Dealing with hosting/cloud vendors who want to push their SOC audit reports on you
How do you know that your hosted Web application or similar cloud environment is secure and resilient to attacks? Well, if you're like the seemingly majority of organizations, you look to the SOC 2 report of the hosting/cloud provider. SOC 2 reports replaced the former SAS70 reports and cover controls involving security, privacy, and availability. Each year, I review a dozen or so such reports as part of my consulting and security assessment services and they're quite in-depth providing worthy guidance on data center operations. But guess what? They tell you little to nothing about the technical vulnerabilities in your Web applications and servers. And guess what else? That's where the majority of your vulnerabilities are – at least according to the research that comes out every year.
So, when you or someone you've hired wants to test specific systems that are not under your direct control, what do you do? Ask your host/cloud vendors politely and hope they'll let you. Most vendors are okay with it but there are some out there who are absolutely against it. These companies will go to great lengths to keep people from scanning and testing systems hosted on their systems often in the name of minimizing the impact to their other hosted customers. It's "for the greater good", therefore, you just need to trust that all is well in their environment, on your systems, and in and around every other party that's involved. Ha! If hosted security were only that simple.
People are territorial. The last thing a CTO or network architect at one of these vendors wants is for an outside party to point out the flaws in his environment. It's like calling his baby ugly and people just don't take too kindly to that. Even if you approach this from the perspective of we just need to find the flaws before the bad guys exploit them in order to minimize our risks, people are still guarded. This is especially true if it's a third-party relationship, i.e. an outsider such as myself testing the security of a client's Web application that's hosted by a third-party.
If you're wondering (or required to determine) where things stand with your hosted/cloud environment, security-wise, and you're not able to test yourself, ask the following questions:
• When was the last time you performed a full security assessment of the systems that involve our environment?
• Did you run Web-specific tests using Web vulnerability scanners?
• Can I see a copy of that report? (Vulnerability scanner reports won't cut it.)
• How can we test for Web vulnerabilities with user authentication? Some of the nastiest Web security flaws exist behind the login prompt. Is your vendor going to be provided login credentials to thorough scans and manual analysis? If not, who will?
• When's the next round of testing going to be?
If I were responsible for the security a Web application or similar online environment, I'd most certainly want to know how things look operationally. Again, that's what SOC reports are great for. Still, I know that the big vulnerabilities that are exploited and get businesses into the headlines don't typically involve physical security, user account management, data backups and the like. Instead, it's things like SQL injection, weak passwords, missing patches and other common technical weaknesses. People who assume that a clean (or abysmal) SOC 2 report is reflective of the true technical security posture of their full online presence are deluding themselves. I've heard these same concerns from data center auditors. There's a lot of confusion in the marketplace creating unnecessary - and prolonged - vulnerabilities that negate any perceived security audit benefits otherwise.
Don't fall into this trap. Do your vulnerability scans. Follow up with your manual analysis (penetration testing) to see what can be done and from what angles. And do this over and over again along with the SOC 2 (or similar) audits. That's the only way you're going to know where everything stands. Any other approach, even when your environment is hosted by someone else who proclaims to have things under control, is dangerous at best. Ask the tough questions of your hosting/cloud vendor(s). If they're not willing to let you test your own systems in their environment, make them do the dirty work (ideally by hiring a third party) and show that all's well. Otherwise, find another provider before your existing one's practices make you look bad.
About the Author
Kevin Beaver is an information security consultant, expert witness, writer, and professional speaker with Atlanta-based Principle Logic, LLC. Having over 26 years of experience in the industry and 20 years focusing on security, Kevin specializes in performing independent security assessments of Web applications and network systems. He has written 12 books on information security including Hacking For Dummies and The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance. In addition, he's the creator of the Security On Wheelsinformation security audio books and blog providing security learning for IT professionals on the go. Kevin can be reached at www.principlelogic.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @kevinbeaver.
