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Challenges of Hosting Websites in China – An Overview

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

China continues to grow impressively even as the world markets struggle to find some semblance of stability. The impressive rate of growth in specific sectors is expected to continue in 2016, according to many economic experts and research reports. Are you too planning to take advantage of this situation and grab your bite of the profit pie? Well, that’s not going to be easy

Challenges Entrepreneurs Face In Launching Business in China China has half a billion of its population using the internet. It represents a whopping 40 per cent of the population of the country. Businesses selling products and services online will find China a ready marketplace to ply their wares and earn impressive profits. However, starting a business in China can be difficult. Hosting a website in China can pose numerous challenges, if you are unaware of how to negotiate the potential landmines that the authorities may place in your path.

The Great Firewall – The Biggest Roadblock It is a fact, certainly not a rumor, spread by vested interests that hosting a website and managing an online business in China are indeed complicated tasks. The Chinese government has this penchant for controlling the information, which can be detrimental for smooth operations of any business. With the peering points very limited, your website can run into operational issues. Most Internet Service Protocols are unwilling to work in coordination in China. Your website performance will be affected as loading times will be excruciatingly slow. But before that you will have to face what many say is the biggest challenge of launching an online business in China – The Great Firewall! –

Why So Many Regulations The Great Firewall is a regulatory system controlled by the government with an intention of controlling data and information exchange within the country. In many ways, it affects the ability of companies to reach their target market in China and their local customers. The purpose of firewall and some similar government-controlled systems is to have absolute control on the flow of information. An economy angle can also be detected behind this regulation, they want to protect their local markets by discouraging global players. It seems that the intent is to pave way for local businesses and Chinese startups to have a steel grip on key and profitable business sectors. The Great Firewall and the absence of peering points can result in truly long waits for page loads and frequent timeouts.

It can result in poor user experience, especially on pages served from outside China. You can also face problems while using third-party services. Features and facilities that are obvious choices in other parts of the globe, such as embedded Google Maps are blocked in China, which can impact the quality of your website’s performance.

Protecting Local Business Interests – The Priority If the western world views all these restrictions and licensing processes as a sign of insecurity, or a desperate act of a government, obsessed with control, the Chinese may not agree entirely. They point out that it is a matter of business. China has blocked access to the popular search engine Google, which has probably resulted in the flourishing of their own search engine, Baidu. The local messaging service WeChat has boomed probably because of the restrictions on use of Facebook and WhatsApp.

Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter and it is a huge hit among Chinese social media users. Businesses planning for website hosting in China may have to deal with some practical regulations. Some industries that are considered sensitive may find it mandatory to host in China to sell their services and products in the Chinese marketplace. Industries such as finance, tourism, education and those selling pharma products are subject to stringent regulations and have to satisfy a host of conditions to obtain permission to sell in China.

A Well-designed Website Can Add Value to Your Business

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

In the current digital landscape owning a website is no longer an expensive proposition. Rather, it offers businesses an easy and cost effective means to reach out to their intended target audiences. It acts as an extension of their business card, allowing entrepreneurs to interact with visitors, tell them what the business is all about, what they offer, how the offerings will help clients, who behind the screens is and anything that is valuable for their end-users. From mega-cap companies to small-scale businesses and home-based setups, a website has become a part and parcel of an overall business in today’s digital climate.

When it comes to long-term success of a website, potential hosting provider and right search engine optimization (SEO) customarily offer best return on investment. They complement each other and virtually deliver no risk, if only execution is commenced in the approved manner. Many clients get satisfied by merely buying hosting plans forgetting about the next important half of the story – that can either lift up their bottom-line performance, or put them out of the market. However, when your website starts gleaning popularity and attracts more and more traffic, tale can take a twist and your business can greatly suffer in terms of revenue generation. Fine for biggies that could drop a few million dollars without a hitch, but scary for small scale businesses can go completely off the track.Ostensibly, a well-formulated website that provides a clear, succinct message while also being visually pleasing can nail-out their indubitable presence in the market.

Let’s take a look over a number of factors that can jeopardize your online experience regardless of the efforts you put in:

Video Placement and Sound: A recent study reveals that near about 50% of smartphone and tablet users use their devices as second screens while watching television. Subsequently, your potential users might also visit your mission-critical website when commencing other business or household chores. Here is the catch – if you have placed videos on your website, chances that the user gets captivated are merely not as bright when most of the organization are following the same roadmap. With time, some of the clients have understood that automatic video sound turn on can annoy a user that’s why they prefer to launch a video by setting sound to ‘mute’ in its default settings. Users have the privilege to turn on/off the sound. However, don’t rush to place a video on your site without having proper bandwidth and other computing capabilities. Remember, videos can make your page to load in a sluggish manner that can not only spoil end-user experience, but also drops down your search engine ranking results. Not to mention, videos can also lead to device hang up, web browser crash and many other unwarranted issues.

Content Formatting and Images: Well, counter yourself with a few questions like what exactly a user is going to see on your website when he/she hits your business URL for the first time. Multiple number of images or/and lengthy content? Remember, poor presentation and too much content will hamper your efforts to satisfy your customer experience. As too many images followed by vomit of content will deviate their focus. Herein, incorporating simple and concrete designing efforts will pay off the best results. A well-designed website showcases that you are a professional business with right domain knowledge. Many experts suggest that don’t place too many images on your web page. Place the one that strongly complements your offerings. The content should be formatted in a way that it should be legible to users. In addition to this, choose right colors to present the webpage as a study reveals that the right color have greater chances for conversions.

