Cloud Hosting Support: January 2014

Sunday, 26 January 2014

From SDNs to Big Data—7 Challenges Facing the Data Center in 2014

Where exactly are data centers going in the next few years? The rise of the cloud and the ubiquity of high-powered computing is rapidly increasing the volume of data being processed by networks and IT systems.

The data center has become critical to the efficient operation of the modern enterprise. Internal projects, external applications, user data and everything else are now entrusted to data centers. Increasing reliance on the cloud, by both consumers and businesses, and the continued expansion of the Internet has bought with it fresh challenges for data centers and the staff that manage them.

From provisioning to cooling, the data center today has to deal with issues faster, while also doing more on less hardware. Virtualization and blade servers are allowing data centers to squeeze more and more processing power into racks, but at the same time driving up the requirements for energy and cooling.

From software-defined networks (SDNs) to big data, the data center will need to rise to the occasion of a number of challenges in 2014 and beyond.

1. Maintaining Legacy Systems

Although certain technologies continue to drive data centers forward, problems may remain with legacy systems, potentially adding more complexity to an already complex infrastructure. The forerunners to enterprise data centers—storage, compute and network layers—are still seeing growth, meaning IT teams face the prospect of managing new and legacy systems in tandem.

2. Energy Efficiency

Regulations and the need to become energy efficient are driving companies to find new and innovative ways of controlling costs and power use. For instance, some companies are building facilities in areas where electricity is cheaper or even where climates are cooler, as Google’s recent $608 million investment in a data center in Finland demonstrates.

3. Outsource or On-Premise?

Outsourcing to the cloud has driven businesses to give their data to others. Though outsourcing is on the rise, concerns surrounding privacy and security are strong enough reasons to keep company data behind bricks and mortar. The rise of the modular data center may entice businesses to deploy scalable solutions closer to customers. Speed should always be a priority, and being able to deploy one hop from customers can give businesses far more flexibility than being stuck at six hops.

4. Cloud Services

Amazon’s cloud platform has led IT managers to look at hardware as no longer the physical restraint that it once was. Instead, they view it as a platform that can be rapidly deployed and then used more effectively through virtualization. This shift has led to hardware vendors having to differentiate themselves on services and extras, as the hardware has increasingly become a commodity—which can only be a good thing for data center teams.

5. Software-Defined Data Centers

The shift from hardware to software-defined systems has made the data center more business focused than ever. The CIO is now becoming a key component of any business strategy as technology drives companies to focus more on using technology to meet their needs.

It’s too early to tell if software-defined data centers (SDDCs) will be the ubiquitous architecture of the future. Critics dismiss it as marketing talk; advocates see it as the final frontier for IT provisioning.

A true SDDC will be autonomous, able to offload workloads effectively and able to deal with failures to minimize service downtime. The hardware will still be there, but it will be used in new ways as virtualization of all layers allows for more control and higher agility and streamlines the SDDC around business strategies.

Although “software defined” may have an uncertain future, it’s still important to understand where it may lead and to act on the changes if they happen.

6. Big Data

Software-defined networks will help make big data a reality, allowing companies to collect, analyze and act on data faster than ever, placing the data center at the very heart of the long-term strategy and goals of the business.

7. Standards and System Integration

Widespread adoption of the cloud will require industry virtualization standards across not only the network virtualization but also storage, if it comes into fruition. There are currently a few competitors in the space, however OpenStack appears to be a front runner and has support by major vendors—Cisco and HP, to name a few. Given more industry standards in place and enhanced compatibility between systems, data centers will be able to benefit from deeper system integration and improved efficiency.

One thing for certain is that the future of the data center lies in having closer ties with business goals, in efficiency, consolidation and the power of the software-defined future. Removing the physical limitations implied by hardware and allowing software to define networks is a clear step in the direction of future data centers.

Source : http://www.datacenterjournal.com/it/sdns-big-data7-challenges-facing-data-center-2014/

Protect Your Data Center Against IEMI and HEMP

The U.S. electric grid, composed of eight separate units, delivers power to millions of residential, commercial, and industrial users through more than 6 million miles of line. More than 3,000 organizations are charged with the design and management, many of which are in turn regulated by both federal and state agencies.

While this remarkable system of systems will continue to serve us well, it will face serious challenges in the next two decades that will demand the intelligent use of new technologies and the adoption of more appropriate regulatory.

Natural disasters used to be the only threat to the U.S. Power Grid, but today Intentional Electromagnetic Interference (IEMI) and High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP) have created a new set of challenges and put reliable data center operations at risk.

