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5 Tweaks To Your Facebook Page That Can Increase Black Friday Sales Yesterday, we learned how to create buzz for your black Friday sale. If you missed that article, you can read it here: Creating Buzz For Your Black Friday Sale Today’s article on upgrading your Facebook page for Black Friday shouldn’t take you more than 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The next step is to setup Facebook so we can generate even more buzz through social media channels. Let’s start with sprucing up our Facebook cover image… #1 – Create a custom Facebook cover image According to recent research conducted by EyeTrackShop for Mashable.com, participants spent less time looking at your Facebook Wall posts and more time looking at the cover photo on timelines than the old Facebook Walls. The new Facebook Timeline restricts branding space, and the cover image needs to be well designed. Example of a great cover page: In fact, if you don’t want to hire a designer, click here to buy the above template for $2. Key points to this cover image are: Black Friday is dead center, easy to read, and • the date is clear The images are inviting and represent the brand […] The post Black Friday Bootcamp appeared first on Superb Internet.

People love a deal… and they EXPECT a deal on Black Friday. One big retailer, in particular, is a master of Black Friday sales… and sales in general. In fact, they created their own holiday sale! This retailer offers amazing deals to shoppers, but more than that, they utilize superior marketing tactics. Mirroring marketing tactics used by a big retailer like this can result in a nice boost in sales if done properly. The retailer I’m writing about is Amazon.com. One of the best marketers on the planet, if not the best. Amazon.com knows how to sell… and they know how to promote a sale by generating tons of buzz. Today, I will break down some of the tactics used by Amazon that you can use for your own Black Friday sale… or any sale for that matter and create ‘buzz’ in advance. Amazon even created its own shopping holiday called Amazon Prime Day… as a way to reward their Prime members. This makes me chuckle because you have to pay to be a Prime member. Amazon sold over $2.5 billion worth of goods during Prime Day 2016! It just makes good sense that we should mirror what Amazon does […] The post How to Make It Rain – Creating Buzz For Your Black Friday Sale appeared first on Superb Internet.

Today we continue our Black Friday Bootcamp to show you how to make sure your website is mobile-friendly and fast. The reason we want a mobile-friendly website is because mobile devices accounted for over one-third of ALL sales transactions in 2015. The name of the game for Black Friday and holiday shopping is to maximize every single visitor. This means we need to ensure our website is optimized for mobile devices. In addition, Google reports that 77% of mobile searches occur at home or work, places where desktop computers are likely to be present. And I think it’s safe to assume that people will be shopping from the office for this holiday season. If you’ve not updated your website in a few years, my guess is that you could use a few tweaks to be mobile friendly. Step 1 – Check Your Existing Site(s) The first thing we need to do is head over to Google and run a check on your existing website. You can do that here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly With any luck, your website will already be mobile-friendly and you’ll see the following message per screenshot below. If so, I’ll see you in our next Black Friday Bootcamp article! If by […] The post Don’t let 33% of customers fall through the cracks appeared first on Superb Internet.

Today’s Black Friday Bootcamp Checklist is all about speed. Slow pages =  lower conversions (lost $$). Is your website built for speed this shopping season? If not, it’s OK. We’ll get your hosting ready with today’s checklist item. You’ll learn what you can do to welcome traffic surges and prevent high-latency and bottlenecks. High amounts of traffic can cause the “Shark Tank Effect” resulting in slow downs, bottlenecks and outages… and pages that won’t load. An Aberdeen Group study showed that a 1 second delay in page load time equals 11% drop in page views and a 7% loss in conversions. Internet retailers discovered when load time is reduced from 8 seconds to 2 seconds, conversions went up by a staggering 74%. Outages can occur when your hosting plan has limitations on traffic or processing power. Luckily, you can easily do a few things to reduce the “load” on your server… ensuring that it will work fast and deliver your web pages, even when your site is busy. Check #1: Content Delivery Network The first thing you need to do is setup a Content Delivery Network… or CDN for short. A CDN is a collection of servers placed in diverse […] The post Is Your Website Ready for Holiday Traffic? appeared first on Superb Internet.

For the next two weeks, I will show you how to prepare for Black Friday so you can increase your traffic and conversions. I’ll also show you how to create an annual marketing plan, enabling you to increase your revenue throughout the year. We’ll release articles every few days with actionable steps so you aren’t overwhelmed. This will make it quick and easy for you to prepare for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season. But first, let’s look at some numbers before we dive into this “Black Friday Bootcamp” series. Online shoppers spent a record $4.45 BILLION dollars during Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday sales last year. And according to IBM statistics, consumers cashed in on Black Friday deals: The average order value for the mobile and desktop shopper combined for Black Friday 2015 was $127.84, down slightly from 2014($129.37) That’s a lot of money, and you can grab your chunk of it with the proper preparation. Interestingly, over one-third of ALL sales transactions were completed using mobile devices. Smartphones accounted for 44.7% of all online traffic, 3 and a half times that of tablets at 12.5%. In addition, I was surprised to learn 40% of customers begin researching […] The post Black Friday Bootcamp (Are You Ready?) appeared first on Superb Internet.

At Superb Internet, we’re always looking out for you. That’s why we want to take the time to give you a crash course on one of the most important elements to keeping your website safe, secured, and compliant – SSL certificates. Giving You the Lowdown on SSL Certificates SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer” and an SSL certificate is a critical component to keeping your website safe, secured, and compliant. Any ecommerce website must have an SSL certificate to ensure the safe handling of sensitive information, such as a customer’s personal and credit card information. By adding an SSL certificate, you not only protect your business but also increase customer confidence by safely encrypting your customers’ most sensitive data. For online transactions, an SSL certificate turns sensitive data into encrypted secure code. The web browser then checks the SSL certificate to make sure that the website is legitimate. Once verified, the web browser and server processes the encoded information. This helps to ensure that the sensitive data delivered between the web browser and server is handled safely, securely, and that the website is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. Why Picking the Right Certificate Authority (CA) Matters Picking the right Certificate […] The post A Crash Course on SSL Certificates – A MUST Read for Every Website Owner appeared first on Superb Internet.

? A new industry analysis forecasts cognitive computing to have revenues of nearly $14B by the end of the decade. What exactly is cognitive computing, and why is it becoming such a prominent computing approach? What is Cognitive Computing? Why is Cognitive Computing Becoming so Prevalent? Automated Reasoning to Grow at 37% Annually North America the Largest Cognitive Computing Region Summary: Key Research Highlights A study by industry analyst Allied Market Research (AMR) projects that the cognitive computing market will hit $13.7 billion in global revenue by 2020, meaning that its CAGR between 2015 and 2020 would be a stunning 33.1%. What is Cognitive Computing? As its name suggests, cognitive computing is a subset of artificial intelligence. It is a form of computing that simulates aspects of the human mind. Systems are designed so that they are capable of learning. Specific methods that are used in these settings include natural language processing, data mining, and pattern recognition. The objective of this form of computing is to allow IT automation to problem-solve without the need for human intervention. Machine learning algorithms are set up to allow these systems to work, explains Margaret Rouse in TechTarget. “Such systems continually acquire knowledge from […] The post Cognitive Computing Set to Exceed $13B by 2020 appeared first on Superb Internet.

? A new industry analysis forecasts cognitive computing to have revenues of nearly $14B by the end of the decade. What exactly is cognitive computing, and why is it becoming such a prominent computing approach? What is Cognitive Computing? Why is Cognitive Computing Becoming so Prevalent? Automated Reasoning to Grow at 37% Annually North America the Largest Cognitive Computing Region Summary: Key Research Highlights A study by industry analyst Allied Market Research (AMR) projects that the cognitive computing market will hit $13.7 billion in global revenue by 2020, meaning that its CAGR between 2015 and 2020 would be a stunning 33.1%. What is Cognitive Computing? As its name suggests, cognitive computing is a subset of artificial intelligence. It is a form of computing that simulates aspects of the human mind. Systems are designed so that they are capable of learning. Specific methods that are used in these settings include natural language processing, data mining, and pattern recognition. The objective of this form of computing is to allow IT automation to problem-solve without the need for human intervention. Machine learning algorithms are set up to allow these systems to work, explains Margaret Rouse in TechTarget. “Such systems continually acquire knowledge from […] The post Cognitive Computing Set to Exceed $13B by 2020 appeared first on Superb Internet.

Modernizing a data center means that a company has to reconsider its business plan both operationally and organizationally in response to shifts in the economy and developments in computing. With this report, based largely off advice from Gartner, you can work toward cutting your costs and becoming more flexible while pursuing your business objectives. The CIO Perspective: 5-Point Checklist IT Director Perspective: 8-Point Checklist IT Pro Perspective: 9-Point Checklist Organizational Perspective: 5-Point Checklist By modernizing and consolidating your data center, you can adopt greater agility and streamline your expenses – effectively giving yourself a better market position. You can make your firm more flexible and better suited to serve an increasingly mobile staff. By adopting the methods listed below, you should be able to cut your yearly operating expenses by at least 10%. The CIO Perspective: 5-Point Checklist CIOs should look at the requirements of the organization, the shape of the economy, and technological factors as they think about their plan for data center modernization and consolidation. Here is a basic five-point checklist to ready yourself for this effort: Review the company’s infrastructure. What could be improved? Think about how you can trim costs with your servers, storage, and network. […] The post Modernizing and Consolidating Your Data Center: Tips from Gartner appeared first on Superb Internet.

Modernizing a data center means that a company has to reconsider its business plan both operationally and organizationally in response to shifts in the economy and developments in computing. With this report, based largely off advice from Gartner, you can work toward cutting your costs and becoming more flexible while pursuing your business objectives. The CIO Perspective: 5-Point Checklist IT Director Perspective: 8-Point Checklist IT Pro Perspective: 9-Point Checklist Organizational Perspective: 5-Point Checklist By modernizing and consolidating your data center, you can adopt greater agility and streamline your expenses – effectively giving yourself a better market position. You can make your firm more flexible and better suited to serve an increasingly mobile staff. By adopting the methods listed below, you should be able to cut your yearly operating expenses by at least 10%. The CIO Perspective: 5-Point Checklist CIOs should look at the requirements of the organization, the shape of the economy, and technological factors as they think about their plan for data center modernization and consolidation. Here is a basic five-point checklist to ready yourself for this effort: Review the company’s infrastructure. What could be improved? Think about how you can trim costs with your servers, storage, and network. […] The post Modernizing and Consolidating Your Data Center: Tips from Gartner appeared first on Superb Internet.

? Hybrid cloud is growing enormously, according to a new analysis. Let’s look at what exactly a hybrid cloud is, typical uses, and the research that shows it skyrocketing. What Exactly is a Hybrid cCloud? Typical Uses of this Cloud Type Explosion of the Hybrid Approach Understanding the Hybrid Cloud Market Where is this Model Growing Fastest? What Exactly is a Hybrid Cloud? A hybrid cloud is an integration of a private cloud established in a business’s own data center with a public cloud run through a hosting provider’s data center. This strategy allows the company to shift tasks between the two environments based on price and computing requirements. Essentially, it creates a more adaptive infrastructure. An enterprise might want to use the private cloud for highly sensitive or mission-critical data, while it uses the public cloud for R&D projects, for instance. Typical Uses of this Cloud Type A hybrid of public and private is often used by companies that are working within various verticals. It is also common for companies with workloads that see huge shifts in activity, explains Stephen J. Bigelow in TechTarget. “For example, a transactional order entry system that experiences significant demand spikes around the holiday […] The post Report: Hybrid Cloud Set for Absurd Growth Moving Forward appeared first on Superb Internet.

? Hybrid cloud is growing enormously, according to a new analysis. Let’s look at what exactly a hybrid cloud is, typical uses, and the research that shows it skyrocketing. What Exactly is a Hybrid cCloud? Typical Uses of this Cloud Type Explosion of the Hybrid Approach Understanding the Hybrid Cloud Market Where is this Model Growing Fastest? What Exactly is a Hybrid Cloud? A hybrid cloud is an integration of a private cloud established in a business’s own data center with a public cloud run through a hosting provider’s data center. This strategy allows the company to shift tasks between the two environments based on price and computing requirements. Essentially, it creates a more adaptive infrastructure. An enterprise might want to use the private cloud for highly sensitive or mission-critical data, while it uses the public cloud for R&D projects, for instance. Typical Uses of this Cloud Type A hybrid of public and private is often used by companies that are working within various verticals. It is also common for companies with workloads that see huge shifts in activity, explains Stephen J. Bigelow in TechTarget. “For example, a transactional order entry system that experiences significant demand spikes around the holiday […] The post Report: Hybrid Cloud Set for Absurd Growth Moving Forward appeared first on Superb Internet.

Why Online Customer Reviews Matter Every business owner understands the significance of online customer reviews and the impact it can have on sales and revenues. With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, getting online reviews has never been easier, especially when many regions around the world are already using the Internet. According to Internet World Stats, there are 3,611,375,813 Internet users around the world as of June 30, 2016. Because of this, online customer reviews have become a vital component of businesses and are considered by many as a form of “social proof” where people take the word of others as proof that a particular product or service is valuable and worth getting. When a potential customer conducts online research about a product or service from a business with many great reviews, it makes it much easier for them to not only trust the company but also purchase those goods because of the social proof shared online. On the contrary, businesses with a shortage of great reviews don’t get the benefit of the doubt from potential customers. Worse yet, having zero reviews is just as detrimental as having negative reviews. With this in mind, it’s crucial that every business […] The post The Proof of the Pudding is in the Reviews – Not the Eating appeared first on Superb Internet.

Why Online Customer Reviews Matter Every business owner understands the significance of online customer reviews and the impact it can have on sales and revenues. With technology advancing at such a rapid pace, getting online reviews has never been easier, especially when many regions around the world are already using the Internet. According to Internet World Stats, there are 3,611,375,813 Internet users around the world as of June 30, 2016. Because of this, online customer reviews have become a vital component of businesses and are considered by many as a form of “social proof” where people take the word of others as proof that a particular product or service is valuable and worth getting. When a potential customer conducts online research about a product or service from a business with many great reviews, it makes it much easier for them to not only trust the company but also purchase those goods because of the social proof shared online. On the contrary, businesses with a shortage of great reviews don’t get the benefit of the doubt from potential customers. Worse yet, having zero reviews is just as detrimental as having negative reviews. With this in mind, it’s crucial that every business […] The post The Proof of the Pudding is in the Reviews – Not the Eating appeared first on Superb Internet.

