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Understanding Role of Data Centers in Response to Emergence of IoT

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Use of smart gadgets such as smart wearable products, and smart phones to manage home appliances from remote locations or to track physical activities is the indications of how Internet of Things is slowly changing lifestyles. According to experts the present adoption level of IoT is only a precursor of amazing things to come.

Rapidly evolving technologies are going to influence multiple aspects of daily lives including health, work, and management of appliances to name a few. In terms of revenues, Gartner predicts that Internet of Things has potential to command $1.9 trillion in the next five or six years.

We need to understand implications of this from the perspective of data centers.

Need to handle huge data volumes

In one of the estimates it is predicted that by 2020, IoT will be responsible for addition of 50 billion devices that will be connected globally via Internet. Needless to mention the mammoth collection of smart devices will be accountable for generating mind boggling volumes of data. It is obvious that the data will have to be handled by data centers at some stage.  

Apart from data centers, IoT associated data will also impact providers of IoT solutions, suppliers, partners, and organizations that will be embracing wearable or IoT technologies.

The major adoption of IoT will be experienced in manufacturing, consumers, and industries in government verticals and subsequently spread across many more verticals. This will force enterprises to find ways to process large data volumes, thanks to extensive adoption of IoT.

Significance of ensuring availability and security of IoT

Proliferation of IoT specific connected devices will enhance concerns regarding their security and availability. There will be devices that will not require extreme level of security such as a water dispenser that sends out a message that it is due for refilling. Hackers cannot inflict any significant damage by hacking the water dispenser however we need to also consider a possibility of hackers accessing and damaging devices that are managing mission critical applications.

This leads to a probability of sensitive data managed within closed and secure walls of data centers while adopting public cloud for innocuous devices and less significant data.

Second important consideration is about availability of connected devices. Any downtime can cause great hassles depending on the application area. If an IoT device in a chemical manufacturing plant that handles continuous process goes down, then there will be huge loss of the batch under process.

Significance of data generated by IoT

It should be appreciated that the major value of IoT would be associated with massive volumes of data generated by connected devices underlining importance of accessing Big Data analytics that would require computers with large compute power. Needless to mention such systems will have to be backed by connectivity, power, cooling and space in order to deliver results.

Another important attribute of IoT data will be its dynamic nature that will be due to the fact that there will be constant generation of data and the same will have to be shared with an assortment of partners or would be processed for the use by multiple services. The data can also be combined with other forms of data for delivering greater data insights. In any case there will be a need to design different connectivity options for assuring secure as well as direct access to suppliers and partners.

On should also address issue of latency in case of certain applications that can impact user experience with extended lag times. This explains the need to maintain close proximity of data and infrastructure in relation with end users as well as devices. You will also have to ensure seamless connectivity with digital supply chain and trading partners.

As mentioned earlier, IoT applications will need to be managed by using combination of private as well as public cloud depending on the vulnerability and importance of devices. This is definitely going to put strain on data center and cloud capabilities. This will be more evident in regions that are situated around metropolitan towns, major events, manufacturing and industrial hubs and so forth.

Importance of data center facilities for IoT implementation

In spite of the fact that it is still early days to foretell precise materialization of the landscape in terms of Internet of Things, one thing is certain that data centers will have to ensure significant participation in the new scenario that will be dominated by IoT.

Due to dynamic nature of IoT, the proposed data processing facilities will have to take into account existing needs and future requirements of connectivity, scalability, security, and flexibility. This underlines need for CIOs to plan strategies in such a way that the current and future needs are properly balanced while designing data center infrastructure. The most visible impact of IoT will be seen in data center India facilities that need to be prepared to play their significant role.

DDoS Attacks Must Be Tackled With A Combination Of Human Expertise And Technology

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Before we debate on the best ways of tackling DDoS attacks, let us first understand what DDoS is all about. DDoS is short for Distributed Denial of Service. It is the technical term jargon for an incident in which hackers attempt to put a computer out of service through a deluge of information requests, causing it to overload. DDoS attacks may sound simple to initiate but some complex IT technology is involved.

Hackers generally make use of a Botnet or a network of computers, servers, smartphones and other such devices that have virus issues. When activated these botnets start sending requests for information from specific web pages and servers. The intent is to target the unique Internet Protocol address of the user.

DDoS Explained

DDoS attacks have felled major websites in the recent past and that’s why such attacks are dreaded by IT experts and security professionals. Hackers make use of various techniques to send innumerable junk requests to a website. This takes the traffic level of the website to such heights that it becomes nearly impossible for anyone to load any page on that site.

In any type of DDoS attack, the traffic that floods the targeted website comes from numerous sources. In an advanced, well-planned DDoS attack the traffic could originate from hundreds and even thousands of websites, making it literally impossible to stop them with all the technology and security arsenal at your disposal. The current technology is equipped to stop or block a few single IP addresses. Attacks from multiple sources make it impossible to distinguish legitimate users from unethical visitors. That’s why human expertise is also needed along with the latest tools and technology to tackle the growing menace.

There are various types of DDoS Attacks. These include:

Traffic Flooding:

These types of attacks target websites by sending large volumes of TCP, UDP and ICPM packets to these websites. In this messy situation, legitimate requests by genuine users get lost. Such attacks are usually supplemented by malware exploitation.