It’s a problem all data center managers are facing today, which is why one of Data Center World’s Global Conference 2014 general sessions—Wednesday, April 30, in Las Vegas—is focusing on “Protecting Data Centers Against Intentional Electromagnetic Interference and High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse.”

This panel discussion, three international experts will discuss the effects of IEMI and HEMP and the most cost-effective and practical protective measures available.

Check out a complete schedule of events at the April 28-May 2 conference.

Source :- http://www.datacenterworld.com/blog/2014/01/24/protect-your-data-center-against-iemi-and-hemp/

Monday, 20 January 2014

Virtualization vs. Cloud Computing: What's the Difference?

Is virtualization right for your business? How about cloud computing? Don't know the difference? That's OK — most non-IT folks don't either. The word "cloud" is often thrown around as an umbrella term, while "virtualization" is often confused with cloud computing. Although the two technologies are similar, they are not interchangeable, and the difference is significant enough to affect your business decisions. Here is a guide to help demystify the tech behind the jargon.

What is virtualization?

In a nutshell, virtualization is software that separates physical infrastructures to create various dedicated resources. It is the fundamental technology that powers cloud computing. [Cloud Computing: A Small Business Guide]

"Virtualization software makes it possible to run multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same server at the same time," said Mike Adams, director of product marketing at VMware, a pioneer in virtualization and cloud software and services. "It enables businesses to reduce IT costs while increasing the efficiency, utilization and flexibility of their existing computer hardware."

The technology behind virtualization is known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or virtual manager, which separates compute environments from the actual physical infrastructure.

Virtualization makes servers, workstations, storage and other systems independent of the physical hardware layer, said John Livesay, vice president of InfraNet, a network infrastructure services provider. "This is done by installing a Hypervisor on top of the hardware layer, where the systems are then installed."

How is virtualization different from cloud computing?

Essentially, virtualization differs from cloud computing because virtualization is software that manipulates hardware, while cloud computing refers to a service that results from that manipulation.

"Virtualization is a foundational element of cloud computing and helps deliver on the value of cloud computing," Adams said. "Cloud computing is the delivery of shared computing resources, software or data — as a service and on-demand through the Internet."

Most of the confusion occurs because virtualization and cloud computing work together to provide different types of services, as is the case with private clouds.

The cloud can, and most often does, include virtualization products to deliver the compute service, said Rick Philips, vice president of compute solutions at IT firm Weidenhammer. "The difference is that a true cloud provides self-service capability, elasticity, automated management, scalability and pay-as you go service that is not inherent in virtualization."

What are the advantages of a virtualized environment over the cloud?

To best understand the advantages of virtualization, consider the difference between private and public clouds.

"Private cloud computing means the client owns or leases the hardware and software that provides the consumption model," Livesay said. With public cloud computing, users pay for resources based on usage. "You pay for resources as you go, as you consume them, from a [vendor] that is providing such resources to multiple clients, often in a co-tenant scenario."

A private cloud, in its own virtualized environment, gives users the best of both worlds. It can give users more control and the flexibility of managing their own systems, while providing the consumption benefits of cloud computing, Livesay said.

On the other hand, a public cloud is an environment open to many users, built to serve multi-tenanted requirements, Philips said. "There are some risks associated here," he said, such as having bad neighbors and potential latency in performance.

In contrast, with virtualization, companies can maintain and secure their own "castle," Philips said. This "castle" provides the following benefits:

Maximize resources — Virtualization can reduce the number of physical systems you need to acquire, and you can get more value out of the servers. Most traditionally built systems are underutilized. Virtualization allows maximum use of the hardware investment.
Multiple systems — With virtualization, you can also run multiple types of applications and even run different operating systems for those applications on the same physical hardware.
IT budget integration — When you use virtualization, management, administration and all the attendant requirements of managing your own infrastructure remain a direct cost of your IT operation.

[8 Reasons to Fear Cloud Computing]

How do you know if your business needs a virtualization solution?

Determining whether or not virtualization is the best solution for a business requires an in-depth analysis of the organization's specific needs and requirements.

"Some of the items we discuss with customers when they are evaluating private cloud — virtualization — versus cloud computing include who is going to be providing the support and how challenging is integration with other systems," Livesay said.

You should also consider costs — total cost of expenditure (TCO), operational expenditures (OPEX) and capital expenditures (CAPEX) — how much management the business can and want to do, scalability requirements, security needs and how much feature development can be expected, Livesay said.

"Generally speaking, businesses who work more on an OPEX model that have less IT staff and fewer security concerns are more cloud oriented," Livesay said. "Businesses that need greater control for integration and security or who work more on a CAPEX model would lean towards virtualization."

How do businesses know if they should use a true cloud solution?