When IT pros at the state and local levels want to win data center investments, it’s critical to show how the improvements will result in returns on investment. Excellence Held Back by Aging Technology Show Me the Money Less Downtime & Maintenance Prioritizing Security Excellence Held Back by Aging Technology Delta Diablo is a water resource recovery agency that serves 200,000 people in Northern California – residents of Antioch, Pittsburg, and Bay Point. Services it performs include wastewater treatment; production and distribution of recycled water; safeguarding against pollution; recovery of energy; biosolid reuse; street sweeping; and collection of residential hazardous waste. Its plant can process up to 19.5 million gallons of water per day. Delta Diablo isn’t just any wastewater agency, though. It’s actually among the top 1 percent nationwide at what it does, according to the numerous Platinum Peak Performance Awards it’s received from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. The wastewater treatment operation often teams with outside public and private entities on projects. However, its data center has historically been standing in the way of such efforts. “Our IT department is never 100 percent sure what’s coming down the pike in the next year,” explains the agency’s […] The post ROI: A Strong Argument for Government Data Center Upgrades appeared first on Superb Internet.

Many businesses are now deploying multi-cloud environments. Let’s look at what this approach is, pros and cons, and basic rules for adoption. What is Multi-Cloud? Popularity of this Approach Arguments for Multi-Cloud The Downsides Management of Multi-Cloud On the Horizon & Standards What is Multi-Cloud? Multi-cloud is a term that has been used for years in discussion of cloud services, but – much like the cloud itself – the concept has been a little vague. How does the notion of multiple clouds work within the context of public, private, and hybrid cloud categories, for instance? According to most experts, multi-cloud involves blending together numerous cloud-based systems from various vendors to diversify a company’s infrastructure or services. The idea is to reduce the threat of proprietary lock-in and allow the business greater agility, while taking advantage of the benefits and physical locations offered by different providers. Specifically, a “multi-cloud strategy is the concomitant use of two or more cloud services to minimize the risk of widespread data loss or downtime due to a localized component failure in a cloud computing environment,” according to TechTarget. Popularity of this Approach A November 2014 poll of nearly 700 IT executives, conducted by Dimensional Research, […] The post Multi-Cloud: Arguments on Each Side & Successful Adoption appeared first on Superb Internet.

What is a Homepage? Before we dive into the marketing strategies involved with creating an effective homepage, it’s crucial that everyone understands what a homepage is. In essence, a homepage is the introductory, or default page, of a website that typically highlights the site’s table of contents. There’s a good reason for why it’s called a homepage – it closely resembles that of a physical house and the only real difference is that it’s online. Think of it like this. Your website’s homepage is where people come to visit you. It’s the family room of your website where everyone meets to hang out, get comfortable, before they actually move further inside to see the remaining parts of the website. Why is a Homepage Important? Everyone who owns an ecommerce business understands that their website’s homepage is inevitably the most important page of the entire site. Like they say, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Therefore, you want to ensure that your homepage is clean, tidy, and clutter-free so that visitors can easily navigate to see what your website is all about – similar to how you want to keep your house clean when having […] The post Marketing 101 – The ABCs of a Homepage appeared first on Superb Internet.

What are SSL Certificates? SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer” and an SSL certificate is a critical component to keeping your website safe, secured, and compliant. How SSL Certificates Work? Any ecommerce website must have an SSL certificate to ensure the safe handling of sensitive information, such as a customer’s personal and credit card information. By adding an SSL certificate, you not only protect your business but also increase customer confidence by safely encrypting your customers’ most sensitive data. For online transactions, an SSL certificate turns sensitive data into encrypted secure code. The web browser then checks the SSL certificate to make sure that the website is legitimate. Once verified, the web browser and server processes the encoded information. This helps to ensure that the sensitive data delivered between the web browser and server is handled safely, securely, and that the website is PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. SSL Certificate Management Having an SSL certificate is an integral part in protecting sensitive data in transit. And while SSL certificates provide additional layers of security, it can still be vulnerable and susceptible to attacks. This is where SSL certificate management comes in. Proper SSL certificate management requires knowing the status of […] The post Keeping Your Website Safe, Secured, and Compliant – SSL Certificates appeared first on Superb Internet.

It’s important you know where your business is hosted. Very important. Why? A few years ago, I toured two data centers. One was owned by a major player in web hosting for more than a decade. The second data center was owned by a smaller web host I had not heard much about. Both of these data centers were located in the same city just a few miles apart. The first data center showed promise, it was inside of an old bank building. The tour was met by security at the entrance. We then proceeded to the data center area. Once in the data center, it was clear this was setup by amateurs. Cables were everywhere. It looked terrible and worse you had to dodge cables as you worked your way through the facility. At the back of the DC was an employee with the back door wide open smoking a cigarette. Anyone could have walked through the back door and had immediate access to the DC. After walking around the building itself, it was clear there was not a backup generator available. Just a few weeks later, we heard news that this data center was robbed. Someone broke in […] The post Where is your website hosted? appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud hosting can be hit or miss regarding reliability, speed, and uptime. In reality, most Cloud Hosting Providers (CHPs) are overselling resources. By overselling, CHPs are compromising the performance of consumer applications. A direct result of overselling is application slowness and even outages. Many CHPs use the buzzword ‘Cloud Hosting’ to sell the idea of reliability. Most consumers have the opinion that cloud hosting is easily scalable and can handle just about anything. Further, most CHPs are not transparent and hide the underlying architecture and resources available. With that in mind, it is important to note that no cloud environment has unlimited resources. For this reason alone, you must do all that you can to protect your business. Due to overselling, it is not uncommon to read about outages in the news from major CHPs like Amazon and Microsoft. The truth is, most clients never use the full capacity of their hosting resources. This allows the CHPs to pack a lot more customers into a cloud environment. To shed some light on cloud hosting transparency – and why transparency is mission critical for your business – I have asked Superb Internet CEO Haralds Jass to discuss how you can protect […] The post How to Protect Your Business from Cloud ‘Overselling’ appeared first on Superb Internet.

Every well-run company keeps itself squarely focused on solutions that alleviate common pain-points. Superb Internet was created in 1996 to treat a problem encountered by its founder when developing a game with a collaborative global team. It’s grown exponentially over the years and is now one of the longest-running web hosting companies in existence – celebrating a full 20 years in operation on July 23, 2016. 1994: Origins in treating pain points 1996: Formation 1999: Industry front-runner 2001: First data center 2002: Expansion 2005: To the West 2009: And then there were four 2011: Security focus 2013: Cloud embrace 2014: Enterprise-grade compliance 2015: First fully government-authorized cloud provider Today: Starting a third decade of hosting service 1994: Origins in treating pain points As is often the case in business, Superb Internet arose from a pain-point experienced by its founder. Like any online entrepreneur, Haralds Jass wanted to see his project come to fruition without any performance problems. What was a little atypical about Jass’s experience is that he was only fourteen years old! Superb Entertainment was composed of Jass and a group of talented developers, graphic artists, story-tellers and other creators from all corners of the world. The team set […] The post Twenty Years: The Story of One of the Internet’s Longest-Running Hosting Companies appeared first on Superb Internet.

A lot of Social Media Gurus will tell you that Facebook likes aren’t what they used to be. Facebook likes used to guarantee most of your fans would see your posts. Not any longer. In fact, Facebook has changed the game so that the more engaged your Facebook fans are – the more impressions you will get. So you need to be posting regularly and posting interactive content. If your fans actually consume your content, the better the results will be. Fans will buy your services and refer their friends. I’ve compiled 10 ways for you to increase engagement to your Facebook fan page. From my personal experience managing some huge Facebook fan pages, these work to increase engagement in any market… 10 Ways to Boost Engagement on Your Facebook Groups and Fan Pages 1. Hold Contests Contests are the EASIEST and best way to boost engagement. Especially if you award an extra entry for those that share the post. In addition, I add a small ‘Boost’ using Facebooks targeting tools to hit even more of my target audience. You will end up getting more page likes as well. I have ran contests using prizes that are relevant to my […] The post 10 Ways to Boost Engagement on Your Facebook Fan Page appeared first on Superb Internet.

Everyone knows how valuable big data can be. However, mistakes are often made by companies when they run vast data science projects. Here are a few of the typical errors so you can avoid them yourself or correct them if you feel they are already happening. Why all the Fuss? Big Data Stats Operator Error #1 – Expecting the solution to be immediate. #2 – Thinking you should focus on a big data strategy, rather than using big data in carrying out a business strategy. #3 – Entrusting data scientists to find solutions for business problems. Why all the Fuss? Big Sata Stats As with any buzzword or trending business concept, it helps to look at some hard numbers to understand the idea from a 10,000-foot view. Here are a couple of telling figures on big data: If you think of the various data-producing systems your company manages as a pancake house, be assured that you are going to be cranking out a lot of flapjacks. Between 2013 and 2015, more data was produced than throughout all of human history. Again with the pancake analogy, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re making more pancakes all the time. Information […] The post 3 Common Errors with Big Data appeared first on Superb Internet.

<<< Go to Part 1 Power of Cloud in Medicine (cont.) Project to Save Kids’ Lives with Cloud Power of cloud in medicine (cont.) Implementing the cloud is becoming increasingly popular in the pharmaceutical industry. According to James Staten of Forrester, almost all drug firms are using cloud – at least for research and development. The most obvious primary driver for that, he says, is its cost-effectiveness. Additionally, though, using the cloud makes it much easier for everyone on a team to work in concert, with all drafts saved in real-time. Sage Bionetworks President Dr. Stephen Friend points out that it’s not just coworkers and affiliates who want to collaborate with their data and concepts actually, but competitors. That’s because there is a shared concern with cutting costs as much as possible. When everyone decides to throw their information into one pot, it means all companies are able to reduce the financial vulnerability associated with these densely rigorous projects. It isn’t just drug and other medical companies that are being aided by this technological revolution; it’s helping patients. For instance, Pathwork Diagnostics is a healthcare outfit that is storing a massive amount of cancer biopsy data on cloud servers, notes […] The post Cloud Computing: Could it Save a Child’s Life (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud is often discussed in terms of its basic selling points for business: how much more efficient and productive it can make an organization. However, cloud computing is having a profound influence beyond business, on our way of life. In fact, this technology can save lives. Let’s look at its use in healthcare and how one children’s hospital is leveraging it. Technology that Could be a Life-Aaver Power of Cloud in Medicine  Technology that Could be a Life-Saver Why is the technology of cloud computing so exciting? On a broad level, it’s great that businesses are better able to scale, use big data efficiently, and affordably access a highly secure and reliable infrastructure. The cloud is based on a time-sharing model of computing that was popular decades ago, when people didn’t have their own computers. Now companies are increasingly realizing that the same model is preferable to conventional dedicated computing. What firms are able to achieve with the cloud is to share resources across many disparate businesses. That ends up saving money for everyone through economies of scale, notes cloud computing author David Linthicum. “The value of time share and the core value of cloud computing are pretty much the […] The post Cloud Computing: Could It Save a Child’s Life? appeared first on Superb Internet.

Typically when people talk about data center efficiency, the primary point of focus is underutilization. However, cooling also uses huge amounts of power – sometimes as much as half the bill. By focusing on power use, companies can become much more efficient. Underutilization Cooling Inefficiency #1 – Redundancies Cooling Inefficiency #2 – Hot Spots A Shift in Focus Underutilization Much of the discussion about data center efficiency has to do with servers not being optimally utilized. For instance, a 2012 New York Times piece looked at the abysmal utilization rates of servers and estimated generator exhaust emissions. A Stanford report published in 2015 thoroughly assessed the issue of underutilization, finding that data centers are often incredibly inefficient with their equipment. In fact, Stanford estimated that $30 billion worth of servers, the equivalent of 10 million of them, were going unused at any given time. Underutilization is not the only data center efficiency or sustainability issue though. Another way in which hosting facilities often don’t make the best use of resources is cooling. Cooling typically accounts for a huge portion of power use – up to 50%. Massive enterprises such as Microsoft or Facebook will often adopt incredibly efficient tactics, generating […] The post Improving Cooling Efficiency in Small Data Centers appeared first on Superb Internet.

Yesterday, we covered registering our .reviews domain name and setting up our hosting account so we can build our ‘Reviews Engine’. If you need to take care of those, you can read the article here for complete instructions: http://www.superb.net/blog/google-reviews-more-sales-and-how-to-get-them-part-1 I’m going to assume you have taken care of both and all we need to do now is build the website. Please don’t get overwhelmed. I’ll walk you through step-by-step so you can see exactly how to build this website. All told, you maybe will spend an hour or two building this. The installation takes most of the time… while editing the templates is super easy to do. Let’s start by installing WordPress… Step 3: Install WordPress The main engine behind the scenes is WordPress. WordPress makes everything work…it creates the website we will use to let customers post reviews and read reviews. In turn, this website will be submitted to Google for indexing. I’ve created a demo site to show you how to setup WordPress. So let’s start building the website… first, you will need WordPress in order to use the review system I am recommending. You will also need a basic template and a plugin that will handle reviews that […] The post Google reviews = more sales (and how to get them) – Part 2 appeared first on Superb Internet.

A better search ranking on Google almost always means more sales… … if your online or local business has good reviews. While it is true that you will get more visitors with a higher search ranking, this does not always equal more sales. Consumers in today’s world understand how to use the Internet. Basically, consumers do their homework. The ease of Internet search makes it easy for any one to post a review of your business. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone at a store Googling and comparing prices or reading reviews of a product. Consumers are smart and search the web for reviews. They don’t want to make a mistake. While most of these reviews are good, some are going to be downright unfair. I know…I’ve had my fair share of bad reviews on books I’ve written. The reviews were baseless (the people didn’t even read the books or put the advice into action). That’s just the way it goes sometimes, but it doesn’t mean you have to give up control on what is presented for your business on the web. What reviews would you rather potential customers read? For example, authors do not have […] The post Google reviews = more sales (and how to get them) – Part 1 appeared first on Superb Internet.

A bill that the Arizona governor is expected to sign in the next few days will make transitioning to cloud systems a major state priority. Cloud First in Federal IT Arizona May Head for the Cloud Business speed Arizona has decided to prioritize cloud computing. Without getting into the politics, let’s look at how “Cloud First” has been a prominent notion in government for years. Then we’ll review the particular case of Arizona. Cloud First in Federal IT In 2010, the United States government, through the Office of Management and Budget, released 25 directives to improve the management of federal IT. One of the most important points was a new position that required a “cloud first” policy toward any computing adoption. Vivek Kundra, the federal CIO, included the policy toward cloud along with other ideas to streamline government technology in an address on December 9. The gains the government could see from cloud are massive, said Kundra. For instance, he mentioned that agencies would be able to provision services immediately and sometimes could cut costs in half. RELATED: It’s true that cloud has generally strong attributes, but it’s important to choose the right cloud provider – since there is significant […] The post Arizona Goes Aggressively Cloud-First with State Computing appeared first on Superb Internet.

