For decades, the deployment of cloud computing has transformed the way businesses operate. The technology has acted as a strengthening force in trimming down various variable costs, shortening the scheduled business cycles, and made on-demand resources available to organizations. Nevertheless, the degree of these benefits have been moderated by the security challenges faced by multiple cloud based deployment models. This disparity has further widened with the rising complexity of cloud based applications.
This blog is written with an idea of overcoming security challenges in the cloud and making it a full proof arrangement for congregating critical business information.
To start with, let’s take a quick stroll at the conventional ways of storing information. Cassette tapes, DVDs, CD-ROMs, flip phones, etc. were previously used for saving files and information. As the technology progressed exponentially, consumers have moved to the cloud storage – a new way of storing and retrieving information in a virtual environment.
From business perspective, the world is becoming flat owing to the better connectivity of people and devices across the globe. This has a direct impact on the way information is created, shared, and accessed by businesses and individuals. In this regard, cloud technology plays a pivotal role by moulding the way enterprises communicate and operate in this new technology driven world.
One of the recent studies revealed that the adoption of cloud has risen with a surge in IT expenditure. The report clearly reflects the growing popularity of cloud platform among businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Amidst this scenario, it is important to future proof this cutting edge technology by closely looking at the potential threats at various levels, viz. – physical, virtual, and application. Let’s take a look at these levels in detail:
Physical Threats: This includes physical data centers involving hardware theft, power outages, natural disasters, interruption, or network attacks. To future proof these security concerns, cloud hosting providerscan follow security requirements like network protection, hardware security, and legal & ethical utilization of cloud computing.
Virtual Threats: These are the result of programming errors, high network exposure, communication disruptions, software modification, and connection flooding. To avert these risks, firms can follow security measures like gaining root level access, ensuring data & application security, virtual cloud protection, and communication security across networks.
Application Threats: Such threats occur due to modifications of information during transit, high network exposure, privacy breaches, and cybercrime. Service providers can use multi-tenancy environment to avoid these threats. Other measures include safeguarding critical data from high-end exposure, gaining comprehensive control over resources, and ensuring software security.
Since integrity and availability of data is the top most priority of every organization, experts have been striving to look for ways to future proof cloud security in a smarter way. For this reason, many hosting providers are building a robust cloud architecture to render uninterrupted services to their clients by using the latest technological innovations to achieve unparalleled operational efficiencies.
Besides, there is no explicit answer to future-proof cloud security. Technological breakthroughs and advancements in cloud computing go hand-in-hand, so do the modifications in industrial standards and cloud data security guidelines. Hence, it is imperative for businesses to select the right service provider having capabilities of meeting security demands in a secured environment. Perhaps, this will be considered as the first and foremost step towards future proofing cloud security.
For a Virtual Private Server, VPS is brief. VPS hosting is one of your website’s most common hosting facilities. It utilizes virtualization technology to provide a server with various customers with devoted (personal) funds.
It is a more safe and stable option than shared hosting where a dedicated server hosting room is not available. It’s smaller and more accessible, though than renting a whole server.
VPS hosting is generally selected by website managers with medium-level traffic that reaches the boundaries of mutual housing schemes but does not need a specialized server’s funds.
A server is a machine where your web host stores the documents and databases required for your blog. Whenever a user wishes to enter your page, an application is sent to your server by their browser, and the necessary documents are transferred via the internet. VPS can offer you a virtual server that simulates a physical server, but in fact, multiple consumers share the device.
Your storage supplier installs a separate folder on the bottom of the server’s operating system (OS) using virtualization technology. This section splits the server into partitions and enables each customer to access their operating system and software.
Therefore, as you have complete control, a virtual private server (VPS) is both virtual and private. It is segregated at the OS stage from other server customers. In reality, if you want to operate more than one OS (e.g., Windows and Linux) without a reboot, cheap VPS hosting technology is comparable to generating partitions on your desktop.
Increased reliability
Shared storage is like a dominos pile. A poor customer can cause the whole server to crash.
Shared internet servers are going to be a product of the future quickly. With many storage businesses over-selling their computers and piling up as many as thousands of clients on the same internet computer, their service quality will soon decrease.
When storage on a shared server, the uptime, and quality of your website may be affected on the same server by other applications, what this implies is that if your internet site also holds a 12-year-old programmer who crashes the server, this will also affect your computer.
It is essential to know yourself if you are prepared to carry such hazards with your pages, particularly if they are mainly used for company purposes.
Gain total Control of the server
When selecting VPS or Hybrid Cloud Server storage, one of the most delicate sections is that you have complete root access to the server.
You have full power over the server setting with root access to exactly tweak it to your requirements. If you need an integrated or unlocked personal software package or port, you can do so without needing to ask for the assistance of your service supplier.
Shared web servers are typically optimized for the most significant feasible safety and efficiency, and this implies that owing to their safety constraints, many typical software applications are not supported.
With your virtual environment, you can bypass all these problems.
Increased efficiency
Over the previous few years, green hosting and the use of environmentally friendly techniques have gained a bunch of success. To ensure that your carbon footprint is as low as feasible, it is essential to do your role.
VPS hosting and Hybrid Server Hosting can help this.
You take all the funds of a computer with devoted database storage–which implies you are the only individual benefiting from the energy usage of that computer. However, a significant dedicated network is cut or split into various digital settings with a digital private server. In this manner, more individuals communicate the physical server’s assets and enable optimal use of the assets.
Instantly scale resources
It is essential to be willing to scale your storage funds without any downtime or technical problems for someone who starts a new page with plans to grow it into something much bigger.
If you are hosting a VPS or Hybrid Server, your environment will be hosting what is called a container. Depending on the parcel you bought, this jar is assigned a certain quantity of funds. The significant part about how these containers operate is that as you need them, they can be assigned more or fewer funds readily and rapidly.