Source: Dealing with hosting/cloud vendors who want to push their SOC audit reports on you
Ewebguru.com Introduces Affordable Hosting Services In India
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Aug 30 2016 - How Can You Beat the Shark: The US Legal Battle of Pharma and Biotech, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) How Can You Beat the Shark: The US Legal Battle of Pharma and Biotech Jim Nelson Biosimilars Europe 2016 Regulatory guidance given at the SMi's 7 annual Biosimilars Europe ... Aug 30 2016 - Infectious Diseases Author and Novel Vaccine Pioneer, Dr Mahesh Kumar to Open Day 2 of Superbugs USA Congress, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Infectious Diseases – Author and Novel Vaccine Pioneer, Dr Mahesh Kumar to Open Day 2 of Superbugs USA Congress Superbugs USA 2016 Zoetis to give exclusive update at Superbugs USA ... Aug 30 2016 - TouchstoneEnergy continues expansion into North America with new Downstream Trading customer acquisition, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) TouchstoneEnergy continues expansion into North America with new Downstream Trading customer acquisition TouchstoneEnergy was approached by an energy trading company based in Texas ... Aug 30 2016 - Discrimination and Unequal Treatment of the Disabled Leads to Many Untimely Deaths, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Discrimination and Unequal Treatment of the Disabled Leads to Many Untimely Deaths Jonathan Carey "Champion for the Disabled" Born September 12,1993 Killed by caregivers on February ... Aug 30 2016 - RightAnswers Selected in KMWorld Trend-Setting Products 2016, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) RightAnswers Selected in KMWorld Trend-Setting Products 2016 RightAnswers named to KMWorld Trend-Setting Products 2016 Innovations in RightAnswers Knowledge Management Software ... Aug 30 2016 - Focus on HVAC for upcoming projects in Egypt, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Focus on HVAC for upcoming projects in Egypt The 2nd Annual HVAC Egypt Conference is taking place from 7 - 8 November 2016 in Cairo, Egypt. Officially endorsed by the ASHRAE Cairo ... Aug 30 2016 - Intratec Reveals Production Costs of Green Chemicals and Biofuels, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Intratec Reveals Production Costs of Green Chemicals and Biofuels New reports evaluate the economic feasibility of chemicals manufacturing through alternative, bio-based routes ... Aug 30 2016 - Proactive profit protection becoming critical for Middle East retailers, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Proactive profit protection becoming critical for Middle East retailers Retailers across the Middle East are focused on transitioning their loss prevention functions from a support ... Aug 30 2016 - Herakles Farms: US Government Bullied Cameroon into Land Grab Lease, MENAFN Press (MENAFN Press) Herakles Farms: US Government Bullied Cameroon into Land Grab Lease By exposing the dubious tactics of the US government, we hope that Cameroonian officials will side with the ... Aug 30 2016 - Bangladesh upholds Islamist tycoon's death sentence, Gulf Times (MENAFN - Gulf Times) Bangladesh's top court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for a top tycoon and senior leader of the country's largest Islamist party, paving the way for his execution possibly ... 
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Source: Ewebguru.com Introduces Affordable Hosting Services In India
Wells Fargo downgrade Rackspace Hosting Inc.(NYSE:RAX) from Outperform to Market Perform in a report released today.
Wells Fargo has downgrade Rackspace Hosting Inc.(NYSE:RAX) from Outperform to Market Perform in a report released on 8/29/2016. They are also stating a potential downside of -1.00%.
Just yesterday Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX) traded 4.34% higher at $31.50. The company's 50-day average is $25.81 and its two hundred day average is $23.12. The last stock close is up 36.22% from the 200-day average, compared with the S&P 500 Index which has held steady over the date range. Trading volume was was up over the average, with 38,577,824 shares of RAX changing hands over the typical 2,642,020 shares..
See Graph Below:
With a market capitalization of $4.0B, Rackspace Hosting Inc. has a 52 week low of $15.05 and a one-year high of $32.14 with a price-earnings ratio of 28.
A total of 17 brokerages have issued a ratings update on the stock. Six analysts rate the company a strong buy, three analysts rate the stock a buy, 12 analyts rate the company a hold, zero rate the company to underperform, and lastly one brokeragerate the stock as sell with a consensus target price of $26.53
About Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX)Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (Rackspace) operates in the managed cloud segment of the business information technology (IT) market. The Company offers a portfolio of integrated IT solutions for common business needs. The Company offers services for certain applications, including e-commerce and Web content management sites, business-productivity applications, such as e-mail and collaboration, and data stores. The Company offers private, public and hybrid clouds in its approximately 10 data centers located on over four continents, in Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services data centers, as well as in customer-owned data centers. Its services include dedicated customer care and technical support, such as operating system patching, application monitoring, network and firewall configurations, and identity management. The Company has operations located in multiple cities across the United States, as well as in London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Hong Kong, and Sydney and Mexico City.
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Source: Wells Fargo downgrade Rackspace Hosting Inc.(NYSE:RAX) from Outperform to Market Perform in a report released today.
Crayola DigiTools 3D iPad Set for $4 + pickup at Walmart – CNET
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hosting services in bangalore
Bangalore - August 27, 2016, 5:46 pm
hostcats.com is leading web hosting provider in Bangalore serving more than 35,000 domains. We don't just offer cheap web hosting in Bangalore but also deliver Bangalore Reseller Hosting in enterprise-grade servers, VPS Hosting. We are also one of the top web hosting solutions provider to businesses in Bangalore and all over India. Our web hosting support team work 24x7 to solve your issues related to web hosting with a response time of 30 mins and maximum resolution time of 4 Hrs which other web hosting companies Bangalore don't offer. We guarantee you 99.9% uptime. contact no: 9900900045
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Best Website Creators To Cut Your Design Time in Half
Whether you're a small-time blogger or the mastermind behind a multi-billion dollar agency, building a quality website is crucial to your success. With 16% of the world's population owning a website, we are facing a rapidly growing industry. According to Hosting Facts, there are roughly 966 million websites in the world today, with that number increasing by the hour.