Content Appropriateness: Content that not truly portrays what products/services you are delivering, fails to fulfill its fundamental purpose. It should be end-user centric. Don’t practice outdated SEO techniques where keyword stuffing remains the top of the mind mantra. No one has enough time to read stories that’s why being precise and pragmatic. Once you are done with the content, ask your colleagues or employees to read it and take the feedback. Ensure that your content covers all the pain points of a business and how your offerings will address them.

Annoying Registrations

Most of the websites forces users to register or enter an e-mail id before allowing them to read the content on their website – trust me this annoy users the most. Well, there is a host of ways to collect user details, avoid going for this way as this will simply push them to turn up to your competitor’s website.

Distraction

Many experts demonstrate that being too artistic can frighten the prospective customers away from your business. In order to induce potential customers, one must readily keep in mind that the website they visit must encompass vital information which their end-users may look for, appropriate prices of the products and services should be listed with detailed specification of your work. If a customer fails to find aforementioned information from the landing page of your website, then idea behind creating such eye-catchy websites is worthless.

The same situation proves apt for call to action on your website. Make sure you have not listed the things that you do not offer. This technique might attract visitors for first instance, but leave a bad impression. The user will never turn up to your site again – avoid wrong publicity propaganda.

Last but not the least, covering your website(s) with multiple ads and auto videos displaying on it – not only irritates your users, but often looks tacky.

It’s the time to get serious about your business. Think out of the box and act smart. Embrace new technologies or be ready to face the consequences.

If you are looking out for best web hosting services, you can connect to our experts at 1800-212-2022.

Hot Digital Trends to Look for in 2017

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

In spite of an array of annoying events, bad news, or natural calamities during the year 2016, there have been significant technological advances that proved to be silver lining.

These technological developments are poised to influence myriad aspects of work, play and life. One of the most noticeable developments has been in the domain of virtual-reality as it resurfaced with a bang and is sure to drive ahead in full stream in this year. 

Smart phones, smart homes, virtual assistants, and IoT are just few of the examples of how technology is set to change lives of individuals in years to come. In the complex world of new technologies, we should keep track of five most significant trends to simplify our understanding.

Welcome IoT and goodbye hub 

Considerable time has already lapsed since the advent of Internet of Things or IoT. In spite of the amazing advantages of the same, it has failed to garner expected support. The major roadblock in widespread adoption of IoT is the lack of interoperability. 

Internet of Things is conceptually supposed to connect wide array of devices to facilitate a homogenous of interconnected devices that enjoy compatibility with each other and obviate the need to leverage a centralized hub. Unfortunately this has only remained as a dream. 

In order to understand multiple limitations of implementing Internet of Things, we can consider case of a smart home. Any seasoned user of smart home system can confirm that presence of a wireless router designed to handle additional technologies for establishing communications is not a right approach.

This is because, technology has now made it possible to design a myriad of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Z-Wave to name a few. Add to these availability of platforms for smart homes including security platform by ADT, Iris by Lowe’s, Wink or SmartThings among others. 

The multiplicity of systems and platforms underlines the fact that the days of centralization are now over and an idea of a hub would soon be perceived as an obsolete concept. 

However, things are easier said than done because there are several smart home platforms that would not support certain smart devices or gadgets. Additionally, a smart hub can prove to be a disaster in case of its failure because the entire smart system will cease to perform in moments. 

In terms of smart and affordable networking technologies, the good old Wi-Fi can be a great resource for networking and by combining the same with routers one can expect to gain ample space for managing a connected smart home. It must be noted that for assured compatibility, recent smart home gadgets are powered by Wi-Fi.

Interoperability between diverse devices is going to be Holy Grail of manufacturers as they will strive to design devices that are able to inter-operate between each other. 

Emergence of artificial intelligence and automation

Automation will take over a multitude of tasks including news reporting and smart gadgets will enhance their learning skills by studying preferences of users. This will help users take precise decisions with help of correct recommendations. 

Pizza delivery boys will have to make room for drones that will be assigned delivery in record time as Amazon has already started experimenting on such a possibility. As the technologies surge ahead to remove human touch offered by services, protesting voices will go on becoming louder and louder to oppose the automation technology that will eat into thousands of jobs.  

Emergence of synthetic food

If you consider the case of Soylent, then you will appreciate that the chances of our natural food getting replaced by a synthetic counterpart are extremely bright. Synthetic food variety will also be able to solve the problem of dwindling natural resources, by feeding the bursting population with artificial food substances. Companies including Impossible Foods have been successful in developing burgers that bear amazing resemblance to the real burgers.

Add to this the efforts for growing eggs and meat in laboratories that are sure to yield remarkable results in very near future. 

Commercial production of 3D Printers

Three-dimensional or 3-D printing technology has made remarkable progress and is on its way to become affordable to masses. There has been a significant reduction in prices of three D printers that can be purchased for $ 200 and above. This is almost half of what these used to cost only a year ago. 

We can now look forward to a three-D printer will finding its place in an up-market gift shop and more and more people deciding to present these marvels as new-year gifts. 

Welcome to the virtual world

We have already experienced the augmented reality games such as Pokémon and chances are very bright for advent of a virtual world. It is possible to focus your special camera and find detailed information about the object without typing keywords for search. 

These are only few of the hot and happening trends for 2017. If you keep your eyes and ears open, then you are sure to notice more and more new technologies being developed into commercially viable projects.

Hardening the Defenses of Linux Servers for Secured Business Operations

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Significance of the server’s security must be understood by everyone who is associated with hosting any business website. Although, the developer community has in-depth knowledge about multiple aspects of security, the customers of web hosting services may not be fully aware of its importance.

If your website is being run by a dedicated or VPS server, then you must know some of the most useful tips that can be easily implemented for improving the overall security of your business critical web server that is run by Linux Operating System.

