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Network Security in the Age of Remote Work: Strategies and Technologies
The mass transition to remote work spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional network security perimeters. As employees increasingly access applications and data from home networks, the risks associated with unmanaged devices, networks, and online threats have intensified. Strategies for Securing Remote Workforces In response to the evolving landscape, organizations must adapt their security frameworks to protect hybrid workforces and sensitive information. This section delves into key strategies, emphasizing a zero-trust approach and the implementation of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to fortify access controls. People Strategies: Use a Zero-Trust Approach: Assume all connections are unverified and authenticate every user and device with MFA to gain ...

What is Big Data?
Of all the buzzwords that are circulating in the IT, cloud and web hosting arenas, ‘Big Data’ is probably the most prevalent. To date we have heard that Big Data offers the potential to cure cancer, to accurately forecast the weather (despite issues like global warming), and turn ALL of a company’s data into something executives can use to make business decisions. But what exactly is Big Data and how can it deliver on this promise? Who is using Big Data and what for? Despite that fact that many companies make reference to Big Data as a means of appearing ‘cutting edge’, few are genuinely utilizing it. As the name suggests, Big Data refers to the processing of massive amounts of data. If you work in an organization of any size, what you might think of ...

A Beginner's Guide to Web Hosting
The Internet has become a key resource for a variety of people with a wide range of different purposes. Whether you are a multinational company promoting your products and services, or a blogger giving a daily insight into what is current, everyone with a website first had to find the right type of web hosting for their needs. What is web hosting? Very simply, if you need a website, you need web hosting. Web hosting allows your website to be seen across the Internet. If you view the Internet as a network of computers (known as servers), then a web host provides you with disk space where you can keep you website, and the connection to the Internet that allows your website to be seen. There are a vast array of web hosting types and choosing options can become something of a blur for the ...

What is Virtual Private Server Hosting and What Sort of Websites is it Useful For?
One of the initial hurdles facing someone who wants to set up a website is deciding which type of web hosting they need. In this article we will give a brief overview of one popular type of web hosting – Virtual Private Server, or VPS. We will also look at the type of websites that might benefit from this type of web hosting. What is VPS hosting? Web hosting is a service that utilizes web servers to allow websites to be displayed on the Internet. Web servers are computers, and (typically) physical machines that are linked to the Internet (although these days they can be based in a private or public cloud). Each web server offers a range of resources that enable visitors to visit websites. These include storage, Random Access Memory, or RAM (processing power) and bandwidth (the level ...

How to Register a '.UK' Domain Name
Gone are the days when the Internet consisted solely of websites with domain names ending '.com', '.net' or '.org'. At the time of this article going to press there were around 1,900 successful applications for new gtlds (generic top level domains) with over 700 already online. These cover a wide range of areas including geographic location (i.e. ".london") to specific jobs and areas of employment (i.e. '.army') to the downright bizarre (i.e. '.sucks'). One of the more successful of these has been '.uk'. '.uk' domains were introduced in March of 2012 as a successor to the more cumbersome, '.co.uk' domains that are more related to business and industry. The suffix is "shorter and sharper" and can be used by any organization. After '.com', '.de' and '.net', they are the fourth most ...

9 Questions You Need to Ask Before Choosing a Web Host
If you are new to web hosting, the wealth of information you have to take in can be a little daunting. Not only do you have to absorb a lot of information, you then have to use it to make the right decision. If you don't, not only will you have spent money on a service you aren't happy with, your poor choice of web hosting could potentially impact your website's performance in search engines like Google. So what do you need to know before you choose a web host? Which questions do you need answering before you can make a wise decision. Below is a list of 9 questions, the answers to which we think will give you the ammunition you need to make a decision. There are others you could ask, but we think these are the basics. 1. What sort of web hosting do I need? There is very little point ...

What's the Difference Between VPS and Dedicated Hosting?
One of the problems with building a website is how you are going to get it onto the Internet. Unless you have your own hardware and connection to the Internet network (which few people can afford), or you are going to use a service that is dedicated to allowing people to create websites (for instance WordPress.com and Joomla.com), then you are almost certainly going to need a web host. As you will find out, there are countless web hosts to choose from (use FindUKHosting.com to help you make a decision about which one to use), but before you can choose a web host, you need to know what sort of web hosting you need. That in itself is going to take quite a lot of time and effort! There are numerous types of web hosting available on the market, and depending on the type of website you need, ...