Many companies want to figure out ways to turn their waste heat into a positive. After all, data centers produce it in the normal course of operation. Figuring out how to turn it into a sustainability initiative can increase job satisfaction, provide opportunities for press, and even build your bottom line. Here are a few tips on how to reuse your waste energy wisely. Transforming Energy Isn’t All Bad It’s Getting Hot in Here Collaboration with Power Plants At Superb Internet, we are always looking toward the future in planning our business, and part of that forward-thinking focus includes addressing the growing concerns of climate change. Conservation is both our responsibility as a business and a way that we embrace efficiency for cost reductions that we pass on to our clients. One innovation we’ve adopted is floor-mounted air conditioners with electronically commutated (EC) plug fans. They reduce energy use 30%, as described here. Sustainability isn’t just about reducing waste, though. It’s also about using waste wisely. Let’s look at how waste heat can smartly be used by your data center. Transforming Energy Isn’t All Bad Data centers around the world essentially serve as energy transformation facilities. They take in electric power, […] The post Smart Tactics to Reuse Your Data Center’s Waste Heat appeared first on Superb Internet.

Bob Egan, founder of Sepharim Research Group, says that mobile cloud is a wise choice for business investment. It enhances your staff’s ability to perform their jobs and allows you to dominate your market by targeting your competitors’ weaknesses. Interconnected Technologies Why IT Decision-Makers Should Embrace Cloud Mobile Cloud is about ROI, Not Savings The Key to Tesla’s Success Using Mobile Cloud to Attract New Business Interconnected Technologies As two key components of computing’s third platform, cloud computing and mobile devices are growing and improving hand-in-hand. Cloud’s ultra-fast storage and delivery of data has greatly expanded the possibilities with tablets, phones, and e-readers. In turn, the need for mobile-friendly technology has increased the use of cloud computing. These dual, integrally connected tools make digital life more fluid and adaptable, both for companies and for consumers. If you want to consider the full impact of cloud and mobile, it’s important not to think in terms of the raw technology but instead in terms of what your business will be able to achieve if you embrace them to a greater extent. Bob Egan, who is the founder and chief research officer at Sepharim Research Group, believes that the third platform is critical so […] The post Consultant: Cloud and Mobile Are Central to Innovation appeared first on Superb Internet.

Web hosting may not be the most glamorous tech topic, but the wrong host can have a deeply negative impact. More people are having to make this decision as the cloud becomes more popular. Here’s what you need to know to focus your efforts. Don’t Forget the Back End Just How Fast is Cloud Growing? What You Need to Know: 5-Point Guide Don’t Forget the Back End Typically when we think of the Web, we talk about the front end. That’s not just true of consumers but businesspeople as well. Unless we have a position that focuses on data centers and infrastructure, the Internet seems to be about design and user experience; the way the site is run and stored and backed up is much less tangible and seems to be a secondary concern. Clearly that’s not the case. “It’s your digital identity’s lifeblood,” notes Zach Katkin of Inspired Mag. “[A] down host means a down site, means no business, means lost customers.” It’s true. Effects of poor web hosting can be devastating, such as damage to your search prominence and potentially even blacklisting (if the company hosts enough illicit activity). Since cloud hosting is becoming such a standard choice […] The post Cheat-Sheet: What You Need to Know to Select a Web Host appeared first on Superb Internet.

Big data holds amazing promise, as indicated by the way its being used to study medicine. However, the vast majority of data is not analyzed. What holds back full use of your data? The Promise of Big Data: Example of Medicine Big Data Going Underutilized Archnemeses of Big Data Conclusion The Promise of Big Data: Example of Medicine Everyone in their first or second year at NYU School of Medicine must complete an assignment that taps into huge amounts of information. Students are able to study a massive database that contains hospital records throughout New York for two full years, totalling over 5 million records. Students can see diagnostics and basic demographics, with specific identities scrubbed for privacy. The students are given analytic programs so that they can search for patterns and develop insights, notes the school’s associate dean, Marc Triola. These tools allow them to “look at quality measures for things like heart failure, diabetes, smoking and high blood pressure,” he says. “and drill down and look at the performance of the practice as a whole, and [the performance of] individual doctors.” The school believes this project is fundamental in preparing students for an increasingly technological world.  Big Data […] The post Six Elements Foiling Your Big Data Plans appeared first on Superb Internet.

Finance, both as an industry and as a department within businesses, has been slow to move to the cloud. This piece continues our discussion (see Part 1) of what’s holding financial pros back and why it’s worth it to make the transition. 15 Reasons Cloud Makes Sense for Finance Departments (cont.) Lower Your Risk with a Slower Transition 15 Reasons Cloud Makes Sense for Finance Departments (cont.) Wise Development International readiness – If you plan to find customers and otherwise operate in other countries, finances will become more sophisticated, as will compliance. That means you have to keep updating your current system. Cloud systems are updated on-the-go, by the cloud provider. Smoother M & A – Computing is the most expensive part of merging with or acquiring another company. On the other hand, it can create points of integration as well. “The heavy reliance on ERP for business operations, management information, and financial reporting make it a priority item in the M&A agenda,” explains Forbes. Testing a different market – When you go into a different market, you find a different type of customer. Cloud allows you to easily customize the back-end support to meet diverse needs. Hypergrowth – When […] The post Why Cloud Computing is a Smart Choice for Finance (Part 2 of 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Finance has been much slower than other sectors and other business departments to move to the cloud. Let’s explore this topic in a two-part series to better understand the hesitation and why it makes sense to overcome it. Finance Industry’s Security Concerns Finance Departments Used to be the Tech Trendsetter 15 Reasons Cloud Makes Sense for Finance Departments Both the finance industry and finance departments at companies have been slower than their counterparts to adopt cloud computing. Let’s look at what’s holding things back and why it’s worth tackling the challenges and moving forward – specifically, a.) security concerns of financial firms, and b.) reasons finance departments benefit from cloud. Finance Industry’s Security Concerns Finance has been slow to switch over to cloud computing because of concerns with security and compliance. However, more finance companies are adopting cloud every day, replacing their legacy approach with the easy adaptability, high performance, and multigenerationally approved interfaces of cloud. What’s basically holding financial firms back is that they want to make certain that user data and business processes can be safe within another organization’s datacenters. Finance companies have expansive and intricate computing systems that depend on core on-premises software, and it’s absolutely critical […] The post Why Cloud Computing is a Smart Choice for Finance (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Picking out a low-quality web host is one of the top five mistakes companies make in setting up and operating their websites. Here are a few elements to evaluate to be certain your web host is strong. Poor Web Host Selection: a Common Website Mistake Eight Elements for Selecting Web Hosts Figuring out which web hosting company deserves your business can be a bit daunting. After all, every service out there claims to be customer-centered, have virtually no downtime, and be staffed with experts; then you run into a problem and realize it’s actually the opposite. Let’s look at how to choose a good company to provide your business’s hosting. First, though, let’s explore why web host selection is one of the top mistakes people make in running their websites. Poor Web Host Selection: a Common Website Mistake Just like there are plenty of opportunities for success online, there are also seemingly innumerable ways in which to make mistakes with your website. That’s a problem: websites really do need to be excellent because they are so central to business in 2016. Here are four top errors made by businesses with their websites, according to John Rampton of Forbes: Failure to […] The post Tips to Help You Pick Out the Right Web Host appeared first on Superb Internet.

In the last article, we covered how to install the Facebook Pixel and create a custom audience. Today, we’ll discuss how to take remarketing a step further so you earn more on your ad dollars ROI. In fact, I’ll show you how to make ads that resonate with your visitors and ultimately lead to a sale. Let’s get started… What is the difference between a specialist and a general practitioner? Specifically, the difference between a Doctor who practices general medicine and a Doctor who focuses on brain surgery? Money. The Doctor who specializes in brain surgery Makes More Money than the general practitioner. He has a more narrow focus and a much higher standard. The brain surgeon has undergone extensive training at great expense to himself and his family. The same is true for marketers. Sure, you can blast ads all over the Web and you’ll get traffic and probably some sales… but if you hone down your remarketing campaigns with laser focus you’ll get higher returns on your investment. For example, you can use the Facebook Custom Audiences to target people who hit your sales funnel… step-by-step. Here’s how most of the big marketing guru’s setup their Custom Audiences: […] The post The Remarketing Traffic Boomerang Plan (part 3) appeared first on Superb Internet.

In our previous article, we discussed why you should be using remarketing to make your ad dollars go farther for you. Remarketing helps reduce your conversion costs and increase brand awareness. The first step to remarketing is to add the remarketing code from Facebook. There are many other remarketing companies beyond Facebook (AdRoll and Perfect Audience are two of the largest), but Facebook is the easiest to setup and create targeted ads for. Setting Up Your Site for Remarketing No matter what kind of website you use, you should be able to easily install the Facebook Conversion Pixel yourself. If you use WordPress you can install a plugins that makes adding the Facebook Conversion Pixel really easy. The brand new Facebook pixel makes conversion, tracking, and remarketing possible from just a single pixel. Once installed, you’ll be able to track your visitors and follow conversions based on advertisements. In addition, you enable remarketing (the focus of this article). So we are really killing three birds with one stone (or pixel in this case). You can get the WordPress plugin here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/facebook-conversion-pixel/ If you are using traditional HTML, you’ll need an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver to install the pixel. My […] The post The Remarketing Boomerang Plan (part 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

The use of various types of images has rapidly increased since the inception of the Web – with literally trillions of image views now occurring annually. One common form of online image is the meme – which isn’t just a picture with text but a concept popularized by Richard Dawkins. The Rapid Rise of the Image Origin of Meme as a Word & Concept Meme Created through Analysis of Selfishness The Genetics of Culture The Meme the Seme The Internet Meme is Born The Rapid Rise of the Image Image is huge online, as indicated by the greater engagement that companies typically see when they integrate visuals into their content. Of course the two standard traditional forms are photo and video. The Internet also saw the rise of short, repeating video clips (one example of a GIF) and photos with text (one example of a meme). The general obsession with image, and the interplay with images and video that occurs with the latter two formats, means that companies focused on image searching, manipulation, and sharing have become big business. Take Imgur, an image-sharing community founded in 2009. For five years, the company struggled to grow with little financing, reports Fast […] The post The History of the Meme appeared first on Superb Internet.

In this series, we will be working our way through remarketing using Facebook. Today’s article will cover what remarketing is and the benefits. Facebook allows us never before seen technology to drill down and segment the perfect target customers for our products. Complete with demographics, likes, interests, and even buying patterns. Pretty awesome! What is Remarketing? If you are currently spending money with online advertising and don’t know what remarketing / retargeting is… I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the power and cost effectiveness this new channel provides. Remarketing in a nutshell allows you to tag visitors to your website, Facebook page, emails, and even apps and ‘remind’ them of specific product pages they visited. This is a powerful new tool and allows you to maximize your ad dollars to the fullest. Here’s an example of how remarketing works: Let’s pretend you run a Google Adwords campaign for your local business. When a Google visitor clicks on your Adwords Ad they are redirected to your landing page. Once they hit your landing page, the visitor is tagged by your website. This is done by placing a small snippet of code similar to the Google Analytics code you are […] The post The Remarketing Boomerang Plan (part 1) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Now that the banking cloud is quickly developing, traditional banks are realizing they have to improve their digital stance if they don’t want to see a mass exodus of their customers. Better Security Perception & a Changing Market Digital the Way to Bank Quickly Essential to Continuing Retail Success Diving into Digital Immediacy without Sacrificing Service Cloud as a General Path Forward Conclusion Better Security Perception & a Changing Market Now that cloud-centered, digital bank startups are on the rise, traditional firms are assessing the extent to which they might want to invest in newer technologies. Public cloud was previously feared as a general security concern, but that perception has largely changed: security was listed as the top challenge with cloud in last year’s State of the Cloud survey, but in 2016 the top issue is talent and resources. Banks are becoming more open to cloud in terms of security but also from a business standpoint, recognizing that they are losing market share to emerging businesses such as Starling, Mondo, and Atom. Traditional banks have had to move elements of their businesses beyond their own datacenters in order to effectively respond to the changing financial landscape. Digital the Way to Bank […] The post Will Traditional Banks Be Able to Win at Cloud? appeared first on Superb Internet.

Many governments still haven’t switched over to cloud computing. Let’s look at why cloud is advantageous and factors that have made “cloud-first” policies challenging to realize. Objective: Less Governmental Waste Benefits and Concerns of Cloud Computing for Government Offices What’s the Holdup? Making the Switch Objective: Less Governmental Waste In the 2016 US presidential race, we see a lot of discussion of education, healthcare, and the economy, but not much on the topic of real structural changes to streamline the federal system. The best way for government to become more efficient is to look at the technology that has disrupted and ultimately strengthened businesses throughout the marketplace. The pressure on government agencies to provide better services within strict budgets has always prompted governments to consider ways to work together. The ability of organizations to foster collaboration got a major boost with the rise of the cloud, mobile devices, and social apps. These tools allow federal agencies to develop ideas and programs internally – branching out to affiliates, vendors, and the general public as desired. Now, these technologies have been helpful to government departments, but the transition has also been tricky, notes Morten Brøgger in Government Technology. It’s been difficult to […] The post Cloud Computing as a Cultural Evolution in Government appeared first on Superb Internet.

Since there are not enough skilled data scientists out there to meet the growing needs of business, many businesses are focusing on accessing great insights by using outside parties. Crowdsourcing, one example of which is data science contests, allows you to get a project off the ground in an organized and affordable way. Competing for Data Glory Good Causes Reason #1: Better algorithm or model Reason #2: Broad interaction with the outside world Reason #3: Do something no one thinks can happen Reason #4: Find your data sicence whiz Reason #5: Get your study out in the open Reason #6: Give fodder to budding scientists Competing for Data Glory Data science contests are becoming more popular, and they adjust to focus on possible solutions to different problems over time. These competitions are used generally for learning, development of the analytical model, and to engage with potential new hires. Small businesses find these contests helpful because data science is an area in which they need specific skills but can’t always budget for a staff position. However, companies of all sizes find them useful since there is such an influx of data science energy and ideas. With regards to infrastructure, cloud computing […] The post 6 Ways it Can Make Sense to Crowdsource Data Projects appeared first on Superb Internet.

A term pertaining to colocation bandwidth that you may have heard is the 95th Percentile Monitoring – also known as the 95% Method. So what does the term mean? To illustrate, we will look at a monthly graph of an Internet uplink port: As you can see, this graph, has the data on the vertical axis, and the pass of time on the horizontal axis. About five weeks’ worth of data is shown here. Please notice that the sample rate has been consolidated to two-hour intervals in this graph – using smaller intervals does not make a statistically significant difference when graphing data over a larger time span. So, how does a colocation service provider like us compute bandwidth usage for the month using this data? You might assume that it would be fair to add the Average In and Average Out values (Internet traffic travels in both directions) – a total of 36.3 Mbps in this case – and declare that to be the official usage for the month shown. In fact, many other data centers will do just that. However, there is another way: the 95th Percentile Methodology. Here is how it works: A log of 30-days-worth of traffic samples at default […] The post 95th Percentile Methodology: What It Is, How It Works appeared first on Superb Internet.