Importance of firewall protection

There are many aspects of server’s security, which may sound slightly old-fashioned and use of a firewall is one such factor. However, one should never underestimate importance of a firewall such as csf or iptables for guaranteed and automated blocking of suspicious IPs that may harm your data. 

This is the reason why firewall is considered to be one of the most vital aspects of server configuration. In many situations, firewalls can offer an added security layer in addition to the existing security features. 

Firewalls can be in the form of hardware or software and are aimed at controlling different services that may be associated with your servers. These defenses are commonly used for preventing suspicious intrusions within the server environment. 

Firewalls are used for blocking private, public, and internal services according to their security credentials. Your web server is the best example of publically available services since it grants access to any visitor from any location.

Similarly, a database control panel is associated with private services because it permits select users to access such services. If you need to block certain services to outside environment, then you can also setup firewall to protect these internal services. 

Similarly, you must follow the basic rule of keeping your server free from any unwanted files since such file has the potential of adding to the overall vulnerability of your site apart from occupying valuable disk space.  

Keep it up to date

Keeping your server up to date is one of the easiest and the simplest tips to be implemented for enhancement of security quotient of your site. 

It is observed that business sites need to be supported by plugins and themes and software applications including Drupal, WordPress, Magento, or Joomla for seamless operation of multiple business processes.

Since a myriad of applications, software, and server packages are being installed on the web server, this need to be updated frequently with help of regular patches and updates. These updates are aimed at fixing flaws and weaknesses to improve immunity against possible attacks.

Using SSH keys

You should take all necessary precautions to protect your server before setting up of applications. Using SSH keys that consist of a pair of keys is one of the surest security practices. Before user authentication, one has to create a private and public key and the private key is not to be shared by user with anyone.

SSH client will allow access only on submission of private key. This will also allow the authorized user to access server without using any password. SSH is used for authenticating passwords and is totally encrypted. 

Thanks to the development of technologies, there are multiple ways by which hackers can gain access to servers with help of cutting edge computing methods that generate millions of password combinations to break open security barriers.

SSH has a unique attribute that makes it much superior to password based authentication. SSH keys are made by using multiple data bits instead of passwords. Most of the advanced computing technologies are not able to decipher algorithms of SSH keys. No wonder, majority of algorithms of SSH keys are known to be un-decipherable by using any method. 

Protect your SSH connections

This is the foremost requirement for securing your server since most of the cyber criminals are aware of the fact that port 22 is the default port. One must change this to another port before restarting SSH. In order to change the default port, you need to find Config file and then change the same to different port. 

As far as user names are concerned, you can certainly add more users if you are using AllowUsers username. The authorized users can even be made to sign in from a specific IP for added security. 

One more secure way to restrict access to SSH is by use of rsakeys. This will make sure that the password authentication is entirely disabled. However, you must never lose your private key. Loss of private key will prevent you from accessing your server. In such situation, users need to report to hosting provider’s technical support team. 

There is an additional method of protecting SSH is restriction of default root user. In order to achieve this functionality, please make sure that setting up and generation of a key pair is properly done. 

If your web server is based on Linux operating system, then you can easily setup SSH keys to help you harden your server’s defenses. 

Go4hosting Provides Hosting Solution to PNB – A Premier Banking Institution in India

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Punjab National Bank is a longstanding trusted provider of financial services to dozens of millions of people in India. As a result of its widespread client base acquired over its existence of well over a century, Punjab National Bank is a behemoth organization, and continues to add customers to its fold with every passing quarter.

With the increase in the adoption rate of technology, Punjab National Bank was open to shifting its services and operations on to digital platforms, and did so quite efficiently for its basic banking services. While rolling out the platform for its web portal, the staggering volume of traffic was proving to be a nearly insurmountable obstacle, since the users who were attempting to access the server were unaware of the shared nature of the system resources and hence, expressed their disappointment at slow or even no provision of services through the web portal. Punjab National Bank needed a robust web platform for disseminating their services, and to shift to that better platform seamlessly, with minimal disruption of services to end users.

Pristine Go4hosting Web Design, Hosting & Server Maintenance

Go4hosting rose to the demands of the occasion superbly, beginning the process with in-depth discussions with the chief IT analysts of Punjab National Bank to identify the most common pain points with regard to customer experience and service provision. A deep dive into the existent hardware and software was carried out, focusing on areas of improvement, replacement and enhancement. The resulting findings were incorporated into a viable action plan that laid out the course for bringing about a volte face in Punjab National Bank’s customer experience of their website.

The beginning of the process was entrenched in designing a website that was based in large parts along a simplistic, user friendly graphical interface so that less technically adept users would not be turned off by the website and revert to using physical services at bank branches – the exact situation that Punjab National Bank did not want to give rise to, so as to free up manpower for carrying out non-automated tasks and managerial decision making. Thus, the new website design incorporated a high contrast and appealing color scheme and easily legible fonts. Next, the banking functions that Punjab National Bank offered were integrated into the website, with solid back-end processes that were designed with backup processes and failover protocols to deal with software, hardware and network issues.

In any sizeable project, the testing and refinement of the system in its entirety is essential, so that there are as few hiccups while it is being rolled out to end users. Keeping this in mind, Go4hosting checked and re-checked all the parameters of the required system against the performance of the system designed to cater to the users of Punjab National Bank. When the website user interface was found up to mark, the system architect teams moved on to the establishment of a consolidated hosting system that would enable the functions being offered by Punjab National Bank through the new website.

