The Internet is ever expanding and could be called a continuum which is engulfing more information and thus providing more of it at an ever increasing pace. It is the amount and nature of information that is available on the internet which is a threat to each one who is on it, using it. There have been any number of cyber crimes some of which have had massive scale and this must be reason enough for you to judiciously measure level of security that you are using to safeguard your computer, its data and all that valuable information that you exchange on a daily basis via the internet. Your digital companion might fail if you do not act right now. But why the hurry?

It has been highlighted time and again and in more than one way that browsers; we are using, applications that we are running are all man-made and hence have critical bugs in them. These can be hacked into and all that was “safe” suddenly becomes vulnerable to cyber attack. There is no software which cannot be compromised by someone who really intends to do so. People with malicious intentions have built up something called exploit kits. These kits are nothing but programs that you might accidentally land on and it takes away your security. It might appear to you as a simple web page and as a simple web page and minute you click on it, your PC becomes compromised and your system is now readily available to hackers to commit any kind of cyber crime using your resources.

What is most vulnerable?

In the past few months it has been researched that there are few kinds of documents or data types which are under more threat than others. Let us see what are these:

• Power Point docs: Around October 2014 it was highlighted that a malicious Power Point document, which comes as an attachment with a spam email can put your system at risk. Remote hacker gets control of your system and can even escalate to become admin of system.
• Malicious codes: Sometimes an unknown code might run on your system that might cause buffer overflow which might develop into a security threat.
• A malicious word doc: Sometimes if you open a malicious word document that came to you as an attachment in a spam mail, it just might be what the bad guy wants you to do as it gives him an access to memory of your device and he might exploit it, just a way he wants.

How to avoid the vulnerabilities?

This sounds horrifying. To realize that there are any number of notorious hackers out there just waiting for you to click one wrong button can be a really disturbing thought. But good news is that you can avoid getting stuck in such a situation and getting your system compromised. Let us see how:

• When you are installing an add on or a new app think twice. Be very specific about why you need it and do you really need it? Because each new app that you install is a potential hole in system security. So use only those add on and app that you simply cannot do without. Also while installing be very careful as to which checkbox you check and which one you leave out.
• Be very careful while sharing information via the internet. You never know, whom it might end up with.
• Invest in a good security solution and you will sleep well.
• Never go lazy when it comes to updating software. It is for your own good. Out dated versions are always more susceptible to attacks than the updated ones.
• Your passwords need to be changed every now and then and please make them as strong as possible. Also security experts advice to have different passwords for different applications and programs.

Keeping in mind these factors is sure to make your system and data far from being exploited. Stay safe!

What is a Cloud?

We all know data can be stored on our desktops and local server hard drives. But the other option that one has is to store and access data on the internet. This is what a Cloud stands for. It simply means using the shared data centers and their resources to manage your apps and data. Many call it a metaphor for the Internet.

Anyone who hears about the Cloud is bound to be awed by its features at first. Its advantages are sure to motivate you to step onto it at the earliest. But if you have a small business and you are planning to move on to the Cloud, wait! Taking up the Cloud blind-folded might cause you problems later on. It will be intelligent to first look between the fine lines and assess that whether it is actually useful for your small business or not?

Is the Cloud really useful for the Small Businesses?

Cloud is good but it is definitely not for everyone. A small business has different needs and they might actually be better off using their customized software or technologies which are specifically designed according to their need, rather than just following the herd and using the Cloud.

Here we try to unravel what really is not good about Cloud when it comes to small businesses.

1. Uptime: When it comes to keeping your website up and going all the time, using Cloud might not be such a good idea. The biggest of the cloud companies have had huge outages. An outage at their end definitely means that your website will be down and will not be available for the visitors. This is something that a small business definitely does not want.
2. Data Security: When you are storing your data in the Cloud, its safety now completely depends upon the company that manages and runs that Cloud. It is a fact that now the most confidential data of yours on the Internet and a slight glitch or a hack can land that data into the wrong hands. Keeping the data on the cloud might make you very uncomfortable regarding data security.
3. Support: If you are looking for e-mail or telephone support or for really detailed user manuals that will give solution to your problems then Cloud is definitely for you. The customer service is not prompt with the Cloud. Stay away from it if you do not want to figure out the solutions to your problems through a community or user forums. Cloud platforms give very poor support.
4. Costing: When any one talk about Cloud, a paramount feature that he is susceptible to establish is that the Cloud is cheaper. Hold on. This might just be wrong when spoken in context with a small business. Sometimes certain features are required for a specific business. A Cloud might not be offering it at all! Or you might have to pay extra money to get it. The cloud always has a virtualization layer that uses a lot of resources and is responsible for giving the Cloud its features of flexibility and elasticity. This definitely costs money which is taken out of your pocket. Comparing the pricing of a Cloud plan with other options would be a good idea if you don’t want to waste money.
5. Needless elasticity: If you are a small business, you are definitely looking for long term stability and some technology that you can rely upon. Cloud offers elasticity which means it can easily adapt to heavy changes in the work load. But hey! There aren’t many in your case is probably nonexistent. Do you really need the Cloud?