While virtualization is the best solution for some organizations, a cloud solution offers several benefits that are more suitable for other businesses.

Philips said cloud solutions are best for business with the following needs:

Outsourced IT — The day-to-day administration, care and feeding of supporting systems move away from you to the service provider. This could free up internal IT resources for higher-value business support and allow you to put IT budget dollars toward efforts that advance your business.
Quick setup — Cloud startup is relatively quick and easy. Plus, servers, appliances and software perpetual licenses go away when you use such a service.
Pay-as-you-go — An example could be found in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications available today that allow the off-loading of basic IT requirements to cloud service providers. You pay for what you need and use. But you do not have to continue to invest in many of the products used to support the network and systems, such as spam/anti-virus, encryption, data archiving, email services and off-site storage.
Scalability — By using the cloud, you can also temporarily scale your IT capacity by off-loading high-demand compute requirements to an outside provider. As a result, as mentioned above, you pay for only what you need and use, only at the time when you need it.

Keep in mind, however, that virtualization and cloud services are not end-all, be-all solutions. Like any other technology or service a business adopts, things can always change.

"While cloud computing and virtualization each have their own benefits, they are not competing approaches," Adams said. "We view cloud computing as an evolution of virtualization. Customers that virtualize their hardware servers may adopt cloud computing over time for increased self-service, scale, service delivery levels and agility."

What should businesses look for in a virtualization provider?

Businesses considering virtualization should think about the following questions, Adams said:

Is it a tried and tested solution? Research the vendor's track record of product innovation, success and customer adoption.
Is there a vision and public roadmap for the solution? You want to understand how the solution will advance and how it will help your business in the long run.
What type of ecosystem support exists for the solution? It's imperative that the vendor work with key business and industry-specific independent software vendors (ISVs), as well as a wide range of resellers, service providers and system integrators.
Does the solution support openness and choice? As your business grows, you want the flexibility to evolve your products and processes, and the ability to incorporate other technologies over time.

Originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.

Cloud computing - separating fact from fiction

Cloud computing is up there with some of the biggest changes to hit the IT industry in recent years, along with the consumerisation of IT, the new generation of connected applications, and big data.

It's also become a source of some pretty big misperceptions, and I do agree with TSG's chief operating officer Steve Cox when he talks about how buzz words such as cloud or bring your own device (BYOD) have done much to bring mass confusion to the IT industry and that the full range of advantages (and disadvantages) can often be overlooked or misunderstood as a result.

You can laugh at stats like 51% of people in a Citrix survey believed that cloud computing is affected by the weather conditions, but that just goes to show that as an industry we need to make a better job of educating users.

Many of us have been using cloud for a while – whenever we sent an email, logged onto our internet banking, or uploaded a photo. You can access any of these things from anywhere, using different devices, and that's what the cloud really is. It's not complex or scary when you look at it, but as an industry we have done a good job of persuading you otherwise.

In its simplest terms, if you add an appointment to your calendar on one device and it shows on another; that's made possible thanks to the cloud.

Cloud can conjure up the notion that you have to put your data high up in the sky (which probably doesn't help the common perception that data in the cloud is out of reach). In reality, the cloud is all around us – it allows us to access data services and apps remotely.

Granted, using the cloud to send an email is an entirely different kettle of fish to putting your entire business data in it. There are a lot of things to consider before you do this, which again has added to some of the confusion. Cloud is best understood after you've taken a step back from it, and instead look at what your business needs, how it operates, and what you're most comfortable with.

For example – are you a startup that could benefit from low set-up costs and subscription payments? Are you at the point where your on premise servers are due a refresh and therefore it makes sense to review your infrastructure requirements? Are you planning a rapid expansion which will stretch the limits of your server? Is staff mobility becoming increasingly important to the way you run your business? There are lots of things to consider within your business before making the leap, so talking to an IT partner you trust is key (TSG offer a cloud readiness assessment).

Also important to consider is system scalability, and, most importantly, connectivity. The amount of data we consume, analyse and send out is stratospheric today. If there's an issue with your connectivity, this will affect how your business operates if you're using the cloud. And will the IT solutions you need today, cope with future demands as business grows?

In terms of where Microsoft's head is at, we now live in an era of many devices. 10bn devices are tapping into the internet as we speak – so that's a lot of people who are using more than one. And applications need to work seamlessly from PCs to phones to tablets since we're using most of these at any given time.

It's the mantra that we have for our Windows operating system – One experience. On every device. For everything in your life.

What pushes Microsoft forward is the way that our users access their devices – touch, swipe, click and share. And the huge amount of data that feeds and enables these modern applications through the cloud needs to be managed in a simple way, so that you can control who is using devices in your company, who is tapping into your network, and how to spot and deal with unwelcome visitors.