Making full use of the availability of their top of the line data center for load balancing tests and checking data security measures, Go4hosting server architects built up a repository of hardware that served the very high demands of the traffic on the Punjab National Bank website at peak instances. In addition, the networking framework was tested under stress to make sure that the servers would not face congestion as long as ample bandwidth was provided. This is because one of the prime factors that had to be kept in mind at all times regarding the operational capability of the website was the limited availability of high bandwidth on the users’ sides in many regions of India where the clientele of Punjab National Bank was located.

Addressing Current Problems Plus Future Ones In One Fell Swoop!

Go4hosting put the website and server into action for Punjab National Bank and was immediately inundated by the overwhelming response of the customers of Punjab National Bank. It was a testament to the strength of the network architecture that Punjab National Bank continues to deal with customers’ demands through the website as a primary channel, adding services and features as and when required due to the flexibility built into the system.

In addition to the fully capable website and server systems, Go4hosting added disaster recovery as a service to the backup options for Punjab National Bank, letting them rest assured in their invulnerability against the numerous malicious threats that float around the World Wide Web. With regular updates to the firewalls and security software, Punjab National Bank maintains a strong response system that caters to all the customers who require the services of the bank through its online portal.

In propelling Punjab National Bank towards the top of the banking sector, Go4hosting pulled out all the stops and delivered what PSUs cherish most – a happy and satisfied customer base!

How are Web Hosting and SEO Related?

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Business owners will want to achieve high rankings in search engine results to get more and more customers to their websites. The success of any online business depends heavily on the number of visitors the sites get, and the more appealing and effective your site content is; the more viewership it is going to get. One of the best ways of gaining popularity amongst new viewers is to increase your rankings in search engines like Google or Yahoo; to do this, it is important to know how these rankings are achieved. The web technologies which basically determine your search engine rankings are called SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization refers to a combination of techniques and strategies which can help a site to get more viewers because of high rankings in search engine results. This will deal with search engine algorithms and when you can implement these SEO tactics or strategies properly, your website can become popular amongst online viewers. The rank it enjoys in search engine results continues to go up and this development is then converted into more contacts, more buys, new clients etc.

How does SEO work?

The SEO professionals will try to include specific keywords into the content or text and get links which will redirect users to your site. They will strive to create unique content to get higher rankings in search engines like Google. Whether you can come within the first ten rankings in Google will depend on how well you have been able to use SEO strategies. The highest ranking sites are obviously the most popular websites and visited by maximum numbers of people; so, the time period required to achieve this feat can take anything between a month and a year. While you can take the help of SEO experts to get higher site rankings, you can also implement some of these techniques independently. You may own a start-up and you can start working on your SEO immediately after registering the domain name. Initially you can take care of this on your own but later on it may be necessary to seek professional assistance.

Which web hosting providers is SEO-friendly?

To know exactly how SEO works, you need to understand the initial stages of web hosting. When you can get a SEO friendly web hosting service provider, you will find it rather easy to manage the SEO tasks right from the beginning. To choose a SEO-friendly hosting plan, you will need to take into account some important features as follows:

  • There are some companies that provide a free SEO bonus where you can enjoy up to 3 months of free SEO solutions after which you can start paying to renew these services. This helps because you can enjoy free SEO when you start of. Moreover, if you decide to work with the host SEO team eventually, they will already be familiar with your work. So, even when the paid services turn out to a tad costly, you can discontinue the services after a certain time. But this bonus has not got too may takers and only a handful of hosts will provide this feature.
     
  • There is a Google Ads bonus too which is quite popular and many hosts give about $50 with each package to their customers to begin this promotion. This turns out to be a more useful tool because when you can increase the viewership to your site, your rankings will automatically go up.
     
  • When you do not want a complicated site, you should opt for a content management system because any SEO site needs a lot of content. So, a CMS will ensure that you can manage this content seamlessly. In this context, it is necessary to remember that WordPress CMS is more often preferred because of its advantages and its useful plug-ins. Some of its features like page name and meta descriptions have helped to automate several processes and makes SEO a cakewalk.
     
  • Another factor to consider is the support, because although rare, some hosts will even provide SEO support for a brief time period. At the same time, you should not completely rely on this for your SEO tasks.

Organic SEO hosting is based on the principle that you can insert link in your text in a way so as to make your reader understand that these are not intentional. On the other hand, SMM or Social Media Management refers to a combination of tools and services which are designed to accelerate your site’s growth in conjunction with SEO.

If you are looking for web hosting services for SEO, look at Go4hosting’s services. It does not only offer SEO friendly hosting services but also takes care of all technicalities.

Factors Influencing Choice between Shared Hosting and Colocation Hosting

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Colocation hosting and shared hosting are popular services for operating websites by managing network security systems and web servers. These services are provided from remote data center facilities. In shared hosting service, multiple websites are accommodated in a single server hence the name ‘shared hosting’. Colocation pertains to positioning of own server equipment in remote data center for operating website by accessing network connectivity. 

The important differentiating factor between shared and colocation hosting is the ownership of software and hardware. Clients of colocation hosting continue to own the hardware as well as software to support IT infrastructure to explore all privileges of owning the equipment. It should be noted that the responsibility to set up and configure hardware as well as software also lies with clients of colocation hosting.

In contrast, customers of shared hosting are neither owners of the hardware or software nor do they have to look after configuration of the same. All software and hardware is owned by hosting service provider.

Noteworthy benefits and downsides of colocation hosting 

Colocation hosting allows clients to own software and hardware while offering them a space to house their server equipment in data centers including power, IP addresses, data cabinets, and uplink port among others.

In addition, clients can enjoy round the clock access to the network with support of colocation center’s staff. In addition to basic technical support, clients of colocation Delhi, NCR can leverage stringent security measures provided by colocation host in their data center facilities. 