Bandwidth Attacks:

Bandwidth attack is another type of DDoS attack that overloads the targeted website with colossal amounts of data. This can cause severe loss of network bandwidth and equipment resources. The end result is a complete denial of service which renders the website useless.

Application Attacks:

In this type of DDoS attack, the application-layer data messages work towards depleting resources in the application layer. This results in complete denial of the targeted website’s system services to those trying to access them.

Despite numerous attempts at finding a reliable and effective solution to this problem, it is becoming difficult to contain and control DDoS attacks. It continues to exasperate web security experts as the problem is complex and attacks are becoming increasingly difficult to predict. Human intervention is being touted as one of the most practical and effective way of managing the attack and controlling it in the future.

How Human Expertise Can Help

Human intervention to deal with DDoS was highlighted in the DDoS trend report released by Internet Security Provider in the fourth quarter of 2014. Humans are needed to study and analyze statistics, trends and future attack potential. The report also shares information about the size and frequency of attacks and how the data can be used for future protection. These are some of the key observations

The study offers some interesting facts. More than half of the websites targeted in this quarter were attacked in this quarter were targeted multiple times. Also, the Average Attack Peak Size in 2016 was larger than attacks carried out over the past few years. The study also clearly indicate that the level of complexity of DDoS attacks have remained the same over the years. Continued monitoring using human expertise and technology cam help mitigate attacks and help in creating strategies that can blunt the severity of DDoS attacks.

Why DDoS Is On The Rise

With the rise in factors like cheap cloud hosting, increase in number of cloud computing service users, and easy availability of open source tools, hackers are finding it easy to launch DDoS attacks. It does not require mastering of complex IT skills for hackers to launch such attacks. Novice IT enthusiasts as well as professional cyber-criminals can do it.

As most DDoS mischief-mongers share similar characteristics, companies can easily defend themselves with a little planning. Technology can of course help them deal with the problem but involving human elements can give them a better level of protection. All organization that run a risk of DDoS attacks must have a proper prevention system in place that can keep their websites protected. It is important that such plans must incorporate human intelligence too apart from sophisticated anti-DDoS technology.

Having an anti DDoS attack solution that offers comprehensive protection from all elements of the attack is what companies need for superior protection. The solution must include flexibility to adapt to changing and varied needs of companies.

What is Data Center Consolidation and where is it heading to?

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

A lot of you would have heard the term Data Center Consolidation. It is being discussed in various technology forums and figures prominently in CIO discussions. Before we get into the details, let us first try and understand what is Data Center Consolidation

According to online technology portal Webopedia, Data center consolidation is a common consideration for organizations that plan to reduce the size of a single facility or merge one or more facilities in order to reduce overall operating costs and reduce IT footprint.

In times of economic pullback, data center vendors are under pressure to satisfy the increasing demands of businesses while operating with minimal funding. With the passage of time, users are becoming progressively mobile and demanding. Network architectures, business-critical applications and services continue to rise in complexity, thereby raising a question – Is it possible to get most out of your resources by shrinking both operating and capital expenditures? To your surprise, with data center consolidation – the answer is flamboyant ‘yes’. Backed by federal government initiative that has mandated consolidation & optimization of incompetent data centers, many firms are helping businesses to focus on their manifested objectives by bestowing enterprise-ready, cloud-proven virtualization platform.

Getting more into the concept…

There are several factors accountable for surging interest in data center consolidation practice. On capital expenditure end, consolidated data center ensures that network and application architecture are operated upto its peak, which cutbacks number of servers, switches, routers, and other equipment. This in turn, translates to lesser required software applications instances, helping organizations to slash down their capital budgets.

Automation has made tasks swifter …

Data center consolidation has made automation of business-critical processes and systems rapider and in a realistic manner. It allows deploying new servers, performing scheduled data backups, resuming failed applications, and configuring operating systems in a dynamic business environment. Apparently, automation bestows a host of advantages that can take businesses to new and accelerated level that includes:

  • Increased process consistency
  • Prompt execution of corporate rules and regulations
  • Expedition execution of business operations
  • Increased productivity with respect to IT and operations teams
  • Reduced server or storage sprawl & power utilization

Not only this, automation also curtails human errors by eliminating the need of manual inputs. This approach ensures prompt and economical access to influential computing resources, allowing IT teams to focus on key initiatives and tasks contrasted with their internal network infrastructures. Data center consolidation has a brighter and even most promising future, predicted by many research analysts.

Quintessence of this post: The benefits of data center consolidation are numerous and ostensibly appealing that further promotes avenues to optimization. It provides companies with a speedy and real means for trimming costs without sacrificing to quality. However, businesses need to settle on with appropriate approach so to stay agile and more competitive while keeping operational costs controlled. Prior to commencing the consolidation, an in-depth understanding of current application, network, and service performance is mandatory. Furthermore, sagacious management of the consolidated data center is the key to navigate and boost returns on investment.

Create a Mobile Friendly Website With These Easy Steps

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

For the success of any online site, you need to have a solid marketing plan. Besides this, how your website is designed will also play a crucial role in its success. Earlier, there have been instances when even an impressive-looking website would start to look different the moment the user used a different browser or a PC having different resolution. So, how user-friendly a site is very important and not simply how it appears on the screen. It is essential that your website is responsive in order for it to become mobile friendly.

What are benefits of having a mobile-friendly website?