A Beginner's Guide to Websites and Web Hosting
The Internet is no longer just a good idea for a business - it is absolutely essential. Despite this, a number of surveys have suggested anywhere between 10% and a third of UK businesses do not have a website. There is absolutely no reason to hold out - there really are so many reasons why your company needs a website. Credibility Unfortunately, despite its popularity, a Facebook page just doesn't cut it! You have to have a website. No credible business operates without a website that reflects its business activity, so if you haven't got one, then the assumption might be that your company might not be credible. Not having a website is like turning up for a business meeting without a business card - it's lazy and unprofessional. Even if your business has absolutely nothing to do with the ...

Cloud Computing: Public Cloud or Private Cloud?
Cloud computing has very quickly morphed from a good idea to having a utility feel about it. It has suddenly dominated the Internet to the point where there are very few people who use the Internet and have not been touched by it. Why has it become so popular so quickly? Basically, cloud computing offers costs savings - a 'virtualized' data center is significantly more cost effective than the data centers that supported more traditional IT services. Cloud computing outperforms traditional data centers, in terms of scalability, and, although you might not believe it from the industry press, elements of security. Alongside a vast array of terms and acronyms that are used to express certain aspects of the cloud computing (BOYD, IaaS, SaaS, etc.) two terms stand out: Public Cloud and ...

Location, Location, Location - Does it Matter Where Your Website's Server is Located?
SEO experts leave no stone unturned in the quest for higher search ranking, especially Google search ranking. One area of considerable debate is whether the location of your server impacts your search position. It is a difficult question to answer precisely, especially with the dominance of the cloud these days, but with more traditional server-based hosting, location might still have an impact. A number of studies have looked at search results for websites that are known to be hosted on servers in the United Kingdom. The studies worked from the premise that searches that contained specific geographic references - i.e. electricians in Leeds - would give preference to websites that fit the search term AND were hosted in the United Kingdom (as opposed to fitting the search term but being ...

Renewing Domain Names - What Happens When I Forget?
Every website has a unique domain name. Usually, these names start with the traditional www. and end with ".com", ".org", ".net", or one of the vast array of suffixes that are available on the market these days. There are now literally hundreds of generic top-level domains (or gTLDs), the latest of which are suffixes like ".guru", ".wtf", and ".ninja", with substantially more in the pipeline. Domain names are allocated through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - or more usually known as ICANN. Established on 18 September, 1998 and with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, United States, ICANN is a "not-for-profit" organization responsible for maintaining databases that record domain names and ...

Transferring a Domain to a New Registrar
As with most things on the Internet, people have a tendency to stick with the first provider they deal with. Often, web hosts offer packages for new customers - a new web hosting account often comes with a free domain name, advertised as being "for life". So as long as the web host delivers a solid service, there is generally no problem. But on occasions it might be necessary to change providers, and if a web host owns your domain name AND has all your website files sat on its servers, then essentially, they have complete power over your website. Obviously, this is not a good situation. But why would I want to change web hosts? It may prove that your current website has outgrown the capability of your current web hosting provider, and as a result you might have to change ...

Website Down? What Do You Do Now?
For everyone who has ever had a website, there comes a heart stopping moment when you realize your site is down. You might have had a quick look at the site just to see how it was doing (as every parent looks in on a child), or you may have received a telephone call from a friend (or worse still an advertiser), and there it is... a white screen where the Internet's next big thing used to be. This type of shock actually gets the adrenalin pumping and it's very easy to go into a total meltdown. Don't. The calmer you stay, the faster your website will be back online. How do I know my website is really down? Problems at your Internet Service Provider (ISP) are often a source of reasons why a website cannot be accessed by certain members of the public. An underground or undersea cable might ...

What are Main Cloud Computing Security Threats?
Cloud computing is no longer a buzzword - it's mainstream. The Cloud impacts almost every aspect of people's lives, and dominates most people's online lives. With the rise of this new technology have come concerns that it might not be as secure as traditional server-based hosting. Revelations made by Edward Snowden that began in June 2013 suggested the United State's National Security Agency (or NSA) was able to penetrate the cloud servers of key cloud players (AWS, Google, etc.) did nothing to alleviate these concerns. However, a couple of years on and while the cloud has probably recovered from anything Snowden revealed, concerns about security remain. So are US government agencies the biggest threat to Cloud security? Curiously, the NSA, FBI, and CIA are not likely to bring ...