The most obvious downside of colocation hosting is the huge capital investment needed for purchase of server equipment as well as software. This followed by responsibility of installation, monitoring, and updating software and hardware associated with their infrastructure. 

Important highlights of shared hosting

The biggest advantage of shared hosting is economy. There is a complete freedom from responsibilities of server monitoring, software configuration, server upgrading and technical maintenance to name a few. Hosting service providers look after all technical aspects of hosting and provide user friendly web control panels to clients for managing emails and applications. 

There is a considerable resource limitation in shared hosting because of the sharing of resources of a single server by large number of clients. There are also limitations in terms of installing and using desired applications, programs, or modules. Clients of shared hosting are also unable to implement their own security policies or add firewalls for safety. Shared hosting is more vulnerable to hacking attempts or infringement. 

Key considerations to choose colocation hosting 

From the above discussion, it is quite clear that colocation hosting is essential for better control of hosing environment. Users of colocation hosting have freedom to manage their servers as if they are their own managed hosting provider. Although, it is impossible to design a check list to help website owners choose the right type of hosting for management of their web applications, one can certainly consider some important factors that necessitate colocation hosting instead of shared hosting. 

Better control- Users choose colocation hosting primarily to exercise unlimited control of your online presence. While colocation hosting provides excellent flexibility, it also needs users to be more responsible in terms of maintenance, updating, installing, and operating their hardware and software resources. 

Colocation hosting requires users to look after trouble shooting, system administration, and all types of repair tasks. 

Custom applications and bandwidth support

In shared hosting, your webhost chooses the software and hardware that will take care of most of the basic requirements of your website. However, if you are planning to host database applications online applications or portals and search engine applications that are going to generate heavy traffic then you will have to choose a hosting solution that can cater to higher requirement of software, hardware and bandwidth resources. 

Colocation hosting solution scores over managed hosting solutions by offering greater bang for your buck. Since modern servers are designed for remarkable server density and compute power, you will be able to design a solution with help of a single solution that will be at par with multiple virtual servers or hundreds of shared hosting accounts.  If your are able to make initial investments in server purchase and have a support staff to look after technical aspects of your colocation hosting, then this solution can offer amazing advantages in the longer run by paying for itself. 

Choosing the right hosting solution

As you can notice, colocation hosting and shared hosting offer unique advantages to users with distinct needs of web hosting. One needs to consider different factors before arriving at a decision to use a particular type of hosting. 

One needs to assess long term business objectives, level of complexity of applications that would have to be installed, and server resource for satisfactory performance of web project. The two main considerations are the budgetary provisions and level of controls needed to execute server operations. 

Do not underestimate the importance of network uptime!

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Today, companies across different ambits are embarking on technological advancements like never before. In this transition, cloud and hybrid IT strategies are extending full-fledged support to forward their business growth. After all, cloud is underpinned with all requisites that are indubitable for meeting basic to advanced requirements of businesses of all genres. Well, the whole world is getting digital, and this change is not only confined to some specific processes or a shift from one custom-built to another, but it is happening across industries.

The heading digital technology has enabled organizations to gain agility, serve their customers in a better way; in addition, it has also created multiple opportunities for fastest growth and innovation.  It goes without saying that this transformation is happening in different forms, but how successful a business could be in keeping a pace with these shifts holistically depends on their pragmatism and IT infrastructure. In this regard, forward-looking business leaders outsource some of these resources to a proficient third-party service provider.

A Forgotten Aspect….

In the race to make cloud as their part of business strategy, many organizations forget considering some of the most fundamental aspects. According to Gartner, colocation networking is one of the major aspects behind the increasing cloud adoption rate. Over the past few years, colocation alternative was considered by companies to slash down the overall cost pertaining to space and power. However, the escalating IT intricacies have once again brought the colocation’s focus back on the network. In this regard, the leading research firm Gartner states that colocation helps in bringing organizations in proximity to the network, instead of bringing cloud to the organization.

Colocation as an Extended Growth Tool

Colocation’s benefits are not only limited to cost savings, but also to accelerating business growth. While companies spanning across different verticals are preparing themselves for future, the services of many businesses would be restricted within the four walls of their premises. This would pave the path and demand for interconnected colocation platform.

What Providers Should Focus Upon…

Colocation hosting benefactors should strive to put their best foot forward to satiate their end-users’ need. They should make sure that their end-users can quickly gain access to the required resources on a fly, in a hassle-free manner, without having to deal with latency, uptime, and accessibility issues.

What Organizations Should Consider…

When teaming up with a colocation hosting provider, businesses should evaluate the competency, and check whether or not the service provider can support their network components. No matter if you are looking forward to take forward a single deployment or trying to deploy multiple clouds for separate workload needs, the network should be the best.

In addition to this, organization should also verify the reliability and uptime factor. Remember, a single minute of downtime can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, and can also raise a question on your business credibility. Therefore, always look for a data center service provider that maintains N+1 resiliency throughout its facility and employs the best techniques for seamless work progress.  

Also network connectivity options available at the provider’s end should have the potential to integrate multiple data centers with the help of a broad variety of network connectivity options, such as VPN, MPLS, and Internet bandwidth.

Last but not the least; do not forget to ensure that the vendor has fully-functional and well-documented disaster recovery and business continuity strategy in place to deal with catastrophic circumstances.

If you are looking out for adept colocation hosting provider, call us now at 1-800-212-2022

Different Types of Web Hosting & Their Key Features

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Most of us log on to the internet, open a browser and visit our favorite websites. But we never try to understand what a website really is leave alone what a hosting company does.

So let us begin with the website basics.

It is simply a collection of World Wide Web files that opens with a home page.  The word “site” may confuse you because it denotes a location. You may think it is a web server.  It is not. Web server is a program that serves files that form web pages to users

Actually a large website can be spread over many servers at various locations.

