'Net Features : wm-hosting

Drupal Hosting: Pantheon In Focus

Allison Howen — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:34:00 GMT

Obtaining a dramatic spike in traffic is every Web worker’s dream, however, when the website’s hosting provider can’t handle the traffic increase and results in the site crashing, that dream quickly becomes a nightmare.

While one solution to this problem is to change your hosting provider or upsize your virtual private server (VPS), typically both of those alterations require some downtime for the site. Luckily, cloud-based hosting provider Pantheon offers a platform that aims to solve this problem.

Pantheon allows users to build, launch and host Drupal sites. The platform uses one big gridded set of servers to power all of its clients, which range from sites that receive hundreds of page views a month to sites that receive hundreds of millions of page views a month. When a site is run on the Pantheon platform, it automatically uses the company’s Edge Cache, which immediately improves page load times.

“It’s a much more efficient way to serve out a page. (Edge Cache) acts like a CDN,” said Zack Rosen, CEO and co-founder of Pantheon. “It can very efficiently handle a huge amount of traffic at any one time.”

Moreover, when a site is hosted on Pantheon, it is not running on its own siloed server. Instead, the site runs on the same infrastructure that is serving out hundreds of millions of page requests every day for all of the sites on the platform, which means that the site is a “pretty small drop in the bucket” in terms of the service’s overall capacity, according to Rosen.

It is also important to note that Pantheon offers separate development and testing environments to its users, which allows them to try new site features without interfering with their live site. This can help developers eliminate costly mistakes and/or downtime. Additionally, Pantheon allows developers to import and migrate their current sites to the Pantheon platform, supports all versions of Drupal, enables users to manage multiple sites from a single dashboard, allows for one-click Drupal core updates, as well as lets users schedule automatic backups and determine retention periods.

Mitigating DDoS Attacks

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:04:00 GMT

Prolexic has released a video visualization of how it mitigated a 160 Gbps, 120 million packets-per-second distributed denial of service attack which occurred earlier in the month against one of its clients.

Viewers can see how Prolexic routes malicious traffic through its scrubbing centers and sorts it by type of attack – be it on the infrastructure or at the application layer. The video shows how the DDoS mitigation service uses blocking signatures through automated mitigation gear and in real-time by engineers at the company.

Infrastructure Interplay/Correlation, Key to Performance Tuning

Administrator — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:30:00 GMT

:: By Steve Francis, LogicMonitor ::

Detecting issues early, before they impact your systems, is the key to performance tuning, but it’s impossible to achieve without constant monitoring and insight into your operating environment. However, finding and implementing a monitoring tool that provides the right information can be a difficult task.

Most issues are buried deep in complex interactions between applications, networks, servers and other infrastructure components and it’s difficult to find a monitoring tool that is compatible with all of those devices without adding additional complexity to the environment. Many of the available tools are limited, as they are too narrowly focused on the type of infrastructure they can monitor, or the data they gather is too shallow. To optimize performance you need a monitoring tool that provides broad insight into multiple systems and correlates data in a single interface. Viewing part of the system provides an incomplete picture of the truth. You need the different points of view but you also need to know how all tie together.

This issue becomes even more complex when you have IT responsibilities dispersed throughout the organization. As an example, database, network and storage may all be managed by individual groups in some companies – even in different locations. Each function may also have separate monitoring systems. Thus, the metrics in a single system may fail to show the root cause of a problem. Without cross-team communication, issues may be investigated in a silo with each team focused on optimizing their individual problem rather than optimizing for business alignment.

A monitoring tool should allow you in-depth insight into all your systems in one place. Without this transparency you can expend unnecessary resources trying to determine the root cause of an issue. Let’s say you are running a database server on top of VMware. Your database server may suddenly run at 100 percent CPU for no apparent reason. Your application or database team may then spend an hour trying to figure out what has changed. In reality, nothing has changed – but another team may be doing stress testing on another virtual machine sharing the same resources, stealing CPU from the database. Each business unit sees a point of view but lacks a complete view of the entire system.