  • When you can successfully build a mobile-friendly site, you stand to gain many advantages. To start with, the biggest benefit is that of better accessibility. As more and more buyers are using smartphones and buying things through these, it is imperative to have a mobile-friendly site to make their shopping experiences seamless.
     
  • Secondly, when your website is loaded with too many images or dynamic content, it appears to load well on a desktop. But, on a smartphone or a laptop, the results may be quite different. This meant that you would end up losing customers because they are unable to shop on your site from their mobile devices. With a mobile-friendly site, you can get guaranteed faster loading time and this reduces your chances of losing your potential customers.
     
  • Thirdly, a mobile-friendly site will promote your brand image; something that is very crucial at a time when new online businesses are coming up almost every day. When your site is responsive on mobile devices too, it gets higher search engine rankings and this boosts traffic to the site.

How to Create A Website For A Smartphone?

Getting your site ready:

  • There are different online tools which not only help build a professional looking website for the smartphones that people use today, but also for devices like the laptop. To do so, you will need to buy a domain name which you are keen to use. For this, you can go to your hosting account and type the domain names in the “order” section. You get to choose the order from a menu after which you choose the “Search” option. Then you can select the “Manage Website” option from your dashboard to log into the interface.
     
  • When you have installed this, your next task is to incorporate content into your website. You are free to edit the content and how you wish it to be placed on the site. When you wish to add additional content, you can choose the “Add More Content” option. You will be shown a page which asks you to select the kind of content you want to include. When you have chosen the “Contact” block, for instance, you need to type in the data and then choose “Finish”. Once the new block has been successfully added, you may repeat this method to keep adding more content to the site.
     
  • When you are satisfied with adding more content, you can even customize the style if you are not happy with the existing one. So, you can design the site by customizing font colors or adding animations. To do this, you need to choose the “Edit Style” option on the main page.
     
  • After completing editing, you are then ready to publish the site. But before doing so, it is always advisable to get a preview of the site to see how it will look before your visitors. When you want to change anything, you have to select the “Edit” option. After editing, you can click on “Publish” to publish the site. It is interesting to note that it is possible to edit on the site even after it has been published.

Adding the store:

Being an e-commerce website, you have to include a store in which the customers can choose products for purchase. When you have clicked on the “add store”, there is demo data which shows on the screen ad you can test the store using this. The Orders menu will have details about all purchase orders made by buyers. The Products option will have lists of all products in the store while Discounts will allow you to create discounts when you wish to. Payment Providers option will allow you to set up as many payment providers as you want to for the e-commerce store. The Settings menu is very useful because you can see overall store settings under it and make changes.

With Virtualization Of Data Center Services, India Is Forging Ahead

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

In the realm of Data Center Services, India has made a significant mark.

With virtualization becoming a resounding success in the computing environment, Information Technology experts are hard at work to replicate this success across the entire gamut of the data center.

The upshot is – software defined data center, an architecture that extends virtualization to all computing resources. In other words, all elements like networking, storage, CPU and security are virtualized and delivered as a service.

The data center India services deploy, and provision, configure and operate the entire infrastructure by abstracting it from hardware and then implementing through software.

The three core elements of SDDC, or software defined data center are network virtualization, storage virtualization and server virtualization.

Network virtualization

Network virtualization is a process wherein the available resources in a network are combined by ripping the available bandwidth into channels, each independent of others. Thereafter each channel is assigned to a server in real time.   Network virtualization improves productivity and efficiency by performing many tasks automatically. It also enhances scalability, improves flexibility, reliability and optimizes network speed.

Storage virtualization

Storage virtualization is pooling of physical storage from numerous storage devices into a single storage device that is managed from a single console.

Server Virtualization

Server virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single server system. The most exciting benefit of server virtualization is reduction in carbon footprint.

By harnessing server virtualization technology, Data Center Services in India are going green, a campaign that is gaining ground in all segments of industry.

When the number of physical servers is significantly reduced there is considerable reduction in the generation of heat, with consequent decrease in the number of cooling systems and the power to run them.

Data Center Services in India has realized that virtualization is offering cost effective computing solutions to businesses, large or small.

“It is a myth that virtual servers are expensive”, says an Information Technology expert. With proper capacity analysis and effective planning, virtualization of a server can be achieved at a very low price”.

Another apprehension businesses have is that virtualization brings with it licensing issues. This misgiving is uncalled for. As in the case of physical servers, all virtual servers have also to follow a set of licensing standards.

By offering data center services, India now has virtualization providers offering a multitude of benefits to organizations. Some of them are:

  • Saving in money: When a server is partitioned into multiple virtual systems, the need for physical hardware is minimized.
  • Reduced downtimes: Virtualization technology ensures server stability and high availability of applications.   Additionally, virtualization allows for fast disaster recovery ensuring data continuity.
  • Better security: Virtualized servers are isolated from each other, hence they deliver excellent security.

By virtualization of data center, India has benefitted in more ways than one. With the trend towards virtual machines, organizations are finding it easier to migrate to cloud. Many organizations are already deploying virtual machines to and from data center.

According to industry experts, a cloud based mind set is essential if India is make headway in the ecommerce segment.  

Corporate Web Hosting Must Deliver Exceptional Value to Businesses

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

When it comes to corporate web hosting, managers do not take any chances.

They want the most reliable and best performing hosting service in the market.

This is understandable.

There is extreme pressure for companies to push their applications and infrastructure harder than ever before.