A better way to describe a website is to use the term “web presence”. A web presence denotes a location where an individual, business, or any other entity is represented to allow visitors get to know various information and graphics displayed.

A website is loosely a grouping of documents/pages, web application and content management systems.

In order to run a website, you need a computer and an internet connection. The internet receives requests from the user, takes action and responds.

For individual performing personal tasks, a PC is more than enough.

However, for an entrepreneur or a business, a bigger, faster and better computer is needed.

This in simple terms is a server.

Purchasing, operating and maintaining a server can be a very expensive affair, even for businesspersons.

Webhosting companies have solved this problem for you. They have huge infrastructure installed to put up clients’ websites with fast internet connections.

So, remember, when you use a web hosting company or a web host, your files will be located on a real computer in a bona fide building.

Now the next question is how to purchase a web hosting plan.

It would not surprise if you are overwhelmed by the different types of web hosting plans in the market.

To make matters clear here is a rundown on 5 different types of hosting.
 
Shared Hosting

This is the most prevalent type, and also the cheapest.

With shared hosting, numerous customers share one server or computer. All the websites of different entities or accounts are stored and delivered by the same server.

Since the server has to take the load of numerous accounts, it has to be a large one and much more powerful than a personal computer.

Today’s shared hosting vendors host hundreds of websites without causing any problems to their clients. If your website is for a blog, or to simple make your presence visible with a few articles and images, then shared hosting will do the job for you.

But if you are going to run an intricate CMS or content management system on a site that is drawing good amount of traffic, shared hosting will have limitations. You may experience performance issues and downtimes, and most importantly limitations on resources like bandwidth and processing power.

The better option in this case is to go for a Virtual Private Server or VPS.

Virtual Private Server or VPS

VPS is a virtualized hosting environment that mimics an exclusive server within a shared hosting environment.

To make things clear, with an exclusive virtual server you get complete control over the processes as you would with a dedicated server (explained later in this article).

With VPS hosting you will be able to use more server resources and have better control over the hosting environment.

The benefits that you get include:

  • Privacy – Since you do not share your operating system with anyone else, other entities or accounts cannot access your files. Virtualization also means you are shielded from any issues that may arise on other sites.
  • Customization – VPS hosting enables an exclusive server allowing you to operate applications such as PHP and MySQL, plus you can make alterations as required.
  • Exclusive resources – On a VPS server, you will get specified and dedicated amount of RAM exclusively for your use. With cPanel you can upload files, manage domains, and perform various other tasks without any difficulty.

The main drawback of this type of hosting is the price. It is more expensive than shared hosting. But if your business needs an upgrade, then the extra bucks you shell out is worth the investment.

A time may however arise, when you need more processing power, more control and resources.

In this case you have to choose a dedicated server hosting.

Dedicated Server hosting

This type of hosting is the preferred type by small, medium and large enterprises. Simply put, a dedicated server is a machine with all its hardware and software resources at your exclusive disposal.
 
In addition, most providers offer exclusive features such as server management, backup servers and customized technical support.

This is the most expensive type, and hence chosen by only those who need a high level of performance, excellent security and industry standard uptime.

Cloud hosting

The problem with all the three described earlier is they have physical limitations of the actual server. Because of this aspect, hosting companies are now offering another option – cloud hosting.

Cloud simply means a large number of computers all clustered together. Any application running on them makes use of the combined resources of all.

This type is the new trend, because it offers scalability and “pay for what you use” advantage.

Choosing the right hosting plan and the right service is an important but unenviable task.  You must correctly evaluate your hosting needs and various pricing models. But once you choose the appropriate plan, you are on a smooth ride.

Deep Insight into COM Vs .COM.NG

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

Businesses who want to reach the wider audience, need domain. However, most of the times it has been seen that they are not sure about the domain name extension they should go for. They generally ask experts about which extension to buy. The clients also ask experts about their views on choice of domain extension that they should go for in their particular situation. When replying to such queries, the experts generally want to know the purpose of their clients to go online. This information is important for the expert to provide precise answer to the query. Two examples will help you understand why the purpose of going online matters while choosing an extension.

Example 1 – In case, you are the owner or manager of a media company. In that case, the best and most suitable extension for your domain name will be .media.

Example 2 – Suppose, you run a non-profit organization. In that case, you should choose an extension .org (dot org).

This article will not go in details about the different domain extensions and related matters to it. However, here we will discuss in more details about two most controversial domain extensions – .com and .com.ng.

 There are some terminologies that we may come across while dealing with the issue. To make it easier for you to understand, here some of those terminologies are explained in details –

ccTLD

ccTLD stands for “country code top level domain”. It is the top level of domain name used on internet. These domains are especially reserved for sovereign states, a country, a dependent territory, or others. A few examples of ccTLD are –

  • .ng – This extension is used for Nigeria
  • .in – This extension is used for India
  • .ca – This extension is used for Canada, and many more

TLD

TLD stands for Top Level Domain. In the internet’s hierarchical Domain Name System, TLD is known as the highest level domain. In the name space’s root zone, these domain names are installed. Therefore, TLD is a part of the domain name, located at the end of it. In a domain name that is fully qualified, TLD is the last label. Some of the most common Top Level Domain examples include extensions such as .com, .org, .net, or others.

SLD

SLD stands for Second Level Domain. In the hierarchy of Domain Name System (DNS), SLD domain is located just below the TLD (Top Level Domain).

ICANN

Full form of ICANN is Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is basically a non-profit organization. Its main responsibility is to maintain proper coordination among multiple databases of unique identifiers. ICANN also has to coordinate between databases of unique identifiers. These unique identifiers have relation to the internet namespaces. In fact, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ensure stability as well as security of a network’s operations.