If you need to rapidly upgrade your ram when you expect a large number of tourists, merely by clicking a key, you can attach more pump to your container. If you were using devoted storage, somebody would have to mount the new ram physically on your server, resulting in downtime and service loss.
Cost-saving
Hosting alternatives for VPS and Hybrid Server is now much cheaper than they were just a few years earlier. With developments in technology for virtualization, costs are only expected to fall. Hybrid hosting is now an alternative for all page dimensions because of this–even if you start a brand new page.
Here’s the agreement: You can get as little as $29 a month for a tiny personal housing setting it’s just as inexpensive as many mutual hosting reports but without all the related risks and efficiency problems.
Conclusion
Once you decide to switch to a hybrid alternative, you’re never going to glance away. Considering a supplier that makes it simple to manage so, you have full power over upgrades and scaling your alternative is essential. There are also many VPS and Hybrid systems that arrive with one of the famous control panels that will bring the account of all your requirements to maintain and manage your database.
With Twitter planning 1000-character limit for tweets and Microsoft ready to unveil its ‘Surface tablet’ in India – the world is anticipating more and more killing applications that can help in connecting the dots between the explosion of data (Big Data) being generated and the volume of data that can be analyzed effectively. For years, big data has been a mainstay of diverse portfolio of businesses across the globe. However, to harness the big data for analytics uses, it is indispensable to have sophisticated data management and analytics technologies that can support the business mission.
Big Data refers to a large data sets gathered using various equipment (computers, satellites, mobile devices, cameras, sensors, log files, microphones, and more) that comprises of both structured and non-structured flood of information. This latest tech-industry phrase is believed to be evolved from web search organizations in a quest to query extremely large amount of unstructured data. Big data analytics is a technique that allows managing these complex data sets floating across Petabyte to Zettabyte (well, it is believed to surpass this limit as well).
In this blog, we will focus on how Big Data Analytics can help organizations to stay agile and gain competitive advantage in today’s Internet-reliant marketplace.
According to Wikipedia, Big Data is a massive collection of structured and non-structured data that is intricate to capture, process, and manage using conventional relational databases and software metrics. Brighter side is escalating data volumes present opportunities to extract real value from the stored data for making confident decisions in the business. Besides, several challenges are also twig to big data in tandem to:
Organizations need to integrate robust big data and analytics solutions to analyze this escalating volume, variety, and velocity of information. Accuracy in these complex data sets has the potential to transform the way companies manage their operations and also when they plunge to a final decision. Those who neglect upon this factor are struggling to maintain big market share.
Analyzing this information flow requires computing power depending on the amount of input data and the analysis needed. It is best-suited to pay-per-use cloud hosting ecosystem, which allows you to provision computing capacity and resize (both vertically and horizontally) the environment when and where required.
Not at all an exaggeration, companies leveraging big data and analytics strategies are prudently differentiating themselves from their counterparts. These implementations help them to explore new revenue streams, drive product innovation, and determine patterns to curtail fraudulent activities.
Study reveals that companies adopting big data, mobility and cloud computing solutions grow 53% faster than their competitors not adopting these technologies.
Secured Dedicated Servers For Enhanced Business Growth!
Businesses driven by ambition are using the latest Go4hosting servers for capitalizing on the most advanced hardware as well as software, which are loaded with better memory, fast processors and multitasking features, so as to have a highly secured business server. Know more about Go4hostingDedicated Server Hosting
Maximize Your Business Profits with Go4hosting Secured Dedicated Server!
Taking the efficiency of secured dedicated servers to the next level, the hosting features operating on our latest business focused technologies ensure our servers are always fully backed up with fast memory processing and precise hard disk management. The managed firewall and VPN options have the best software support system that includes support for the latest versions of Windows, Linux and SQL technology. This is in addition to customized configuration systems with load balancing and clustering, and dedicated SAN disks for business enhancement and profit maximization.
Here is the list that features Go4hosting as top 10 dedicated server-hosting provider in India
Secure Dedicated Servers: A holistic package for effective operating of the entire business IT system with the managed server’s extraordinary features. It provides a fully loaded platform for improving the effectiveness of the managed hosting system across all the operating business channels.
Future Ready System: It completely revamps your online presence for utilizing the bright future of the internet. The simple quality of expeditiously operations and devoted hosting plans will offer you enhanced business growth and expansion. It offers you a full understanding of servers and a vision to enact the system for increasing your business potency.
Security Handled Robustly: All the systems which have managed server hosting techniques, which improved security of business across the verticals in which you operate. As we have a tendency to desire the best features in the twenty first century, many business companies seek a higher profit and require security of the highest order.
Client Engagement: By offering a secured dedicated server to their end users, businesses can effectively manage all queries by enhancing the business systems for smooth operations. It helps in absolutely revamping operating arrangements as per the requirements of the market forces in your industry. Order from our cheap dedicated server hosting plans
Secure Dedicated Servers Bring About the Best Fulfilment Of Business Needs
Enhanced security is seen as the top most business priority, fulfilled with Go4hosting dedicated servers that make it quite easy for businesses to have secured data and information.
You can handle complex business tasks with enhanced security with secure dedicated servers for adept business procedure protection.
With the security assured by Go4hosting dedicated server, you are never short of space across the system, as we offer you the power to substantially expand your business storage across the shared storage devices.
Go4hosting offers the best business features in addition to your default and local RAID mirrored hard drives for carrying out the business operations fruitfully.
The Go4hosting secure dedicated servers are provisioned instantly, with just one setting through your central computer console that oversees the entire system.
Customers can effectively manage their shared projects across the web browsers to with an intuitive control panel in place, using cPanel and WHM.
Whether managing one or hundreds of business servers and websites, the system has user-friendly interface for allowing all authorized users to have customized experiences.
Included are features that support the latest versions of Windows and Linux operating systems and for managing firewalls with VPN, load balancing, and a variety of options in hard disks.
The Go4hosting secured dedicated servers make your business simpler to boost to new heights than ever before!