This number is understandable, considering the perks to owning a website; it's both trendy and professional. Even an online shop or recipe blog provides a social media presence as well as an extra push for success. We've all heard the story about an online shop turned million dollar business.
While owning a website can be an ingredient for success, actually creating one can be daunting. Building a website takes time, and it can be exhausting. If you're not familiar with coding or web-building platforms, (i.e. WordPress) creating that perfect site can be a robust mission. Even with step-by-step guides, YouTube tutorials, and forum explanations, working toward the site you want takes work.
Luckily, if you are willing to put in a little work, you can quickly make a site with website creators, also know as website builders. Website creators are platforms which allow you to build a website quickly (often through drag-and-drop options.) These platforms are ideal for a number of site owners, in that they require no programming skills and no hosting. Many incur monthly costs, which are dollars well spent when considering the accumulative costs of hosting, domain, themes, and plugins. So, which website builders are up to snuff? In this post, I'll be sharing a list of the 25 best website creators as well as a little about each. Already have a favorite website creator? Tell us in the comment section below.
SquarespaceWhether you're looking to dive into eCommerce or organize a personal portfolio, Squarespace is a great, inexpensive choice. This website creator provides a free domain integrated with Getty images, as well as the opportunity to create a logo, utilize metric tools, and track analytics.
Weebly is both a free creator and one of the longest-running platforms available. Not only is the setup simple, but the variety of easy-to-use features makes Weebly a perfect go-to option. No coding required.
Most likely one of the most popular website creators, Wix is offers its users a wonderfully manageable interface. Free hosting, 24/7 support, and friendly mobile design make Wix a perfect option for easy web design. (Not to mention Wix also offers a drag-and-drop feature for quick changes.)
Jimdo is an eCommerce oriented website creator. If you're planning to build your online shop but don't have the coding skills or knowledge on how to do that, Jimdo could be the best choice. It's simple to use and provides all eCommerce tools to manage your online shop.
Webs is another free-to-use website creator. If you are planning to manage your website on your own and don't want to hire a designer or a programmer, you can do it all by yourself using Webs. Also, Webs come with a rich set of features that can't be found anywhere else.
IM Creator gives you free hosting that can be combined with your domain. Also, It's a perfect choice if you prefer not to dedicate a lot of time to learning and designing a website. It has over 70 well-designed templates and a pure drag-and-drop editor.
Website Builder is another free creator for your website. It's a perfect platform for your online shop or a blog. It has more than 10,000 different and custom templates and it's easy to build and customize. Website Builder offers quick and simple eCommerce integration and has free SEO tools.
Volusion is a free website creator, but the trial lasts only 14 days, perhaps that is enough time to see test the platform's usability. Volusion specializes in eCommerce software and design services. Since eCommerce is a huge focus for Volusion, users are able to have multi-channel selling on sites like eBay, Facebook and Amazon. Everything is designed with SEO in mind. It allows you to update products, shipping, and tracking in just a few simple clicks.
Webflow is pretty different from the other website creators. It's an in-browser design studio for professionals who want to build sites for their clients without having to code. It's a perfect choice for designers and agencies who outsource the coding part of their projects to developers.
Voog is a simple platform with a built-in drag-and-drop interface. It's pretty simple to use and has an integrated blog platform. The biggest advantage of Voog is that it supports multiple languages. It allows you to run a multilingual business and target more people around the world.
iPage is a budget-friendly website creator with many features and great customer support. It's one of the oldest players on the market and it's a perfect choice for both beginners and professionals. iPage uses Weebly builder which brings in their excellent tools and features to the platform. The best part is that iPage costs around $2/month.
The primary goal of Sitelio is to provide customers with the simplest way to create a website. It doesn't matter if it's personal or a business website – it should be easy to make it either way. Sitelio is a great place to start your blogging adventure.
Sitey provides plenty of useful features including: hosting, 24/7 support, an image library, Google-friendly mobile options, and analytics. Sitey also features social media integration, blog options and much more.
SiteBuilder provides a perfect mix of outstanding design and high usability. It's one of the simplest and most intuitive website creators on the market. SiteBuilder can work for just about everyone – a designer, newbie, business or a simple blog site. SiteBuilder boasts a perfect set of tools to create your first website.
As you may know, GoDaddy is one of the biggest domain registrars and web hosting companies in the world. Not only do they offer just domain and hosting services, they provide comprehensive site builder tools and world-class customer support services. It's very similar to Wix as they also offer a bunch of great features and photo-editing capabilities.
Moonfruit is the perfect place for beginners or mid-level users to create their website. It has fully customizable templates, powerful and a very flexible website editor. You can start to monetize your website by integrating your site through Google Adsense, and don't forget to take advantage of their beautiful multimedia integration.