A network outage can be disastrous. It not only disrupts business but brings all operations to a halt completely till services are fully restored.

It is for this reason corporate web hosting service must offer a business level service contract that properly defines critical service offerings in detail.

An outage negatively impacts a business’s revenues, customer satisfaction, and productivity and brand reputation.

Specifically, the worst hit companies include e-commerce players, SaaS providers and any enterprise that depends upon continuous uptime and high-speed processing.

When systems fail they sink their businesses with them.

Here is a list of issues companies can experience if corporate web hosting fails to deliver.

  • Lost revenues due to missed opportunities
  • Outages that result in inaccessibility of business critical data and applications.
  • Loss of reputation if news of recurring outage spreads to customers. Customers demand quick resolution of their problems, and if not done may pour their indignation on social media platforms.

Yet, there is no any need to be apprehensive about the hosting quality offered in the market.

We have hosting providers that deliver.

But how do you choose the best corporate web hosting service?

Here are a few guidelines that can help.

Comprehend the various hosting options available

The hosting market has various options such as shared, Virtual Private Server, Dedicated, and managed hosting. Each environment has its own pros and cons. It is important that a business must evaluate each option thoroughly before choosing the best one for its needs.

Choose a host that is reliable

The provider must have an excellent uptime record.

Agreed that no host guarantees 100% uptime, but it should at least offer industry standard 99.5% uptime.

In this regard it is important that a business must focus on SLA or service level agreement.

Service Level Agreements are specific contractual stipulations that put in black and white what customers can receive from the hosting service.

In the arena of web hosting SLAs are very important because when a client makes a contract with the vendor the SLA makes it clear what the vendor will provide, when and what to expect.

A good SLA sets the conditions for the following aspects of data center service provisioning:

  • Performance indicators for client service – Once these indicators are put in place, it will be easy to understand how they can be aligned in a quality enhancement process.
  • Penalty for non-performance – If the Service Level Agreement specifies penalties, the hosting provider will be cautious. By having penalties defined, the corporate web hosting provider will leverage to the best of its ability its performance levels.
  • Client commitments – The SLA must contain clearly defined assurances to minimize or reduce chances of letting down the customer.

Corporate web hosting has to be of the highest standard, because the clients’ profitability and reputation depends on it.

Go4Hosting is a leading Noida based web and application hosting service provider offering an assortment of services to different industry verticals.

How digitalization benefitted the Middle Eastern region despite of challenges?

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Digitalization, which has started in the Middle East, is going to present both opportunities and hazards. It is likely to generate new political, economic and security risks for this region. Having realized that national economies driven only by commodities such as oil cannot sustain themselves, many Middle Easter counties are now prioritizing the growth of service-driven private sectors. This is why digital technologies are making an entry into this region.

The Middle East has already shown much digital penetration. In terms of users of the Internet, this region scores much ahead of other regions. Use of smartphones in places like Bahrain, Qatar and UAE is more than 100%. Much of this growth can be attributed to social media. Cross border data flow between this region and the world has also increased many times in the past 10 years. But McKinsey’s Digitalization Index suggests that the region has not yet exploited the advantages of digitalization particularly in the areas of business and government departments.

How has digitalization benefitted the Middle Eastern region?

Governments in this region are keen to maximize the digital economic output. Programs for this purpose in UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have encouraged the growth of smart cities and ecommerce. According to Gartner, it is expected that governments in the Middle East will be spending about $11.6 billion for IT resources. There may be many opportunities for the Middle Eastern region both in private and public sectors in the post digitalization stage. But there are also significant risks and problems for this region’s security and governance.

For those countries in the Middle East which are eager to move to service-oriented growth incorporating digitalization is necessary. So, ecommerce for instance is one such business area which will grow with such a change. It will also offer the women of these region new employment opportunities. Digital as a Service offering will also become popular. Internet-enabled devices, cloud computing and 3D printing for example will help to automate business activities and industry operations. This in turn will also benefit the region’s construction and energy sectors. Here, as much as 40% of tasks can be automated with digitalization. This will also positively impact the growing banking sectors in Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan where digitalization can automate payments and customer interactions. This is the reason why big players like IBM, SAP and Oracle have now entered the Middle Eastern market. McKinsey is hopeful that this increase in productivity will improve the company bottom line by nearly 50% in the next five years and this will directly help in the economic development of this region by accelerating diversification from gas and oil.

What are the challenges of digitalization in the Middle East?

  • There will however be certain key challenges to digitalization. Regional consumer demands may be strongly in favor of digitalization but investments will continue to depend on business confidence related to high oil prices. The reduced oil prices in the Gulf over the last few years have stopped the public sector and private sector from giving up resources for IT projects. This is why the pace of digitalization still seems uncertain.
     
  • The climate of Middle Eastern business adds to this uncertainty. In comparison to East Asia or US, this region does have venture capital funding to make the startups profitable. There are many family-run businesses and state-affiliated companies which discourage local businessmen from starting companies that can challenge the industry’s operations.
     
  • Besides these factors, there are also political roadblocks. The governments here cannot trust third parties with data. So, digital solution usage is obviously less as you will have to depend on third party storage.  The governments are typically majority investors for private businesses and this is why this distrust is prevalent in their private sectors too. Moreover, the region has diverse laws concerning data security and data sharing, and it depends on many factors like industry-specific locations, free trade zones etc. This means there are compliance related risks too for both digital technology suppliers and users.
     