A few weeks ago, we covered “How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days and Convert Them into Loyal Customers.” To be honest, you need a reliable and affordable way of channeling prospects to your business… but you have to have a good site design to begin with. I’m going to assume you have found your market and your niche. You can’t sell ice to an Eskimo… you can try, but you’ll go broke. Assuming you have the niche and market… You need the right ‘fly catchers’. Otherwise, you will just be wasting your hard earned money on traffic solutions that lead nowhere. If you haven’t completed the initial prep phase for your blog or website, you should go back to our original article on “How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days and Convert Them into Loyal Customers.” If you missed it, you can click the links below to read it:? Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 As I mentioned before… don’t skip priming your website with the proper fly catchers… otherwise you are just pouring money down the drain. When you are ready, it’s time to drive traffic to your site. Here’s the real shocker… One traffic […] The post How to Choose the Right Social Media Channel appeared first on Superb Internet.

It can be a little daunting to compare different web hosting companies. Here are some of the most important things to keep in mind when you select a provider, along with ways that the wrong service can be detrimental. Getting Started with Your Search Track Record Equipment & Uptime Backups Cost Customer Support Connectivity Why Poor Hosting Choices are Problematic Conclusion Getting Started with Your Search Especially with the rise of CMS options such as WordPress and other site-building systems, creating your own site has become much more manageable for novices. One challenge for business owners, though, is figuring out which web hosting service is the right choice. There are currently more than a billion websites online globally. Every one of those sites is hosted, whether through the company’s own data center or an outside provider. Web hosts tend to sell their plans with a huge amount of attention toward price. Of course affordability is a critical factor, but there are other considerations as well. Here are some of the top strengths you want to see from a web host, as well as ways that the wrong hosting can hurt you. Track Record It’s important to understand how credible and […] The post What You Want From Web Hosts, and How Bad Hosting Can Hurt You appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud is growing at an incredible pace, just as it did in 2015. As cloud comes into its own, IT managers are learning how to better strategize to make the most of these virtual systems. Cloud Becoming Increasingly Popular with Business Rise of Hybrid Cloud, DevOps, Containers Cloud Becoming Increasingly Popular with Business A study conducted by the research firm Clutch shows that two out of three medium and large companies will spend more on cloud systems this year than they did in 2015. For the poll, which interviewed 300 information technology executives, more than two in five (42%) expected their cloud budget to rise moderately: 11-30%. Smaller proportions expected mild and extreme increases in their use of cloud: 27% said it would remain the same, while 14% expected a 31% to 50% greater expense. Meanwhile, only 6% said they would be using less cloud than they did last year. Since cloud is growing so incredibly, it could be a chance for service providers to fill the emerging business demand. Specific services that enterprises most need include app deployment (51%); disaster recovery and backup (62%); and storage (70%). Plus, all companies require strong hosting as they realize they want the […] The post Two Surveys: Cloud is Growing, Strategies Adapting appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud computing is having a major impact on all other areas of IT and delivering generally profound changes to the business world. Here’s a look at how the security field is evolving to embrace the cloud in 2016. Malware Protection Use of Firewalls Load Balancing Encrypting Switching App-Based Storage Conclusion The security industry is rapidly changing, with firewall and switching companies fading away to make room for solutions more directly geared toward the cloud. On the other hand, there are certain types of security firms that will continue to grow as the landscape shifts increasingly from physical to virtual. Malware Protection Anti-malware companies have expertise related to security, but their focus has traditionally been on in-house systems. Now that the cloud is becoming so central to computing, malicious parties are turning to those systems as points of entry for attack. In 2016, anti-malware firms will further invest in the development and introduction of cloud-specific tools. The services that will be used are fundamentally similar since the basic idea is to check traffic for possible malware injections. One challenging aspect is interoperability, notes TechCrunch – “how the anti-malware solution gets inserted into a cloud system to which it doesn’t necessarily have access.” […] The post Cloud Fuels Disruption in Security Market appeared first on Superb Internet.

Of course many businesses are moving to cloud hosting. However, there is another way that businesses are still using third parties for physical systems: colocation. Considerations for Data Center Cost-Cutting Should You Use Colocation? Controlling Your IT Budget Externally When you put together a spreadsheet with your data center budget, you really want to be skeptical of every component. You can often nix certain aspects to trim costs, and colocation will often make sense. Considerations for Data Center Cost-Cutting Cooling is a huge expense in data centers, and it is easier to control than ever before. You can probably raise the temperature a bit. You can also benefit from a free air cooling or adiabatic system long-term. You will have to pay upfront, but your power bill will drop, and often upkeep will be reduced too. Is your data center getting bigger? Data center growth is questionable as cloud computing continues to be more heavily adopted as a primary system. The idea of a single app on a singer physical server is no longer reasonable. The old model was incredibly inefficient, with hardware grossly underutilized at 10% server and 30% storage capacity in many cases. Cloud technology works even when you […] The post Colocation? Or Keep Your Physical Machines Internal? appeared first on Superb Internet.

Chief information officers are being pulled in numerous directions at once. What are the most critical areas that should not be neglected in 2016? Keep increasing digital sophistication. Leverage cloud to enhance flexibility. Recruit for changing IT dynamics. Protect your own position. Reduce grunt-work time. In the coming year, as always, CIOs have to figure out how to best use their time to help their businesses grow. It’s easy to get involved in challenges that are complex but don’t have a lot of value. To establish focus in the new year, here are five of the most important concerns for CIOs in 2016. #1 – Keep increasing digital sophistication. CIOs have to be keeping pace with technological developments because the digital aspect of business is becoming a more powerful revenue stream all the time, with Gartner predicting that the cash generated through digital means will rise from 16% to 37% through 2020. The Gartner researchers note that a side-effect of the expansion of digital business is that CIOs now must meet the needs of more diverse populations, such as the company’s leadership, outside partners, and the organization’s clients. The shift to cloud and diversification of infrastructure are ever-present elements of […] The post Major 2016 Concerns of IT Chiefs appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud can be thought of as today’s version of the old tech notion of service-oriented architecture. Let’s look at SOA, its benefits, and how cloud fits into the picture. What is Service-Oriented Architecture? Thinking in Terms of Services Benefits of Services How is Cloud a Further Evolution of SOA? How Cloud SOA is Different What is Service-Oriented Architecture? Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an approach to building IT systems that embraces the service as the fundamental point of focus. Here are three basic parameters of an IT service: It is logically based on a task that occurs over and over again, with a standardized outcome (such as delivering geolocation data or organizing financial documents). It exists as a single entity. It could also include additional services. Thinking in Terms of Services Service is not an idea that originally comes from IT, of course. Instead, it is a straight business term. Look in any business directory and you will immediately notice how many different types of services are being offered. For any type of service available on the market, the company, or provider, “is offering to do something … that will benefit other people or companies (the service consumers),” notes the Open […] The post Cloud as a Standard-Bearer of Service-Oriented Architecture appeared first on Superb Internet.

From Legacy to the Virtual Expanse Speed as an Ultimate Priority 2015 & Beyond From Legacy to the Virtual Expanse Earlier in the history of the Internet, companies created massive customized environments to store and access customer data, marketing copy, bookkeeping, best practices, and more. When these were developed, interoperability was not a concern. Typically the software adopted by companies was about making life easier for the IT department (in the sense that they had control of those variables). User-friendliness wasn’t always prioritized, which led to people getting frustrated with IT. That whole dynamic started to get upended about 10 years ago. That was when Web 2.0 apps started hitting browsers, followed by an explosion of mobile apps. These fundamentally user-focused applications were exactly what people wanted in business. A short time following the rise of the app, cloud started making it possible for employees to access software immediately, which is how Shadow IT started to develop, explains Ron Miller of TechCrunch. “Instead of going to IT and asking for resources, a process that could take weeks,” he says, “users could sign onto a cloud service and provision software, servers, storage and even developer tools with a credit card.” As these […] The post Interoperability: Key to Fast Cloud Growth appeared first on Superb Internet.

Dedicated servers can be costly. How can you get the most value out of one? The first step is to avoid these common pitfalls. What is a Dedicated Server? Getting the Most Value Error #1 – Poor Cost Management Error #2 – Lack of Attention to Authorizations Error #3 – General Security Neglect Error #4 – Failure to Test Error #5 – Excessive Concern with the Server Itself Conclusion Cloud computing has been growing incredibly over the last few years, but many companies still choose to adopt dedicated servers (whether run in-house or at a hosting service’s data center) instead. Many businesses are attracted to the fact that they have total control of the machine and that their system is operating through a distinct physical piece of hardware. What is a Dedicated Server? Think you know what a dedicated server is? It’s a single server used by one company, right? Actually, the meaning is a bit different depending on context. Within any network – such as the network of a corporation – a dedicated server is one computer that serves the network. An example is a computer that manages communications between other network devices or that manages printer queues, advises […] The post Top 5 Dedicated Server Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on Superb Internet.

In the finance sector, data safety is paramount. The adoption of cloud and containers by two huge banks demonstrates that these technologies are of use to virtually any organization. The Growing Financial Cloud Simplification at the Big Banks Streamlining & Public Cloud Forest, Not Trees Top Performance & Security The Growing Financial Cloud For financial firms, the question of using the third-party virtual systems of public cloud is challenging: financial information must be highly secure both to maintain reputation and to stay in line with regulations. Any data solution used by banks must be carefully scrutinized prior to deployment. Two of the findings from a poll published in the spring by the Cloud Security Alliance suggest that the financial industry, like healthcare and the rest of business, are increasingly comfortable with cloud technology, particularly public cloud: More than four out of five finance-sector companies that are still establishing their cloud plan will use public options (as opposed to private or hybrid ones), at least in part. Almost three-quarters of poll participants were currently transitioning from hybrid to public models. Those “two statistics show added comfort and assurance when practicing in the cloud and [are] an encouraging sign of maturity in […] The post Big Banks Talk Containers & Cloud appeared first on Superb Internet.

Lead magnet… check. Opt-in Box… check. Squeeze page… check. Now, it’s time to get the Thank You page wrapped up and build in a Self Liquidating Offer… let’s get started. The Execution Plan – #4 Thank You Page Now, you’ve created your lead magnet… you’ve created and installed your squeeze pages and opt-in boxes… now what? Once your prospect opts in, you need to direct them to a Thank You page. The Thank You page simply informs them to check their email box for the lead magnet (if they gave you a good email address) and then offers up a quick thank you… …and you could place your SLO or Self Liquidating Offer I mentioned previously in this article here. This “bridge” will span the gap from solving one problem they have to solving the greater problem… for example, the desire to become a tennis pro. The SLO is also called a TripWire Offer and is designed to quickly convert your prospect from a ‘subscriber’ into a ‘customer’. After all, we are in this to make a little money right? Here’s an example where you could place a short video thanking them for opting in and then create your bridge […] The post How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days (Part 4) appeared first on Superb Internet.

As one author explains, cloud is not only technologically but philosophically disruptive: it has changed the way we understand digital interaction. Let’s look at that broad view and then zero in on highlights from a 2015 cloud survey. Cloud as a Tech Model Highlights from New Cloud Survey Use of Cloud to Meet Business Goals Forecast for Adoption of Cloud Infrastructure & Apps Use of APIs in 2016 Budgets Decision-Makers Effect on IT Cloud as it Should Be Cloud as a Tech Model In the just-published book A Pre-History of the Cloud, author and former network engineer Tung-Hui Hu explores how the cloud changed our perception of the Internet. He does so by tracing the development of the use of cloud as a model within communications and technology. One of the first appearances of something that resembled the cloud was in a 1922 diagram that suggested a system of telegraph connections to enable mathematicians to rapidly interact for better weather forecasting. Another project fashioned in a similarly nebulous, interconnected manner came in 1951, when AT&T announced its new electronic skyway, which was a US-based network of microwave relay stations. In the 70s, the notion of cloud had been embraced as a […] The post Trends & Forecasts from the IDG Cloud Survey appeared first on Superb Internet.

Alright! Now we should have our first lead magnet done… if you didn’t complete yours – go back now and follow along in part 2 of the “How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days”. Once you’ve completed your lead magnet, it’s time to build out the “fishing lures” aka the Opt-In boxes. Let’s get started! The Execution Plan – #2 Tools to Create and Install Opt-In Boxes In order to install an opt-in box on your blog – you will first need email marketing software like ConstantContact, AWeber, or MailChimp. Each of these services will allow you to create a ‘list’ for your lead magnet. The list is what will store your email subscribers you obtain from your blog. In addition, the email service is where you will log in and send emails from. The email service will also be setup with an ‘auto responder’ and optin system that keeps you CAN-SPAM compliant (which is important). The email service will deliver your lead magnet quickly and automatically for you as well… which aids in creating a tighter bond with subscribers. Once you have created your “How to Break Serve” list inside of your email marketing software – you […] The post How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days (Part 3) appeared first on Superb Internet.

In part 1 of “How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days”, we learned why we must blog… and the strategy we must integrate into our website and blog to improve the conversion process. Also known as the Know, Like, and Trust formula. Today, we will be getting our hands dirty and start working on our first weapon of conversion – the Lead Magnet. The Execution Plan – #1 Build Your Lead Magnet Assuming you already have a blog, we can begin… if you need hosting I recommend you find a basic plan and install WordPress. You can go here for affordable hosting packages: http://www.superb.net/web-hosting/web-hosting-plans Building credibility and trust is first done by creating a Lead Magnet. A lead magnet is simply a free cheat sheet, whitepaper, video, or anything that SOLVES ONE PROBLEM your target prospects have. What Makes a Good Lead Magnet? Solves a Problem for Your Prospect MUST be Consumed by Your Prospect (brief but concise) Delivered Quickly (via email or link via email) Quite simply, we want to HELP the prospect without being too pushy. Second, the lead magnet must be of suitable quality that they actually consume the information or service. The people who […] The post How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days (Part 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Data scientists are getting paid huge salaries, presumably to infuse their businesses with insight and allow stunning differentiation from competition. However, many organizations aren’t using this field to its full potential. Fail #1 – Too Much Data, Not Enough Science Fail #2 – Lack of Clearly Established Goals Fail #3 – Chasing After Leprechauns Fail #4 – A People Problem Fail #5 – Thinking it’s Just a Trend Fail #6 – Demanding Black and White We can all agree that the era of data science is in full swing. If we need any further evidence of that truism, we can look at the high salaries companies are willing to pay to specialists. For instance, in Australia, the average data scientist now makes $200,000 – the equivalent of $146,000 in USD – according to a report from data intelligence consultancy Which-50. Although business leaders know that having experts who are focusing their efforts on data analytics is increasingly critical, companies still are not fully capitalizing on their data science investments. Nearly as many analytic experts say that their business is not making full use of their capabilities (37%) as say that their role is fundamental to their firm’s competitive advantage (40%). […] The post Data Science “Fails” to Avoid appeared first on Superb Internet.