Webydo is a well-known website creator in the market. It's a code-free web builder which allows you to create a website without any coding skills. Also, it's a perfect platform for designers to set up and sell websites. Webydo provides fully customizable templates, and it's already 100% optimized for mobile.
SnapPages' primary goal is to help its customers make their websites quickly and easily. They offer video tutorials for each step of the creation process. SnapPages has many different features such as customizable theme designs, a drag-and-drop builder and a simple blog setup.
Mobirise is 100% free, with no hidden fees. With it's extremely easy-to-use platform, Mobirise might be the best option for an inexperienced website owner. Their drag-and-drop layouts allow you to seamlessly plugin in your information and images. Mobirise is based on the stable and responsive Bootstrap 3 framework and does not require coding skills to use Mobirise to its full extent.
One of the best single-page website creators on the market,Strikingly allows you easily create your single page website very quickly. Strinkingly offers customers many features like blogging, eCommerce capabilities and automatically optimizes for a mobile-version.
Yola has all the features you need to create your website. It uses simple and delicate design to reduce any possible distractions. Yola provides top-level customer support; your website will be optimized for mobile, and you can choose from 200 different templates.
Zoho is another free website creator with various website building tools. Zoho gives users access to unlimited bandwidth, pages, galleries and slide shows. Zoho also offers a vast library of well-designed templates.
eHost is an excellent host and customer support provider. They have extremely high standards and their website creator service is fantastic as well. eHost offers hundreds of great looking templates, 24/7 technical support, and a free domain name. It's a great place to start.
uCoz provides you all the features and functions like most other popular CMS platforms. It's a perfect fit for newbies and professionals. It provides two different editors: DIY and thoroughly professional. uCoz allows you to create your own templates or buy pre-made ones.
DudaOne is a website creator that helps you convert desktop websites to fully-responsive mobile websites. If you want to build your site from scratch, they feature a built-in website creator, that gives you access to HTML/CSS and has code-free WYSIWYG editing.
For more useful web design and development tools check out these posts:
Source: Best Website Creators To Cut Your Design Time in Half
ServerMania Says All Infrastructure Hosting Should Include DDoS Protection
ServerMania has commented on the huge rise in Distributed Denial of Service attacks over the last quarter, as revealed in NexusGuard's Q2 2016 DDoS Threat Report. ServerMania believes the sharp increase in attacks demonstrates the need for DDoS protection as standard for all web and infrastructure hosting.
(PRWEB) August 25, 2016
ServerMania, a leading provider of managed cloud and dedicated server hosting, has commented on the huge rise in Distributed Denial of Service attacks over the last quarter, as revealed in NexusGuard's Q2 2016 DDoS Threat Report. ServerMania believes the sharp increase in attacks demonstrates the need for DDoS protection as standard for all web and infrastructure hosting.
Distributed Denial of Service attacks bombard network interfaces with huge amounts of data. A substantial DDoS attack can degrade service and will often force websites and services offline altogether. In the second quarter of 2016, global incidences of DDoS attacks increased by 83%. The increase in the number of DDoS attacks is accompanied by an increase in their volume — attacks peaking at multiple hundreds of Gigabytes per second are now common.
"DDoS attacks are a risk for businesses of all sizes. Huge attacks are commonplace, and effective attacks are so easy to launch that they pose a risk to every business with an online presence," explained ServerMania CEO, Kevin Blanchard, "That's why we believe DDoS protection should be included with infrastructure hosting plans as standard. All ServerMania hosting plans include DDoS protection capable of mitigating all known types of DDoS attack."
Large DDoS attacks are trivial to launch because of flaws in services essential to the functioning of the internet. These flaws — especially in some DNS and NTP servers — allow attackers to amplify the volume of the data they can send. An attacker doesn't need to be able to send multiple Gigabytes per second. Instead, they can send small amounts of data to DNS or NTP servers, which will then send many times more data to the target.
The internet evolves slowly, so it's likely the well-known flaws that allow so-called DDoS Amplification attacks will be present for the foreseeable future. Any business without comprehensive DDoS mitigation between its site and the internet is at risk.
About ServerMania:
Since it was founded in 2002, ServerMania has always strived to provide its clients with enterprise-level service at an unbeatable cost. ServerMania offers a wide range of fully customizable dedicated, hybrid, cloud, VPS and colocation hosting services. All ServerMania clients enjoy a 100% uptime SLA and are assisted by a 24/7 rapid response team - one with some of the best response times in the industry. ServerMania also carries out regular surveys to ensure complete customer satisfaction and care. For more information, visit http://www.servermania.com.
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Source: ServerMania Says All Infrastructure Hosting Should Include DDoS Protection
Web host opts for Nutanix hyper-converged after supplier nightmares
Yorkshire-based web hosting company Millennia has switched to Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure and ditched its traditional server and SAN environment. A key benefit was to end supplier finger-pointing whenever anything went wrong as hyper-converged infrastructure bundles servers and storage within one product.