In today’s business environment there is a renewed focus on big data and metrics. However, when it comes to monitoring, pure performance metrics may not tell the whole story. For example, slowing may be normal during peak usage, or it may indicate the start of a problem - straight performance metrics that give you the data without correlating it to other factors do not provide insight into which is occurring. However, a graph of database queries processed per percent of CPU consumed would immediately show whether changes in CPU load are due to changes in workload, or available virtual resources, or code changes.

The right network monitoring system can drive transparency and efficiency. Organizations should look for a system that offers dynamic device discovery, automated configuration, continuous scanning, self-correction, custom alerts, and powerful analytics. One of the most important features, however, is automation. While there is a great move to automate process, automation in monitoring not only yields efficiency but access to insights that can drive business decision.

Many organizations do not even realize that you can have a monitoring system that automates the roll-up and presentation of data. For example, you may have different business units that work across different systems. You have multiple storage arrays that are used by the multiple departments that are themselves geographically distributed. In this environment it would not be easy to get a report on how much storage is spread across the organization, and attributable to each department. A monitoring system that automates customized flexible graphing would easily generate this report. In addition if you added another storage array in any location, the reports would automatically update as well.

IT infrastructures are becoming increasingly complex, heightening the need for transparency and communication. Access to the right intelligence can drive optimal performance by fine tuning operations, troubleshooting issues, and proactively resolving problems before they impact the business. There must be a singular focus on solving business problems rather than individual issues. If you can plot business and infrastructure metrics together you can become much more efficient at troubleshooting and deploying resources. The right monitoring tool can be an essential tool in achieving these objectives.

About the Author Steve Francis is the founder and chief Product Officer, LogicMonitor, a SaaS-based IT infrastructure monitoring company.

Provision and Manage CloudByte Volumes with OpenStack Cinder

Michael Garrity — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The CloudByte cloud storage service, which was the first to provide guaranteed quality of service (QoS) to every application from a shared storage platform, just announced a new major integration with Cinder, the OpenStack block storage project.

CloudByte also developed a driver for the Cinder framework, known as ElastiStor, to enable service providers to provision and manage QoS-aware CloudByte storage volumes from OpenStack clients and the project’s API.

This means that service providers on the OpenStack platform can create, take snapshots of and manage CloudByte storage volumes using either the Cinder API or the OpenStack Horizon client. These volumes can then be configured to meet the user’s capacity and IOPS needs. With on-demand performance from CloudByte, OpenStack users will now be able to build solutions that an more effectively compete with Amazon EBS.

“Unlike legacy storage solutions, ElastiStor is architected for today’s cloud environments and allows cloud service providers to host performance-sensitive applications without creating any dedicated storage silos” explains CloudByte CTO, Felix Xavier.

Migrate Clouds With Ease

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:15:00 GMT

What is more challenging than moving to the cloud? You guessed it - moving from one cloud platform to another. Fortunately, solutions such as Cloud Converter are able to reduce or eliminate most (if not all) of the transition troubles.

Cloud Converter's technology gives users a way to move their cloud servers between supported platforms. That currently includes all major Linux operating systems on physical or cloud servers, as well as cloud providers such as Amazon, Rackspace, GoGrid, Host Virtual, Linode and others based on VMware, Xen, KVM, or OpenVZ technology.

The solution works by creating a unique fingerprint based on the cloud provider, technology and other variables between the source and target servers. The service then uses this fingerprint to convert and move data from one provider to the other. Most server installations are moved in between five and twenty minutes.

Rackspace Adds to Developer Toolset

Allison Howen — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Cloud hosting provider Rackspace has acquired Exceptional Cloud Services in a move to enhance its toolset for developers deploying and managing applications in the open cloud.

Through the deal, Rackspace will expand its developer solutions to include error tracking and Redis-as-a-Service capabilities. Currently, more than 50,000 application developers use these solutions from Exceptional Cloud Services.