The secure dedicated server integrates the best features by Go4hosting, creating a dependable, lucrative opportunity for the expansion of your esteemed business. Go4hosting confirms the best utilization of your secure dedicated servers by monitoring them continually to deliver an exquisite experience for your customers!
When you are looking to create a website for your business, there are many things which you will need to look into. If you cannot make the right choice of a hosting plan, you cannot showcase your products to a global audience. Your target customers will only be able to reach you when you have the right kind of hosting solutions to support your site.
Why is it better to use hosting services from a professional web host?
If you do not outsource the hosting task to a third party, you will have to host the website on your own. This can turn out to be a huge expense as you will have to buy the equipment, servers, networking connections; pay for the ongoing maintenance and hire staff to monitor the hardware and software. The question is whether this decision to host is worth it; it appears that paying for hosting plans from a web host is a far more cost-effective option which will save you both precious time and money.
You can select your hosting plan from multiple options which the provider offers. So, regardless of the kind of business you run, there is a plan that is apt for you. What you need to do is therefore compare the features and prices of the different options to choose one which is best for you. You can choose shared hosting or VPS hosting or even dedicated hosting, depending on your business needs and budget. When you run a smaller business a shared hosting or cloud hosting plan may work for you very well. It will allow you to save money because you share resources with many others. But, when you own a larger business, you may need to meet higher demands for bandwidth, memory, processing power etc. In such a situation, a dedicated hosting plan is recommended for you.
How does dedicated server hosting work?
In dedicated hosting, you get to lease the entire physical server for your own needs. So, you do not have to share server resources with any other website. As the name suggests, all resources are dedicated and exclusive to your site. This is why dedicated hosting offers numerous benefits for users:
To start with, since you get an entire server for your business needs, you also get to select the kind of hardware you want.
Dedicated hosting works best for the big businesses because it can offer them unlimited resources for expansion and seamless growth. with shared hosting, they may not be able to grow as fast because resources are restricted.
Dedicated hosting also gives businesses complete control over the servers. So, they can install custom software or make changes to server settings or decide on the operating system. When you need more RAM, you can always get more RAM and all this happens quickly.
Security is lacking in a shared hosting environment because any malicious attack on any site will jeopardize the security of the others. So, with dedicated hosting, there is no fear of losing clients or getting your business reputation ruined.
Finally because you have complete control over the dedicated server, you will not need to share its resources with others, as in shared hosting. Shared hosting will not let your customize the hosting plans you have been given.
These are some of the most important advantages which dedicated server hosting can offer your business. These will ensure better productivity, higher online visibility for your products, enhanced user experiences for your customers, better security for data etc. However, there are certain drawbacks which you may face from to time, unless you have been able to find the best provider. For instance, some website may experience downtimes because of maintenance work. The costs for dedicated servers can also be quite steep but when you run a large business, every penny you spend on dedicated hosting will be worthwhile. For businesses that have strong and capable IT teams to handle servers, unmanaged solutions may be chosen. But for companies which do not have a proficient IT team to manage the servers, managed hosting plans have to be selected which again escalates costs.
So, in the long run, it is upon the owner to decide whether dedicated hosting is right for his business or not. You will need to evaluate your business needs, set business goals and then choose the provider that can best cater to these goals. The main considerations will be the budget you have in hand and the size of your company. So, you need to research well before you take the plunge into dedicated hosting. You must review the Service Level Agreements offered by the hosts first to find out about their guarantees, the kind of technical supports they offer, the features of their plans, the security arrangements etc.
You’re on ‘Miramar’ hidden in the basement of a wrecked building and chicken dinner is just two enemies away. Luckily, you spot one of them laying an ambush in the bushes and pull out your KARK98k.
Knees bent, you close in on your enemy and trot past the garage next to the building.
On your pursuit to find a clean shot, a bullet finds your head instead and you are dead.
This happens or may have happened to every serious PUBG player.
If only you were faster than the bullet…
Understanding Gaming Server & how it differs and resembles a Webpage Server
A Dedicated Game Server Hosting is what powers your time-killer PUBG addiction so seamlessly. These powerful gaming servers are what you owe your chicken dinner to and deserve way more than what they are given credit for.
A lot goes into firing a single shot in a game, in the background especially, even though it seems as simple as a mouse click or a tender touch of your finger.
This blog will talk about what goes into giving you a seamless PUBG experience. Cutting short, we will uncover how dedicated game serverswork and how they differ and resemble with a webpage server.
A Gaming Server
A gaming server works pretty much like a normal server. They both send and receive data after all.
The most popular games like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or Minecraft, all work the same way. However, there could be minor differences in the way they establish connection with the server.
Setting up the ‘client’ and logging in
Before you can actually start playing you need to download what we call a “client” to your computer or a smartphone. A client is nothing but the game application itself. Once downloaded, the client needs a working internet connection to be able to send and retrieve data from the game servers.
Gaming applications these days ask you to login to your account to establish your identity as an authentic gamer. Once fed, the server then runs a check on the input credentials from the database.
Establishing connection with the server
After having checked the data of the player, the client gets connected to one of the servers hosting the game. Multiple servers run for the same game. Having more than one server ensures that if one of the servers malfunction, the client can be redirected to other servers for continued experience.
Multiple servers are randomly distributed all throughout the world to establish connection of a client with the nearest server thus enhancing user experience further. The closer the proximity of a player to the server, better the latency and lower is the lag.
Some players use VPN- virtual private network– to connect to servers from other countries to compete globally.
Sending data back and forth to the gaming server
Gaming server is essentially the warehouse wherein all the data exchange takes place. A server simultaneously receives and sends data to hundreds of users. While doing so, it changes the environment in the game multiple times over a second and the same changes are almost immediately conveyed to the user.