  • Another important effect of digitalization can be seen in their labor. Youth unemployment is almost 30% and regional unemployment 54%. The region has a huge youth population and almost 100 million is expected to join work by 2020. But this is accompanied by dearth of digital knowhow and talent. This is why governments through the region are taking measures to improve technical education hoping that this will resolve the unemployment problem.
     
  • There is another key problem due to digitalization. Digitalization can bring in short term hazards for regional labor markets. Workers can easily be displaced from positions which can now be completely automated. There may be a cut in wages for jobs that are partly automated. This is going to impact the energy-construction sectors that employ many workers from the non-Gulf Arab nations who send their salaries back to their home countries. If the region cannot offer safety nets and skills training to its workers, public anxiety can be expected to grow.
     
  • Public sector digitalization can be very useful but only 6% of countries here have elements which are needed to have smart governments. For instance, the Smart Dubai program which Dubai promotes to develop a smart city infrastructure that can offer public services electronically. The other nations only share the same dream; Bahrain and Qatar wish to restructure their governments through digital services. But the truth is that these governments are already affected by problems of corruption, fluctuating energy prices, growing demand for subsidies, frauds and wastage. Digitalization may help to ease these troubles. Using software for automating HR operations of the government and using mobile apps for delivering social services can reduce need for government staff as well as overhead costs. The easy accessibility to information can enhance citizen satisfaction. Such benefits will also extend across nations given the fact that this region gets a lot of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Digital payments can help refugees get monetary aid and aid providers can limit incidents of fraud and theft.
     
  • Another major risk arises from the region’s governments ties with the Internet. Governments have today become very preoccupied with controlling online information. Governments often restrict sharing and accessing of public data for fear that it may be used against them. The governments are also fearful of outsourcing their valuable data to third parties and this can inhibit large-scale digitalization. Side by side, the culture of censorship and surveillance by governments may also discourage global IT firms from coming to this region.
     
  • Increase in digitalization will also bring with it increased cyber security risks. In recent years, this region’s private and public financial, healthcare and defence sectors have all been targets of cyber attacks. Saudi Arabia has been most impacted by ransomware.

However, it looks like digitalization is here to stay and there is shift in the Middle Eastern region towards building huge data center facilities to meet the growing regional demands for cloud technologies.

CIA Could Be Using Several Different Networks across Dark Web

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

The central intelligence agency (CIA), headquartered in Langley, Virginia, is the federal organization charged with       gathering, analyzing and processing of information in and around US for security purpose. Agents and spies all around   the world gather intel and report it either to an officer or transmit it directly to the agency’s network.

Analysts then apply a sequence of formulae to the gathered information, rule down uncertainties, link events and make raw data comprehendible. Depending upon how crucial the information is the security advisor may choose to debrief or omit the information from the President’s daily report.

Now, the CIA operates its network not through the internet but a similar system that began as ARPANET – the mother of today’s internet. Given the importance of information that is transmitted through the spies, intelligence agency will not let security hang loose by transmitting data through the common people’s network.

Deep Web

While Google’s library seems very vast, it only contributes to less than 4% of the entire web. In fact, in his entire life a person will only come across 0.05% of the internet. There are websites, networks beyond the ones we see on Google – that cannot be accessed via the open network. Search engines are not capable of caching the content and so Google searching ‘deep web’ will land you almost nowhere.

Anything that cannot be cached comprises either the deep or dark web. Not everything in the deep web is illicit, and the contents can be accessed through a direct URL or a redirecting link. Examples include internet banking, content-on-demand, etc. The spookier things that go around on the internet happens in the dark web that only select browsers can access. Dark web can neither be cached nor discovered via public internet, making it the ideal platform for intelligence agencies, and also terrorists to operate history-changing tasks. Terrorist organizations like ISIS, AL-Qaeda have been known to have their own web address. There are reports that the 9/11 attack might have been planned and executed through the internet and in total anonymity. Operation Neptune Spear, in  which the US  military infiltrated Pakistan (Abbottabad) and shot the world’s most-wanted man could also have been streamed live to the White House using satellites and CIA’s own dark web.

Putin Says the Internet was CIA’s Project

The United States, being the home soil for companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft, is undoubtedly the global IT hub. Notwithstanding that the CIA has been accused of espionage several times before, tech-giants in the US have long focused in provisioning native data centers. This has perhaps got the Russian president worried. A former KGB agent himself, Vladimir Putin says he discovered during his days in the organization how the internet was built to aid the CIA in reconnaissance missions.

CIA Officially Announces Its TOR Website

TOR, or The Onion Router, is a program that bounces back encrypted data packets across several computers before data arrives at its destination, CIA’s official website says.

The Intelligence agency went on to release its official onion site to encourage anonymous and safe contribution of intelligence throughout. Despite CIA’s claim that its presence in TOR (link below) is to promote privacy, experts do not rule out the underlying intent of connecting to operatives around the world.

For an agency like CIA to be present in onion network, and along with the bad guys whom they claim to be fighting against, is not new. India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) has been known to operate through dark web only, given that there is no trace of its existence online even though a big part of India’s defence budget goes to ‘RAW’.

Evidence Alluding Towards Multiple Systems of Network

In June 2018, a 15-year old hacked CIA chief’s email account and gained access to files from operations in Iran. For weeks, Kane tapped the chief’s email conversations. However, things took a turn when he encountered a neighbouring web network, possibly CIA’s, and tried to sneak in. It was then that the firewall discovered his presence and Kane was caught.