“Rackspace is improving the key technologies used by developers in the open cloud. Our focus on the developer community is deeper than ever before and we are carefully adding strategic technologies to our open hybrid cloud portfolio, while keeping the needs of application developers in mind,” said Pat Matthews, senior vice president of corporate development at Rackspace. “Through the acquisition of Exceptional Cloud Services, we’re gaining technology and expertise that will provide startups and cloud developers with the tools that help them deliver more reliable customer experiences and to bring the next generation of cloud-based apps to market faster.”

The acquisition will provide Rackspace with the following products:

Exceptional.io - Exceptional tracks errors in more than 6,000 Web applications. The service not only reports errors in real-time, but also gathers the information developers need to fix errors.

Airbrake.io - Airbrake collects errors generated by other applications and aggregates the results for review.

Redis To Go - Redis To Go helps users manage Redis instances easier, whether it’s one instance or hundreds.

Moreover, the Exceptional Cloud Services acquisition will also assist Rackspace in its recent push into the MongoDB market. This is because the company plans to integrate the Redis To Go solution with the MongoDB database as a service from ObjectRocket. By aligning these two solutions, Rackspace aims to provide developers with a choice of open source-based data platforms that increase the speed and reduce the complexity of building powerful applications on the Rackspace Open Cloud.

"Rackspace has taken another step towards creating a one-stop shop for the growing community of developers that are looking to build complex applications on the open cloud," said Melanie Posey, Research Vice President at IDC. "With today's acquisition of Exceptional Cloud Services, Rackspace gave depth to its application developer toolkit by adding error tracking capabilities, along with a caching solution from Redis To Go, which the company plans to integrate with its recently acquired MongoDB database as a service from ObjectRocket. The tools and depth of expertise that Rackspace gained through its recent acquisitions will collectively work to reduce the complexity associated with building open cloud applications and speed time to market, while helping the company extend its reach to a broader range of global developers.”

Videos, Brochures and Surveys Added to 1&1 MyWebsite Package

Allison Howen — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:05:00 GMT

Popular Web hosting provider, 1&1, has launched a new set of inclusive features for its MyWebsite package, which aim to enhance the appearance and capability of small business websites.

The new tools enable users to add video, brochure and online survey functionality to their websites. For example, the new Video Maker tool allows users to create audio-visual material that can be published on sites for a more influential sales approach. With the tool, users can create a video from up to 20 images, and have the ability to add royalty-free music to the video to accompany the images.

Moreover, 1 &1 has launched a brochure app, which can be helpful in assisting consumers with their search for products or services. With this tool, users can combine images and text to create a 32 page PDF brochure that can be viewed, saved, printed or shared from the business’s website.

Lastly, 1 &1 is launching an online survey tool that will be available in April. This app allows users to create and embed surveys directly within their company’s homepage. The tool comes with a variety of survey templates that can be edited and customized. Additionally, a report of the survey results is provided online or emailed to the business owner in either PDF, Word, Powerpoint or Excel formats.

Initial Evaluation Results for First Set of gTLDs Released

Allison Howen — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:15:00 GMT

New gTLDs are inching closer to becoming a reality, as ICANN has finished the Initial Evaluation for the first set of new gTLD applications and released the results to the general public.

According to ICANN, there are three possible outcomes of the Initial Evaluation process: pass, eligible for extended evaluation or ineligible for further review. It is important to note that the first batch of evaluated gTLDs were non-English, and among the first applicants to pass the evaluation are Amazon EU, Wal-mart and VeriSign Sarl.

ICANN states that it will continue to release Initial Evaluation results in priority order, in increments of 30 per week, with plans to increase to 100 per week. This process will continue until all Initial Evaluation results are completed, which ICANN anticipates will be by the end of August 2013. Furthermore, applications that pass the Initial Evaluation will be eligible to proceed to contracting, with execution of the Registry Agreement, as early as April 23, 2013.