For example: if a player fires a bullet, the client i.e. the game application converts the input into a server-readable code. The server receives the signal and takes necessary actions (say decreasing opponent’s health points) through intensive calculations. The changes are then transferred as codes to all the users in the game.
The software application decrypts and converts the data received from the server into computer graphics at user’s end.
A dedicated gaming server- understanding the terminology. How close enough are dedicated gaming server and webpage server?
The choice of a dedicated server for gaming is ideal as they are able to deliver the performance that no other server can. Though the gaming servers are high-end compared to a normal dedicated server, both are setup in pretty much the same way.
A webpage server contains data necessary for a webpage to load just like a gaming server stores data required for a game to run. A webpage server does not transmit data- from and to- an end-computer as frequently as a gaming server does. The latter is almost always transferring data to hundreds of users every time.
While a webpage server is limited to send only static HTML contents for web browser, a gaming server grants access to server side logic. The former sends almost static data that does not variate much. Gaming servers do a lot more than that by processing inputs received from the clients in real-time.
A gaming server is bound to have a sound storage and processing capacity. Also, the bandwidth required to effectively run a gaming server is extraordinary when compared to a webpage server.
The interactions of a user with the webpage server has little effect on other users accessing the same webpage, but so isn’t the case with a gaming server.
For example:
Two random users search for the same product and land on the same ecommerce platform. One of the users ‘A’ buys the product. The other user still sees the page the way it was before ‘A’ bought the product.
An online multiplayer game has 6 players. Player ‘A’ kills ‘B’. All the other players will now see only 4 other players. The interactions of a gaming server with one user thus has an impact on the way other users interact.
Setting up your own dedicated game server hosting
High latency and lag is an issue with public servers which can ruin the experience for serious gamers. With public servers, you only play by the rules that the public finds fit.
The conventional low-end and relatively cheap dedicated servershave always been used as a gaming server. But, the administrators that took gaming-battles on such servers reported that they were not able to obtain the performance they would have had from a high-end gaming server.
Dedicated Gaming Server provides you with a private playground so you enjoy round the clock uninterrupted gaming experience. It allows administrators to decide who plays and who does not. Secondly, it lets you frame your own set of rules for the game.
It is easy to customize the playtime, or to play only on a certain map, or to restrict the allowed weapons for your game.
In the world of electronic commerce, one of the main topics of boardroom discussion among the CTOs, CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs is related to latency. As the dependency on virtualized and elastic cloud infrastructure is at its peak, businesses are in pursuit of integrating steadfast yet resilient cloud networking techniques that prevent latency and data loss probabilities. Network utilization and latency are inversely proportional to each other. Networking works in accordance with the laws of physics. Light travels through a vacuum at 186,282 miles per second; however, sometimes owing to refractive index of glass or electron movement delay in copper, the speed at which data gets transmitted slackens, which reduces the given figure to somewhere around 122,000 miles per second.
To iron out the latency issue, efforts should be planned with an objective to minimize the distance that the data must travel. In this light, organizations have refurbished their systems to balance response time requirements for delivering always-up, always-available critical business applications.
Let’s first understand what does response time mean and why it is believed to be an impression setter:
Response time is the duration of the time that a system takes to respond to a request for service. The requested service can be pertaining to a webpage load, memory fetch, complex database query, or disk IO.
Well, end-user response-time metric matters a lot as it acts as an impression setter with respect to the performance of your applications. It is inevitable to check that application or component does not make an end-user ponder whether or not it has received the requested inputs. Moreover, being vigilant that the requested applications are responded within the specified time-frame prior to their information becomes obsolete helps in capturing subjective performance. In this context, experts insist on practicing particular methodologies and suggest enterprises to go by the set parameters that clearly connote a difference between performance needs and goals.
Understanding the criticality of response time in today’s electronic trading ecosphere, businesses spanning across different verticals like, banking, education, research firms, healthcare, and even Web 2.0 firms are astutely focusing on expeditious response time for their delivered applications.
Variations in Response Time Lead to Poor User Experience
Do you know how a few seconds of delay in response time can take a toll on your pre-set performance and productivity goals? Delay in responses leaves a bad impression on the end-user. Users never want to return to the same platform again, if the application or the content they have requested is not displayed within ideal time limits. In other business verticals, it is noted that even 1 millisecond of latency could cost around $100 million per year. Moreover, this figure has gone to costlier lengths to limit latency as much as possible.
How to Deal with Latency Issues:
Each router or switch integrated in the data path adds an obvious amount of delay as the data packet is received, processed, and then sent. The best way to deal with latency is to maintain all the application and middleware components. Furthermore, an astute architectural approach should be practiced all the time so that response times are consistently and measurably augmented across a host of cloud-based applications.
In particular, businesses need to adopt advanced approach leaving obsolete niche and proprietary technologies behind to build a data center architecture based upon industry proven standards and widely used technologies as these metrics can only ascertain performance-driven cloud deployments. This is not the only thing that you need to focus upon, however you also need to check that latency optimization is at the infrastructure level that can meet the requirement for the approaching years. Technically, network latencies must be optimized across four key attributes:
By curtailing latency of each network node
By cutting back the number of nodes
By mitigating the network congestion
By reducing the latency allied to transport protocol
Building a Latency-sensitive Cloud network bestows best outcomes:
While planning for latency-optimized platform, it is important that workloads are build using distributed compute architecture. In order to augment the response time, right from the compute to network latencies, every aspect should be given same focus and weight. In conventional setups usually commodity servers are utilized for computing purpose and freedom to optimize latency is quite an intricate procedure. The best way to make latency a distant phenomenon for your users is to deploy a cloud network as it comprises of fabric-wide optimization to abate transport latencies.
The Bottom Line:
To keep your applications always up and running, balance between compute and network latencies needs to be reduced simultaneously. The approach to trim down latency issues should be a holistic endeavor that takes into account the end-to-end data system and focuses upon decreasing latency all through the protocol layers. Remember, right optimization techniques help in delivering low latency while increasing the operational value.