Despite having the entire network access, Kane could only uncover files from operations in Iran and Afghanistan. According to Gamble, there were no other files in the network he broke into. The more important files were either moved to an underlying deeper web or were hosted in a separate server, Kane told investigators.

Iran Tracks Moles in Its Nuclear Program

In a more recent breakout, a double agent working for both Iran and the US showed Iranian officials the website that CIA was using as cover to gain intelligence about the country’s nuclear program. Iran then deployed its cyber experts to monitor and crack CIA comms network, tracked downed 30 moles and executed them. For once the agency would have gone undetected but it was operating the entire surveillance from a single network, made only to direct comms to its agents. This got Iran more suspicious of the unwanted American presence in its land.

The need for multiple networks on TOR

If an organization like the CIA wants to use the internet, it has to do so in absolute secrecy, camouflaged from the network of people. It is not that the cool and smart guys only work for American agencies. There are people smarter and obviously slier than their American counterparts and Kane Gamble is one such example. Operating multiple networks on dark web might seem like witchcraft, but here we are talking about organizations that have defence budget in billions. Safekeeping data in one place renders it more vulnerable for malign intents. The US seems to have adopted an ideology to sandbox communications for a particular mission. In any case where the system of spies gets ensnared, other missions can continue to thrive independently without risks, the way they have continued to operate despite being scythed numerous times.

Choosing the Best Host & The Most Appropriate Hosting Plan

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Once you decide to launch your website, the next step perhaps is choosing the right web host.

Which type of hosting service must you go for?

There are a few important things that you must firm up.

  • Understanding your hosting requirements.
     
  • Making a check on which hosting vendors are reliable with industry standard guarantees.
     
  • Getting a grasp on the packages offered with hosting features. It would be ideal if the hosting vendor provides at least one extra domain in addition to the primary one.
     
  • Making a check on the vendor’s past performances.
     
  • Technical support capabilities. Keep in mind that all hosting vendors do not have the wherewithal to staff a 24 hour help desk. Ideally, for business needs, you need 24 x 7 phone support, because you would not want to be saddled by issues that would negatively impact your business.

It is also important for you to decide whether the vendor must take up email hosting.

If your business needs are vigorous, putting up an email infrastructure is not a cake walk. You have to plan for a redundant server each covering the other so that your email system is always up and running.

In such a scenario, if the vendor also offers email hosting it will lighten your burden a great deal.

In a nutshell, the web hosting company must stand by you.

The vendor must be able to handle all of your business hosting needs without a hitch. It must have invested sufficiently in technology so that they are PCI compliant, with advanced DDoS protection. After all you would not like to compromise on anything less than 99.99% uptime guarantee.

On choosing the best hosting platform, shared, VPS or Dedicated

It is no brainer that a new entrepreneur will like to start off with the cheapest hosting plan. Shared hosting by far is the most cost effective answer for any businessperson.

A few good vendors even offer 100% uptime SLA, with promise of excellent server speeds and top class website performance.

Yet, shared hosting has its limitations. You have to make do with usage limits, shared bandwidth and regulated admin features.

With site visitors increasing, even a seemingly robust shared plan will be found wanting.

Let us visualize what may happen.

Performance

Most web users expect a page to load in a jiffy. Even a tad delay can mean abandoning the site. This is something you would not like to see at any price.

Security concerns

Remember, in a shared hosting plan your website is hosted on a shared server, where several other entities are sharing resources.

“It is always a risk”, says a young entrepreneur. “With shared hosting there are high chances you can be attacked by hackers”.

The entrepreneur is right on target. A suspicious activity on any part of the server can mean all websites are under threat.

A scenario that is not pretty for a booming business

In such cases an upgrade to VPS can make sense. With VPS, or virtual private server you get a dedicated segment of a robust and powerful server. The vendor allocates specific amount of resources especially for you. This translates to the following benefits.

  • You can choose a plan customized to your business needs, so that you need not bother with features which are not suited to you.
     
  • You experience more control on your server than what you can with shared hosting. The vendor will offer root access and scripts use, something typically not available with a shared hosting plan.
     
  • You may even get a limited managed hosting plan wherein the vendor handles many of the hosting issues. The VPS provider can offer tools included in the Managed VPS hosting plan that will enable you to setup software including CMS solutions.

Yet, VPS is not without its share of drawbacks.

  • You get limited resources. It is way less than what you can experience in dedicated Server Rental hosting. It is true you are allotted with dedicated packages; even then you share the resources in the physical server.
     
  • Requires technical expertise. Unless you have a managed hosting plan, handling software patches, installing software, and maintaining the server is still your responsibility. It can be a pain for you to maintain the operating system and ensure optimum uptime.
     
  • A virtual server despite its edge over shared server may still not be able to manage unexpected traffic spikes.

Upgrading to dedicated hosting

A time can arise when your business is booming and you will need more hosting resources to keep pace with the spike in traffic.

An upgrade from VPS will mean switching over to a dedicated server hosting. A dedicated server is best suited to a business that runs mission critical applications and workloads.

In technical parlance, dedicated server means rental and exclusive use of a web server, associated software, and internet connection from the hosting provider’s premises.

Yes, it is the most expensive of the lot, but if your business requires it, the benefits can far outweigh the initial higher expenses.

