future that could result from load growth.

Sidney Hinton, PowerSecure Chief Executive Officer, commends Peak 10′s Raleigh, North Carolina team for its proficiency and enthusiasm in regard to the expansion.  Hinton says that as a valued partner, Peak 10 has demonstrated unwavering devotion to delivering efficient solutions within a progressive data facility.  Greg Rollet, Peak 10 regional vice president of market operations, added that the collaboration with PowerSecure and Process Energy shows the providers dedication to its customers.  Rollet believes that the recent enhancements will enable the Raleigh facility to remain the most progressive and technically advanced data center in the Triangle region.

Company Info

Peak 10 currently owns and operates facilities in nine major markets including Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jacksonville and Tampa, Florida, Louisville, Kentucky, Nashville, Tennessee and Richmond, Virginia.  The provider’s managed hosting and data center services increase revenue, lower expenses and maximize internal resources for its customers all while keeping their most valuable assets close to the business.  Peak 10 combines its state of the art data centers, secure network and impressive portfolio of managed services, localized support and engineering to serve industry-leading organizations throughout the country.   Some of these companies include Churchill Downs, Global Knowledge, LendingTree, Pergo, Rivals.com and The Fresh market.   SAS 70 Type II compliant, Peak 10 helps these organizations meet requirements of various regulated compliance acts such as HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley.

Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Process Energy is a Fortune 250 energy company with over a 20,000 megawatt generation capacity and $9 billion in yearly revenue.  Approaching its 100^th birthday later this year, the company includes two major utilities that provide service to an estimated 3.1 customers in both the Triad and Triangle markets as well as Florida.  Progress Energy is the first utility company to receive the J.D Power and Associate Founder’s Award for its quality customer service.

Power Secure International is a leading energy management and conservation systems provider, delivering solutions to its utilities, commercial, industrial and institutional customers.  The company also provides solutions with regulatory and legal consulting, energy-efficient engineering and construction and energy conversation services.  PowerSecure forms relationships with trusted partners to develop and install Interactive Distributed Generation systems and other services that monitor load and peak demand conditions, enhancing system reliability while providing its customers with emergency power in the event of outages.

What is Managed Hosting?

Most large enterprises have an infrastructure in place that allows them to host their own web servers.  They have a team of IT experts to handle all the technical aspects along with developers to step in when updates are required.  However, if you are running a successful yet small to medium sized business, there is a good chance that you don’t have such resources.  In this case, you just may need a managed hosting provider.

Managed hosting refers to a hosting solution in which the provider tends to all the administrative tasks and operation of a dedicated server.  This type of arrangement is ideal for business owners who need a full turnkey service for managing hardware and software components, storage, network connectivity and all the requirements associated with a dedicated server.  Managed hosting is preferred by the those who desire a high level of support and services while  maintaining significant control over their server.  Because so many businesses rely on dedicated servers for mission critical tasks, the technical support, responsiveness and infrastructure of a managed hosting solution is typically greater than any other form of web hosting.

Though more expensive on the surface, managed hosting is actually a cost effective solution as it spares you of the large up front investment on the necessary software and hardware for the server.  Instead, you simply pay a monthly fee in return for a fully managed hosting solution.  In this regard, managed hosting is quite similar to outsourcing the technical aspects of your business to a team of professionals who are better equipped to handle them.

Who Needs Managed Hosting?

Ideal for the business who lacks technical knowledge and resources, managed hosting is also the perfect solution for those who need to focus on the core of their business.  This environment alleviates the hassle of maintaining a web server as well as the performance and security issues that come along with shared hosting.  The backing of a reliable infrastructure pretty much guarantees stability and all the flexibility you need at a fixed cost.

Managed Hosting Features

The services provided by a managed host range widely but generally include private networks, security products and database administration.  Some also extend their services to fully managed SQL server hosting.  In regard to server administration which is the standard feature, you can expect services like managed storage, connectivity, load balancing and monitoring and reporting of the server.  In most cases, physical maintenance such as servicing of the equipment is covered by the provider as well.  Add-on features such as software management can usually be obtained for an additional fee.