How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days and Convert Them into Loyal Customers I’ve been blogging for many years now, and I can tell you blogging works for generating new prospects and customers… IF you go about it the right way. In this series, I hope to give you a solid foundation and a blueprint for turning your existing blog into an effective sales channel for you. This system will make you money. In fact, the system I’m sharing is a funnel that will generate quality leads and the convert those leads into customers. You’ll also learn why blogging is valuable (if you aren’t blogging now) – and I’ll lay out a full step-by-step Execution Plan so you can begin generating subscribers quickly. The execution plan is simple enough for a beginner to implement and powerful enough for seasoned marketers to benefit from. While I will lay out the full plan for you, it’s up to you to implement. Don’t be shy, this plan only takes a short amount of time to create and execute. In addition, feel free to ask questions in the comments below this article if you get stuck or have questions. Getting to 1,001 […] The post How to Get 1001 Blog Subscribers in 30 Days (Part 1) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Discussion of web hosting has become cloud 24/7, but using a dedicated server is still a completely reasonable choice. Let’s look at what a dedicated server is and the advantages of using one. What is a Dedicated Server? Access/Control Security Uptime Your Own IP Service Options What is a Dedicated Server? A dedicated server is a single server that is designated for the specific use of one company or individual. It typically includes a Web server program (such as Apache) and other basic applications, along with an Internet connection through the hosting service’s data center. Dedicated servers are often used for websites with large amounts of traffic. The customer is able to control the server remotely from its own office. The cost savings include those for the router, security software, network administration, and web connection. When a company gets a dedicated server package, they may have to use a particular operating system or might have a choice – typically Linux vs. Windows. Sometimes companies already have their own hardware or want to invest in custom equipment but still want a place to put it and to take advantage of the other benefits of data centers. In those cases in which the […] The post Why Use a Dedicated Server? Five Reasons appeared first on Superb Internet.

There are all these reports coming out that cloud is now the “de facto” choice for technology – that basically it has trumped legacy systems so substantially that it’s now the top tech priority for businesses. But if cloud is now standard, it must also be transformative in order to incorporate finance chiefs. Cloud at Top of Business Now Considered the “De Facto” or Default Choice Leveraging the Potential for Transformation Why Settle for Mediocrity? Cloud at Top of Business It’s obvious to most businesspeople that technology is now central to business success. The ever-changing landscape of technology can only be ignored at one’s peril. What’s the evidence? In fact, a report released in June found that almost three out of four chief executives around the world believe that technology is disrupting their industry – in other words, they say it is the one element that most greatly influences the market. Technology is important, but what’s the most key technology for development, differentiation, and competitive advantage? Here are the top responses: Cloud computing – 63% Mobile tech – 61% Internet of things – 57% Cognitive computing – 37% Groundbreaking manufacturing tech – 28% [RELATED: Do you want cloud that’s never oversold? […] The post The De Facto Cloud Should Be Transformative appeared first on Superb Internet.

Although cloud has been on the rise for years, it’s not reached a plateau. A poll of IT senior executives shows adoption will continue to grow in 2016. While some enterprises are adding security, US federal CIO Tony Scott says there is nothing safer. But CIOs are smart to work with security-focused providers. Cloud Building Regardless of Security Concerns Drop In Shadow IT Worries Coincides with Cloud-First Policies US CIO Tony Scott Praises Cloud Security IT Leadership Responsibilities The Internet of Things Top Security Meets Top Performance Cloud Building Regardless of Security Concerns Most chief information officers will be prioritizing cloud for enterprise systems in 2016, indicates a poll featured in CIO. The survey of just under 100 technology chiefs was conducted at a Gartner-sponsored tradeshow in October 2015. Cloud software allowed organizations to trim their budgets this year, according to 50% of respondents. Momentum to the cloud continues to grow, with IT pros typically coupling distributed virtual systems with cloud security: three in four (77%) said they would invest more in cloud security to support their systems. About a third of CIOs said that they would be bumping up the amount spent on cloud security by over 20%. [Need […] The post Cloud Adoption, Federally Greenlit, Will Increase in 2016 appeared first on Superb Internet.

Coder, Where Are You? Aging Gracefully The Gender Gap Narrows Wild Horses vs. University-Trained The Best Technology for Development For two weeks in February, Stack Overflow polled its users, asking them almost 50 questions on subjects ranging from gender to job satisfaction, from coffee consumption to preferences for tabs or spaces. More than 26,000 coders from over 150 nations completed the survey. The result is perhaps the most thorough report on developer preferences and work lives that has ever been published. Here are highlights specific to the demographic questions. Bear in mind as you read these results that they are geographically biased, since Stack Overflow is more popular in certain countries than others. Coder, Where Are You? The top countries of poll participants are: United States – 4745 respondents India – 2461 respondents United Kingdom – 2402 respondents Germany – 1976 respondents Poland – 833 respondents Canada – 828 respondents Those total figures are based in part on population, though. Per capita, the top development countries – listed as coders for every 1000 people – are: Luxembourg – 39.8 Iceland – 35.0 Sweden – 35.0 Israel – 33.4 Finland – 33.0 Singapore – 31.7 Aging Gracefully How old are developers? Well, […] The post Where are the Women? Stack Overflow Developer Demographics appeared first on Superb Internet.

Three out of five game developers say that they have to work long hours during periodic crunch time, according to a recent game developers survey. The 9-to-6 Workday Crunch Time – Largely Expected Sexism & Other Challenges Freelancing vs. Contracting vs. Employment The Next Opportunity Distribution Channels Game Genres – Top Three Focuses Best Way to Host your Game The 9-to-6 Workday A Gallup survey released in 2014 found that the average amount worked by a full-time employee had gone up to 46.7 hours per week. Only two in five US workers said that they actually do work 40 hours in a typical week. Fully 50% say that they are working in excess of 40 hours. “While that 46.7-hour average doesn’t represent a significant jump,” notes Jena McGregor of The Washington Post, “it is still the highest it has been since 2001-2002, when the average was 46.9 hours.” Crunch Time – Largely Expected The extra hours of the workweek are typically experienced by game developers as crunch time. Crunch time is a critical block of time that requires necessary actions to be performed quickly and with a high degree of success. Think this quote from Mark McGwire about Sammy Sosa: “Sammy’s a September player, […] The post Crunch Time for Game Developers: Par for the Course appeared first on Superb Internet.

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell Workflow Optimization #1 – Don’t go straight into your emails. #2 – Skip the meetings. #3 – Get rid of any distractions. #4 – Write out your tasks ahead of time. #5 – Start with highest priority. #6 – Apply the concept of batching to all tasks. #7 – Go full-bore with automation. #8 – Go back-and-forth between work and breaks. #9 – Take notes. #10 – Stay in the zone. #11 – Use faster hosting. Workflow Optimization Productivity is essential in any role, but it’s particularly important for software developers since more than three in five (62%) experience crunch time on a periodic basis, according to the International Game Developers Association’s  (IGDA’s) Developer Satisfaction Survey released in September. Here are a few ways that you can improve your productivity so you can complete projects ahead of schedule and avoid those 70-hour work weeks: #1 – Don’t go straight into your emails. There is often a tendency to warm up for the actual work of development by getting caught up on email as you drink your […] The post 11 Methods for Software Developers to Become More Productive appeared first on Superb Internet.

These 16 tips can help you avoid missteps when you start developing mobile applications for iOS or Android. Most of them are generally applicable to development. Many entrepreneurs and small businesses want to make it in the world of mobile applications, but it’s difficult to figure out where to start. The competition is tremendous, with over 1 million applications on Google Play and Apple. Here is some advice from independent developers on how they have beaten the odds: 1. Look at what doesn’t work. Matt Hall of Klicktock, who created Crossy Road, says it’s a good idea to look closely at all different types of apps, not just the wildly successful ones but the incredible failures. By analyzing ways in which other developers have made oversights, you can avoid the same errors yourself. 2. Create more apps by reducing time-to-market. You don’t want to labor over one app forever, making it perfect, advises Appmasters.co founder Steve Young. “Focus on creating simple apps that can be published in roughly six to eight weeks,” he says. “This allows you to test many different ideas and create a portfolio of apps, which in turn will increase your likelihood of success.” 3. Focus on […] The post 16 Pointers to Make it Developing Mobile Apps appeared first on Superb Internet.

How could you improve your e-commerce business this year? Try these methods to rethink your design, content, and hosting. Perform a content audit. Perform a design audit. Verify mobile usability. Put new content on your site, especially pictures and reviews. Retool your product copy. Use good photos that are not massive. Get true 100% HA cloud hosting. What can you potentially add or change about the way that your e-commerce company does business that can make a big impact on growth? Here are eight tactics from online strategists, web developers, and hosting experts. 1. Perform a content audit. Has some of your content become dead weight? We all know it’s good to have a huge amount of quality content, but sometimes certain pieces or posts will no longer fit with your message. Kathryn Hawkins of Eucalypt Media recommends creating a spreadsheet and marking each content piece to retain, change, or remove. That tactic does wonders for UX and navigability, she says. You also want to make sure you don’t have a bunch of broken links, advises Steve Silberberg, founder of the weight loss company Fitpacking. Broken links are irritating to individual users and also damage your Google search standing. 2. […] The post 7 Meaningful Improvements for E-commerce appeared first on Superb Internet.

This year, worldwide business-to-consumer e-commerce is projected to total more than $1.7 trillion, with mobile purchases representing almost $300 billion of that amount. Obviously every e-commerce business wants to get as big a slice of that market as they can, so they try to stand out and get the attention of consumers, a large portion of whom use mobile devices for shopping. What are the best ways for a company to outperform its rivals in 2015? The key is understanding eight current trends. Greater complexity is being built into content, but text still matters. Many companies are finding that consumers are especially responsive to more dynamic, interactive features on e-commerce sites, comments e-commerce visual specialist Russ Somers of Invodo. What types of content, specifically? “Images that spin and rotate, interactive videos that have clickable elements that allow consumers to learn more about products and purchase them, and guided online walkthroughs of consumer electronics devices,” says Somers. While Somers is right that sophisticated visuals can be effective at engaging consumers, it’s also important not to forget the basics: words. After all, original copy (i.e., any kind of unique text) is still considered the most valuable form of content by three in five marketers […] The post Trends Critical to E-commerce Growth in 2015 appeared first on Superb Internet.

What are the most important metrics for SaaS? Here are 5 big ones, one of which is churn. After looking over the metrics, we will review a simple way to reduce churn. Key Performance Indicators Monthly Recurring Revenue Churn Cost per Acquisition Mean Revenue per Customer Lifetime Value Reducing Churn with Speed Key Performance Indicators What are the key performance indicators for your company? In other words, what metrics do you most need to watch to figure out the best direction and how you might need to change? There is a lot of overkill with metrics. Data is helpful, but it quickly makes a situation chaotic and even more difficult to understand if you’re trying to focus on dozens of metrics at once. As a basic rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to eliminate the amount of metrics you track simultaneously to 10, according to KISSmetrics market analyst Lars Lofgren. Otherwise, you can end up in the classic situation of “not being able to see the forest for the trees.” “When you’re tracking dozens of metrics at once, it’s nearly impossible to focus on the most important trends and act on them,” says Lofgren. “There’s just too much going on. […] The post KPI Focus: Know Your SaaS Company’s Key Performance Indicators appeared first on Superb Internet.

Introduction: Developers Key in a Data-Infused World Cloud as a Critical Tool for Development The Role of Open Source True Distributed Cloud for the Best Results Introduction: Developers Key in a Data-Infused World Developers are essential to the new economy. First, just think about the scale of data – even from a year ago: Think your post is important? It’s got competition. Every minute, 2.5 million instances of Facebook sharing occur. Do you think search engine optimization might be important? Do you think it might be getting more sophisticated? Every single minute, over 4 million search requests are placed with Google. Do you want to make a living off of your YouTube show? So does your neighbor. Every minute, 72 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube. In other words, the sheer amount of raw activity occurring in the digital universe is staggering. Because that activity is so intense, data is becoming more valuable all the time. Forbes Data Driven Business editor Howard Baldwin points out how powerful data is by looking at two companies, one that is data-based and one that is physical. Baldwin contrasts Facebook to a major airline, United Airlines, which he describes as “a company that actually […] The post Tapping Innovation: How Developers Leverage Cloud appeared first on Superb Internet.

FISMA compliance is a fact of life for federal agencies. However, many agencies aren’t meeting regulatory requirements with their cloud computing services. What is FISMA? How to Achieve FISMA Compliance FISMA Cloud Compliance Has Holes The FISMA-Compliant Cloud What is FISMA? The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) was passed by U.S. Congress to create a management structure in order to safeguard federal data, systems, and properties against environmental disasters, cyberattacks, and human error. FISMA was a piece of the Electronic Government Act of 2002. FISMA gives certain agencies regulatory powers to maintain data security throughout federal systems, explained Margaret Rouse in TechTarget. “The act requires program officials, and the head of each agency, to conduct annual reviews of information security programs,” she said, “with the intent of keeping risks at or below specified acceptable levels in a cost-effective, timely and efficient manner.” How to Achieve FISMA Compliance The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlines the process to meet and maintain FISMA compliance: Using the security category definitions from FIPS 199, figure out what the impact level is for the data you want to secure. Determine the basic mechanisms that are necessary. Further improve your security stance with […] The post Toward a Fully FISMA-Compliant Federal Cloud appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud Providers Treating Customers Like Barflies Scout’s Explanation of Steal Time at AWS How Much is Steal Time Affecting You? Movie Tickets Analogy Importance for Web Apps 4-in-1 Cloud VM Cloud Providers Treating Customers Like Barflies Almost all cloud service providers are overselling their resources to a ridiculous degree. They don’t provide real resource guarantees because they don’t want to: it’s easier to pack in as many customers as they can, especially since that terrible service quality is so standard in the industry. The quality of what you are getting in a cloud service at most providers is like bathrooms at dive bars (enter at your own risk). If everyone in the dive bar market is agreeing not to raise their cleanliness level into the Not Completely Disgusting range, customers are less irritated when they walk into another cesspool. Dive bars are designed for barflies: you can get the bar atmosphere for cheap, but don’t expect to be treated with respect. The basic philosophy shared by many cloud providers and dive bar owners is: “Everyone else is providing something awful, so why don’t we?” Just as the result of that philosophy leads to dirty bathrooms in the dive bar, it […] The post Neighbor Stealing Your CPU vs. 4-in-1 Machine appeared first on Superb Internet.