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Millennia is based in Harrogate and specialises in box office services for businesses ranging from small theatres to football stadia. It delivers these remotely from its VMware environment.
Millennia had a Dell server and mixed storage environment in place with some Equallogic iSCSI arrays. It suffered nearly 18 months of problems arising from a conflict between AMD CPU-equipped Dell hardware and BIOS updates.
Every time issues arose, said IT director John Thorpe, Dell and VMware would blame each other.
"The problem with AMD and Dell resulted in purple screens and it took 18 months and seven BIOS releases before it was fixed. Whenever anything went wrong Dell and VMware would point the finger at someone else and, meanwhile, everything would fail.
He added: "Between that and things going bang at 3am it was a very stressful environment."
Millennia initially deployed hyper-converged infrastructure from a supplier other than Nutanix for disaster recovery purposes but that soon ran into problems. Thorpe describes the supplier as "low-cost", but was unable to name the company as a result of a mutual agreement after court proceedings.
He said: "The low-cost option simply wasn't robust enough to cope with sensitive workloads such as SQL Server, as there was a risk of data corruption, with maintenance often requiring downtime."
He added: "Some might say that's acceptable for a disaster recovery system, but at some point your DR environment could be your production environment."
That's now been replaced with Nutanix, of which Millennia runs 10 nodes comprising seven NX1000 and three NX3175 hyper-converged boxes with flash storage used as cache. In total the company has around 20TB under Nutanix with around 115 VMware virtual machines.
Nutanix was a pioneer of so-called hyper-converged infrastructure, which combines compute, storage and networking in one box. This is a trend in part inspired by the modular hyperscale architectures pioneered by web giants Google, Facebook, and so on.
The key advantage for Thorpe is the reliability gain and the need to speak to only one hardware supplier.
He said: "Key benefits are reliability and robustness and to be able to do no-outage maintenance. We're a 24/7 business and getting a maintenance slot is difficult and they are not liked. Also, if anything goes wrong it's a one-stop shop, not vendors asking for a list of everything running so they can get out of it."
Did Thorpe have concerns about moving to the relatively novel hyper-converged infrastructure?
He said: "I tend to be OK with leading edge technologies, within limits. Nutanix has been going long enough to have confidence in its stability for a production service."
Source: Web host opts for Nutanix hyper-converged after supplier nightmares
HostGator Web Hosting Alternatives
Founded in 2002, HostGator has been a leading player in the web hosting service space. It has won several awards and is present through its international offices in many countries. However, it has also had its share of problems like service outages and blackout.
With more and more businesses making their presence felt in the online world, the web hosting space industry has also expanded exponentially with many new players entering the market. Today, there are many companies that provide people with HostGator web hosting alternatives to launch themselves in the virtual world. The competition is not about pricing alone but other aspects like technical & customer support, bandwidth & storage space, uptime, server performance and data protection amongst other things. Here are few of them in no particular order.
A2 Hosting
Known for fast and reliable service, A2 Hosting also provides many other tools that even a non-technical user will find fairly easy to use. The technology they use makes websites much faster even on shared hosting. It also provides free backup of your files and database and malware scanner. They provide 24 x 7 support through phone, e-mail and chat and have support forum as well.
SiteGround
With unbeatable offers and top of the line technology, SiteGround offers its customers a high quality infrastructure when it comes to web hosting. They have a wide array of shared as well as dedicated hosting plans. With free migration also provided by experts, it is not only a great option for starting a new website but also if you looking to migrate from another service provider.
Arvixe
It has been providing a reliable and affordable web hosting service since 2003. With many features like unlimited e-mail accounts and free domain for life, it has not only been attracting new customers but also drawing customers from other hosting service providers. With data centers in Dallas (N. America), Amsterdam (Europe) and Hong Kong (Asia), you can choose the data center according to your region and ensure your site is really fast.
DreamHost
With their capabilities to host, high loads even on shared hosting means that DreamHost provides truly powerful hosting solution. It offers a custom hosting control panel and a seven day trial which means you can try the service for 7 days without paying anything at all. It provides reliable customer support and also offers tools for helping you to boost the performance of your website.
HostNine
With four data centers around the world, HostNine provides unparalleled support system and robust hosting technology that makes your websites superfast. The exceedingly friendly support staff makes every effort to satisfy the customers. They offer three plans to cater to every type of customer. It is also considered low priced when it comes to renewals.
GoDaddy
With their philosophy of trying to get every online, GoDaddy is a recognized brand in web hosting around the world. The different plans they offer are constructed to meet the needs of different types of customers. GoDaddy also offers the advantage of localized support due to its presence in many countries.
These are just a few HostGator web hosting alternatives. However, when you are comparing web hosting service providers for a new website or for migrating form one provider to another, do keep in mind the following:
Ø Pricing: Always read the fine print as sometimes the prices shown in bold are not inclusive of taxes and other surcharges. Also, their renewal prices may be much more than their startup prices.