Summary

Managed hosting can be viewed as a tailor made hosting solution, allowing organizations to focus on marketing and actually running their businesses while all the complex tasks are handled by the experts.  As this solution doesn’t require a large up front investment, businesses can enjoy significant cost savings on handling a dedicated server.  When signing up with a good provider, you can better assure the availability of your online business with a server that puts out the best performance.

Crucial Paradigm Launches New VPS Solutions

Virtual Private Server or VPS hosting, has become extremely popular over the last couple of years, highly sought after because of its flexibility and cost-efficiency.  Those interested in this hosting solution will be glad to know that VPS has just became more beneficial.

Crucial Paradigm, a fast growing shared, reseller, dedicated server and managing hosting provider, recently made an announcement that it is expanding its VPS solution offerings.  The company’s new VPS hosting plans have already gone into effect, introducing a variety of entry-level and high-end services designed to provide more options for its existing and prospective clients.  With the recent upgrades, VPS hosting customers can now leverage two of the new entry-level plans which include generous offerings on disk space and allotted resources.

Crucial Paradigm director Aaron Weller, remarked that after more than five years in the web hosting industry, the provider has learned the importance of offering an array of hosting solutions that provide customers with the utmost in usability, flexibility and scalability.  Weller followed up by stating that the new VPS plans will broaden the range of hosting solutions Crucial Paradigm is able to offer, essentially broadening the spectrum of customers they are able to serve.

Crucial Paradigm’s new entry-level Linux VPS hosting plan begins at only $10 per month, offering access to 128 MB of memory, 15 GB of disk space and 75 GB of data transfer.  The Windows plan is attractive as well, starting at $25 per month with access to 256 of memory, 25 GB of disk space and a robust 150 GB of data transfer.  All Windows VPS plans are powered with the Windows Server Edition 2008 software with the Dotnetpanel control panel available upon request at no additional cost.

Not to be left out of the discussion is the two new high-end VPS hosting solutions offered by Crucial Paradigm.  According to Aaron Weller, the upgrade has resulted in one of the most extensive and powerful VPS platforms in the industry.  Customers hosting on a Linux server can now upgrade to the VPS-16384 plan.  This plan beings at $1200 per month, offering access to 16 GB of memory, 1600 GB of disk space and 6000 GB of data transfer.  Comparable to this solution is the Windows VPS plan which begins at $320 per month and offers access to 4 GB of memory, 400 GB of disk space and 2400 GB of data transfer.

Aside from the new VPS hosting plans for its clients in the United States, Crucial Paradigm has also introduced a number of enhanced VPS solutions for its customers in Australia.  The Australian division offers Linux VPS plans at AU $15 per month and Windows plans as low as AU $35 per month.  Existing customers are not automatically impacted by the upgrades as they have the option to upscale or downscale their web hosting plans according to personal requirements.

Crucial Paradigm was originally founded in 2003 and now operates in multiple locations across the globe.  The firm is most known for providing a wide range of custom hosting solutions based on the needs of each individual client.

NTTA To Unveil White Paper on Network Security

The internet consists of many dangers with threats seemingly lurking in every crevice of cyberspace.  We often hear words of warning for the everyday computer user, but the truth is that these malicious scams and infections can be just as, if not more damaging to large corporate networks.   NTT Communications intends to place emphasis on the importance of network security at the upcoming IEEE conference.

NTTA (NTTA America) Inc., wholly owned subsidiary of web hosting and services company NTT Communications, is set to discuss its latest white paper on network security.  The white paper focuses on the increasing number and development of network attacks, the impact of “silent threats” and how both small and large networks can help to mitigate these growing problems.  The paper is set to be presented by Darren Grabowski, manager of NTT American Security and Abuse Team, on December 1 at the IEEE Globecom 2008 conference in New Orleans.  The white paper will be publicly available at NTT America’s website starting on December 3.

Grabowski states that spam, phishing, malicious software and DDoS attacks are all growing problems that just are not going to go away.  He says that small and large networks must work cohesively to deploy monitoring systems and report their findings to mitigate these threats.  Grabowski ended by remarking that most companies already have such tools incorporated into their networks, saying that more of them simply need to invest a small amount of time and effort into using these mechanisms and protecting themselves in a more proactive manner.