If you are looking out for data center or cloud hosting solutions where performance is the prime focus and latency is not an issue, you can connect to our experts at: 1800-212-2022.
Percentage of women contributors in open source software projects is growing at a snail’s pace. It is certainly an encouraging sign because proportion of women in open source software was dismally low a few years ago. Presently, the percentage of women contributors in open source is between 3 to 9 per cent, depending upon the source of information.
Need to have more women in open source projects
According to Stormy Peters, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) advocate, women software contributors must come forward to make effective change in open source projects so that together we all can help save the world.
There is an urgent need to take the percentage of women in open source to greater levels. Peters offered three significant observations that are given below.
There is every chance that women are glued to careers that are not matching their passion and skills. It is a fact that working in open source can be highly exciting and enjoyable in addition to being challenging.
There may be number of women who are not aware of the fun and thrill that can be experienced in open source software careers. Women can put their problem solving passion to work in open source environment.
It is obvious that if there is an equal representation of women in open source projects as men, we will have more number of contributors.
Advantages of having more women in open source projects.
We will be able to inculcate greater diversity into our project. If our end products are representing viewpoints of more people, then these will have ability to solve problems of more people around the world.
It has been demonstrated and proved that women can make a considerable difference to open source software projects. Outreachy is an exclusive program for women. It began as a GNOME Outreach Program for Women. They had to keep aside funding for six women interns due to dearth of women applicants to the Google Summer Code for GNOME.
The example of Outreachy shows that no woman applied to the Google funded GNOME Outreach Program for Women, when it was launched. However the program is now supporting as many as 30 women interns.
As per recent report from Linux foundation about ‘who writes Linux’, kernel interns from the Outreach Program for Women ranked at number 13 from the top 20 sponsors and contributors. Stormy Peters strongly feels that the growing trend of women joining open source software projects must consolidate and we all should design a change management strategy to welcome the new wave of women contributors.
Ushering the change
The change management strategy will have to consider the cultural impact of introducing a large group of women to the existing contributors who are already enjoying the status quo. In order to ensure that the transition is smooth, Peters feels that a well designed strategy initiative consisting of steps for transformation based on recommendations of John P. Kotter, Professor at Harvard Business School.
• Creating sense of urgency: No change can be initiated without creating a sense of urgency or necessity. If everyone involved in the project is convinced about the value addition and other benefits of bringing in more contributors, then there would be no resistance to change.
• Build a team of change agents: It easier to bring in the desired change by developing groups of individuals who are already convinced about the significance of new initiatives. If you have well informed and convinced individuals within the group itself, then it would not be difficult to push the change.
• Clarity of vision: If you are not having a broad vision about an idea, then there is every chance that the idea will be discarded. You must build a grand vision around the new concept to make it easily acceptable by the people who are involved in the implementation process.
• Build an effective communication method: You may have done all your homework as far as vision and other aspects of change process, but if you fail to communicate it effectively then the change process may never take off. You must constantly talk about the idea and enhance the visibility and noise level to gain faster recognition.
• Take small steps initially: It is always preferable to go for small achievements in the beginning. This will make you more confident about the success potential of new idea and will also boost morale of the team involved in the whole process. Smaller gains are also necessary to convince those who are skeptical about the change.
• Incorporate the process into project’s culture: Individuals should never feel that the change is an isolated event. It must be made part of the project’s fabric.
It is highly encouraging and motivating to learn that as many as 41 interns participated in May–August 2016 round of Outreacchy. Stormy Peters, advocate at Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is a strong propagator of women’s involvement in open source software projects. She has been consistently speaking about this in various forums and conferences. In recent Red Hat Summit in Boston she underlined significance of ushering an effective change to include everyone for the noble cause of changing the world
Innovation and continuous improvements are considered as the life and blood of the IT industry. Data centers are considered as no exception. It is important that the facilities follow strategic policies and are periodically audited to incessantly identify performance improvements.
However, a recent study conducted by a leading research house IDC (International Data Corporation) revealed that the shift to third platforms is likely to have a direct influence on the data center construction as well as their remodeling. The study further illustrated that the total number of data center facilities across the globe are expected to reach a peak i.e. 8.6 million by the year 2017 and will then gradually decline.
The major factor driving this shift will be a turn down in the internal data center server rooms beginning in 2016. Even though the other data center categories and the service providers offering these solutions are forecasted to continuously rise throughout 2016-17. Moreover a decline in the count data centerfacilitiesis expected to have no impact on the total space, which will continue to surge, increasing from nearly 1.58 billion sq. ft. in 2013 to about 1.94 billion sq. ft. in 2018.
Another important shift is the rise of mega datacenters. These are primarily the server locations for a large colocation unit as well as cloud service providers. It has been projected that the mega datacenters are expected to account for 72.6% of the entire datacenter construction by 2018. This will be followed by the high end datacenter space (44.6%), up from nearly 19.3% in the year 2013.
At the same time, the count of datacenter environments commanding long term assets commitment is likely to grow all through the forecasted period. According to technology pundits, much of this expanding growth is attributed to strong construction of datacenters in the China, which are going to replace the smaller units. It is predicted that the construction of large datacenters are expected to grow at the compounded annual growth rate of 8.4%. This will account for approximately 66.67% of the total datacenter space across the globe by 2018.
Hence, by the end of the year 2018 most of the businesses will be dependent on the service providers for managing their servers and IT infrastructure. The firms are expected to turn to the shared cloud and dedicated offerings in larger datacenters. This is expected to consolidate and retire some of the existing datacenter units. Additionally, the service vendors will continue to remodel, acquire, and construct large datacenters to meet the expanding capacity demand of the clients.
Threat detection is the top element on the priority list for cybersecurity cell. Detection is essential because to eliminate threats, you need to see it first. But with so many adversaries that your dedicated server is likely to have, putting the correct threat detection program and policy at place can be a daunting task.