8 Great Green Hosting Providers

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:35:00 GMT

Selecting a Web host is a tough decision that not only affects a website’s success, but also the environment.

According to HostGator (featured below), the average server produces the same emissions as a 15 mpg SUV. When you look at HostGator, the company hosts more than 4,000,000 websites on its shared and reseller Web hosting servers, which means a lot of carbon emissions. Let’s see how this company and others are making a difference in the hosting world.

Host: HostGator
Estimated Web Popularity*: 139

Going Green: Initially, HostGator took steps to minimize its environmental impact at the office, but the company wasn’t satisfied. HostGator expanded its eco-friendly initiatives a step further by switching to 36 percent more efficient servers, but the hosting business still wasn’t satisfied. Today, all of HostGator’s Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) have been registered, verified and retired from the market. Additionally, all of its shared and reseller servers are now 130 percent wind powered. Lastly, HostGator has purchased certified RECs representing 130 percent of the electricity used to both power and cool every one its servers.

Host: iPage
Estimated Web Popularity: 7,460

Going Green: iPage reduced its carbon footprint by purchasing enough RECs to offset its energy use by 200 percent. That means:

Host: DreamHost
Estimated Web Popularity: 8,169

Going Green: When DreamHost learned that running its company generated as much carbon dioxide as 545 average-sized homes, stakeholders realized they had to do something to neutralize their emissions. They found the most effective approach begins with resource conservation: turning off the lights, reducing travel, printing on both sides of the page, etc.

“Efforts are being ramped up here daily to do what we do with less,” reads the company website. “The next step is to use clean, renewable energy. Without the option to put up solar panels or connect with a green power utility for us, this means purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. Finally, to neutralize those unavoidable emissions we’ve invested in Emission Reduction Credits (a.k.a. “offsets”) which guarantee our remaining impact is effectively erased.”

DreamHost also holds a Certificate of Carbon Neutralization:

Host: FatCow
Estimated Web Popularity: 10,152

Going Green: FatCow’s company offices and data centers are powered by 100 percent wind energy, and the hosting provider offers a variety of free green badges that customers can add to their websites to announce they’re going green. FatCow believes that by adding their badge to a website can:

• Appeal to eco-conscious customers

• Verify that a website is powered by renewable energy

• Build a reputation as environmentally responsible

Host: HostPapa
Estimated Web Popularity: 24,011

Going Green: HostPapa was one of the first Web hosting companies to make a public commitment to going green. The company promotes the development and use of wind and solar energy resources by purchasing green energy certificates to offset all the power it uses in its data centers and offices. By putting equivalent clean energy back into the grid, the company effectively reduced its carbon footprint and supports renewable energy initiatives.

Host: GreenGeeks
Estimated Web Popularity: 24,911

Going Green: GreenGeeks pulls energy from the grid in order to make sure that it has a constant power flow for its servers and to make sure the servers would not be interrupted by a lack of power. According to the company, in order to compensate for the power it pulls from the grid, GreenGeeks purchases three times that amount in wind energy credits.

“This allows our customers to say that their web sites are 300 percent green and are actually helping to make the Web hosting and power systems greener, not just covering the carbon footprint but covering other carbon foot prints as well,” reads the website.

Here are some examples of the logos its clients can use to show their websites are hosted green:

Host: ThinkHost
Estimated Web Popularity: 110,976

Going Green: Most of ThinkHost’s staff telecommutes, so they aren’t contributing to global warming through trips to and from work. The company also uses little in the way of paper, as data is stored electronically. And most of the staff use notebook computers and low wattage lighting, reducing electricity requirements. What electricity they do use, including the amount used by servers, is 100 percent powered by renewable wind and solar energy.

The company also plants a tree for every new client.