The firm is presenting the white paper as a part of a broader initiative spearheaded by NTT’s Dr. Kazuhiko Ohkubo.  Along with other panelists, Ohkubo will be introducing comprehensive approaches in regard to better security in advanced telecommunications networks, basing new service creations on the ring of trust and secure ROI management.

Aptly titled “The Silent Threat”, the white paper touches on how millions of computers connected to the internet are being compromised at an alarming rate.  It also reveals how a single botnet initiation has the ability to enslave thousands of machines, abuse the internet infrastructure and cause financial havoc.  The white paper outlines the measures small and large networks can take to mitigate these common threats simply by utilizing many of the tools they already have in place.  Darren Grabowski believes such measures will prevent attacks while keeping expenses at a minimum.

The NTT America Security and Abuse Team has the task of responding to security and abuse issues such as spam, port scanning, malware, DDoS attacks and across NTT’s entire Global IP Network.  They are also responsible for consistently monitoring the network, utilizing a number of tools such as those that look for trends in bandwidth consumption in comparison to legitimate traffic, as minimal consumption often shows signs of a silent threat.

As a U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, NTT America acts as North America’s gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.  It provides world-class IP networking services, managed network and enterprise hosting solutions to customers and service providers throughout the world.

A Closer Look at SEM Basics

Succeeding with search engine marketing begins with extensive research.  By understanding both your niche market and the competition, you can optimize your efforts and generate great results.  This article will go over a few simple steps that will help you excel at SEM.

What are Your Selling?

Before embarking on your SEM journey, it is important to first know the industry you are looking to get into.  For instance, if you plan to sell encryption software, you need to have knowledge of the current security challenges that are faced, what kind of users are after this type of solution and so forth.  A lot of this information can be obtained by keeping an eye on your competitors.  You can also turn to online blogs, articles, magazines and the latest news about your particular industry.

Work Your Niche

When it comes to SEM, understanding your niche market is one aspect that simply can’t be overlooked.  You need to determine exactly who can benefit from the content on your website.  Are you catering to other professionals in the industry or average consumers who all require the same the content?  You can make your SEM efforts more effective by researching keywords and phrases your niche market input into a search engine to find you.  When the traffic rolls in, view your web stats to find out just who is coming to the site.  If it applies, discover why visitors choose to click away from a particular page instead of navigating deeper into your website.  Catering to your audience is one of the biggest hurdles for some yet the most rewarding as well.

Effective Communication

Equally as important as the product or service you intend to sell is how you convey it to your audience.  Your message must be clear and to point, written in a language potential customers can understand.  While your staff and associates may comprehend the technical jargon related to the industry, more than likely, most of your audience will not.  This isn’t easy for everyone, which is the reason why several rely on copywriters to express their message.

Study the Competition

There is much to be learned from the businesses you are in competition with as they can give you some insight on how to approach your audience.  You can play around with a few chosen keywords and see where the search engine results rank the competition.  Study competitive websites and observe their strengths and weaknesses.  Find out what your competitor is doing and if you should be doing something similar.

Friendly Site Design

One way to fail at SEM is a poorly designed website.  If visitors have trouble navigating through the site, they are likely to click away before getting to the bulk of your content.   Make sure your homepage or landing page contains enough information where it clearly gets the point across.  As long as your keywords and links are naturally fused into the content, the search engines will treat them accordingly and help you achieve the results you are looking for.  In most cases, the same content that appeals to your audience will also intrigue the search engine spiders.

Introduction to Reseller Hosting

Web hosting comes in many different flavors, but one of its most unique variations is reseller hosting.  Reseller hosting is the type of hosting plan where you purchase an account and are provided with a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth which can be sold to other people.  It essentially gives you a way to purchase bulk amounts of server capacity and then sell hosting packages to your own customers.  Reseller accounts offer a means for average people to break into the industry and earn money from the hosting business.  As it doesn’t call for you to have much technical knowledge, practically anyone familiar with the internet can succeed with their own reseller business.

An Emerging Hosting Solution

The concept of reseller hosting is growing fast as more startup businesses are discovering the benefits.  This hosting solution is typically used by individuals who simply want to earn money online along with developers, consultants and other professionals who are familiar with web-based technologies.  Requiring a minimal investment, reselling hosting is a cost effective way to generate income from an industry that is already bringing in billions of dollars each year.  By employing sound business practices and ensuring that your customers are taken care of, you can use this platform as your vehicle to success.  You would be surprised at how many small businesses started with a reseller account and went on to become prominent web hosting companies.