Ø Number of domains to be hosted: Plans include hosting only single domain to multiple or unlimited domains. Check the plan details thoroughly in case you have or plan to have multiple domains.
Ø Data back up and Security: Another important aspect is back up of data that is so crucial to run your website and probably your business. Many service providers give this service free while others charge. Also, many hosting service providers free malware protection, spam protection, etc. while it is a chargeable add on with many.
Ø E-mail addresses: An important tool that is often forgotten. How do you stay connected in the virtual world without an e-mail address? While all hosting service providers this facility, the number of e-mail addresses in the different plans vary. Some offer only two or three while some may offer unlimited accounts. Also, the space allocation for e-mail accounts needs to be looked at.
Other factors like the technology used by the web hosting service providers need to be looked at with the purpose and intent of your website in mind.
Source: HostGator Web Hosting Alternatives
How the International Olympic Committee is using technology to educate future host cities
Bérénice Magistretti
Crunch Network Contributor
Bérénice Magistretti is a Swiss freelance writer based in San Francisco. She focuses on startups in Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and emerging markets.
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As the Rio Games draw to a close and the competing athletes pack up, leaving the Brazilian metropolis behind, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is already hard at work laying the foundation for the future spectacle of Olympic games.
Throughout the Games, the IOC's Olympic Games Knowledge Management program has been collecting data and compiling reports to share knowledge of the Games with future host cities.
The program, which was created to help prep the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, has added an immersive and interactive video platform to its numerous management initiatives by collaborating with Teleport, a Swiss-based startup that launched a few months ago.
The Teleport team has developed a Random Access Video Encoding (RAVE) algorithm built in JavaScript using the Meteor framework.
"We are always looking for ways to contextualize our content to make it more intuitive," said Christopher Payne, Head of the Olympic Games Knowledge Management program. "The Teleport platform is an excellent way to do this as it positions content with an obvious visual reference that transcends language barriers."
This will obviously come in handy when sharing knowledge with future host cities like Tokyo, PyeongChang and Beijing.
The meeting between the Swiss startup and the Lausanne-headquartered IOC was a fortuitous one — and the Swiss connection certainly helped. "We were in the right place, at the right time," said Cem Sever, co-founder and Business Development Manager of Teleport.
Their collaboration began with a proof of concept for the Youth Olympic Games, which took place in Lillehammer, Norway in February.
Satisfied with the result, the IOC decided to use Teleport for the Rio Games as well. But the Committee has chosen not to open up the platform to the general public at this stage, using it only internally as an educational tool.
"We're using it for B2B projects with future organizers," said Payne. "We hope that Teleport will innovate our information management services, illustrating the many challenges of operating the Games."
For the Rio Games application, the IOC created three Teleport environments focused on different types of venues, which the observers will be able to reference when they plan their own Games.
"For the first time, we will connect the huge volume of content we have about the specifics of operating the venues to ensure that the operational requirements of every space are well understood," said Payne.
Featured Image: David Ramos/Getty Images
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Source: How the International Olympic Committee is using technology to educate future host cities
WP Engine Web Hosting
WordPress is the backbone that supports millions of websites, so it's not surprising that dozens of Web service providers focus on hosting one of the world's most popular content management systems—WP Engine among them. Unfortunately, WP Engine (starting at $29 per month) isn't a beacon of WordPress hosting excellence, as it doesn't offer much beyond the basics. That's not to say that it's a total dud: WP Engine offers attractive, basic features like unlimited monthly data transfers, automatic daily backups, automatic plug-in updates, and malware scanning. But it's simply outclassed by the more versatile 1&1, our top pick for WordPress hosting.
WordPress PlansWP Engine offers four WordPress hosting plans, all of which boast unlimited monthly data transfers, automatic daily backups, and malware scanning. They're of the managed variety, so WP Engine's technicians give you installation the white-glove treatment. The plans are all Linux-based, so if you want Windows-based hosting, you must look elsewhere.
The most basic plan, Personal (starting at relatively pricey $29 per month), supports one WordPress installation, 25,000 monthly visitors, and a scant 10GB of storage. This is the plan I used to test the service. Professional (starting at $99 per month) offers 10 WordPress installations, 100,000 visitors, and 20GB of storage. Business (starting at $249 per month) has 25 WordPress installations, 400,000 visits, and 30GB of storage. Premium offers 150 WordPress installations, 1 million visits, and 150GB to 300GB of storage. You have to call for pricing for the Premium plan, as you must for the customizable Enterprise plan.
Competitor 1&1, on the other hand, has no such cap on visitors and has a $7.99 per month starting price. In fact, its $14.99 per month Unlimited plan boasts unlimited WordPress installations, storage, and email. WP Engine tasks you with signing up with a third-party to get email, a noteworthy omission.
A speed-enhancing content delivery network (CDN) is included with the Professional, Business, and Enterprise plans, but not with the basic Personal plan. If you'd like to add a CDN to the Personal package, you'll need to pay an additional $19.95. Rivals Pagely and Pressable offer CDNs at every managed hosting level.