Given the plethora of marketing buzzword, combined with technicality, detecting threats and identifying the correct tool is no more a child’s play.
This article with tech you –
What is meant by threat detection?
Why it is important
What intents are behind the attacks?
How to respond and hunt these threats
General Know-How
Since the term relates to cyber security, a threat is anything with the potential to cause harm to your network or computer. By harm, we mean cyber harm. A threat has nothing to do with physically harming your computer, though that is also achievable.
World’s first computer virus
Threats represent how likely the attack is to occur. Higher threat means, it is plausible that an attack would take place on your computer. But, one must note than threats and attacks are not the same. Though natives of the same village, threats are, by and large, a different ball game to handle.
A threat that is not inhibited culminated to an attack. The idea is as simple as that.
Threats represent the potential or the loopholes vulnerable enough to be exploited. Attacks are when your network (or computer) is breached, and the data taken.
Are threats easy to handle?
Yes and no. while some threats can be eliminated by simply changing permissions on your computer, some need serious software upgrades for extrication (elimination).
How sophisticated the threats are depend on where they overlay. A sophisticated threat can remain on your network substantially longer and thus has a longer attack window.
Theoretically, the longer the threats continue to exist, the dangerous it becomes.
How early should the threat be detected?
You should be able to detect threats as early as you can in the product cycle. Threats aren’t sitting idle in your memory. Some threats are advanced enough to replicate themselves and as they propagate, more and more vulnerabilities will come to light.
Even if the vulnerabilities have persisted on the computer, they aren’t deadly until attacked.
This is also the case with malware. Malware, for example, perhaps may not have been exploited. Its job ends up with exposing system vulnerabilities. The coder who programmed the malware may not have attacked your system. But you cannot certainly say that your network will not be attacked ever.
Microsoft security essentials detection alert screen
Our goal is to catch who the bad actor is. That is to say, catch who introduced the threat in the first place and in what way did he achieve it.
What intents are behind the attacks?
Cybercriminals are not looking for anything specifically. They intend to get hands-on anything that they could use for their advantage. However, saying so would not be completely true. In my opinion, you can categorize hackers under two categories –
Private Organization – these are the people – or a group of people – after user credentials. Credit card details, bank account, login id, and system key are some elements top in their list.
Public Intent Organization – some organizations operate for the sake of revenge and public security and are generally government-run groups.
Above is an emblem from Anonymous’ Website. Anonymous is the most feared, and hence popular, hack group that has exposed scams and government conspiracies. The group has its own YouTube channel and are seen wearing Masquerades.
Cybercriminals, in a nutshell, are usually after one (or more) of the six things listed below. In more than half the cases, they yearn monetary benefits.
1) User Credentials – oftentimes, cybercriminals are after your credentials and not you. They want to illicitly gain access to your account and are mostly after your username and password. The malware present on your system can covertly send your saved passwords, which the attackers will then use to monitor your activities without you having a hint of it.
2) PII (personally identifiable information) – identity theft is burgeoning at a rapid pace. Some attackers realized they need not steal directly from you. A more comprehensive and elusive approach would be to steal your identity and then use it to apply for loans and credit card. Not only would it unlock them escalated privilege, it’d also be indescribably subtle.
3) Intellectual property – espionage is not dead yet. A majority of attackers you have so rightly deemed as cybercriminals are but cyber spies. Nation-state want to steal secrets from their rivals to boost their economy. Competitors want to have an insight into what the other is after. Employees can have their passwords stolen and misused out of spite. You never know what your neighbor is plotting against you.
4) Money – the biggest percentage of cyber attackers aim for monetary gains. The two biggest weapons that attackers demanding ransom deploy are ransomware and DDoS. Ransomware encrypts the entire server endpoints and files for which the attackers demand ransom to unlock. DDoS is another sophisticated attack method. The attackers flood your network or website with counterfeit traffic until your server denies service to genuine visitors. A ransom is then demanded against bringing back the server to its normal.
5) Retaliation or revenge – some users are so disgruntled for some reason they sort to attack the victim, thereby breaching user privacy laws. As intriguing as the idea might sound, it is still illicit. You cannot illegitimately vandalize webpages just for the sake for embarrassing the person at the other end.
6) Fun – there is no scale to measure the limit bored technicians would go to have fun. Some cases have been brought to light in the past. The attacker in these cases did not steal credentials not files, but instead left spooky notes some of which said –
We were here
We saw what you did
Great click, Mark
The users were left dumbstruck and, for a moment, could not believe how a note could have been slipped into their computer.
Various threat types
Depending upon how the threats invade and breach your computer privacy, we can summarize them as –
Malware – these are malicious programs that infect your computer. Viruses, worms, Trojan horses, adware, spyware – they are all malware.
Phishing – is an attack wherein a fake website or email disguises itself as a legitimate communication channel, urging users to submit sensitive information.
Ransomware – is also a malware but follows a different approach for damage. A malware will first encrypt files at server endpoints and then a ransom is demanded to unlock them.
Trojan horse – is an exe (executable) program, also known as back door. Trojan can be remotely monitored, activated and controlled to perform a wide array of attacks on your computer.
The more advanced security teams are migrating to a robust framework called MITRE ATT&CK for detection and planning response against the threat.
ATT&CK is a globalized, accessible knowledge base of tactics that can be implemented to observe and plan against attacks in the global front. The framework is displayed in a matrix so arranged that the attack stages are encapsulated. Thus, the first element in the matrix should be the initial stage, which then spans out to the middle and final attack stage.
How to detect a threat
We cannot emphasize enough on being vigilant. You cannot detect a vulnerability unless you know what a vulnerability is in the first place. You must always have antivirus protection active on your computer. Antivirus that is installed and inactive is owning a gun but no bullets to shoot. There are, however, applications that you can make use of, to prevent unnecessary programs from invading your computer.