What You Get with Reseller Hosting

Most providers give you the freedom to build custom reseller packages, allowing you to deliver hosting plans best suited for prospective clients.  Others offer predefined packages that are ready to be sold directly to customers.  In either case, you are generally provided with enough disk space and bandwidth to not only sell hosting plans, but create a website for yourself as well.  The reseller hosting provider sets you up with a control panel such as H-Sphere or cPanel’s WHM (Web Host Manager).  These programs allow you to manage your reseller account, providing access to various features such as payment systems, statistics and applications.  From the control panel interface you can create hosting plans, setup domains, view resource usage and much more.  In many cases, the reseller provider also supplies your clients with similar control panels so they can manage their own hosting accounts.

Conclusion

Reseller hosting is ideal for small businesses and individuals who want to make money from the flourishing web hosting industry.  Getting started requires a minimal investment and little effort as most companies set you up with packages that are fully loaded with features and ready to be sold.  If you sign up with the right company, you can operate a reseller business so efficiently that customers have no idea they are dealing with a middleman.  This is especially true when you have the ability to offer all the features and services found in conventional web hosting plans.   When considering how the hosting business continues to thrive, it is very likely that reseller accounts will offer tremendous opportunities for some time to come.

Keeping Your Profits Intact

Although thousands of new business websites are going up everyday, not everyone is succeeding with E-commerce.  Many people who lose out on sales and end up failing do so for two of the same reasons:  abandoned sales and charge backs.

Lost Sales

Today’s shopping cart applications offer numerous features.  However, all of them are designed to collect sensitive information from your customers.  This includes their contact information and credit card numbers among other details.  While this is a standard procedure of online shopping, one needs to consider the perspective of the new buyer.

After navigating your site, the visitor has come across a product they want to purchase.  They click on the checkout icon and proceed to enter the required information.  From there the customer is directed to your preferred payment gateway where they are forced input the same information again.  This results in lost or aborted sales as consumers are generally lazy and cautious about handing over their sensitive details.  Ideally, it would be great if your shopping cart could bypass all these requirements and take the customer straight to your gateway.  Unfortunately, there are a number of gateways, all of which require different variables.

So, how do you salvage the sale from here?  Log into the administrative section of your shopping cart, find out if you can track the abandoned sale and contact the potential customer via email.  Let the customer know that you have observed their attempt to place an order and ask if they had any trouble making a purchase.  Explain that you are willing to assistance with any problems they may have experienced.  By reaching out to the consumer on a personal level, there might be a chance of recovering the sale.  In a worse case scenario, you can at least find out if something in your ordering system isn’t functioning properly.  Everyone wants to feel like they are more than just another number.  Taking out the time to make contact and find out the problem might give them the confidence that you are worth doing business with.

The Dreaded Chargeback

Charge backs have been a nightmare for many E-commerce businesses.  You receive an order for one of your products, ship it out, and a week or so later there is a charge back.  This results in you shipping your goods for free, being forced to refund the customer and then pay a charge back fee.  One way to avoid this is to make sure your gateway offers some of type of protection against fraud and dishonest customers who purposely cause charge backs after receiving products.  While every charge back isn’t of a fraudulent nature, all can have a major impact on your pockets.

Conclusion

As the owner of an E-commerce business, you need to think like a prominent enterprise and focus on your bottom line.  If something is negatively affecting your profit, you need to make the proper adjustments to improve the service for customers and ultimately the longevity of your business.

Is Free Web Hosting Really Free?

If you wish to operate a website, it is important to know all the hosting options that are available.  Web hosting comes in a many different flavors but the first thing that needs to determined is if you want to pay for service or sign up with a free host.  Yes, you can have your very own website without paying a dime for the service.  Free hosts are abundant but is the service really free?  Depending on you view it, free hosting could actually be very costly.