The WP Engine ExperienceLike Pressable, WP Engine is a managed hosting environment specifically designed for WordPress installations and plug-ins. In fact, you don't need to install WordPress as you do with most other Web hosts; the content management system comes preinstalled. It was refreshing to open my introductory email, view my log-in credentials, and then get started without any additional setup.
In terms of creating content, WP Engine functions as any other self-hosted WordPress installation. It's a breeze to create posts, pages, and galleries.
WP Engine is compatible with a wide range of WordPress plug-ins. That said, the company maintains a small list of plug-ins that it doesn't support, due to their negative performance impact or duplication of built-in WP Engine features.
Unlike 1&1, WP Engine doesn't offer traditional Web hosting, so you can't upload your Linux- or Windows-based non-WordPress site and related apps. The upside is that WP Engine automates many functions, including daily site backups and plug-in updates. It also features proprietary Evercache technology that combines caching and proxy servers to make pages quickly load. The Staging Area is pretty cool, too. It takes a snapshot of your website so you can tinker with pages without affecting the real site.
Given these useful features, the holes in WP Engine's offering seem all the more glaring. In addition to not offering email, it also doesn't sell domains (your default URL is in the format of http://name.wpengine.com) you need to sign up with a third-party company like GoDaddy for those features. I can't help but wonder how many potential users don't come back once they've gone to a do-it-all Web hosting service to sign up for a domain name and email.
Security FeaturesWP Engine safeguards your site with daily malware scans and a firewall that's updated daily to block the latest threats. The Web host states that if your site gets hacked, it'll repair the damage free of charge.
Customer ServiceI contacted WP Engine several times during testing—early morning and midday—to get a sense of its support team's effectiveness. I called to discover how to install new WordPress themes, and then used the Web chat to contact a representative who would explain CDNs. The team answered both questions, and a few miscellaneous others, accurately and quickly, after negligible wait times.
Unfortunately, toll-free telephone support is only available during limited hours: Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST. WP Engine compensates with 24/7 email and ticketing support, so you aren't totally left out in the cold if you can't call within those hours.
Money-Back GuaranteeIn addition, WP Engine offers a healthy 60-day money-back guarantee that's far superior to Pressable's 15-day trial period. That said, InMotion has a very generous 90-day money-back guarantee that bests most other Web hosts' refund policies.
Decent, but There Are Better OptionsWP Engine offers a basic level of managed WordPress functionality with some useful features, but the visitor and data caps, as well as the lack of email, domain names and Windows servers, hurt its rating. For a more complete WordPress hosting experience, check out 1&1, PCMag's Editors' Choice in WordPress hosting.
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Source: WP Engine Web Hosting
Hosting vs design issue
Please help. I'm afraid I've made a mistake. In the past I was able to edit the css of the my web template directly, but I just had a client purchase hosting through WordPress & I am unable to edit/design their site the way I need to.
I need to be able to edit the css directly, not just cut & paste random css (which I am finding very tedious & changes do not get saved - or revert on a whim).
Please help! Where can I access the css directly?
Thanks!!
Melissa
The blog I need help with is bellhughhomes.com.
Source: Hosting vs design issue
Bluehost Web Hosting Review 2016 – Illuminating The Blue
A continuation of my hosting review series brings us to Bluehost web hosting. Bluehost remains one of the largest online hosting providers with over 2 million registered domains. Does their popularity come as a result of good value, or does the hype fall flat? Find out now in my 2016 Bluehost web hosting review.
Product: Bluehost Web Hosting – Bluehost has been providing web hosting since they launched in 2003.
Overall Ranking: 79 out of 100.
Price: Bluehost web hosting starts as low as $2.95/month for a basic shared hosting plan. Virtual Private Server (VPS) and Dedicated Server (DDS) hosting packages are also available. Price points for these plans fall into leveled tiers and will be discussed in their respective section of this review. Bluehost offers WordPress and Woocommerce hosting which will also be discussed in detail later in this review.
*Note: All plans come with a 30 day money back guarantee.
Owner: Endurance International Group.
Website: Bluehost.com
Introduction To Bluehost Web HostingIt was in Orem, Utah back in December of 2003 when Matt Heaton and Danny Ashworth gave Bluehost its beginning. Bluehost has come a long way since its early days. In 2007, a short 5 years later, Bluehost hit the 500,000 mark for registered domains. It took them 1 more year to double that amount which put them past the 1 million mark. By 2010 Bluehost had made an international name for themselves, cumulating in their acquisition by Endurance International Group.
In 2013 Bluehost launched its VPS and DDS hosting services, and later that same year the Endurance International Group went public. In 2014 Bluehost released its Optimized Hosting For WordPress, and just recently came out with Cloudsites in 2015. As you can see, Bluehost has had quite a journey in the last 13 years and now boasts the whole package when it comes to web hosting.