Detection Technology
Detections
Pros
Cons
CASB – Cloud access and security brokers
Unauthorized apps access in cloud.
Comprehensive access pattern view of all cloud applications.
Limited to cloud apps. Cannot detect threats inside the apps.
EDR -Endpoint detection and response
Suspicious behavior. Will block malicious access, thereby suggesting responses.
Entire technology for protecting endpoint computers at one place.
Limited scope. Cannot detect attack on network or server.
(IDS)Intrusion detection systems
Malicious activity.
Great for detecting network-introduced threats.
The scope is limited. Cannot detect endpoint threats in the cloud. An external IPS (intrusion prevention system) is required to block threats.
Network firewalls
Malicious activity or access. Undertakes actions appropriately.
Great for threat blocking and detection via the network.
Limited scope and will not detect endpoint or cloud threats.
Honeypots
A network-attached system set up as a decoy to expose threats against an organization.
Advanced visibility of threats against applications or resources.
Limited in scope the specific honeypots that are deployed. If discovered by an attacker, honeypots can be circumvented.
SIEMs
A security information management platform that correlates connected threats and attacks.
Good for a holistic view across the entire threat or attack chain; tie together other detection technologies.
Some SIEMs may have incomplete logs to work with, due to timing or space constraints.
Threat intelligence platforms
Services that publish up-to-date information about known threats.
A good repository for known threat information.
Do not take action on their own and require integration with another threat detection technology.
Behavior analytics
Detects threats based on behavior.
Able to detect unknown threats by using behavior and machine learning.
Advanced technology that detects unknown threats by creating a baseline that demonstrates behavior and data insights.
Source – Exabeam
Behavioral Analysis
You can bring down the possibility of an attack just by being vigilante. If you closely follow your system’s behavioral pattern, you would instantly discern when programs are not performing the way they should be.
Cybercriminals have become increasingly more aware and proficient and there is no perimeter these attackers cannot cross. The traditional methods are now highly inaccurate and risky, no matter how effective these techniques were once.
It is for this reason that behavioral analysis is being watched upon as the torchbearer of computer security.
UEBA – User and Entity Behavioral Analytics – is a new way of implementing security solution that makes use of analytics, ML and deep learning. It then discovers anomaly and abnormality in the system.
System deviating from its normal way of functioning is what triggers UEBA into action. Users can then choose from a list of things they deem fit for the scenario.
UEBA can detect vulnerabilities that even traditional tools fail to see. The algorithms of UEBA do not conform to the correlation rules or attack patterns. This is because these tools are robust enough to span several data sources at once. This helps detect cases that are unidentifiable even with an austere antivirus at place. The system can be considered to act like a well-taught human with the capability to detect malware when it sees one.
Responding and Hunting Threats
Threat hunting is the practice involving seeking out threats in an organization or network. Threat hunt can be conducted right after a breach or done routinely to discover novel, anonymous threats that may have entered the system.
Around almost half of the organizations hunt on a regular basis, while the remaining conduct impromptu threat hunts.
It is advisable to routinely conduct a hunt. This not only helps eliminate problems but it eliminates them at an early stage. Prevention is better than cure, after all.
How to hunt threats down
Typically, the network security teams get done away with threats before they become lethal. Response to the threats ranges from patching loopholes, tracking down vulnerabilities, deleting files to moving items to the chest.
Response varies depending upon the level to which the vulnerability has caused damage. Once a threat is weaponized and an attack is planted, a different response is planned. Ideally, the response is to mitigate the damages like outage, data loss, and/or illicit access to the network (if any). Organizations that store user sensitive data have also erected separate incident response pillars.
Should you learn about threats?
Yes, absolutely. Understanding threats can help your organization to appropriately plan a response without missing out on essential steps. You can leverage highly advanced frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK to enhance the way your security teams respond to threats.
Behavioral analysis can further up your defence against vulnerabilities by making your security teams more sophisticated and advanced.
The bottom line is, you should learn about threats because you will be fighting against them someday.
Server colocation hosting as well as dedicated server hosting are highly appreciated for their wide array of features. Potential users of server hosting can choose either of these two hosting solutions by analyzing their budgetary provisions, extent of complexities associated with enterprise IT infrastructure and the total number of dedicated servers Rental required for fulfillment of their hosting requirements.
The selection of a hosting solution must incorporate a long term business strategy by considering foxed monthly costs. Right decision of selecting one of the two hosting solutions has potential to leave a long term impact on your business down the years.
It is therefore essential to understand the two most popular hosting options before arriving at the final decision.
Server colocation
In server colocation Delhi, NCR, the servers are owned by client enterprises for positioning these at data center facilities operated by web hosting providers. The colocation facilities are built in remote locations that are not prone to natural disasters such as earth quakes, tornadoes, or snow storms among others.
On the other hand, ownership of dedicated servers remains with hosts in dedicated server hosting. In most of the cases data center facilities are not owned by hosts of dedicated server hosting.
Enterprises are allowed to implement applications, software and design hardware and security parameters as per their requirements by users of colocation hosting. One of the important aspects of colocation hosting is the responsibility of maintaining and updating servers remains with the users and not the hosts.
This underlines the significance of distance between user’s location and colocation facility. The travelling time between these two locations must be convenient and comfortable for technical professionals to travel for troubleshooting or updating the software. This will determine whether your IT personnel would require being physically present at remote colocation facilities or you will have to seek help of colocation provider. It is observed that some colocation hosts charge reasonable fees for executing any technical assistance that involves anything more than routine resetting of servers.
It is therefore recommended that users should look into all aspects of technical assistance before availing colocation hosting. Several colocation service users make it a point to keep extra components as spares for hastening repair job.
Dedicated server hosting
When the hosts rent their own or leased dedicated servers to enterprises for hosting their websites and online applications, the arrangement is usually known as dedicated server Control Panels hosting.