In a world where more and more people are working from different locations and need access not just 9-5 but 24/7, collaboration is key. That's why one of our focuses in Office 365, a cloud based application, is document sharing – stay in sync when you're working on files together, keep up to date with everyone's changes in the same document, even if changes are made at the same time. And, most importantly, set access rules so you're aware of who has sight of what.

Cloud computing allows us to do more, share more, and collaborate more. We're now starting to see more and more businesses becoming increasingly interested in the benefits of the cloud.

But before you even mention the word cloud in your organisation, speak to an advisor you trust so they can help you work out the 'if, when and how' to ensure that the right technology fits in the right places for your business.

Hazel Burton is a marketing executive at TSG

TSG (Technology Services Group) are an end to end IT solutions provider, with experienced specialists across all areas of technology from infrastructure to telecoms, CRM to ERP, business intelligence to SharePoint.

Copy on this page is provided by Microsoft, supporter of the cloud hub

Source : http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/partner-zone-microsoft/cloud-computing-separating-fact-fiction

Is Bangalore the technology start-up capital of the world?

With costs of setting up start-ups becoming a challenge in the erstwhile capital of the Bay Area in California and given the barriers to immigration and cost of talent, Bangalore is all set to capture this position in the next decade.

Bangalore has a huge talent pool of technology geeks -- maybe the largest concentration anywhere in the world who work for global giants like IBM, Microsoft, HP, Dell, Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro to name a few, not to mention the captive technology development centers of large corporate giants like Levers, GE, Samsung, Fidelity and others. Bangalore also plays host to many global product companies for support and research & development of their solutions.

The Bangalore ecosystem is a city chugging against all odds, totally unplanned and living in perpetual chaos with unabated construction being the norm with dust and debris and slow moving traffic. But Bangalore scores on its climate and wonderful and hospitable locals who welcome people of any nationality with open arms -- it used to be called the Garden City but today it can be called as the city of technology. Its Bangalore's cosmopolitan outlook for more than hundred years that make it the city of choice and has transformed it as the destination for technology in the world.

Bangalore was a technology capital of India long before the advent of information technology companies, it had the first Indian Institute of Science set up here more than 100 years ago, and boasts of the first aircraft factory, the first telephone factory, the first transformer factory, the first modern earth moving equipment factory, the first soap factory, the first electronics factory for defence, the first aeronautical laboratory, first battery powered car and the central power research institute and has many more firsts to its credit.

Given this pedigree Bangalore has the credentials to be the global capital of technology start-up companies of the world and the gold rush has already started. On any Friday evening you can find at least people from a score of different countries putting their plans and thoughts to test at the numerous pubs of Bangalore. More business and entrepreneurial ideas emanate in the pubs of Bangalore being the capital of Kingfisher India's largest selling beer. There used to the Beer Drinker's Association of Information Technology (BAIT ) kicked off by Pradeep Kar, the early poster boy of the technology industry in Bangalore in the mid-90s and the person who brought Bill Gates to Bangalore in another formative era.

If you are not a beer drinker, the locals say you can throw a stone and will hit a Cafe Coffee Day locally known as CCD. The area of Koramangala the residential capital of technology entrepreneurs in Bangalore has a CCD within a 500 meter radius. CCD is another hot place when you want to have a sober meeting and exchange of ideas at a low cost and global ambience. Many companies have taken birth on a tissue paper provided by CCD when they serve your cup of coffee.

All the venture capitalist companies have their operations in Bangalore, even NASDAQ has its Asia office in Bangalore. So realizing funding and value for the start-ups in Bangalore is a breeze whether you want to list at the NASDAQ or exit by selling to another larger player -- you can choose the option of cashing in on your efforts.

The local Government provides incubators along with Nasscom, Microsoft provides incubation and number of other companies encourage start-ups within their campus.

So if you have an idea there is not dearth of fructifying your dreams to reality. There there is TIE which is active and not to mention the Open Coffee Club (http://occbangalore.org/).

Bangalore will have one of the best Metro links in Asia and it is a pleasure to travel above street level and reach your destination quickly while the traffic snarls under your feet.

If you have the entrepreneurial urge and the courage and grit to make a difference to the world technology landscape it is time for you to pack your bags and head to Bangalore.

Remember the locals like it to be called as Namma Bengaluru and if you learn a few words of Kannada before you land, your ability to blend will be easier.

Welcome to Bangalore - the Technology Start-up Capital of the World!