Revolutionizing Data Storage With Molecular Technology

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Recently European researchers have devised novel molecules which have the capacity to improve flash memory capacities. With this revolutionizing technology, storage limits will reach new heights which will allow the recording of massive amounts of data.

This fete has been possible because of metal-oxide clusters. Such masses retain electrical charge. As a result they act as RAM which forms a brand new fundamental of data cells. These cells are used in flash memory for integration into hand-held devices.

POM or polyoxometalate molecules are storage nodes which behave as MOS flash memory. Tungsten is used in them to synthesize POM metal-oxide clusters. Selenium is further added to the inner core through the process of doping. As a result, a new type of memory known as write-once-erase gets created. This technology caters to limitations of data cell sizes with in a flash memory. These memory cards are used within smartphones, mobile devices, memory sticks and cameras.

The idea of using individual molecules in place of traditional flash memory components for data storage was already present. But low thermal stability and short electrical conductivity were the hurdles in the path of this technology. That is why the application of molecular models to MOS technologies was tough before.

Thankfully, researchers behind this novel technological fete have guaranteed users that the finding is realistic. After all, it can cater to industry-standard devices because enterprise-grade simulations have been used for the validation of the technological finding to prove successful in a nano-meter scale.

Objects whose dimensions are measured in nano-meters were tested under the experiment. It was further added that such POMs can be used as in a realistic flash memory with nano scale.

Hence, such POMs can be fabricated with the aid of devices which are already prevalent inside the industry. These molecules have lately adopted brand new forms of flash memory which do not entail for fabrication lines to be expensively renovated.

Choosing the Best Blog Hosting Option from Separate Domain, Sub-domain, and Sub-folder for SEO

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

In order to gain the desired mileage from your SEO strategies for which you have worked so hard, you need to select the right place for hosting the blog in relation with your website. This is so important that a wrong action can deprive you of the incremental traffic expected by posting the blog.

There is not much of confusion in terms of the options available for blog hosting and following examples are self explanatory:

  • Separate domain- seperatedomain.com
  • Sub-folder – domian.com/article
  • Sub-domain –  article.domain.com

All the three options have their own righteous place in terms of individual perspectives. Let us examine these three options in order to enhance our understanding as far as relevance of each of the alternative is concerned.

Sub-folder as an alternative for blog hosting

There are number of advantages of web hosting. The foremost benefit is that Google will instantly crawl new posts maximum within few days after the post has been launched. Secondly you are empowering the blog post with inheritance of your parent website’s authority and this can lead to instant ranking for key words within posts.

If your blog post contains back links, then these along with social mentions that could be generated by the blog content will facilitate product page ranks and other content on the domain. You will be offering an enhanced user experience by posting blog in sub-folder since there is a better integration with main site. Sub-folders can also be tracked easily by Google analytics.

There is only one downside to hosting your blog post in sub-folder because it does not enable generation of external back-links that are used for controlling anchor text. An example to this could be editorial links present within the blog copy.

Using option of sub-domain for blog hosting

This option is relatively as well as technically easy for specific setups and also possesses some of the advantages offered by subfolder. It does inherit authority of the parent domain in addition to separate domain for generating back links to parent site.

However on the downside this option requires it own reputation to be established with help of back-links that are generated from other sites. This obviously leads us to conclude that the option of using sub-domain for hosting blog post does not rank as much as hosting the same in sub-folder.

Hosting blog post in separate domain

This option facilitates you to control as well as generate external back-links for supporting control of anchor text. In simple words you are able to boost editorial links that are in your blog copy back to product pages as well as category.

By hosting your blog post in separate domain it is possible for you to build a robust differentiation to enhance your brand identity. It will empower your blog with enhanced ability of attracting audience’s attention independent of your main site. You can also ensure targeting your blog post irrespective of countries by exercising this option.

There is a word of caution before you jump on this option. You should not expect to achieve competitive ranking for a good amount of time that may extend to few weeks. This will entirely depend on how compelling and informative your blog post is. This will have to be backed by faith and a robust long term commitment for development of back links.

Brief summary

We can summarize by studying all the three alternatives that the first option of hosting your blog post to sub-folder ranks much above the other options.

However, if you are prepared to have patience and possess ability to create engaging content, then the third option of creating a separate domain for hosting your blog post seems to be much more attractive.

This option will empower you to create a plethora of back links by posting crisp and informative content to main site. You will be enjoying a individual authority site that will be solely under your control.

This has been substantiated by experimentation. The long term advantages of hosting your blog post on sub domain and pointing back to parent site may have been well established. In essence the debate between sub-domains and sub-folders can go on and on without a concrete conclusion about which is better.

The reference from Google confirms that the leading search engine has ceased to treat sub-domains separately. It does however attach a minor association between them. Hence it can be safely stated that in order to build an entirely new entity as well as equity, a sub-domain is the right alternative. However, if you wish to establish equity of a single entity or a website one should use a subfolder.

Google analytics perspective of sub-domains and sub-folders

Tracking of sub-domains as part of the entire site cannot be expected due to the fact that first party cookies are served for every single domain or sub-domain by Google analytics. At the most they could be integrated if these happen to be part of subfolder. It is suggested to implement creation of a profile that consists of a filter to facilitate isolation of traffic for specifically that part of site.