NIRA

NiRA stands for Nigeria Internet Registration Association. It is an organization that has the main objective of managing dot ng (which is the ccTLD or country code Top Level Domain Name of Nigeria).

SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of optimizing a website so that the site gets higher rank on the search engine such as Google’s unpaid search results. There are multiple factors of a search engine that are needed to be optimized for getting higher unpaid placement on a search engine. The unpaid search results are also called organic results.

There are mainly two factors – on-page and off-page. The changes done within the website for matching the factors of search engine to get higher SERP (Search Engine Results Page) placement is known as on-page SEO. When the SEO works are done outside the website such as Link Building, they are called off-page SEO. A SEO optimizer or manager has to improve both these factors to get a favorable higher ranking on SERP of a search engine.   

Now, that we know the basic information about domains, extensions and other related aspects, it’ll now be easier to understand the concepts of .com and .com.ng.

.com

In the internet’s Domain Name System (DNS), .com is considered as a TLD or a top level domain. This TLD is originally meant for the commercial companies. However, this purpose was diluted when the domain registration sites started offering extensions including .org, .com, and .net for registration in an unrestricted manner.

.com is the first domain extension when the implementation of Domain Name System was first done. DNS (or Domain Name System) was first implemented in the year 1985. Registration of .com can be done only with the help of registrars that are accredited by ICAAN.

.com.ng

As you now know the meanings of SLD and CCTLD, it’s important for you know the difference of the .com.ng domain extension with that of .com.

.com.ng is essentially a SLD (Second Level Domain) under the ccTLD Nigeria. The original purpose of this SLD is absolutely same as the .com domain. The commercial organizations can use this SLD for its purpose of reaching out to its customers with the help of a domain name ending with .com.ng SLD.

The below mentioned facts can be summarized from the analysis mentioned above –

  1. Name Availability – .com domain is there for use since 1985, the time when it was made available to the general populace. Therefore, many people have already booked several common names for their use. Therefore, it is always not possible to get the preferred name with the .com extension. However, .com.ng extension is not that old and therefore the probability of getting a preferred domain name with the .com.ng extension is more than that of .com.
     
  2. Web Users are Ignorant about Other Extensions – It has been found out that most online users presume that .com is the only extension available with web addresses. In fact, this is one of the most popular reasons why most people send mails to wrong email ids. However, this phenomenon also confirms the fact that .com is the most popular extension across the world.
     
  3. Nigeria Specific Approach – Credibility of a website increases .com.ng extensions are used in Nigeria. It has been seen that in Nigeria .com.ng has more probability of ranking higher than that of other extensions. As .com.ng is Nigeria specific in nature, it’ll be difficult for it to rank higher than domain.uk in United Kingdom. It must also be pointed out the fact that privacy protection feature is not provided on .ng domains by NIRA.

These are some of the most important comparisons between .com and .com.ng

Dealing with ERP Challenges in GST Implementation

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

India is a country with unity in diversity since one can come across a myriad of languages, cultures, religions, and festivals that blend together to unite the vast nation. However, diversity of taxes has been restricting free trade across states thus causing a lot of hassles and complexities for entrepreneurs and consumers alike. 

Consolidation of taxes

Goods and Service Taxes or GST is a major attempt in unifying a huge assortment of central as well as state taxes into one tax system.

GST is a revolutionary and historical tax reform to subsume central taxes such as excise duty, surcharges service tax, central sales tax customs duty with state taxes including Value Added Tax, purchase tax, entertainment tax, and several surcharges state cess and entry taxes. 

GST not only paves way for uninterrupted trade between states and within the country but also mitigates business operating costs. Organizations and traders can experience predictable and reduced tax burden with absence of cascading taxes. 

Role of IT teams

Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP systems serve as foundation for implementation, streamlining, and control of diverse business processes. IT personnel need to understand their roles in terms of implementation of new GST regime in existing ERP platforms. Although it appears that most of the changes in ERP systems in relation with updating of taxes would be as simple as click of the button, it is easier said than done in most of the cases. 

In addition to dealing with a large number of regulations and compliance requirements one needs to ensure that the current ERP systems are ready for the new challenges of GST regime. One must also appreciate that unless there is a cohesion and coordination among IT, tax, and all other departments, it would not be possible to execute any change in ERP. 

There has been a considerable shifting of dates over past several months in terms of GST implementation and there is a palpable confusion about what objectives need to be achieved by ERP to gain seamless GST-readiness right from the day one of GST enforcement. 

IT teams need to upgrade ERP projects by fixing and designing new processes and functions to be in line with stringent requirements of GST system. The ongoing effort is not only cost intensive but also consumes significant time.

Impact of GST on ERP systems

It is essential for businesses to revisit three vital modules of Enterprise Resource Planning system. These include modules of material procurement, supply chain, and financial management and must be focused for restructuring since GST regime is bound to influence these. 

It is now clear that GST council has approved different slabs for different rates of taxes. It is therefore crucial for implementing a broader tax base. One should also appreciate that in the GST regime virtually every type of product or service is going to be taxed. In addition to this each and every transaction such as manufacture, sale, provision, or distribution is going to be covered within the tax net and all these events will be perceived by GST as supply events. 

There is a going to be a significant burden On IT staff as there is need to create new conditions, tax codes, and information update for every single Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). Every ERP process that has to deal with taxes must be re-designed so that it considers GST. 

There can be a significant change in the way two geographically isolated units of the same organization pay taxes while executing interstate supply between its units. The tax would be jacked up to a whopping 18 percent from the present level of only 2 percent.