Host: Green Host It
Estimated Web Popularity: 430,476

Going Green: Green Host It’s Web hosting servers are located in a green data center, and the company offsets its electricity usage with 100 percent Texas Certified Wind Power. Additionally, the company utilizes corporate Hybrid vehicles and its telecommuting staff further reduces its carbon footprint. According to Green Host It, taking just one employee off the road for a year is equivalent to removing approximately 13 tons of greenhouse gases. When website owners choose this hosting provider, they will receive a green badge to display on their sites, which is a way to start a green marketing campaign, because it shows their website visitors that their company is environmentally conscious.

*Estimated Web popularity is based on the monthly traffic rank provided by Ranking.com.

Is BYOD the Problem?

Administrator — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:00:00 GMT

By Simon Bain, Founder and CTO, Simplexo

There is a great deal of talk about Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and a lot of statistics suggesting that it is a huge phenomenon taking place across the corporate world. Redshift Research, in a report it delivered for Cisco, tells us that “95 percent of organizations allow employee-owned devices in some way, shape or form in the workplace” with 84 percent of these saying that they provide support for these devices.

However, most instances of BYOD currently relate to people’s use of their own smartphones to connect to the Internet or email to access company documents. Five years ago people simply had two mobile phones – one personal and one issued by work. Today, these two devices have merged into one.

However, remote access to office files using personal devices is not really the issue. What has really got IT decision-makers excited is their increasing difficulty to be able to track company data and understand what is happening to it outside of the enterprise environment.

BYOD is not the problem, cloud storage is. It is now very simple for employees to store documents, for free, using any number of file storage providers such as Dropbox or Google drive. There is also an increasing number of applications that can be downloaded that help with office work. Where data is stored and how securely within these applications is often a mystery. In either case, once out of the enterprise IT environment it becomes impossible for CIOs to know where company data is or who has access to it.

However, it is not just technology, but rather the changing relationship we are having with it as a society that is the real driver of change. For the first time, IT decision-makers are no longer in charge of how IT is used in organizations.

Very quickly, we have all got used to being able to easily choose from a limitless supply of applications in our personal lives, all at little or no cost. This is the antithesis to the corporate environment, which has deployed software and services in a top-down and inflexible manner, giving employees little or no choice. This new and growing consumer-based culture allows for IT services to grow organically to meet the ever-changing demands of the enterprise. So on one level this is all very good news. However, the result is that those entrusted with responsibility for IT have a growing lack of control over data and how it is used.

The fact is, IT departments are never going to be able to compete with the simplicity and ease-of-use that comes from having an instantly downloadable application. This needs to be accepted by enterprise organizations at the earliest possible opportunity as it is only in doing so that they will be able to change their own worldview and work with the new consumer-led culture of IT deployment that is growing at an ever-increasing pace.

I expect to see an explosion in enterprise-grade applications in the next 18 months as the market recognizes the growth in demand from enterprise organizations and IT decision-makers recognize that they need to give their staff a choice of technology within controlled environments.

We could well see, for example, enterprises partnering with third-party app stores that only allow applications that keep data in a recognized and controlled environment. Employees will benefit from having access to a shopping cart of applications to choose from and IT departments will know that they have tight service level agreements with providers detailing required security and data locations. Developers will have clear instructions as to what data security and other hoops that they need to jump through to have access to the market created by the third-party app provider. This is just one possible outcome of many in what is a rapidly changing and volatile market.

Such paradigm shifts will not be an easy process for many organizations. Staff will still complain that the tools they really want to use sit outside any secure environment and will be tempted to use them. The trick will be to have both sticks and carrots - firm and enforceable data control policies and a never-ending search for the best range of applications to meet changing demands.

Cloud computing has been spoken of as the most revolutionary thing to happen in IT for a generation. However, this is only true for the IT department. The most visible revolution is just around the corner as employees take full control of how they use technology to meet their daily needs in work. BYOD smartphones are just the tip of the iceberg.

About the Author: Simon Bain is the founder and CTO of Simplexo Ltd's software solutions and is a highly respected figure in the structured markup industry and a frequent spokesman on XML applications.

Tests Net 300% Faster Load Times

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:15:00 GMT

From conversion rates, visitor satisfaction, bounce rates and your bottom line, website performance affects everything.