Cloud Hosting for Developers – An Overview

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Developers are the starting point of web development and what they think about cloud hosting and their reasons, can be valuable for entrepreneurs.

Cloud hosting India has been one of the most adapted innovations of recent times. But what developers feel about the technology is still a mystery for many. After all, developers are crucial for shaping the functionality and efficiency for any organisation. This article will discuss some aspects of cloud hosting from a developer’s perspective and understanding. Let’s start.

Cloud Hosting – Serverless Technology

Cloud hosting is a network of remote servers that are hosted over the internet. Such remote servers store, manage and process your data even in the absence of a local server and a personalized system. Such a serverless technology has benefited so many companies. This is because there has never been a shortage of computer system resources and operations are carried out as per the demands.  

The development of serverless computing was not less than a miracle. It has rendered so many businesses unable to save on money and maintain their data in the best possible way. But optimum utilization of a serverless computing system is in the hands of software development.

As the tools of development and technologies are evolving, the care they require has also increased. Developers are the ones who are under constant pressure to come up with frequent enhancements and eliminate the bugs if possible then completely. Thus they are the ones who should be most satisfied with the changes that an organization is planning to go forward with.

Hence, before migrating to a cloud hosting plan it is important to know what the developers of the organization think about it. They will be the best set of employees who can foresee any big hindrance in the path. As they closely analyze all the errors that can appear and how it may impact the performance. Also as all the developers are tired of writing their code locally. They deserve better technology in all and it is beneficial for the organization if we see the bigger picture.

Advantages of cloud hosting from a developer’s perspective

 The usage of cloud hosting has been allowing professionals to manage database services in a better way. Important features like SSD hosting India along with crucial databases and services are quickly accessible to information and appropriate data redundancy is achieved.

Nowadays, cloud systems can be accompanied by machine learning as well as artificial intelligence. This is especially for those developers who are more involved in developing mobile applications or managing web services and host websites. As developers prefer to use the latest programming language that is running in the market, cloud systems make it easy to incorporate them.

Here are some of the more specific advantages that benefit all the developers around the world-

  1. Scalability

Developers need to scale any portion of an application instantly and with great ease. This is not possible when you have to determine specific hardware so that each node of the system would run from the web application directly to the database server. But you don’t have to worry about this when your applications are hosted over a cloud host. The load balancing and database clustering treat your highly available applications with more care and the attention they need. They increase the hardware power and scale-out just by adding more servers and thus web and applications run easily. Most of the cloud systems also have the auto-scaling feature that automatically dynamically adds more servers. Also, if the developers need to scale up the databases, they just need to increase the server’s power. Creation of the database pools that have a fixed amount of processing power along with multiple databases. Due to these database pools elasticity becomes very handy and thus allows them to scale at its ease. 

  1. Cost-Effective 

Developers cannot avoid small or large sudden increases in resource usage of the resources but they can switch to technology like cloud hosting as they don’t have to pay through the nose. Cloud systems help developers to save a lot and thus prove to be very economical. There is no up-front investment involved as you don’t have to worry about the on-premise or remote data centers. Not only just investment but there is also always a lot of speculation involved when one opts for on-premise data centers to sort out the current and future hardware requirements. No such case exists within a cloud host as no additional assistance is required and everything is covered within the budget. The pay-as-you-go model of cloud hosting doesn’t even ask to pay for some additional servers to a certain level. No extra charges are charged when the resources of the server are scaled down. This is why your applications need a cloud system to enjoy the increased redundancy. But we would discuss it on a whole another point.

  1. Disaster recovery

Losing on the code that a developer must have been working on the whole night would be the worst nightmare. When your application is not hosted over the cloud, you will be requiring a separate and additional data center just for disaster recoveries. This adds a lot to the overall capital investment and thus should be avoided for sure. When you are on the cloud system no need to worry as then you would have to pay just for the hardware when it is in use. Cloud systems are known for their disaster recovery which is easily configured and scaled up or down when needed.

  1. Provisions resources at the quickest

Development needs to provision resources at the quickest rate possible. This can only be possible within a cloud system. The fast pacing IT technology needs to test new environments as quickly as possible. If our developers leave this task on the shoulders of the technical services team, then it might take multiple weeks and the results might not be that promising. The cloud environment empowers developers to quickly test environments and deploy them at the quickest. With the help of the cloud system, the developers stay relevant and in touch with the latest ongoing technology.

  1. Solid geographical network- 

When a developer develops something putting his heart and soul, then he would desire that it reaches each other. Cloud hosting allows the developers to rely on a faraway situated data center that can ensure that each of the users receives the same level of performance. The location can be anywhere around the world that will be hosting your software. 

  1. Handling developer operations- 

The work is not over even after the successful deployment of applications. Monitoring those applications is the real work that starts after that. Identifying the errors and fixing them before time is very necessary for smooth developer operations. The whole system very actively recognizes the glitches and in no time reports them. 

EndNote

Cloud computing and serverless technology have supercharged countless entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators by offering ease of operations and handling. It has enabled businesses to scale as per their plans and keep the cost under check at all times. As a result, developers are shifting to the cloud all around the world. The number is increasing exponentially and so is the positive experience of developers with the cloud. Hence, if your company and development have not benefited from the cloud, you are missing out on the opportunity, big time. 

If you liked this article, or if you want to know about cloud computing, web hosting, AI, and all about the world of digital innovation, get in touch with Go4hosting.

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