Hence ERP processes must be designed to treat changes in taxes wherever and whenever these are applicable. This obviously requires a thorough understanding of supply events that will changed from CST to IGST since the event of sale will be treated as event of supply in GST system. 

The above change will influence the way orders are booked, goods received, movement of material, and other cases that need to be reported for sake of regulatory compliance. 

Speaking of tax compliance, it is expected that ERP produces utilizable data, which can be applied while creating tax invoices. 

Creating data during the compliance stage can result in mismatches and delays in relation with bills that have been already created. ERP system should be programmed in such a way that it generates relevant entries and GSTN in terms of outgoing and incoming material so that precise tax invoices are generated.

It is expected that tax teams are able to analyze events that will remain unaffected in GST regime so that these will be optimized under new tax system and will have no logical relevance. This will pave way for IT and tax teams to execute testing as well as implementation of plan to realize its applicability.

By centralization of tax processes through build and test one can liberate from a perpetual cycle of design-implement-test-re-evaluation-design. There is need to isolate tax sensitive data from ERP so that ERP tasks are no longer impacted by governance or changes in compliance and risks. 

Domain Name of Nigeria .NG: 4 Key Advantages you need to Consider in 2021

Posted on by Manoj Yadav

The online presence of a business has become essential nowadays, especially when the world is moving towards a digitized era. It has not only remained confined to businesses only. In fact, personal initiatives also need an online presence to reach their target online audience. 

Whether you have a personal project or a business for the domestic audience or an international one, you always need a website of your own. It can project your business or personal initiative the best online. When it comes to a website, it needs a name, which is also called an address. That’s where the need for a domain name becomes so important.

What are the Advantages of using Domain Name of Nigeria .NG?

When choosing a website name or address, it is important to choose a domain extension. There are generally two kinds of domain registry:

  • Universal domain registry – Some of the common examples of this type include .com, .co, .org, .edu, and others.
  • Country specific or localized domain registry – Some of the most common examples include .ng (for Nigeria), .in (India), .co.uk (United Kingdom), and many more.

If your target audience lives solely in the Nigeria geographical location, then choosing a domain name extension of .NG should be the most suitable one. “Dot NG” is nothing but the Country Code Top Level Domain of Nigeria, one of the fastest-growing African countries.

A joint survey was conducted back in 2013 by the National Bureau of Statistics as well as SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria). The survey found out that in Nigeria itself there are around 37 million enterprises that come within the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) category. This category of enterprises includes medium, small, and micro-sized ones. These enterprises are also called MSMEs.

It’ll be a cool thing if a sizable number of these micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises go for their online presence and choose a domain name with an extension ending with .NG. It not only provides these websites with a national identity but also helps search engines understand which geographical location these websites are created to serve.

If a Nigerian business entity or an individual has to embrace the use of a .NG domain name, the person or business manager must know the associated business benefits that the .NG extension brings with itself. Some of the most important benefits associated with .NG Domain are highlighted in this piece of article –

Benefit #1 –

If you choose a business domain name with .NG, it means they will have the highest potential for being ranked on the search engines in Nigeria. This is because localization is one of the major parameters of all leading search engines including Google. The Google engineers believe that the Nigeria domain names serve the purpose of the users most suitably. This is because of the localized nature of the domain name (Dot NG).

When you choose a .NG website domain name, you will automatically get mileage during the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) process. This factor is generally not kept in mind by the website owners at the time of choosing a domain name. That’s why they suffer at the time of ranking their site higher on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Therefore, it is important to choose a .NG domain name from the time you choose a name for the domain. Once you get higher placement in the organic search of a search engine, you will automatically get more traffic.

If you are targeting the Google search engine, then you should keep in mind that the search engine behemoth itself has .com.ng as well as .ng domains. If you are a forward-thinking company as Google, you must also keep these domain name tips in mind and choose both .com.ng and .NG domain names.

Benefit #2 –

When your business has a .NG domain name extension, it gives your business an added trust factor to the target audience in Nigeria. As the owner or manager of a website targeted at Nigerian audience, you must know that NiRA or Nigeria Internet Registration Association manages the .NG domain name. If there are any problems with the concerned website, the clients can lodge complaints with the trusted organization of Nigeria.

Benefit #3 –

One of the main advantages of having a .NG domain is that they are affordable in nature. The Nigerians can make payment for buying .NG domains in local currency, which is Naira. This point is important to highlight because foreign domains require payments in foreign currency for domain registration. 

That’s why the local Nigerian domains are highly cost-effective than the foreign domains. The MSME companies are always starved of enough funds for running the business. That’s why going for .NG domains will also save them valuable money, which they can use for core business operations.

Benefit #4 –

The speed of a website plays an important role in ranking it in search engines. If you have a foreign domain name extension, it usually comes with a delay in web page opening. This delayed response time can be done away with if you choose a localized Dot NG domain string. It improves website speed, which is an important parameter for ranking a website in leading search engines (such as Google).

Conclusion

In the .NG registry of Nigeria, it has been estimated that there are around 100,000 domains. When compared with that of South Africa, it is much less. South Africa’s .Co.Za registry has over one million country-specific domain names. This is especially important to note that the total population of South Africa is significantly less than that of Nigeria. While Nigeria has an estimated population of around 190 million, South Africa has a population of just around 55 million.

The rate of adoption of .NG registry has accelerated. The acceleration has been geared up after the government’s decision of going for .NG domain registry. The Nigeria Internet Registration Association has done a great job on this end. After the government department’s decision of choosing .NG domains, many businesses are also following suit to gain the Nigerian advantage.

Need to buy a .ng domain name? Get in touch with our hosting experts at [email protected].

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