Green Hosting - What's its Value?
Amongst the myriad of terms given to different types of web hosting, Green Hosting is the one that probably generates the most curiosity. As the name implies, it is web hosting that addresses environmental issues. And 'therein lies the rub', as they say. How can an activity that requires massive amounts of energy to maintain premises at icy temperatures in even the hottest of countries ever be considered 'green'? Why is web hosting such a problem? To consider the environmental impact of web hosting, think of an individual server. To keep even a single website operational, it has to be running on an ongoing basis, and consuming electricity as it runs. Let's imagine that all web hosting is shared web hosting - let's avoid the issues of dedicated servers, online telecommunications, ...

Is Changing Your IP Address Bad for SEO
A favorable Google search rank placement is good for business. The higher up the list you go for a specific search term, the more likely it is that someone will visit your site and buy your products and services. Of course, you can pay for Google Adwords to get on the first page of Google, but the holy grail is getting on the first page without significant investment. In a bid to achieve this goal, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts have looked at every aspect of Google search in a bid to deconstruct its algorithm and figure out exactly how it works, and what exactly is and isn't beneficial as far as getting up the rankings are concerned. Over recent years there has been considerable discussion regarding the impact of IP addresses as far as SEO is concerned. Specifically, the SEO ...

How Not to Move Your Website to a New Web Host
Once you have a website up and running, people often regard web hosting as a bit of a utility - pay for it and it's there. Often, websites sit on the same web host's server for many years without any issues. But one day - perhaps completely out of the blue - you will need to move your website to another provider. And that can be a daunting prospect. Why would I want to move my site to a new provider? There are countless reasons why you might need to move to a new web host. One of the reasons might be that the site has outgrown the account you are using right now. What once was a small website with only a few html pages, might well now be a database-driven site with, if not all, but quite a few of the available bells and whistles that are available. Before it gets to the stage where you ...

Backlinks are Still Key to SEO
Whether it is an art of a science, there are a lot of people involved in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) trying just to figure out just what Google wants to get a website higher in the Google Search rankings. Obviously, the higher up in the rankings you are, the greater the likelihood of you getting more visitors to your site, and the greater the potential for revenue from your bricks and mortar or online business. However, the reality of the situation is that the bulk of people searching for something on Google rarely go past the first page (meaning the top 10 links in most cases) and very few people indeed venture beyond the third page of search results. For all intents and purposes, SEO is a race for the first page of Google - nothing less! So, how do you get on the first page? Over ...

Choosing the Right Type of Hosting for Your Website
As soon as you have decided that you want establish an online presence you need to choose a web host. Part of this is process is going to be research and due diligence, but probably the first step is to know what type of web hosting you are going to need - obviously there is no point in doing research on a host only to find they don't offer the type of hosting you need for your website. Unfortunately, there is a myriad of types of hosting to explore. The most common types (meaning the types you will probably have to use) are explained in some detail below. Social Media First of all, you need to establish what your website is for. If it is for private purposes, perhaps the multitude of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instragram, etc.) can meet your purpose. The advent of social ...

"Unlimited" Web Hosting - Fact or Fiction
Anyone in search of web hosting is inundated with offers from web hosts that promise "unlimited" web hosting. According to the advertising, the number of websites that can be hosted in a single account is unlimited, while the amount of disk space these websites take up is also unlimited. Besides this, the advertising suggests these websites can use bandwidth without any suggestion of restraint. While our logic dictates that no resource, whatever it is, can ever be infinite, our desire for a "great deal" or an "absolute bargain" is often strong enough to overshadow any commonsense we might have. So how do hosts offer "unlimited" hosting, without it actually being "unlimited"? Restricted usage Restricting usage is a particular way hosts ...

How Does the Cloud Make Companies More Efficient?
The cloud started as a buzzword and has become a mantra for CFOs and CEOs looking to impact their bottom lines. But how exactly does the cloud make a company more efficient? As you know, the cloud is the state of the art approach to web hosting. Whereas previously all web hosting had focused on renting entire servers (dedicated hosting), or fractions of the resources (RAM, disk space, bandwidth, etc.) available to a server (shared and VPS hosting), the cloud puts all servers together in a single network and pools resources, which are then sold to people based on what they use. The Cloud - A New Paradigm This new paradigm has been exploited in many ways, particularly in offering services to businesses. AWS, Google and Microsoft all have cloud services where businesses can host websites ...

Start a Web Hosting Business – Become a Reseller
There aren't many industries where companies set up other companies as potential competitors, but web hosting is certainly one of them. The plethora of web hosts available on the market makes it look like there are thousands-upon-thousands of individual companies operating in the web hosting arena with their own capacity, when in fact, if you trace the origins of the services these companies offer, you might find the majority of web hosts are selling services that originate from a relatively low number of web hosting providers. "Resellers" – companies that sell on other companies services - represent the bulk of the industry these days, and often resellers receive a lot of encouragement from providers to do well in their new chosen profession. Providers who offer ...