Sunday, 19 January 2014

Dedicated Server Hosting vs. Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting or dedicated server? There are a lot of factors involved in making your decision between the two—reliability, scalability, support, etc.—but today we’re looking solely at price. Cloud computing is marketed as an on-demand, “pay as you go” service, but in this direct costs analysis, we will treat it as though we plan to use the services for a full month. We will analyze cloud hosting services from Amazon and dedicated servers from SingleHop.

From Amazon, we will use the Standard, On-Demand Large Instance and the Extra-Large Instance as the basis of comparison. It is configured as such:

Large Instance: 7.5 GB of memory, 4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 850 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform – cost $0.34 for Linux and $0.48 per hour for Windows – which translates to$245/mo for Linux and $346/mo for Windows
Extra Large Instance: 15 GB of memory, 8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 1690 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platform – cost $0.68 for Linux and $0.94 per hour for Windows – which translates to $490/mo for Linux and $677/mo for Windows

Our roughly comparable dedicated servers from SingleHop include the dual-core Intel Core2Duo E8400 and the quad-core Xeon Nehalem E5520

Intel Core2Duo E8400 3.0 Ghz 6MB Cache; 4 GB (DDR2) RAM, 250 GB (SATA) Drive, 10 TB Monthly Bandwidth (note that the 10 TB is an April 2010 special at SingleHop and not standard): $179/mo
Intel Xeon E5520 Quad-Core Nehalem 2.26GHz 8MB L3 cache; 12 GB (DDR2) RAM, 1 TB (SATA) Drive, and 10 TB Monthly Bandwidth (note that the 10 TB is an April 2010 special at SingleHop and not standard): $279/mo

Because of RAM configurations, a direct comparison is not entirely possible—SingleHop’s Core2Duo server has only 4 GB of RAM versus Amazon’s Large Instance’s 7.5 GB; similarly, the Xeon has only 12 GB versus Amazon’s Extra-Large Instance’s 15 GB. However, the costs are vastly different as well:

SingleHop’s Core2Duo server is $66/month cheaper when running Linux and $167/mo cheaper when running Windows;
SIngleHop’s Xeon E5520 is $211/mo cheaper when running Linux and $398/mo cheaper when running Windows.

Overall, the cloud hosting “pay-as-you-go” setup isn’t useful if you plan to use the services for the full month and utilize all the RAM. In that case, as demonstrated above, the costs clearly make better sense to go with dedicated servers, instead.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/dedicated-server-hosting-vs-cloud-hosting/

The Growing Popularity Of Cloud Computing And Cloud Hosting

Cloud computing has been stirring up a buzz online since it was introduced a few years back. Now, cloud hosting is currently doing the same in the web hosting industry for very good reasons. If you are new to the phrase “computing in the clouds”, do not worry. The technology is quite new, but its use has already been implemented by giant corporations like Goggle. You may not know it yet, but you have used it already a couple of times by accessing the Internet through a web browser.

The technology is currently being used by large corporations, but news is that even small businesses can get access to this more efficient computing architecture. Although it has been around for a few years, it only gained popularity in 2010. Nowadays, more and more hosting companies are jumping into the bandwagon to provide both large and small businesses with the technology.

What is Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a term that refers to the use of computer resources through a computer network. Traditionally, computer data and software used to read it are stored in the user’s computer. Hence, the user needs specific software to access the data, without which, it will be rendered useless or unreadable. However, if the user is computing in the cloud, so to speak, he does need to have the data and the software. He only needs to have a minimal computer operating system and a web browser to watch videos, read content, view photos, and the like.

The use of the cloud as a symbolic analogy is not new. In networking diagrams and flowcharts, it is commonly used to symbolize the Internet. This means that any computer connected to the Cloud or the Internet is also connected to a vast network of computer resources including software, files, and data. By using the Internet, anyone can store images, videos, text and other media without having to use their own computer resources. Those who have used the services of Yahoo Mail, Gmail or similar services know for a fact that they do not need to store their emails in their own computers using software like MS Outlook.

What is Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is generally a means of web hosting that relies on the use of multiple servers connected together. In traditional web hosting, the website is only stored in one server and this has a lot of disadvantages. The processing power of the single dedicated server is limited; hence, if the server is down, the website will also be down. It is generally understood that if this happens, a business will lose potential sales unless the server is restored.

The benefits of this type of service can be seen from different angles. Due to its scalability, the website hosted in the cloud can be expanded easily with minimal limitations. Understand that moving a site from a shared server to a dedicated server takes a lot of time. When the server experiences a surge, it crashes and causes the website to become unavailable to the public. These problems can be solved by switching the hosting service to cloud hosting. The service is also cost-efficient since cloud hosting companies provide almost unlimited computing power. In addition, they only charge clients based on what has been consumed. This prevents the possibility of websites crashing down due to server crash.