The Cost You Pay

With free hosting, you are generally required to give up something in exchange.  Most free hosting providers will automatically place advertisements at the top or bottom of your web pages in exchange for their service.  Even worse, some use annoying pop-ups rather banners, scaring away visitors and making your site look very unprofessional.  Aside from advertisements that have nothing to do with your personal vision, you typically have to sacrifice customer support and the accessibility of your website.  Besides, you’re not paying for service so the host does not owe you anything – not even reliable customer service or the promise that your site will be available on the web.

The truth is that free web hosting is not all its cracked up to be, this is the main reason why so many people have no problem paying for a more reliable service.  The best way to sum up free hosting is the word limited.  There are limited features and control with decent support being pretty much out of the question.  Because the servers are not of the highest of quality, your site could run slow and experience an unreasonable amount of downtime.  If your intentions are to create a personal website, you may or may not be able to deal with such instances.  If you intend to run an online business, there is no way it can survive in this environment.

Reliable Free Hosting

Overall, free web hosting is far less dependable than its paid counterpart.  However, there are actually a few hosts that offer decent service.  This isn’t to be confused with the reliability you tend to get with a paid hosting plan but compared to free hosting standards, it’s acceptable.  If you look hard enough, you can actually find a free web host that doesn’t force you to place advertisements on your web pages .  These companies usually set you up nicely with a small amount of storage space on the server, minimal bandwidth, and if you’re lucky, a simple control panel that allows you to play webmaster.  What they hope is that you will enjoy the free service and eventually upgrade to one of their paid hosting plans.  Several hosts have actually started out this way, offering a free service for a while and then earning enough revenue to move up full fledge paid hosting.  So if you are not ready to pay for a website, this would be much better situation as at least gives you a little more flexibility.

Conclusion

If you really think about, free hosting really isn’t free.  Every provider has to pay for their servers, bandwidth and other associated resources.  What you are required to give up in exchange ultimately determines the price.  The good thing as that even though you’re not coming out of your pocket, you don’t necessarily have to be stuck with a crappy service.

What to Look for in Colocation

If you feel that a dedicated server or managed hosting provider isn’t able to meet your needs, you always have the option of purchasing your own server and taking it to the data center of a colocation host.  In most cases, you pay a housing or rack fee in addition to charges for internet connectivity and possibly other services.  The provider is responsible for maintaining its data center and network infrastructure while you are responsible for your own server.   Some of today’s most prominent internet companies rely on colocation hosting as it offers the customization needed to achieve the best possible server performance.

Choosing a Provider

When deciding to invest in colocation hosting, choosing a provider is the most important step in the process.  As with any type of hosting, you should first determine your individual needs, write out a list and keep it in front of you while listening to offers from different providers.  It sounds elementary but if you don’t, you could be easily sold on aggressively marketed services instead of getting exactly what you need.

Below we have listed some factors that must be considered when searching for a colocation provider:

Technical Support

The level of technical support should play a huge role in your final decision.  A good provider following industry standards will offer support around the clock via phone and email.  It is important to keep in mind that unless you pay an additional fee for maintenance, technical support probably will not cover any issues with your server.  Technical support offered by a colocation provider generally includes addressing connectivity and setting up the hardware.  In any event, getting a quick response is vital.

Redundancy

Equally important is redundancy as the provider’s infrastructure is what will ensure that your hardware stays running.  We strongly recommend that you learn some background information on the connection to make sure you get the best performance.  Even if you have a high performance server and all the best hardware, you could still experience unacceptable downtime if the provider doesn’t have a stable internet connection.  A respectable colocation host has multiple backbones in place to provide a stable, fast connection to the internet..  Furthermore, they have other redundant systems such as 24/7 monitoring, climate controls and backup generators to keep you online in the case of a power outage.

Price

We saved price for last because although you don’t want to overpay for anything, going with the cheapest colocation provider isn’t always the best decision either.  Choosing something more affordable is often tempting but could end up resulting in downtime if you choose the wrong company.  The most important thing is to understand the contract and the services you are paying for.

Proceed with Caution

Colocation is one of the biggest moves you will ever make in regard to your business.  We have heard far too many stories of business owners who were bombarded with hidden fees from hosts because they overlooked something as simple as a network card for their server.  If you are financially strapped, dedicated or managed hosting might be the way to go.  However, if you are certain that colocation is the right move, take extreme caution when selecting a provider.