As cloud becomes the central development environment, cloud services are aiming to best meet developer needs. Infrastructure-as-a-Service Growing Astronomically Developers Rush Toward the Cloud Why Developers are Critical to Your Mission Setting the Stage for Great Developers The CIO vs. the Developer Distributed Storage for Developer-Grade Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service Growing Astronomically Cloud is growing extraordinarily fast. You probably have heard that, but a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC) backs up what previous analyses have suggested. The IDC report predicts that the amount spent on cloud infrastructure will expand 21% year- over-year between December 2014 and December 2015. It will rise from representing 28% of all infrastructure costs to 33% of them, totaling $32 billion by year’s end. The rate at which businesses continue to switch over to cloud platforms will continue to be high through the end of the year and into 2016, explains Kuba Stolarski of IDC. “As the market evolves into deploying 3rd Platform solutions and developing next-gen software,” he says, “organizations of all types and sizes will discover that traditional approaches to IT management will increasingly fall short of the simplicity, flexibility, and extensibility requirements that form the core of cloud solutions.” Developers Rush Toward the […] The post Projection: 15 Million Developers in Cloud by End of 2015 appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud industry market leaders are incredibly successful in the category of failure. Here are some top trending #CloudFails from the technology’s brief history. At Superb Internet, we consider almost ALL cloud providers to be fails because they’re overselling their services, leading to unnecessarily spotty performance. Before we get into why what we offer is vastly superior to the often disappointing speed and reliability of our competitors, let’s look at nine of the biggest historic cloud fails. Netflix Goes Down Thanks to Amazon This year, AWS proudly let us know that its cloud computing division was worth almost $5 billion. For growth, they get a gold star. But as the dangers of eating contests reveal, bigger is not always better. Netflix was one of the original mega-companies to try out Amazon Web Services (AWS). At first glance, it looked like a match made in heaven. “On the one hand, there was Netflix, whose streaming services were growing far faster than the company could maintain with internal IT resources,” says Andrew Froehlich of InformationWeek, “[O]n the other, retail giant Amazon was on the bleeding edge of the cloud computing movement and ready to make a splash with its new venture.” Sadly for anyone hoping […] The post Digital Duncecap: 9 Memorable Cloud Fails appeared first on Superb Internet.

Think about any field, and you can identify the promise of the service provided and how that promise is left unfulfilled by many businesses due to their greed and willingness to leave their customers unsatisfied. Two obvious examples: Preventable medical errors are the third-highest cause of death in the United States, suggesting that many American “healthcare” providers are doing an awful job at living up to their name. In academia, the cost of for-profit colleges is almost twice that of in-state public four-year school tuition ($15,130 vs. $8893), but employability for for-profit graduates is 22% lower that it is for public institutions and private nonprofit schools. Should you go to the doctor when you get sick? Maybe, but be careful what clinic or hospital you choose – apparently there’s a fair amount of collateral damage. Is an education worth it anymore? Sure, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that a diploma is just as valuable no matter where you go. Not every doctor will kill you, and not every diploma is worthless, though. The message here is that quality still matters. It matters in technology just as it does in other industries. It’s critical when choosing cloud providers because cloud […] The post Not All Cloud Services are Created Equal appeared first on Superb Internet.

The adaptability and predictive analytics of cloud allow e-commerce companies to excel in an increasingly complex marketplace. Global Adaptation Predictive Analytics Strong Cloud with Distributed Storage Global Adaptation Clarins, a French makeup manufacturer, decided to aggressively target the Chinese market in 2012. The company had previously only made sales in China via its affiliates. It wasn’t easy to figure out how to maintain its current brand presence and properly position itself with Chinese consumers, explains online sales VP Laurent Malaveille. Using a cloud e-commerce system makes it easy to split those two messages. In years past, running a complete second website could have been prohibitively expensive. Today, system maintenance is entrusted to a cloud provider. Since the basic technical aspects of Clarins’ infrastructure are covered, the IT and e-commerce teams are able to focus on more specific work concerns such as the company’s rewards program. The Chinese site was a huge success, with double-digit revenue increase through the first six months. The company currently operates a dozen e-commerce websites worldwide, each of them tailored toward the specific regional culture and powered by a cloud server. One reason the company is using cloud is that it wants to be able to […] The post Cloud Fuels Worldwide Adaptation & Predictive Analytics for E-commerce appeared first on Superb Internet.

By running data science projects in the cloud, social entrepreneurs such as actor Adrian Grenier can tackle poverty and other global problems. Business for Social Good Cloud Data to Improve Lives No More Head-Scratching Recovery from Natural Disasters Building Your Social Entrepreneurship Tool Business for Social Good In the HBO show Entourage, Matt Damon has to call in backup from Lebron James to convince Vincent Chase to give more than $10,000 to his children’s charity. In the background is the private plane in which Chase will be flying momentarily to Italy. Essentially, Chase is being shamed into giving more money – relenting and casually telling his assistant to stroke a check for $150,000. As it turns out, the guy who plays Chase, Adrian Grenier, does not need to be convinced to pay it forward. Alongside his acting, he created the content platform SHFT in 2010, which focuses on movies, cuisine, industrial design, and creative projects that promote environmentalism. In turn, he has been given a new position at Dell as its social good advocate. It’s a fancy title, but does it mean anything? The short answer is yes. Through the Dell Legacy of Good program, Grenier will advance “a lot […] The post Social Entrepreneurship Accelerates with Cloud Computing appeared first on Superb Internet.

Transportation is about getting different places within the physical world, while cloud is fundamentally about moving around in the virtual world. Regardless of this different focus, the car can learn much from the cloud. Transportation is a vast field of industry. The top five car companies bring in more than $822 billion in just one year. Although automotive is enormous, it’s vulnerable to the same technological disruption that is occurring elsewhere. Zipcar, Lyft, and the ultra-popular but much-loathed Uber are changing the way that we get ourselves from place to place. IT has been in rapid transition just as transportation has. Looking at the computing transition from physical, legacy systems to cloud architectures shows us the path forward for automotive companies – as indicated by these five lessons. 1. Renting is the budget-friendly choice. In the pre-cloud era (that of the second platform, the common client-server setup), those who rented IT basically expected to pay more and get less. However, as the volume of IT consumers expanded and technology was adjusted to optimize efficiency, renting became the way to go. “Today’s cloud IT vendors have both the buying power and the operational discipline to minimize the cost to the customer of […] The post Lessons That Cloud Computing is Teaching the Car Industry appeared first on Superb Internet.

NOTE: This is Part 2 of a two-part story – to read Part 1, please click HERE. ITIL Category #3 – Service Transition ITIL Category #4 – Service Operation ITIL Category #5 – Continual Service Improvement Remembering the Fundamentals Getting Certified Healthy Skepticism Multiple Certifications = Checks & Balances ITIL Category #3 – Service Transition No matter how much you strategize and design your service approach, business is fundamentally about adaptation. Transitioning from one service to another has become even more common during the age of cloud self-service provisioning. New systems can be implemented almost instantly, which raises the possibility that processes can be potentially thrown into disarray. Systems must be set up properly so that tasks can be conducted as planned, without interruption. Service transition involves a range of complexity, though – it could mean including an additional column within a PDF report or adoption of different enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Remember again that ITIL centers IT specialists on the services that they are providing rather than the technology itself. “The focus of the conversation with the customer is not on the ‘ERP System,’ but instead on the new capabilities and the timing of the switchover,” says Heusser. “That’s […] The post What is ITIL Certification? A Beginner’s Guide – Part 2 appeared first on Superb Internet.

Origins of ITIL How IT is Framed by the Library Four General Roles within IT Provision ITIL Category #1 – Service Strategy ITIL Category #2 – Service Design ITIL-Certified = Ordering off a Menu Many people consider IT a little obtuse just because of the sheer volume of terminology. Just think about it: OS, GUI, SSD, DDoS… The list goes on. Certification standards and compliance mechanisms are no different from the rest of the field: HIPAA, HITECH, PCI-DSS, SSAE, ISO, ITIL. There are just a lot of different things to keep straight, and it’s understandable that many of us have a surface-level knowledge of certain elements. In the case of ITIL, many people know to check if a vendor has that certification but don’t know much about what it entails. Is that you? Here is a quick guide that gives you a sense of what the certification means so that you can know how it helps, whether internally or through an IT vendor. Origins of ITIL Information technology is centrally concerned with the backend – servers, networking, databases, virtualization technology, etc.. Customers of IT service providers, though, are concerned with the specific functions they can do with their computers – […] The post What is ITIL Certification? A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on Superb Internet.

Why are we certified for ISO 9001:2008, and why might going through that process make sense for any organization? ISO 9001 is a standard established by the International Organization for Standardization (with the confusing acronym ISO) – a body that creates voluntary technical guidelines for international business and technology, founded in 1947 in Geneva, Switzerland. The ISO 9001 standard is straightforwardly entitled “Quality Management Systems” (QMS). Although people often think of the ISO standards as a way for tech companies to prove their credibility, they are helpful for any type of business, yours included. If you do decide you want to get certification for the standard, you would need to get audited by a registrar that would come out and physically check your systems and processes. Here are 10 reasons to answer the question above: why it might be relevant for your organization and is especially important for choosing IT service providers. Ability to Meet Needs First, let’s focus on some of the reasons that this standard is helpful for IT vendors. Sometimes a customer will say that they can only work with an organization that is certified for ISO 9001. The service provider goes out and gets audited – […] The post 10 Reasons for ISO 9001 Certification: Showboating vs. Integrity appeared first on Superb Internet.

Background of the ISO Wide Applicability of ISO Importance of ISO 27001:2013 Certified Partnership You may think of the certifications from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as simply a way that IT service providers can demonstrate their adherence to universally accepted practices and principles. Similar to physician board certification or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification in construction, ISO information technology standards essentially provide third-party validation so that you don’t just have to trust marketing material. In fact, ISO isn’t just about figuring out what IT companies deserve your business. It can also be helpful in assessing your company’s own IT policies and procedures. Background of the ISO The International Organization for Standardization is the most prominent creator of worldwide standards. The collaborative group essentially creates a commonly understood language of expectations that businesses can use as guidelines to improve themselves and to prove their credibility to potential customers and partners. The goal of the organization really is to reach across national borders so that knowledge on how to conduct business safely and effectively can be shared unfettered. In 1969, soon after Olle Sturen became the group’s Secretary General, he announced that the mission to globalize technical […] The post How IT Can Benefit from ISO 27001 Certification appeared first on Superb Internet.

Customer satisfaction being the underlining statement of manufactures and marketers of goods and services, business processes are being monitored to achieve that under every circumstance. An entire business cycle from generating prospects to closing and providing after sales support is monitored by thoughtfully designed CRM packages. Customer relationship management tools are now an essential part of business automation as these create the route to creation of a new client base. Implementation of a customized and responsive CRM package is a concern of all current generation businesses. CRM package developed by Salesforce addresses this issue with perfection. For business nowadays it is essential to have separate functional areas integrated. In a manufacturing setup there are different divisions looking after production, marketing, deliveries, materials management, maintenance and support. Though these functions are independent they are all part of an integrated process. CRM provides the basis of this process and works towards total customer satisfaction. Cloud computing forms the background Implementation of this comprehensive management tool is enhanced by its cloud computing technology. This technology ensures data sharing, data usage, and data storage in a virtual environment. Being virtual in nature the possibilities of data loss is eliminated and its availability ensured round […] The post The Most Effective CRM on Cloud Based Environment appeared first on Superb Internet.

Keeping Mean Tweets at Bay Virtual Redundancies for Organizational Resiliency Cloud Spurs Datacenter Infrastructure Management Who Owns the Datacenter? Matching IT Finances to Business Finances The Best Cloud for Business Keeping Mean Tweets at Bay There’s a reason that every organization should have a business continuity plan: the impact of interruption is far-reaching. In the case of a cybercriminal hack, one study – the 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study – found that the astronomical expense was indicated by the average expense per record compromised: $154. Unfortunately, hackers typically aren’t just looking for one record. In fact, the 1.023 billion records that were stolen during 2014 were based on only 1541 breaches, indicates a report from Gemalto – representing a rise of 78% over the previous year. Cost is not the only thing that organizations have to worry about when a breach occurs. The cost study also looked at loss of credibility, finding that 55% of firms that don’t have continuity plans in place prior to attacks reported that their brand lost value as well. Before Facebook and Twitter got up to speed, companies were fine setting their recovery time objectives at a few hours. The rise of social media, though, […] The post You Can Say That Again: Brand Impact of Cloud Redundancy appeared first on Superb Internet.

By refining crude data, you can generate fuel to run your business – with all aspects handled quickly and affordably through the cloud. Crude Oil and Crude Data Centrality of the Cloud for Big Data Four Steps for Data Refinement Strong Machines to Refine Crude Data Crude Oil and Crude Data It’s easier to understand big data if you think of it in terms of crude oil. Crude oil has to be refined – distilled to separate the desired hydrocarbons – in order to be useful. Data must be similarly processed, boiled down into the most relevant components that can power your company with insight and innovation. While data and crude oil do have similarities, one area of major difference is abundance. While there is obviously a finite amount of oil, with prices based on availability, the amount of data that businesses have at their fingertips is absolutely mind-boggling. In fact, that’s become exponentially more true in the last few years. Between the dawn of humanity and 2003, we collected an aggregate of 5 billion gigabytes of information. If you are familiar with large-scale data projects, that is NOT an impressive figure. In fact, 6 times that amount were produced […] The post Refining Crude Data into Startup Fuel appeared first on Superb Internet.

How our Healthcare Measures Up Ability to Understand Large Datasets Access Education Popularity Sophisticated Incentives Reframing Insurance Meaningful Innovation Your HIPAA-Compliant Partner To put it mildly, the American healthcare system is not in good shape. Analysis published last year by the Commonwealth Fund showed the US coming up dead last for the 11th straight year when pitted against the quality of healthcare in 10 other developed countries. The nations ranked as follows: United Kingdom Switzerland Sweden Australia Germany The Netherlands New Zealand Norway France Canada United States. Even though the quality of care in the United States isn’t keeping up with the rest of the world, each of us spends more on average than people in most of those other countries do. For comparison purposes with the above, here is the top 11 countries in terms of the amount per capita spent on healthcare: Norway – $9715 Switzerland – $9276 United States – $9146 Luxembourg – $7981 Monaco – $6993 Denmark – $6270 The Netherlands – $6145 Australia – $6110 Canada – $5718 Sweden – $5680 Austria – $5427 Despite all the spending, many Americans are unhealthy – with the CDC estimating that the majority of us suffer from chronic illnesses. What can […] The post 7 Strengths of Technology That Will Improve Healthcare appeared first on Superb Internet.

SMB’s Investing More in Big Data Now, Just How Big is this Data? Is it a Warm Pool or a Scary Data Dump? The Insight-Driven Animal House Big Data Cheat-Sheet Accelerate & Engage with True 100% HA Cloud SMB’S Investing More in Big Data According to analyst outfits the SMB Group, less than 1 in 5 small businesses (18%) and a slight majority of midsize firms (57%) benefit from what many consider to be the biggest fruits of cloud computing, big data analytic insights. What is going on with the businesses that are not adopting this technology? Are they making a wise choice not to invest until the industry is better established, or are they falling dangerously far behind their competition? Well, as you get more granular, it’s obvious that refined, laser-sharp intelligence is more critical in certain industries than others. Plus, even though cloud computing has made sophisticated solutions more accessible, small companies may not feel they have the money available for a test project. Others might not feel that they have adequate expertise or additional funds for consultants. There’s a common misconception held by many small business owners and managers that big data is too technologically sophisticated or […] The post The Insight-Driven Animal House [Big Data Cheat-Sheet] appeared first on Superb Internet.