However, it also has its disadvantages. For instance, since the site is hosted on physical hardware shared by other users, will other users compromise data security? There may also be an issue on the location of the data. Since cloud hosting makes use of several servers, it is hard to pinpoint where the data is currently stored. Security has always been an issue ever since its advent, not to mention the issue on data location. However, there are solutions to these problems usually provided by the hosting companies themselves.

Since the technology is fairly new, it is a good idea for clients to determine wisely if they should join the bandwagon as well or not yet. Nonetheless, this type of hosting is recommended for sites that suddenly experience or expect to experience sudden popularity. Keep in mind that once a website becomes popular, the server may not have enough computing power to keep it running efficiently with the high traffic coming in. With cloud hosting, the website will have access to unlimited computing power and have others use the resource when not in use. This type of hosting has the capability of removing the stress involving limited bandwidth, CPU power, RAM and other computing resources.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/the-growing-popularity-of-cloud-computing-and-cloud-hosting/

Top Free Web Hosting Companies

Today there are many free or paid up web hosting services on the market. To launch and run a website, you need a web hosting service. This is the only way you are able to access the internet through your website. Selecting the best domain name and web hosting service is a great determinant of how successful your website will be. However, sometimes it is challenging to choose which web host service is the right one for you. The following is the top free hosts available on the internet.

Champhost.com is one of the best free hosting service. It offers you 1000MB disk space, places no ads on your site and allows CGI, PHP, Perl and they only require you to contribute some post on their forum.

100webspace.com offers you 100MB space, all full features like a paid up service that includes emails, FTP, PHP, MySQL, etc. It places ads on your site but is not a huge distraction.

Neopages.net offers 150MB space, place no ads on your site and it supports PHP, CGI, MySQL, email, FTP, etc. This website offers exclusively free web hosting and makes no kind of money from the service.

Free web hosting allows you to host the website completely free of charge. There are no charges for uploading files on to their server or for managing the website. However, there may be some hidden costs free web hosts such as the need to register a domain name from the web host and bandwidth or disk space limitation, which you will pay a fee if you exceed the limitation. Paid web host services charge a fee for hosting websites. This is usually on a monthly or annual basis.

Some free web hosting may limit the amount of bandwidth required to run your site properly and this may directly affect your website’s loading time as well as speed while visitors browse your site. If you intend to develop a website with graphics and videos, a paid hosting package would be the most appropriate choice since it has boundless bandwidth.

Free web host accounts limit how you use your domain name and only allow you to use a sub or internal domain in place of the main domain name. This may affect your brand especially for the goods and services you intend to sell. Most free web hosts will place their own ads on your site that may be frustrating and offer distraction to your visitors. However, free web host offers basic knowledge on web hosting that may enable you to opt for the best web host service.

Web space is as important as bandwidth. Free web host may have restrictions on the amount of web space you can use as well as the number of pages you can have on your site. If you intend to develop a website that is large, you will require a web host service with that can offer unlimited space. You might as well visit Hostgator web host to find the best strategies at reduced cost with boundless bandwidth, space, and inbuilt website builders.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/top-free-web-hosting-companies/

Cloud Hosting – Pros And Cons

A few years back cloud hosting is a term that gained a lot of popularity within government department but it has made its way today in both large and small businesses. It is a system that envisages several servers connected through networks thus creating a cloud where companies manage and store data. Basically, such a cloud can turn out to be a great outsourcing agent for server and storage needs for business enterprises.

Cloud computing hosting is a way of computing whereby resources are dynamically scalable and often virtualized provided as an online service. However, just because cloud hosting has become popular, it does not necessarily imply it is the best choice for your business. Therefore, you may need to find more about your options available with cloud web hosting and identify what impact it may have on your business.

First, hosting your info on an outsourced system that is maintained by a third party will free up space and cut the costs of the business. Cloud hosting will enable you to access and store data for your business 24/7 regardless whether you are at the office or elsewhere since a physical storage center will no longer be required to store business data.

Another advantage is that most cloud web hosting service has installed a pay structure that only calls for payment when the data is accessed. This makes this service convenient, cost effective and affordable to many businesses at all levels. Furthermore, the best cloud hosting relieves burden on IT professionals and frees up their time in the office which may be focused on other business issues. Besides, cloud hosting is easily scalable. This means that companies may add or subtract storage based on their needs and capacity at any given time.

One of the greatest concerns with web hosting of many businesses is the security of their data. If you are going to move all your information to data centers located outside the walls of the company, security must be assured. The worst cloud hosting will not only be insecure but may loss control with handing over your data and information.