The Cloud and related technologies are good and can really be a boon for those who are having problems that a Cloud can fix. But has nothing extra ordinary to offer to the small businesses. So it will be a good idea to stick to your comfort zone instead of jumping on to the Cloud.

Nowadays world has become full of entrepreneur. One additional business has been generated that is reseller web hosting business.

Reseller web hosting

User can purchase web hosting package from hosting provider by reseller web hosting. For example, if user purchase 90GB web space gets all equipment. After this, customers will be attracted and space, bandwidth will be provided. In return, customer will pay for effort. Hosting provider can work completely online. Reseller web hosting is best way for anyone becoming master of his own business. User gets profit either in discount form or in commission by selling an account. As customer increases, profit margin also increases. This web hosting has so much flexibility through which account owners use their own hosting resources under price tag in order to host third party websites.

One can start his web hosting firm under Linux/Windows Reseller hosting account and mange resources regarding hosting services with WHM or Parallels Plesk Panel. There is no requirement of any technical knowledge to manage clients hosting resources. Web host provider is responsible for maintaining hardware and network infrastructure and reseller owner configuration and updates according to client database.

Some Advantages and Disadvantages of Reseller Hosting are:

Advantages:

1. Anyone can start anywhere and use his own computer at home. He can earn good income by getting best hosting package.
2. Web hosting company can deal with customer issues regarding server related problems, he will get support system all time. One thing should be kept in mind while selecting web hosting service provider, which provides best customer service.
3. Business expansion is extremely easy in case of reseller hosting. If any customer needs extra web space or more customers are acquired then better web hosting package is provided by web hosting service provider.
4. Reseller hosting is simpler in comparison to any other online businesses.
5. User gets more flexibility with this hosting.
6. Anyone can save money and earn more revenue at low amount to himself.
7. Reseller web hosting best technical support and web host absorbs costs regarding server maintenance.

Disadvantages:

1. Web seller also needs constant attention of customer like any other business. There would be many people to help out, still web seller need to deal with customers for restoring problem with server.
2. It is responsibility of web seller to find customer, depends upon marketing techniques and other resellers’ availability.
3. Reseller service is good only for upstream provider. If server will down frequently, then web seller can lose clients.
4. If anyone want to change web hosts, then move will be inconvenient for clients. It is better having own Dedicated or VPS server to start with hosting business. So, always get web host providing managed services.

Websites can be created and updated by people in one of many ways:

Using Web Editor or Text Editor:

Articles are written on computer using a type of program called an editor. Those articles can be saved as web pages that mean articles formatted in special way can be displayed using a web browser. Article can be transferred to special computer on Internet run by company called “web host”. This “editor” program can either be visual web editor like Dreamweaver or KompoZer or just a plain text editor like Notepad that comes with Windows.

User can run editor using this method on his own computer and complete web page can be created on that computer. On internet, the page is transferred to website when user is done.

Using an Online Site Builder:

A service is provided by some web hosts which will be advertised as a “site builder”. To design website, user has to use his web browser to log into web host’s site and directly design on their site. User can’t run any program on his own computer in using an online site builder in comparison to standalone web editor. Different site builder is provided to each web host and all work different with different pre-made designs available for their use, which can be customized by user to a great extent.

Using Standalone Site Builder:

Some people want to design website on their own computer before transferring it to internet, an “offline” version of site builder have some web hosts. Software have been downloaded by user from their website and install on own computer. By using that program, website can be designed and transfer it to the web host.
Site builder not necessary belong to same class as general purpose web editor. When move to another web host, user can’t use site builder but also cannot transfer web design to a new host. Designs are created by builder that use elements owned by web host.

Using a Content Management System (CMS):

A CMS is a part of software which is used to install on web host’s computer. Rather than installing program on own computer, the way user do a web editor, install directly on website User can use his browser to log into his website and use it to add articles, photos or whatever to website. For example, when CMS is used by user, he need not to install any program on his own computer to update and create website. Website can be connected with browser and modified. There are significant differences between web host site builder. Firstly, with the help of CMS, user control software, visual design of site and an end product. Any user is not tied to web host at all. If hosts will be changed by user, he can bring his entire site, stock and barrel, lock, over new web host, user can use standalone web editor in same way. Secondly, CMS is much more in comparison to site builder. User can use CMS to create an online community, own accounts, their own member pages.

On the other hand, some disadvantages of CMS are also there over web host site builder. For example, CMS has less probability of huge range of web design templates than online builder has. User can find some free templates on Internet, even possibly on CMS author’s own website, that user can adapt.

It is beginning of the cloud world. Majority of organizations nowadays are adopting cloud. As cloud infrastructure saves cost, is flexible and enhance productivity. Entrepreneurs are using both private and public cloud solutions. Hybrid cloud environment intend to loss of control and visibility into network which can bring security challenges.

Network Perimeter to Vanish

As most applications and services are migrating to cloud or moved outside their enterprise perimeter, so edge of conventional is going to vanish soon. Organizations are needed to protect their service and applications in cloud or on-premise.