“Nobody likes waiting for a page to load,” said A2 Hosting Marketing Manager Brad Litwin. “We're way too busy, and there is way too much competition to sit and wait for a page to load. If you have a slow site, users are just going to hit the back button on their browser and find your competitor to buy from or get their information from.”

That is why a reliable hosting solution is imperative to a website’s success. A2 believes its newly launched SSD hosting is the answer.

“Our engineers set up testing, so we could compare page load speeds for some of today's most popular software including WordPress and PrestaShop,” said Litwin. “To make the tests as fair as possible, they made adjustments, so the tests were in as real-world scenarios as possible. It turns out that our new SSDs loaded pages up to 300 percent faster compared to standard hard drives.”

Additionally, A2 says its hosting platform has solutions that meet the needs of businesses of all sizes – from personal blogs to full-service solutions.

“It seems like hosting customers are concerned with scalability, that is having to move hosting providers once they outgrow their current host,” said Litwin. “That's never an issue at A2 Hosting. As our customers' sites grow, their hosting solution grows with them.”

Along with the SSD Hosting, A2 underwent a 2012 website redesign.

“When we re-designed our site, not only did we want to make it easy for our customers to select the service that best fit their needs, but we also wanted to show the value included with their account,” said Litwin. “Many hosts compete on price, and I think that's a losing proposition. If someone is looking for the cheapest price, that's not us. If they're looking for a high-performance host who includes tools like free backups, hack scanning, SEO tools and never charges hidden fees, that's us. I think this competitor comparison is a perfect example of the value included with our accounts.”

Taking Security to the Next Level

Administrator — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:45:00 GMT

:: By Kelly Meeneghan, 1&1 Internet

With such a heavy reliance on the Internet, online security should be one of the top priorities for both website owners and their visitors. According to a recent study conducted by 1&1 Internet, Inc., more than half of the participants (67%) confirmed that they, or someone they know, have had their personal information lost or stolen as a result of doing business online. As a website professional, it is imperative that all aspects of your work provide a secure environment for both yourself as well as website visitors. Neglecting to exercise significant measures to ensure Web safety can result in extremely damaging losses of information and in turn, credibility. Understanding these priorities, Web hosts put in place security measures to ensure safe and reliable online operations.

1) Redundant Web hosting

Redundant Web hosting has become a staple in many online hosting solutions. Mirroring data on at least two separate servers have proven to be a strategic solution towards preventing downtime, which is always an inevitable risk. Taking it a step further, hosting providers have introduced more complex redundancy procedures like Dual Hosting. Such technology hosts your site and data on two different server clusters in separate physical locations creating a form of ‘geo-redundancy.’ Due to this added layer of security, if one data center experiences any kind of disturbance, your information will automatically be switched to the other location to remain accessible. While necessary maintenance takes place on the interrupted server, there is zero disruption on your website and your visitors online experience.

2) Security Scans

Even though you may think your site is immune to malicious activity, simple mistakes like a misspelling when entering code or forgetting to close a parenthesis can leave your online representation vulnerable to potential hackers. Such infections can not only affect a website’s function, but could also potentially harm visitors to the website and damage your online brand. As this risk can occur at any time, often without your knowledge, security tools like SiteLock allow you to continually inspect your site for any suspicious or dangerous behavior. Among a list of benefits, SiteLock conducts website application scans, SQL injection scans and cross site scripting (XSS) scans across multiple website pages. These valuable scans will detect if the website has been intruded, evaluate the need for upgrades to third party applications, identify the potential for data breaches and provide any necessary steps needed for users to regain maximum security of their website immediately.

3) Secure Data Transports

When working with online transactions, businesses should seriously consider obtaining a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate which is a security protocol that encrypts your site to ensure secure transactions, data transfers and logins. An SSL certificate will provide for a safe flow of information between your Web server and browser, guaranteeing message integrity. By obtaining your SSL certificate, you will be able to visibly show visitors how safe your site is. Activating the lock icon in the browser as well as displaying a “Smart Seal” will help your site illustrate a more secure online representation as compared to competitors and increase consumer’s trust in your business.