The most thorough firewalls are useless against oblivious users, who are duped into inviting malware and spyware onto secure networks. Users are, more often than not, the biggest weakness in your network’s security, and hackers are increasingly using social engineering to gain access to secure data. Human Hacking Social engineering, much like classic hacking, takes note of unintentional patterns and finds openings in otherwise secure environments. Human-hacking takes advantage of our unconscious decision making patterns to gain access to secure networks. Trojan Horses Hackers take advantage of our assumptions about what kinds of devices and hard media are “safe.” Even air-gapped networks are vulnerable to these trojan horses. For example, hackers will leave USBs with reconnaissance software on a reception desk or in the parking lot of a business, trusting that some good samaritan will plug it into a secure computer, to see if they can identify the owner. Meanwhile, the device is taking note of the network map and transmitting that information as soon as it is plugged into a networked computer. And of course, any company with a bring-your own-device policy is highly vulnerable. Even when personal devices for work use are prohibited, in air-gapped offices, employees itching […] The post The Greatest Vulnerability in your Network: Users appeared first on Superb Internet.

RMF Definition & Foundation Framing Security in Terms of Risk – 6 Steps The Amorphous Nature of the RMF RMF Supporting Documents Taking the Pain Out of FISMA Compliance RMF Definition & Foundation Risk Management Framework (RMF) is the name for a structured approach to implementing high security on any IT system used by the federal government, including those of hosting providers. An effort to better standardize best practices within the public sector, the RMF is an update of the Certification and Accreditation (C & A) model used previously by federal agencies, security contractors, and the Pentagon. The Risk Management Framework is a crucial component to meeting the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA compliance). Its core tenets are derived from reports issued by the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). “The selection and specification of security controls for an information system is accomplished as part of an organization-wide information security program that involves the management of organizational risk,” explains NIST, defining that term as “the risk to the organization or to individuals associated with the operation of an information system.” Risk management is critical to security. The framework […] The post Spotlight on the FISMA Risk Management Framework (RMF) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Was gamification a trend that was overhyped? Some people now say it’s dead. What they really mean is that some companies never figured out how to apply it. The Early Promise of Gamification Gamification Over for Many Businesses Big Game Successes How To Do It Right The Early Promise of Gamification Gamification is the process of essentially turning everything into a game – applying the principles and structures of games to non-game contexts. In 2011, major analyst groups forecast that the gamification market was set to explode: M2 Research predicted that the industry would expand from $100 million to gamified application by 2014. Another group said that 7 out of 10 Global 2000 companies would deploy a gamified application by 2014. These research groups were actually correct that the market would grow enormously: more than 350 high-profile projects of this type were launched between 2010 and 2014. However, many of these initiatives were unsuccessful. They simply weren’t strategized well. Market penetration, explained Heather Clancy in 2014, was under 10%. “The pioneeers have applied these platforms to all manner of challenges, from encouraging consumers to use a new product or service more liberally to reshaping employee behavior or processes,” she said. “But without well-grounded goals, […] The post Some People Think Gamification is Dead appeared first on Superb Internet.

Gamification – Definition & Stats Travolta Misstep Turns Laser Toward Successful Game Strategies Historical News Games & Becoming Carlos Danger All Aboard the Game Train True HA IaaS Cloud to Serve Games The New York Times revealed in 2014 that content gamification had resulted in unprecedented traffic for three major news sites: the Times, Slate, and Time. The word Travoltify was coined by the NYT that day, a truly proud moment in journalism history – but this trait is exciting in many ways since it utilizes the Web’s interactive potential. Gamification – Definition & Stats According to the Engagement Alliance, gamification is a technological approach that uses the structure and mentality of games out of the traditional game scenario in order to “engage users and to solve problems”, adding that it “leverages game design, loyalty program design and behavioral economics to create the optimal context for behavior change and successful outcomes.” Analyst firm statistics are strong for the gamification market: M2 Research forecast that it would hit $2.8 billion by 2016, while Markets & Markets predicted that it would achieve $5.5 billion by 2018. Travolta Misstep Turns Laser Toward Successful Game Strategies Sure, John Travolta may not be used to speaking in […] The post Travoltify Your Site: NYT, Time & Slate appeared first on Superb Internet.

NOTE: This Part 2…to read Part 1, please click HERE. Cloud Continuous Monitoring Plans – 6 Elements [continued] Humans & Machines Why is Ongoing Monitoring So Critical? Compliance & the Myth of “The Cloud” Technology [continued] The provider wants the system to be user-friendly for its staff, so its environment will typically be fronted by and coordinated within a control panel. In that setting, the analysts can look at the technology’s suggestions and determine what needs attention — a more sophisticated human outlook on any possible threats. The cloud company or federal office will figure out how frequently reports should be issued. A control panel should have real-time information, allowing the CSP to get up-to-the-second information and fix problems as they arise. Instructional guides It’s also necessary to properly educate everyone working on your ongoing monitoring team. Create instructional guides, conduct regular staff training, and otherwise share information throughout your IT staff. “Thorough and practical training should be part of the continuous monitoring strategy itself,” says Svec, “and this training should cover the processes involved with … all elements of a continuous monitoring strategy, as well as training on the security tools being used.” Also note that the cloud company’s ongoing […] The post Building Risk-Awareness into the FISMA-Compliant Cloud (Part 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

FISMA compliance requires ongoing monitoring that adapts as the threat landscape evolves. To stay vigilant with information security, monitoring must become dynamic, aware of emergent risks in near real-time. NIST Risk Management Framework – 6 Steps Cloud Ongoing Monitoring Plans – 6 Elements FISMA-Compliant Partnership In order to meet the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act, government agencies and cloud companies have to follow strict rules and parameters. One that requires refined best practices is the need for ongoing monitoring. To standardize federal efforts and clarify how to maintain compliance, the FISMA recommendations published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contain a risk management framework that details how public-sector entities and technology services can monitor risk. NIST Risk Management Framework – 6 Steps The framework basically delineates how to set up a risk management apparatus and keep it rolling. NIST explains why focusing on risk is so important: “The management of organizational risk is a key element in the organization’s information security program and provides an effective framework for selecting the appropriate security controls for an information system—the security controls necessary to protect individuals and the operations and assets of the organization.” There are six basic […] The post Building Risk-Awareness into the FISMA-Compliant Cloud (Part 1) appeared first on Superb Internet.

Junk Pile #1 – Walmart Junk Pile #2 – Best Buy Junk Pile #3 – US Federal Government Junk Pile #4 – Unnamed Retail Company Strategically Taking on Big Data What About the Value of Small Data? Better Performance = Happier Customers “Hooray for big data! Let’s all bathe ourselves in it. It will refresh Internet opportunity, serving its timeless function as the Digital Fountain of Youth.” – anonymous “This whole new phenomenon seems like nothing but job security for data nerds who want to protect their huge budgets.” – Infofree.com founder Vin Gupta Big data is a huge movement right now in business. It’s easy to assume that the buzzword is a mythical bandwagon, but IDC predicts the total CAGR for big data hardware and software will be 26.4% through 2018, that year achieving $41.5 billion in revenue. As you can see above, though, not everyone is onboard. That’s because many data projects are overfunded and ill-conceived. Junk Pile #1 – Walmart Walmart has a massive database, including information on their customers, prices, and products. They probably expend more than $1 billion each year on data management and analytics, but their revenues remain flat. Junk Pile #2 – Best […] The post Is Your Big Data Really a Glorified Junk Pile? [Example Junk Piles] appeared first on Superb Internet.

PCI & Grim Hacking Stats Why Secure Your Data with PCI DSS? What Systems Need to Be Secured? Self-Assessment Questionnaire – How You Take Card Data Checklist – Best Practices for Security PCI Compliant-Ready Infrastructure PCI & Grim Hacking Stats If you are a small merchant that accepts payments online, you are probably familiar with the PCI Security Standards Council. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry, and the compliance body is well-known for creating the PCI Data Security Standard through its five founding members – MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express, and JCB. No one is ever pleased to hear about a bunch of rules they have to follow. However, PCI compliance does have the benefit of forcing you to prioritize security if you want to take credit cards. Accepting payments online has of course become incredibly common, but it also exposes you to a huge amount of liability: just look at 2013 stats from the National Cyber Security Alliance, integrated with the number of total businesses from the US Small Business Administration (27.9 million in 2010): One out of every five small businesses get hacked each year – that’s about 5.6 million organizations! Three out of five businesses that get […] The post Small Business PCI Compliance [Self-Assessment Questionnaire & Checklist] appeared first on Superb Internet.

The Intuitive CEO: Steve Jobs Chart: Big Data Adoption 4 Pillars for Success with Big Data Big Data Insights for Smart Strategy The Intuitive CEO: Steve Jobs One of the greatest traits that many business leaders have is confidence in their own sense of the right path forward – a sureness that isn’t based on rational evidence but a “funny feeling.” In other words, they value the subtle suggestions they get from their own antennae: their intuition. One person who famously used his intuition to drive ahead of competition is Steve Jobs. Jobs (yeah, that guy) led the team that created the iPad and made it so popular, which was an incredible success since there wasn’t any established demand for it. He basically convinced people that smart phones and PCs were not enough – that for certain scenarios, tablets are ideal. It really was a remarkable feat. It would have been no matter how Jobs had achieved it, but it is important to realize that he gambled on developing this new type of device because he was trusting his gut. Intuition can be incredibly valuable. Combine it with insights drawn from strong analytics, and your business can skyrocket. Luckily for adopters […] The post Trust Your Intuition: One of the 4 Pillars of Big Data Success appeared first on Superb Internet.

Do you feel unsure if the amount of data stored by your organization is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)? To clarify the rules, here are best practices for payment info storage as dictated in Requirement 3.1, along with information on the new version – PCI DSS 3.1. Encryption and Minimum Necessary Storage Store, or Trash? 3 Best Practices for PCI Data Storage More About PCI DSS 3.1 – Say Yes to TLS Assessments for Transition to PCI v3.1 Your PCI DSS Compliance-Ready Cloud Encryption and Minimum Necessary Storage PCI DSS 3.1 became available April 15, which is a big deal for the finance industry and anyone taking payments online. Much of the discussion surrounds the new and game-changing encryption provisions. Specifically, because of the Heartbleed bug and other vulnerabilities in open-source SSL (particularly OpenSSL), the PCI overlords at Discover, American Express, Visa, and AmEx decided that SSL is unacceptable for new systems. (Read more on this below.) Of course, PCI compliance is not just about encryption software. One of the other major sections of the standard states that any user data on cardholders should be kept on file only when necessary. That section, confusingly called […] The post Best Practices: PCI DSS 3.1, Requirement 3.1 appeared first on Superb Internet.

Big data has a story to tell – actually a different story for each one of your customers or users. If you pay attention and respond appropriately, the results can be truly extraordinary. Big Doesn’t Mean Off-Limits Getting Personal with Big Data Crowdsourcing as Fuel for a Better Buying Experience Better Modeling = Better Results Technology to Turn Users into Data Storytellers Big Doesn’t Mean Off-Limits As information has grown exponentially in recent years, big data has become a powerful technological ingredient. McKinsey suggests that harvesting the data and analyzing it creatively will result in $300 billion of revenue within the American healthcare system each year. If that number sounds enormous, compare it to McKinsey’s estimate of how much consumer surplus (difference between what consumers are willing and able to pay vs. the actual market price) will go up for companies incorporating device GPS locations with predictive models: $600 billion. So, we’re talking on the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars. Looking at those huge dollar figures alongside IBM’s estimate that only 10% of our data existed prior to 2013, and the expansiveness of this opportunity becomes mind-boggling, even intimidating. “Given the enormity of the data sets … and […] The post Retail & Public Schools Using Big Data Stories [Examples] appeared first on Superb Internet.

What is PCI DSS? Requirements for Compliance SSL Now Unacceptable Security for PCI DSS Your Solid Compliance Partner What is PCI DSS? The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is the most widely recognized standard for organizations that take payments online via credit and debit cards. It was developed collaboratively in 2004 by American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa. The real incentive for those companies was to prevent online fraud that could threaten people’s ability to use payment cards safely on the Internet, but PCI has the added benefit of making identity theft less likely for consumers. Requirements for Compliance There are six basic intentions of the PCI standards, all of which seek to strike a balance between strong security and convenience – with primary focus on the former. The network should be completely secure. Firewalls should be deployed. In the case of wireless LANs, specially designed firewall should be used, since those networks are high-risk for spying and breaches by cybercriminals. “In addition, authentication data such as personal identification numbers (PINs) and passwords must not involve defaults supplied by the vendors,” explained tech writer Margaret Rouse. “Customers should be able to conveniently and frequently change such data.” Payment data […] The post PCI DSS and the End of SSL appeared first on Superb Internet.

Data Rapidly Takes Over the Earth The Science and Art of Data The Customer is Sooooo Right Listening with Apps and People Big Data Magic Tricks Data Rapidly Takes Over the Earth These days, the data is large and in charge. It grows and grows, and it can certainly give us extraordinarily valuable insights. Big data is allowing for more intelligent choices, better efficiency, stronger interaction with customers, disease prevention, and stockmarket predictive models. Some day big data analytics could replace us behind the steering wheel, and it can already trump us in the Daily Double. Business now has an extraordinary amount of information. Data is prevalent to the extent that it is almost overwhelming. Look at it this way: the rate at which data will be created in 2020 is expected to be 44 times what it was in 2009. How do we turn all the data into meaningful insights? The Science and Art of Data Analytic tools are becoming more sophisticated, but skilled data scientists should open their safes and get ready to start dumping in some dough. Smart businesses will get both technology and human capital so they can access the right data, gathered and sorted ideally […] The post How Data Scientists Can Turn Your Big Data into Marketing Magic appeared first on Superb Internet.

HIPAA Guidelines on Mental Health Congressional Bills Currently Under Discussion Maintaining HIPAA Compliant Technology HIPAA compliance is fundamental for healthcare companies and the business associates who handle their patient information, but mental health is a special case. Specific considerations for mental health include: Determining what is acceptable in terms of informing caregivers and family Figuring out how records can be transferred to other practices Understanding whether sharing between providers is allowable. HIPAA Guidelines on Mental Health HIPAA discusses the requirements of covered entities related to mental health records. This information is often especially sensitive compared to other health data. The federal regulations are designed to maintain security and privacy of information but to also aim for transparency when appropriate. The HIPAA Privacy Rule states that covered entities can discuss mental health issues directly with loved ones and professionals caring for the patient. According to the mental-health guidance on the HIPAA site, mental health facilities can ask the patient if it is okay to communicate particular details to people involved in their daily care. Doctors can also inform the patient that they are going to make disclosures, allowing them a chance to say that it’s unacceptable. Another option is that they […] The post How HIPAA Law Applies to Mental Health Records appeared first on Superb Internet.