Moving Your Office to a Cloud-based Collaboration and Communication Solution
Running an office can be expensive for any business. Buying licenses for collaboration and communication software can prove expensive, but the regular upheaval of updating and maintaining software (adding patches and updates, etc.) can add a significant number of hidden costs to your office budget. Thankfully, there are a number of cloud-based solutions such as Google Apps and Office 365 (amongst others) that do the 'heavy lifting' for you. All you do is pay your subscription, and they make sure you have the latest software at your disposal. Obviously, for cash strapped businesses, that is an enticing prospect, but making the decision to migrate to a cloud-based solution is often put off – simply because of the complexity of weaning staff members off their beloved computer-based ...

What on earth is "Bring Your Own Cloud"?
The advent of the cloud has spurred a vast array of abbreviations and acronyms, and the list keeps growing steadily on a daily basis. One of the more recent acronyms we have come across is "Bring Your Own Cloud", or BYOC. It is human nature that people tend to take the path of least resistance, and if that means taking a shortcut on security, so be it. During her time as the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was disposed to using her private server for what could have been sensitive emails. If the highest levels of government officialdom take such shortcuts, what can we expect of the average employee? A lot of companies have begun to accept the fact that many of their staff use their own devices for work purposes, and this of course means storing emails and potentially ...

Cloud Computing Acronyms and What They Stand For
In our recent article "Cloud Computing Explained" (link to this article) you saw that the Cloud is well on its way to becoming ubiquitous and all encompassing. The Cloud is taking over a range of functions in the workplace and it is starting to dominate all aspects of daily life. As the article also touched on, the Cloud is a term for a variety of solutions, and as such, it has fuelled a large number of new acronyms that often appear quite bewildering at first glance. In this article, we will cover some of the key Cloud acronyms, tell you what they stand for, and give you a basic insight into what each acronym is describing. SaaS SaaS stands for "Software-as-a-Service". Before the cloud people bought software on a disk (CD or DVD) and installed the software directly ...

Choosing Between a Dedicated Server and VPS
You have had a website for a while and your projections were correct - it has become quite popular and it is getting more traffic (or visitors). Like most people, you started out using shared hosting and now, perhaps it is time for a review. Perhaps you need something a little more powerful that the hosting package you have right now. Why do you need to move from shared hosting? As the name might imply, shared hosting is shared! If you are hosting a website using a shared hosting package, a number of other websites are using the resources available to the physical server your website is located on. That means all the websites on a server are vying for the same RAM, the bandwidth and the same disk space. Every time there is a visitor to any of the sites that are hosted alongside your ...

Moving a Business to the Cloud
It is the end of the beginning for the cloud. Many analysts are making the assumption that the cloud will very soon become almost a utility as far as business is concerned (hopefully sans all the government regulation!). Essentially it is no longer a matter of if you take your company into the cloud, but when. Obviously, with all the savings available through utilizing the cloud, you want to get your company on board as soon as possible. Starting a new business in the cloud is, of course, a no brainer. In fact, these days, where else would you start? But moving an active, thriving business into the cloud is another story. How exactly do you move a fully functioning business entity into the cloud? Choosing a provider Key to a successful transition is going to be choice of provider. To ...

Is Free Web Hosting Worth the Cost?
Everyone loves a bargain, but the only thing people love more is something for nothing. But when you are considering getting web hosting that's free of charge, perhaps you need to step back and consider the cost. There is no doubt that free hosting has come on since Web 1.0, and many free web hosts offer a viable service with solid servers and decent bandwidth. There is, of course, a darker side to free hosting where the complete antithesis is true. Is free for me? When you are contemplating whether you need a free hosting service, perhaps the first place you need to start is what you need the service for. In the past people used to build personal, private websites that basically contained nothing but information about themselves, and perhaps updates and what's been happening with ...

Cloud Computing Explained
It seems these days hardly a day goes past when you don't hear the term 'Cloud Computing'. Everything, it appears, is in the Cloud. From your ability to type a letter or listen to your favourite songs, to even to setting your home's heating thermostat. It seems we need the Cloud for almost everything – not least in the web hosting arena. Despite its near ubiquitous status, how many of us can really explain what the Cloud is? We all grew up with computers… Most of us have grown up with computers. Our PCs have always had their own storage devices, and this has traditionally meant a computer having a hard disk where data is recorded. Such disks can usually store several hundred gigabytes of data and this can include pictures, documents, spread sheets – whatever is it ...