4) Recovery Tools

It is inevitable that businesses will experience human error. Web professionals should be prepared should they encounter an experience such as realizing you have overwritten important data or exited without saving. These errors cost valuable time and effort that most individuals have little to spare. Web hosts implement tools such as 1&1’s Webspace Recovery Tool which allows for the recovery of up to six days of data entry, making information restoration a painless process. Take the extra step of prevention to avoid wasting valuable time in a frustrating situation.

Online security is an essential aspect for the success of any Web professional and their visitors. By utilizing these steps and mentioned tools, you will give your online work the opportunity to go beyond these hesitations and instill peace of mind for all online viewers.

Retail Cyber Attacks Increasing

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Both the number and severity of cyber attacks on retailers is accelerating according to TrustWave's 2013 Global Security Report.

The report indicates that those in the retail sector are now the top target for cyber criminals, making up 45 percent of TrustWave’s data breach investigations – a 15 percent increase over 2011.

Some of the other noteworthy highlights from the report include:

Applications are the most popular attack vector, with e-commerce sites the number one target
64 percent of organizations attacked took more than 90 days to detect an intrusion with the average time for detection being 210 days -- 35 days longer than in 2011
The two most noteworthy methods of intrusion, SQL injection and remote access, made up 73 percent of the infiltration methods used by criminals in 2012.

"Cyber-criminals will never stop trying to compromise systems to obtain valuable information such as customer and private user data, corporate trade secrets and payment card information," said Robert J. McCullen, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Trustwave.

"This year's Global Security Report pulls back the curtain revealing how breaches happen and how potential victims around the world can protect themselves so that they stay one step ahead and eliminate potential security threats. After reading this report, businesses and government agencies will be one step closer to building a comprehensive security strategy to reduce risk, protect data and safeguard their reputation."

Trustwave’s 2013 report examined 450 data breaches, 2,500 penetration tests, 9 million Web application attacks, 2 million network and vulnerability scans, 5 million malicious websites and 20 billion emails.

Confused About the Cloud? You Are Not Alone

Administrator — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:00:00 GMT

By Will Stevens, Webfusion

If someone asked you "what is the cloud" how long would it take you to come up with a good answer? Thirty seconds? A couple of minutes? Or would you have to regretfully shrug your shoulders and admit you don't really understand what it is?

It's fair to assume that most people in the IT industry would fall into the first two categories – even if you're not raising bootstrap funding for an innovative cloud-based start-up, the chances are that if you work in the sector in any capacity, you'll have some knowledge of the cloud. But it seems the general public are lagging behind when it comes to understanding one of the hottest computing buzzwords around, as this infographic demonstrates.

(Infographic credit: The Webfusion VPS Server team)

So what should we take away from a survey that indicates a huge number of Americans use cloud services, but appear to do so without realizing?

It's tempting to dismiss the findings as being no big deal – after all the public doesn't want to go on a crash course in computing, they just want to be able to access their emails and listen to their music. This attitude might be understandable if the IT industry didn't keep pushing the concept of cloud services as if it was a phrase that was well understood, but surely marketing your products using a buzzword that people haven't grasped makes little sense.

After all, among those 60 percent who profess to be ignorant about the cloud will be a significant number of existing and potential small business owners – exactly the kind of person business-related cloud services should be targeted at. But the demands of a small business owner go beyond those of casual users of services such as Gmail and iTunes – if you're looking to turn a profit it's not enough to know that something works the way it should most of the time, you need to know you're getting the cheapest, most reliable solution around.

If you work in the IT industry, you'll be aware the cloud does indeed offer a cheap, reliable solution for any number of business needs. But why use a term that has to be translated before your target audience understands what you're trying to sell them?