Only drop in bucket is not necessary but also big security require in cloud system. Attackers enable to intrude not only on-premise application but also cloud infrastructure. Organization rely on-premise attack mitigation, will leave their cloud applications vulnerable to attacks.

Businesses depend on Multiple Cloud Vendors

Most companies choose multiple cloud vendors to host different aspects of infrastructure.

Multiple vendors decrease the risk of downtime in case of failure and also decrease the risk when a single cloud vendor was unsuccessful. Multiple cloud strategy can be used to provide geographically diverse service across multiple cloud centers. Multi-vendor cloud hosting scheme reduces ability to protect application. It depends on security solution which is provided by each cloud vendor. This strategy is making difficult to protect and manage multiple instances.

Web Based Attacks

Today’s web industry is evolving threats and attackers. Organizations need to provide more security to their applications against threats.

Most common attacks are a web-based attack which is known through the Open Web Application Security Project. This category includes threats like, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injections and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). These attacks are not protected by intrusion detection system and firewalls. Brute force attacks are also considered which intrudes the security of applications.

Availability based attack like DdoS attacks at both network and application layers. It uses the automated program.
Multi-vector attacks – Sophisticated attacks that apply multiple vector on application and service. Organizations need to make a layered network which would mitigate the vector attacks.

Organizations’ New Requirements

As a conclusion businesses are facing new challenges which intent’s necessity of security solutions. Organization need to protect their application in dynamic or hybrid and on-premise environment. A hybrid solution is best option to provide comprehensive protection for both on-premise and in cloud applications. Hybrid solution can work across cloud vendors.

Wide protection covers application and network layer attacks including DDOs attacks, SQL Injections, XXS, Cookie Poisoning, XML and web services attack. This protection leverages the overall protection of infrastructure. It eliminates vulnerable applications from the networks. Wide protection works for on-premise and in cloud applications. Organization can rely on wide protection solutions.

Ease of use should be established in IT and security team to take a burden from them. Saying is easy but installing and configuration requires lot of manual work. So it is very necessary to pick those solutions which are easy to handle and easy to maintain.

As enterprise boundary is vanishing, multi-vector attacks and sophisticated attacks takes place on web application. Dependency has increased on third party security solutions. Organizations test carefully these solutions to address new challenges and protect over all infrastructure.

Cloud Hosting is a type of hosting in which several no. of servers are used together which are further break up into multiple servers for hosting your websites. It is reliable and an affordable hosting as it allows you to pay for only those resources on a server which you need and used. Thus, it is also known as on demand hosting.

There are various cloud hosting providers, but if you wish to know the best ones, then there are few factors, which you need to consider, and analyze for every web host. As these factors are important from hosting view and may affect your desired results severely.

These factors are Uptime performance offered by web host, total no. of websites hosted by provider, price they are charging for the plans they offered, rating assigned and social media sentiments.

So, after analyzing these factors, it is concluded that following are the best cloud hosting providers.

1. Arvixe – Arvixe is considered as one of the top cloud hosting company because it offers 85.51% uptime performance which is quite good and it shows that their server is very rarely gets down and hosted websites are mostly up and run.

If we take the estimation of the social media sentiments, Arvixe offers 89 percent positive social sentiments which is very high than other companies positive social media sentiments .

If we look Arvixe, as the number of sites it hosted, then you will find the answer very interesting. Arvixe hosted 1,22,765 sites. That’s good more than a lakh. It shows that it has a good experience in handling servers and hosting sites.

From aspect of rating, Arvixe obtains 4.5 stars out of 5 stars , again a very good figure.

2. Zipcloud – Zipcloud is also a very reputed organization and counted as a good one in offering hosting services to their clients. It offers 100 percent uptime performance, means your hosted sites are always up and running throughout the day.

Positive social media sentiments for Zipcloud is only 25 percent.

You will be surprised to know that Zero sites are hosted by Zipcloud but still it is considered as a best hosting provider as it is reliable and soon it will host several number of sites.

From aspect of rating, Zipcloud score 2.5 stars out of 5 stars.

3. Site5 – Site5 offers 98.73 percent uptime, showing their servers rarely gets down, most of the time they are up and your website runs smoothly for the whole day.

In terms of social media sentiments, Site5 has 65 percent positive sentiments.

107501 sites are hosted by Site5, again a good figure and shown that people really rely on this company.

From rating point of view, 3.5 stars assigned to Site5.

4. Justcloud – Justcloud again counted in the list of the web host that offers 100 percent uptime performance. This is a very famous hosting provider.

From the analysis, it is known that 80 percent social media sentiments are positive for Justcloud.

Just like Zipcloud, this company hosted none of the sites but still considered as a good provider.

3.5 stars are assigned to this provider out of 5 stars.

5. Siteground – 99.84 percent uptime is offered by Siteground and this figure is also not a bad one.

This company has 60 percent positive social media sentiments.

Maximum number of sites are hosted by Siteground,is 1,39,266 sites. Really having a great experience.

Siteground rated as 3.5 star out of 5 stars.

As several cloud hosting providers are available but if you asked me, then I advised you to try any of the above, as surely they will give you good and satisfactory results.