Finally, cloud web hosting also creates dependence on third party to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data and information. This exposes the business to the risk of losing data and information should the cloud host disappear. These are some of the issues you may want to consider before choosing this service.

Besides, if your own a small business cloud computing may take a large expense and make it work for your budget. Funding the severs, software and information technology professionals may be a real burden and find cost efficient means though cloud hosting may turn out to be beneficial in the long run.

However, moving into the cloud computing environment will make everyone have access to what could be a major transformation in business intelligence. This sounds like an excellent business venture that keeps up with advanced technology as long as you are prepared to trust your personal data and information with cloud hosting professionals.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/cloud-hosting-pros-and-cons/

Environmetally Friendly Improvements In New Web Hosting Trends

There is currently a splurge of new improvements in concepts, technologies and equipments that promote new hosting trends. The current push towards green technologies in all areas of business has gathered momentum all over the world. It is therefore not surprising that the web-hosting industry, which consumes a tremendous amount of energy due to its nature of keeping networks running at all times, is also looking towards operating in an environmentally friendly manner. These new web hosting techniques make use of renewable energy like wind or solar power as their energy sources. This is part of the concerted effort among developed nations to move towards green energy. However, the advancements in hosting trends are still in its infancy and therefore not available to the general public at the moment.

In terms of energy consumption, the hardware is the one takes up the most power. This is however expected to change as cheaper and faster processors are introduced into the market. This will result in higher processing speeds and using less energy. Faster processors will also reduce the energy levels that are currently needed to power slower servers. Companies in the web hosting industry are also doing their part by giving their customers better software that will speed up web operations and prevent system crashes.

The leaders of the industry have also taken a huge step forward in announcing their aim to achieve carbon neutral status in the industry. Servers seldom move from its permanent place and need a fixed amount of power on a daily basis. This enables the companies to implement systems and procedures that are able to neutralise the carbon demand with alternative sources of energy. Other environmentally friendly efforts being implemented by companies in the industry including going paperless in the office and purchasing carbon credits.

Environmentally friendly web hosting trends can have a big impact on small and medium enterprises especially those that have to provide continuous e-commerce capability on their website. The carbon footprints created due to the amount of servers needed to power the business cannot be easily eliminated by these companies. That is why these companies sign up with web hosting companies because it does not make sense to invest in green energy sources just to run a couple of servers. The web host can then take care of the carbon footprint during non-office hours leaving the small companies to handle only the carbon footprints created during operational hours.

Another new concept that was introduced to increase memory space and server efficiency has in way contributed to the lesser energy consumption. This new concept is known as virtualization, where unused memory that is available over a group of servers is used to serve other websites that may need the additional speed of memory. Traditionally the disk space in a server is seldom used with most of it in idling mode. If the network of servers is well designed and connected, virtualization can free up a huge amount of disk space of web operations. This will eliminate the need for additional servers and reduced the power consumed by the additional servers.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/environmetally-friendly-improvements-in-new-web-hosting-trends/

Google Hosting Allows You To Build Websites

Google web hosting allows your to create web pages easily and fast. Its new features allow you to collect all of your information in just one place. It comes with privacy and security upgrades which allow you to control who has access to your website and to control who can see it and edit it. This is a great application if you are busy or if you are not technology savvy. This allows you to spend more time taking care of your company.

Google web hosting offers the alternative of building a personal web page or a company’s web page. There are some complains about Google Hosting, one of these is that it makes it difficult for users to install CMS or even wordpress.

It does not take more than a minute to find a theme for a website when using Google Hosting. It is even easier to map the domain name desired and which is best, the website is ran using Google’s servers, which are state of the art. This free service offers widgets that can be added to your website and this increase its functionality.

Web hosting from Google allows you to host your web page for free. Google even walks you through the steps of making your own website. There are various templates to choose from, each of these templates have their own theme. It also interfaces with other Gadgets and products such as videos, spreadsheets and calendars. This is a good way for organizations and clubs to organize their activities.

While Google offers web hosting, Google web hosting can be limited. The term “free” really applies to Google Web Hosting. Its tools are good enough for a company or personal website, but it does not allow for the embedding or inclusion on any tools necessary to make a commercial website soar. For example, Google does not give you control over the settings or servers related to your website. It does not provide access to the various scripts and which is more, it does not allow you to use the data bases.

Hosting with Google limits you to only 100 MB per site, the space limit might have varied a bit, but it is still quite small and not enough needed to host a company’s website. It allows for 20 MB of maximum attachment. That means you are also limited on the tools, information and pictures you wish to attach to your website in order to make it fully functional. It is restricting on the kinds of codes that are embedded to it. JavaScript and iframes are removed, this is due to security settings.