There are obvious benefits to going with such a big name hosting service such as Bluehost. They've had plenty of time to develop their service and iron out the problem areas every growing company experiences. Here's a list of the goods that come along with Bluehost web hosting.
Although 30 days may not be enough to fairly self evaluate a hosting service, it is enough to determine the level of customer service. First impressions can be a big factor and they often give glimpses of future issues. If you have a bad taste from the outset you can feel safe in the knowledge your money is guaranteed for that first month. One initial concern with a company as large as Bluehost is the level of service and quality of support. According to Hostingfacts.com, Bluehost doesn't score very well in either category. Here are some of the major concerns expressed:
Anytime I look at a company as big as Bluehost I always wonder if their size has had an effect on their service. It's so hard to keep a company top notch with such a huge amount of customers. The biggest concern I have from my point of view is the slower than average site speed. Slow site load time is definitely a problem if it is the norm.
Who Is Most Suited To Bluehost Web Hosting?Bluehost offers the complete package of hosting services for almost any level of hosting needs. From the small start up to the fully developed website, Bluehost has the solution. Bluehost web hosting fits well for those that don't mind an annual plan, or the big business.
Bluehost Training And Tools
Training I've already marked the training down in the Cons category. It's big business that charges money for less than an hour of training. They do offer a youtube channel with some pretty clear training material. You might be better off following the videos and doing the setup yourself.
Tools
Bluehost does list a sales number and they have a live chat option for any questions you might have before registration. Paid members will access their tools through Bluehost's enhanced Cpanel. Follow any link to Bluehost.com from this review and you'll find an option to test drive their Cpanel. See for yourself exactly how it works.
Bluehost offers different level packages with the types of hosting that they offer. We'll start with Bluehost' most basic shared hosting options.
Shared Hosting PlansBluehost web hosting offers shared hosting at 3 different price points. This is what's available:
Bluehost offers hosting specifically for WordPress websites. It is VPS hosting that comes in four different plan options.
WordPress With WooCommerce HostingBluehost offers hosting for WordPress websites with Woocommerce already installed. Buy your domain and select this service to get it all going. Here's the different packages and what they cost.
VPS Hosting PlansBluehost web hosting offers Virtual Private Servers to those who want increased power, speed, and flexibility for their websites. Choose from 4 tiers of VPS hosting, or start with the lowest and scale up.
Bluehost Dedicated Server HostingThose sites with the most pressing usage and therefore most advanced hosting needs turn to dedicated server hosting. Bluehost offers 3 tiered packages for sites with exactly such requirements.
Bluehost Special Features CloudsitesBluehost web hosting now provides cloud hosting with 3 available plans. Cloud hosting secures copies of your website on three different devices. If the hardware on your main server should fail, one device will keep your site up and running while the other two work to rebuild your server. Cloudsites are said to be safer and faster than shared hosting but do cost a little more.
Bluehost Education Hosting PlansKnown as the Education Student Bundle which offers simple solutions to student needs and comes at a flat rate of $4.95/month. It requires your .edu email address to get started and can be used by students and faculty alike. Take a look at some of the 
features included in the student bundle:
Bluehost support starts at the main website and offers several options. Because of reported wait times, I suggest first using their search bar to find archived solutions to frequently asked questions. Bluehost has a vast database of guides, instructions, articles, and youtube tutorials. Chances are that one of these resources will have the answer you're looking for.
In the case that your circumstance require direct contact you can use the live chat feature or any of the listed phone numbers which will get you to the right department. Remember that wait times can occur, especially during peak hours.
Bluehost prices are slightly above those of its competitors, but are by no means the highest. As with most name brands you can expect a bit of price inflation that goes along with the trust and experience offered. Dreamhost is another big name in hosting and perhaps another good example of name brand pricing.
Final OpinionOverall Ranking: 79 out of 100.
If you're going to go with name brand hosting I would suggest an inspection of my Dreamhost review. They are a bit pricier than Bluehost (though maybe not with all the Bluehost add ons) which could be a determining factor. Anyone could understand that. I felt much more confident in my review of Dreamhost and would go with them if a few more dollars a month doesn't bother you.
For my own sites I don't use Bluehost, Dreamhost, or any other hosting service. If you're looking to start a blog or build any kind of website that will involve search engine marketing read my Wealthy Affiliate University Review. I went this route and by doing so consolidated all my costs. I also got the training I needed, an unlimited amount of support, and shared hosting that outperforms many of the name brands. All factors directly responsible for my online success.
Let me know what you thought of my Bluehost web hosting review! Correct me if I'm wrong. Share a positive or negative Bluehost experience. Agree with my assessment or just drop by to say hello. Any overuse of my social buttons or subscription sign up form will be heavily applauded! Thanks for your time.
Sincerely, Geoff@ThePocketFeeder.com
Source: Bluehost Web Hosting Review 2016 – Illuminating The Blue