Dedicated server can be offered for hosting by providers by implementing a custom configuration that is required by client. Users can get dedicated servers in multiple permutations of hard drive, CPU, RAM, bandwidth, and control panels just to name a few. Dedicated server hosting plans range from highly affordable ones to those costing few thousand dollars per month
The most compelling benefit of a dedicated server hosting is freedom from concerns about maintenance and upkeep of the dedicated server which is being hosted by the organization. Managed hosting services are rarely offered in colocation hosting. However, these are very common in dedicated server hosting packages.
Decision to adopt managed dedicated hosting services entirely depends upon availability of proficient IT teams within enterprises. This is because all activities that include maintenance and system admin tasks need an in-house team with remarkable technical prowess. Your IT staff must have ability to remotely control server operations by executing different commands for achieving remote server management. If this is not the case, then you would be better off by going for managed dedicated hosting.
Factors that influence the hosting decision
Broadly speaking, colocation hosting and dedicated server hosting can both be considered as providers of backbone infrastructure to website operations. However, if a user needs to implement complex workloads as mirroring, incorporate multiple set-ups, or execute load balancing application, then colocation server hosting would be a better choice. Server colocation is also an ideal way to support and accommodate long term growth and expansion plans.
It would be hard or almost impossible to get an affordable dedicated server hostingplan that comprises of multiple HDDs, hardware RAID, and 2U chassis. However, you can always find a reasonably priced colocation server solution that can incorporate such resources.
Your banks and clients would find the feature of a colocation server more attractive as it adds to your net-worth. It will also help depreciate expenses and reflect as profits in your income statements if the accrual accounting method is being used.
Colocation demands greater amount of technical sophistication and is therefore not an attractive option for most of the small enterprises that have limited financial resources.
On the other hand, users are not required to invest heavily in procurement of a dedicated server in a dedicated hosting environment as the server itself is offered on rental basis by the hosting service provider.
You can have your website up and running in matter of one or two days if you have decided to select a dedicated hosting package.
Software applications may pose variety of issues when these are being ported to different environments. Businesses find that their resources are being wasted since there is a considerable loss of time and efforts that are required to resolve such issues.
Container technology can ensure smooth porting of applications to diverse environments and therefore it being accepted by more and more businesses.
Understanding basics of containers
Issues of running software across varied environments can be effectively resolved by container technology. It is considered to be an innovative and groundbreaking solution to address problems faced by developers while porting applications to new environments.
The porting issues have been narrated at length by Solomon Hykes, founder of Docker. The organization is responsible for growing popularity of container technology.
According to Solomon, if you are testing an application in Python 2.7 that is going to run on Python 3 in the production environment, then something strange will happen. Similar issues have been observed during porting of applications that involved SSL, Debian, and Red Hat.
Application will only depend upon the operating system of the host. The operating system is designed to be shared by multiple applications that are part of the container. However, these apps can have their individual environments.
Benefits of containerization
Containerization helps businesses address some of the most pestering issues in terms of software applications. Modern businesses are in constant pursuit of mitigating software issues, costs of hardware, software, time required for development and bug fixing, and so forth. Organizations are also keen to improve adaptability of applications to various environments and the time period required to launch the software product.
Compatibility across environments
Software may have to face multiple issues following their porting into other environment. These could be related to appearance of bugs, failure of features, or even crash of software. The underlying reason for such eventualities could be the difference between source environment and host environment in terms of configuration, code, technology, or files, to name a few.
Containers address the issue of cross environment compatibility by taking the host-environment differences out of the equation. In order to achieve this, the container offers immunity to apps by accommodating these within itself and providing everything required for smooth functioning of apps. Container is only sharing the operating system of the host’s environment.
Optimization of resources
It is observed that a significant portion of time and efforts are wasted in trying to fix issues that result on account of cross environment compatibility. Containers obviate dependency of apps on host environment and eliminate these issues. Organizations are able to utilize resources more effectively.
Ability to expedite commercial availability
Thanks to container technology, commercial acquisition of apps can be accelerated by reducing the time required for fixing issues. Businesses are in better position to meet General Availability deadlines and send the applications to market without spending unnecessary efforts and time in handling issues.
Cost optimization
Container offers everything that is required to run apps and needs only the host’s operating system. It enables sharing of its resources by several apps that can reside within itself and help reduce huge costs that are required to establish infrastructure of servers, storage, hardware, and operating systems. Container supports a large number of apps by providing individual resources to them.
Attributes of container technology
Containers offer greater efficiency than hypervisors in virtual machines, since these use shared operating systems. Containers obviate almost all VM Hosting junk to facilitate a small and clean capsule that accommodates an application.
It should be noted that containers are based on isolated Linux instance and hence do not result in hardware virtualization. It is possible to have multiple server application instances by using VMS such as Xen or KVM on the same hardware if you are able to build a perfectly tuned container system, according to James Bottomley, CTO at Parallels.
Containers are only a few megabytes in size and hence do not exert load on resources. Containers work independent of host environment and can contain multiple apps.
Poised for popularity
Docker has been responsible in establishing containers as a significantly potential solution. Containers are going to be highly sought after solutions in time to come. The reason for the projected popularity of containers can be attributed to the amazing level efficiency put into these by Docker.
Container solutions designed by Docker are designed to be compatible with majority of DevOps applications including Vagrant, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, and alternatively these can also be implemented for managing environments. Docker facilitates simplification of tasks performed by these applications.
It is possible to establish local development environments that are precisely identical to a local server. One can also use a single host to run several development environments from the same host by assigning unique software, test projects, configurations and more. It allows anybody to work on a particular project without changing settings irrespective of local host environment.
Containers are open source solutions and have great potential do bloom into a wonderful resource due to contributions from large number of developers. Businesses are always in search of solutions that are not resource intensive and are able to guarantee efficiency and speed of performance.
Containers are also going to evolve with respect to certain security issues that are posed due to sharing of kernels. We can certainly expect number of container solutions to be developed in future.
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