This does not take away from Google’s innovative powers. Almost every service online from email, to Search Engines is provided by Google. This company seems to be expanding and moving ahead from the competition. However, when it comes to web hosting for a commercial site, it does not have the same capabilities as other small companies have. Even if Google Web Hosting is good, it is not good enough for having an online store.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/google-hosting-allows-you-to-build-websites/

SEO Hosting & Optimizing Your Website With Various SEO Tactics

Affiliate marketing is a phenomenon that has taken the online world by storm, and now more and more people every day throw themselves into the fray and try to make money from it. For those who are not aware of the concept of affiliate marketing, it basically consists of advertising an established product in return for commissions for every person who purchases the product through your advertisement link. The most popular way to promote products is so far through the use of a blogging system which instead of containing opinions and thoughts about various topics is focused specifically on promoting and marketing a niche through various articles, reviews and whatnot. However, as many have noticed right away, this whole deal is more than complex; getting your website indexed by Google, driving traffic to your website, building links, and actually making a sale are all much harder to do than it seems.

To many the most important aspect is to have your website rank highly on Google; anything less than the first page is not good enough. If you are wondering how exactly Google ranks the websites it has indexed, then you should know that there are about four hundred factors on every one of your pages on your website which Google uses in order to properly rank your website. I will not lie to you, you are going to have trouble finding someone who can give you a rundown of every single parameter Google looks at, but you can find out which are the most important ones. From this comes the concept of making a website SEO hosting viable. What SEO hosting is basically a specialized platform which offers the user various methods to optimize their website such as manage their keywords and practically every other parameter you can think of on your webpage.

There is a good number of SEO tactics which are at the disposal of all affiliate marketers. Since the new Google update, many blogs which have been using auto-bloggers or were using duplicate content were excluded, which leads to believe that the uniqueness of the content is one of the main parameters which Google is looking for. Actually, not only does the content have to be unique but it must also be related to the subject and informative. Do not ask how exactly a computer program can determine how relevant a text is to a subject; the system they have in place to do so is more than likely faulty to some extent… but we have to learn to live with it, at least for now.

Another one of many SEO tatics which can be used to optimize your webpage is to research about five keywords that will serve to identify your page. You should find long-tail keywords (at least three words long) which have a low number of people competing for them and a decent amount of searches. The reason why you need long-tail keywords and not many of them is because you want to drive targeted traffic to your website. In other words, you only want people on your website who are actually looking for what you are advertising, because if they are not they are going to simply leave faster than they came in.

Source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/seo-hosting-optimizing-your-website-with-various-seo-tactics/

Benefits Of Web Hosting Reviews

Web hosting reviews are some of the best sources of information on web hosting companies. Depending on your needs you can use these hosting review sites to find the perfect web hosting company depending on your needs, whether a personal web page or a full-scale e-commerce site. You can read on the web hosts that will give you the best offer when it comes to pricing and reliability.

The best place to look for information on web hosts is the internet. You may find web hosting review sites that rank hosts according to price, quality, reliability, capacity and ease of use. Getting sites that will not let you down will require you to go through these reviews carefully and weigh each one seriously. There is a lot of competition amongst web hosts since this has become a saturated business. It is possible for you to get exceptional services for much less than the price it would normally cost you as long as you take the time to go through these reviews.

There is only one way to determine which companies have a good reputation and experience in web hosting and that is by reading web hosting reviews. Every host will claim to offer the best services but not all of them deliver on this promise. It is therefore important that you read reviews made by other users on these review sites. The World Wide Web is growing at a great rate and it will be difficult for a new entrant to determine which the best host is and which one is out to make a quick buck. It is therefore crucial that you become familiar with those that have experience in providing top-notch services and the only way to go about this is to read reviews.

Top-notch web hosts pride themselves over their quality of service and the features that they offer. Some of these include unlimited host space, data transfer, round the clock support, free domains, backups, etc. It is almost impossible to get all features from one particular web host but with the help of reviews you will be able to determine which ones offer features that best suit your needs. You should also be able to determine whether the best fit will actually deliver on their promise. This would be impossible to tell without reliable web hosting reviews. You can then make your decision. Pricing is not such a determinant unless you are looking for dedicated hosting services. Most will offer low-priced solutions and free setup.

If you want a clear picture of the players, both new and old, then you need to read these reviews. Due to the various options offered you may end up getting confused. Low cost hosting and the much expensive dedicated hosting is provided with different features and you may get overwhelmed. With the help of web hosting reviews you will be able to get a clearer picture that will enable you make an informed decision on which web hosting company to go with.

source : http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/benefits-of-web-hosting-reviews/