web hosting

Can You Handle E-commerce Alone?

Constant efficiency and availability are critical factors for any company whose business revolves around e-commerce.  Every element of the organization’s architecture from operating system and web applications to hardware and network connectivity must be designed with fault tolerance and redundancy in mind.  An inaccessible website or damaged OS kernel could put your operation on halt and send customers in the direction of another retailer.  With your competition located just a quick click away, it is crucial to the take the necessary steps to make sure your systems are always available.

The Challenges of Cost and Maintenance

In order to accurately gauge the costs of obtaining greater availability for your systems and infrastructure, you must first determine the degree of reliability your business requires.  For many large online businesses, storing data and applications in multiple locations is an ideal solution.  While relying on a multitude of redundant data centers can help an organization achieve that elusive 100% level of availability, investing in such facilities can be a rather costly and daunting task.  Not only must you consider the expense of building or even leasing a facility, but also hiring a dedicated IT staff and the ongoing maintenance of your systems.  Achieving the fastest response times and the best performance typically demands a world-class service and support on an around the clock basis.

Considering Third-Party Help

One challenge many organizations are faced with today is the decision to create and maintain their systems in-house, or rely on a third-party company to host their applications and IT operations.  Making a decision on either model is based on various factors.  Experience and infrastructure are two great reasons to choose an outside vendor.  Professional hosting companies have access to data center facilities and infrastructures that the average business would have a difficult time replicating internally.  Traveling this route can give you the ability to do away with expensive upfront investments on servers and applications, while sparing your company the burden of maintaining complex systems.  You also have a better chance of getting a scalable infrastructure that allows for upgrades as your business grows and its demands increase.  In addition, choosing a third-party hosting provider as your partner enables your company to leverage both the good and bad times they have experienced.  This in turn, better assures that the host can effectively handle trouble problems when they arise.

If you do choose to partner with an outside firm, it is important to go carefully go over the fine print and pay close attention to what is being guaranteed.  You need to make sure the obligations and commitment to reliability are clearly outlined in the contract so that everything is understood by all parties.  If you can, take a physical tour throughout the provider’s facility to ensure that the best practices are being followed and your e-commerce systems are taken care of.  Should your internal IT staff be strong enough to maintain the entire project internally, be sure to devise a sound strategy that will keep your systems online despite the hardships or disasters that might come your way.

Gomez Makes Major Enhancements to its Testing Platform

This past Monday, managed web application service provider Gomez, announced that it would be making significant platform-wide upgrades and enhancements to a number of its products.  These improvements will directly impact the company’s performance management, web load and cross-browser testing solutions for the benefit of clients using both web and mobile applications.

According the announcement, Gomez’s platform-wide upgrade includes the unveiling of the Gomez Recorder, an advanced management tool.  The Gomez Recorder greatly simplifies the creation and management of test scripts and complex web transactions by analyzing the many individual elements within a single web page.  Gomez’s new tool has the ability to automatically detect and capture the performance metrics of each step in asynchronous RIA transactions, thus allowing businesses to effectively analyze and optimize the performance of their applications.

The firm has also incorporated various solutions for the testing and monitoring of applications, mobile sites and services into the Gomez platform.  These additions give companies a unified view of traditional and mobile applications, permitting them to identify, diagnose, prioritize and resolve performance issues.  Businesses have the option to analyze the performance of traditional and mobile sites individually or collectively.

Other enhancements include Gomez’s automated cross-browser and web load testing solutions.  The former has been expanded to support 5,000 mobile devices and well over 500 combinations of browsers, devices and screen sizes, helping developers save more time and money by automating the process of mobile and web application testing.  The company’s on-demand web load testing solution has also been enhanced, the most notable being the addition of a high volume, cloud generated load combined with the real-world load from its recently expanded Last Mile network.  Gomez’s Last Mile network consists of more than 100,000 consumer-grade desktop machines running real-world performance tests.  Generating extra capacity and reach, the cloud enables Gomez to deliver solutions that more accurately determine the impact of peak loads on response times for end-users in various locations with varying connection speeds.  This ultimately helps businesses make the necessary adjustments and launch new web applications with confidence.

Also added to the list of enhancements is a new integrated diagnostics dashboard.  This tool provides an interface that aggregates test data across Gomez’s global testing network and customer base, aiding clients with diagnosis that alerts them of performance issues.  Customers can effectively troubleshoot issues whether they are related to them, associates, vendors or the internet in general.

Jaime Ellertson, Chief Executive Officer at Gomez, stated that today’s end-users expect both web and mobile applications to be richer and faster than every before, not knowing that this creates twice the complexity for the developers who build them, the IT teams that maintain them, and the online business executives that rely on them for brand creation and revenues.  He states that the enhancements to the Gomez platform will provide businesses with a powerful and cost effective package of integrated solutions, helping them optimize their most essential web pages and applications, all while meeting the end-user’s expectations in terms of speed and quality.

Fighting Back Against Website Attacks

Despite all the advancements that have been made in information security, hacking attacks continue to be a major problem, inflicting damage on some of the biggest companies.  Every year, it seems as if we hear a story where some major company has been hacked and thieved of invaluable information. Although large corporations make better targets, small businesses are not exempt from such attacks.   You may feel that the data on your website is not all that confidential or mission-critical, but an ambitious hacker might think otherwise.

What Motivates a Hacker?

Hackers hack websites for a number of reasons.  Some are after personal information while others merely do it for the thrill and gaining stripes in the hacker community.  While every hacker has their own motivation, a successful attack boils down to one factor – the webmaster’s lack of knowledge.  Even an intermediate hacker can break into your website, change your home page and steal sensitive information all by downloading readily available tools from the internet.  Whether you are a beginner or seasoned webmaster, the best way to protect yourself against website hacking is knowing how a hacker operates.

A Two-step Approach

The first step a hacker will take is to scan your web applications for any known vulnerabilities.  This can be done with a penetrating test process that is performed either manually are automated by certain programs or scripts.  Finding an insecure application is the most crucial step in any website attack and translates to holes you can’t afford to leave open.

The next step in website hacking is coming up with an exploit able to take advantage of the vulnerabilities.  There are many exploits but all share the similar goal of allowing an intruder to penetrate your website.  Here is where you need to be aggressive and take steps to prevent an exploit rather than trying to bounce back after the attack.  If you scripted your own applications, you need to go back carefully and look them over to process any modifications that may be needed to the source codes to close the gaps.  When done correctly, you can dramatically reduce the probability of a website attack.

Practicing Website Security

Properly securing your applications is something that can be accomplished even if you are not an expert in the security field or simply do not have the money required to hire a thorough, experienced web developer.  In fact, security knowledge comes at an inexpensive price and is worth looking into when considering that it can keep your website safe.  Basic knowledge can be obtained by keeping yourself informed on the web applications you are using along with all known vulnerabilities that relate to them.  Additionally, you can minimize vulnerabilities by applying the latest updates and patches to your applications and using the best security practices.

Aside from practicing website security, it also a good idea to have a basic understanding of common techniques attackers employ to hack websites.  Some of the most popular methods include SQL injection and cross site scripting to name a few.  The best way to deter the attempts of a savvy hacker is to defeat them with your own knowledge.