What's the point in telling someone the service they want will be delivered through the cloud when all they really want to know is if the product will save them money? If the words you're using carry little meaning for your target audience then you have drifted into the realm of empty buzzwords – small business owners are as likely to feel as engaged by "the cloud" as the average employee is by the kind of management speak which still dominates many companies. So perhaps it's time the IT industry forgot about the cloud and focused on the benefits of individual products. After all, small business owners aren't interested in some overarching buzzwords – they just want a service that's right for them.

The Low-Down on Domain Names

Administrator — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:00:00 GMT

By Kelly Meeneghan, Manager, 1&1 Internet, Inc.

For any business, having a clear address to your physical location is imperative to ensure that your current and potential customers/clients can find you. This accessibility ultimately leads to an increase in both clientele and sales. The same goes for the Internet. It's now common knowledge that in order for a business to succeed, you must create an effective online presence. The first step to accomplish this feat is to start with a domain name, a virtual address, with which the public can use to find a business on the Web.

A domain name is the sequence of letters after a “www.” through the “.com/.net/etc” of a URL. Representing an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, a domain can be associated with the personal computer used to access the Internet, the server computer that is hosting a website or the website itself. Put simply, this name replaces the use of overly complicated and detailed technical codes, which are assigned to every space on the Internet. Without a domain name, no one will be able to find and view a website, directly entering domain names is in fact the fastest and most convenient way for people to discover a business.

As you decide to venture into the online world, choosing an effective domain name should be top priority. Understanding how computers read domains can help guide you through the process of choosing the most appropriate and effective domain. It is useful to know that domains are organized by the Internet from right to left, the opposite of how we normally read.

Therefore, the first section you come upon is the top-level domain (TLD), or domain extension, which identifies the purpose and mission of the website. For example, in 1and1.com, .com is the TLD. In fact, it is a gTLD (general top-level domain), which illustrates that it is available for world-wide registration regardless of citizenship, residence or age. Most commonly used, .com is often the first gTLD that businesses consider. Though a smart decision due to its popularity, we encourage businesses to evaluate the potential effectiveness of the other gTLDs. For example, .org extensions are best utilized by non-profit organizations while .name’s are adopted by personal pages. Some businesses prefer .biz to illustrate its professionalism and those that have optimized their website for mobile viewing must use .mobi. Each holds their own purpose and is chosen at the discretion of its owner. By specifying your type of business through the domain extension, you can create a greater impression on visitors rather than misleading them by selecting an inappropriate domain.

Taking TLDs a step further, there are ccTLDs (country code top-level domains), which are assigned to specific countries and are not available to everyone. Such domains include .us for the United States, .de for Germany and .es for Spain, to name a few. The purpose of ccTLDs is to encourage local businesses to identify themselves as a business of that country. Specifying the country of residence within the TLD can help businesses better target their local audiences more directly. Each country has their own registration restrictions. Therefore, be sure to understand these guidelines before making an investment in the domain.

Next, the section to the left of the TLD is considered the domain. Some businesses wish to showcase the official business name, well-known slogan, industry or location through their domain. Though all can be good ideas, 1&1 suggests that the business chooses to feature the official business name. This keeps it simple for you and your visitors to remember and not hinder their potential return to the site in the future. If the name is not available with the desired TLD, like .com, consider an alternative TLD before changing the domain name. Perhaps a .org or .biz TLD will be suitable and therefore you can keep the unique domain.

Once a domain name is decided, it needs to be registered with a domain registrar. This grants you the right to use the domain but it does not assign you legal ownership. Different TLDs and registrars may list domains at different price points, so be sure to shop around to find one you are comfortable with. Once completed, you are ready to begin designing your website.

About the Author: Kelly Meeneghan is a manager for 1&1 Internet, Inc. (www.1and1.com). As a global leader among Web hosts, 1&1 provides businesses with the tools necessary to get online and be successful. Meeneghan also wrote the contributor piece, Ditch Your Yellow Pages, for WebsiteMagazine.com.