What is “the cloud”? Well, it’s actually thousands of technological infrastructures, each designed and managed by individual companies. One IT analyst thinks that the notion of a single cloud is ill-conceived. “The Cloud,” or a Cheap Imitation? Cloud Snowflake Syndrome: Every Cloud is Very, Very Special Careful Review of Outsourcing & Cloud Cloud Choice is Essential “The Cloud,” or a Cheap Imitation? What’s wrong with “the cloud”? It’s easy to see the benefits in terms of expense and speed. However, the marketing nonsense, where everything is called “the cloud” when it’s actually an individual cloud that is being referenced, gets old fast. In fact, in some cases, “the cloud” is hardly a cloud at all. Take, for instance, AWS – is that “the cloud”? If it is, then why is a guy who built a $200 million cloud startup calling AWS’s monolithic cloud “irrelevant” and “weak”? IT analyst Stanton Jones of benchmarking consultancy ISG says that we should start using “a cloud” instead so that we can repair the damage of thinking that every corporation with big marketing dollars can tell us they are selling us the cloud when it’s often a cheap imitation and certainly doesn’t deserve the status of […] The post IT Analyst: The Cloud May Not Exist appeared first on Superb Internet.

Innovations in Power and Information Better Insights The human Side of Technology Continuing the Push The Right Cloud Innovations in Power and Information In recent years, the federal government has moved to adopt open data and cloud technology. Open data makes it easier for governmental offices: data access is more affordable, and it is simple to make information publicly available. Cloud computing renders the costs of IT infrastructure more manageable and creates an environment within which big data analytics can allow agencies to technologically address complex issues. “Cloud computing and open data take two previously costly inputs—computing power and information—and make them dramatically cheaper,” explained Center for Data Innovation analyst Joshua New. “Government agencies invest large amounts of capital and time to build and manage their own data centers and IT infrastructure.” In other words, the cloud makes planning for the future dramatically more flexible. When only traditional IT was available, it was necessary to establish capacity by predicting how many resources would be needed in the coming months and years. Changing the capacity was complicated, so organizations ended up setting up systems with extra resources so that they would not run into a wall. The cloud makes it possible for […] The post How Open Government Data and Cloud Computing Create Value appeared first on Superb Internet.

Everyone knows that when you write a resume, you want everything to move back in time from the present. Is that always the way that it should be done, though? No, as indicated by a particular client of resume revamp specialist Donald Burns. Tossing the Rulebook Past Successes Excess Complexity The Upside-Down Resume Partnerships You Can Trust Michael Wallace has an important characteristic that he shares with huge tech icons: a big success straight out of the gates. Like Zuckerberg and Gates, Wallace has been spending his career leveraging the success he saw upfront. With this atypical history, a standard format proved unuseful when career consultant Donald Burns started rewriting Wallace’s resume. Tossing the Rulebook Burns says that his objective as a resume writer is to take two hours of conversation with a job candidate and turn it into a document that is easily digestible so that a a recruiter can get the basic gist in six seconds. “I’ve revamped over 1,200 resumes, but I had the worst time organizing Michael’s story, because his chronology is backwards,” said Burns. “The vast majority of successful people break through midway through their careers, or towards the end of their careers, but that’s not […] The post Retooling the IT Resume: When to Throw Out the Rulebook appeared first on Superb Internet.

As Cloud Computing Rises, Interoperability of Things Advances in India Gameplan Lacks International Charm India of Things Caves In on Itself The Road to True Interoperability As Cloud Computing Rises, Interoperability of Things Advances in India The business world is great at innovating to create particular devices and systems that will support intelligent technology in residential, governmental, and industrial environments. However, the headway made by tech companies is disorganized. Of course it is: the challenge created by the free market is the need to cooperate to advance interoperability. In fact, lack of interoperability is already a major problem today worldwide, as evidenced by American healthcare: 50% of registered nurses say that they have witnessed a medical error because devices were not integrated. India is attempting to meet this challenge head-on by creating an established national plan to build the Internet of Things in a manner that will enhance the ability of data to flow seamlessly and securely between devices. “In what amounts to the world’s first national strategy for the Internet of Things,” explains Center for Data Innovation analyst Joshua New, “the roadmap outlines the framework for a comprehensive, systematic approach to support digitization efforts in India, particularly the recently approved plan […] The post Pluses and Minuses of India’s Interoperability of Things appeared first on Superb Internet.

NOTE: This is the second part of a 2 part article…to read Part 1, please click HERE. Fast, Cheap, and Out-of-Control? [continued] Hide Your Kids from the Children of the Cloud Can We Stop Robots-Gone-Wild? Aligning Yourself with the Robot Future Fast, Cheap, and Out-of-Control? [continued] It’s becoming more apparent all the time that security practices at many organizations cannot withstand the increasing sophistication of the threat landscape. If the current approach is taken by companies with robots, the negative possibilities will be much more substantial (again, the self-driving car). The reason that the Internet of Things is such a dicey climate for security has to do with the many points of access it allows. “An Internet-connected robot is still a secure control environment,” says Cooper. However, the sensors that gauge temperature throughout a manufacturing facility are not nearly as sophisticated and are easier to trick. Just as with a hacker going through a coffeepot to get to a homeowner’s PC, cybercriminals could go through the sensors to make the robot perform incorrectly. A hacker could send inaccurate temperature readings to a robot that would cause it to weld for a longer or shorter period of time, botching the task. IT security […] The post Robot Report: The Children of the Cloud are Coming to Get You appeared first on Superb Internet.

Robots are about to see their heyday, operating through the cloud-served Internet of Things. Wait, is this the climax of their master plot to tear out the fabric of our civilization? In Nebraska, the nightmare is in the corn cloud. The Robots are Our Cloud Saviors The Nightmare is in the Cloud The Internet of Autonomous Control Loops Fast, Cheap, and Out-of-Control? Hiding in Your Bunker or Ahead of the Robot Curve The Robots are our Cloud Saviors Many people expect artificially intelligent, big-data-driven robots to become much more prevalent over the next decade. “By 2025, artificial intelligence will be built into the algorithmic architecture of countless functions of business and communication,” argues City University of New York entrepreneurial journalism director Jeff Jarvis. “If robot cars are not yet driving on their own, robotic and intelligent functions will be taking over more of the work of manufacturing and moving.” The designers of these robots are building them with Internet of Things capabilities to improve how they operate. They connect with Wi-Fi, take advantage of big data analytics, integrate with open-source systems, and exhibit machine learning, said UC Berkeley Prof. Ken Goldberg. IoT sensors allow the machines to gauge temperature and sense vibrations, […] The post Robot Report: The Children of the Cloud Are Coming to Get You appeared first on Superb Internet.

What’s the Price? That Depends: Who’s asking? Differential Pricing & Consumer Rights The Case for Differential Pricing What About Discrimination? What About Deceptive Business Practices? Who’s Right about Differential Pricing? What’s the Price? That Depends: Who’s Asking? There used to be a bar in a town that I will leave unnamed, somewhere in the USA, called Uptown. The bar was run by a first-generation immigrant named Ania who had a thick Polish accent and was concerned that the government was out to get her – to the point that she would often accuse customers of being federal spies. You could say that Ania’s standout feature was this conspiratorial paranoia; she distrusted structure so passionately that she didn’t want her behavior to be predictable. Therefore, she charged everyone who came up to the counter a different price for their beer. To a person, people always had a strong reaction to that. They either thought it was “genius” or that it was offensive and unfair. Fast-forward to 2015, and we see the issue of differential pricing dominating big data conversations. In Washington, DC, it’s front and center for the tech industry, a hot area of political debate. Differential Pricing & Consumer Rights […] The post Why Differential Pricing Might Actually Be a Good Thing appeared first on Superb Internet.

Start with a Question Stories of Big Data Success True 100% HA Coud Question: How many big data scientists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Answer: Just a minute. Let me run the algorithm. Digital data doubles every two years. Just think about how far we’ve come: a typical laptop now contains far more data than was used to send a mission to the moon in 1969. “The rate at which we’re generating data is rapidly outpacing our ability to analyze it,” said University College of London data scientist Dr. Patrick Wolfe. “The trick here is to turn these massive data streams from a liability into a strength.” Okay, so we aren’t making the most of the data that we are creating. Big whoop. Actually, the extent to which we are missing extraordinarily valuable data analytic opportunities is incredible: right now, only 0.5% of our information is analyzed. That means that 199 out of every 200 pieces of data is dust in the wind, so it turns out that Kansas’s ballad is still relevant even if their hairdos aren’t. In fact, the proportion of data that gets analyzed isn’t going up but down. We have more data, but it’s […] The post How Many Big Data Scientists Does it Take to Screw in a Lightbulb? appeared first on Superb Internet.

? NOTE: To read Part 1 of this story, please click HERE. Continuing our previous discussion that compared cloud computing to supercomputing, let’s look at how the cloud is being used to fulfill supercomputer responsibilities on Wall Street and in the world of research. The Wall Street Supercomputer Machine Learning The Academic & Research Supercomputer Cloud that Meets Expectations The Wall Street Supercomputer Now that we’ve compared cloud computing and supercomputing, let’s look at the use of cloud as a supercomputer. Financial analyst Braxton McKee is in the competitive world of Wall Street. Founder of the hedge fund Ufora, McKee started experimenting in cloud since he knew its analytic capabilities were unprecedented among widely accessible technologies. Using an application he developed that becomes more intelligent as it’s used, McKee creates spreadsheets that have as many as 1 million rows and 1 million columns. McKee, 35, is an example of IT-empowered data scientists taking their knowledge and applying it to the financial markets. “What’s remarkable about their efforts isn’t that AI science fiction is suddenly becoming AI science fact ,” explained Kelly Bit. Rather, “mind-blowing data analysis is getting so cheap that many businesses can easily afford it.” Artificial intelligence and machine […] The post Supercomputing vs. Cloud Computing (Part 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

? NOTE: To read Part 1 of this article, please click HERE. Minor Changes for Major Impact Don’t Appear Complacent Structure, Structure, Structure The Perfect Amount of Focus Finding an X-Factor in the Cloud Minor Changes for Major Impact When Burns spoke with Shevchuk, he realized that she was not sluggish, detached, or unfriendly as her resume might suggest. He started making tweaks in the file so everything that he could see in the person was evident in the document that would represent her. Burns offered one example: “[W]e worded it to say, ‘I grew my technical and leadership skills alongside the 30x growth of Wells Fargo Capital Finance …’ to highlight her progression and accomplishments.” In other words, the resume advisor injected more meaning into her role by establishing her as a member of a team that together boosted revenue 3000%. Plus, he added specific language to indicate that Shevchuk had been second-in-command to the CIO, developing the IT department with him for almost two decades. Don’t Appear Complacent Additionally, Burns reworded the bullets of Shevchuk’s Wells Fargo experience to convey that she was developing her skillset and taking on a stronger leadership role. When the promotions she had received […] The post Retooling the IT Resume: Focus on Your X-Factor (Part 2) appeared first on Superb Internet.

How can you improve your resume if you are having difficulty getting a job in the IT field? Let’s look at statistics so we can understand job searching in the broader context; then turn to a personal story from a job applicant who uncovered her “X-factor,” the same basic attribute you want in a cloud host. Job Search Statistics Uncover Your X-Factor The X-Factor Cloud Host Job Search Statistics When you need a job, you go out and look for one. It’s that simple. Or is it? Is your resume solid? Are you looking in the right places? What’s the competition like? How many people apply for the average job, for instance? “Many job seekers want to know, Is what I am experiencing normal?” explained Alan Carniol, founder of job interview guidance service Interview Success Formula. “I think [statistics related to the job market] can help them to answer that question and feel better about their job search experience.” In that spirit, let’s take a look at a couple of stats so we can understand our job search in the broader context – noting that although these are specific to the United States, the proportional numbers are probably within close range […] The post Retooling the IT Resume: Focus on Your X-Factor appeared first on Superb Internet.

What do people do when they have a difficult problem that is too big for one computer processor? They turn to a supercomputer or to distributed computing, one form of which is cloud computing. Processor Proliferation Why People Choose Super vs. Cloud Applications Cloud as a Form of Distributed Computing Cloud is Not All Created Equal Processor Proliferation A computer contains a processor and memory. Essentially, the processor conducts the work and memory holds information. When the work you need to conduct is relatively basic, you only need one processor. If you have many different variables or large data sets, though, you sometimes need additional processors. “Many applications in the public and private sector require massive computational resources,” explained Center for Data Innovation research analyst Travis Korte, “such as real-time weather forecasting, aerospace and biomedical engineering, nuclear fusion research and nuclear stockpile management.” For those situations and many others, people need more sophisticated systems that can process the data faster and more efficiently. In order to achieve that, these types of systems integrate thousands of processors. You can work with a large pool of processors in two basic ways. One is supercomputing. Supercomputers are very big and costly. With that scheme, […] The post Supercomputing vs. Cloud Computing appeared first on Superb Internet.

By cutting down the amount of waste generated and power used by businesses and individuals, the Internet of Things can make a positive impact on climate change. Key Points: When we don’t focus on making systems efficient, we consume power excessively. Almost 2 billion gallons of gasoline is burned annually by people whose cars are stopped (traffic jams, intersections, etc.). The Internet of Things is not just an investment opportunity but a structured chance to make a difference. What do you get when you put together cloud computing, big data analytics, mobile technology, and social networks? A. The “third platform,” a platform that was essential to the development of the emergent Internet of Things (IoT). Often called machine to machine (M2M) communication in technical circles, this broadening of computing to objects throughout the physical world includes mobile apps that monitor your health, cars talking to each other, and homes changing light and climate control based on the current location of residents. “At its very core, machine to machine communication is the ability to connect everything, I mean everything, through a vast network of sensors and devices which can communicate with each other,” explained tech finance writer Tyler Crowe. By taking advantage […] The post Internet of Things Could Defend Against Climate Change appeared first on Superb Internet.

NOTE: To read Part One of this story, please click HERE. Strategic Organizational Benchmarking: Hoshin Kanri How To – Organizational Benchmarking CPU Benchmarking of Your IaaSa Strategic Organizational Benchmarking: Hoshin Kanri We’ve talked about the three types of benchmarking – internal, competitive, and strategic. The last category is perhaps both the most confusing and the easiest external mechanism to put into place, since competitive benchmarking can be tricky just to get all the details. That’s one reason you see companies using established strategic methods such as Hoshin Kanri. Developed in the late 1950s by Professor Yoji Akao, Hoshin argued that “[e]ach person is the expert in his or her own job, and [businesses should adapt] to use the collective thinking power of all employees to make their organization the best in its field.” Toyota saw incredible success using this method to evaluate its weaknesses and strengthen itself during the recession. One thing that is helpful about Hoshin is that it makes it easier to compare cross-industrially, from one field to another. Businesses typically are more alike than different, so strategic benchmarking allows you to harvest insight that otherwise might be inaccessible. One example of similarity is the concept of wait time […] The post Coupling Strategic with Competitive Benchmarking appeared first on Superb Internet.

Just as the Internet of Things is expected to completely transform our daily lives, the Industrial Internet of Things will overhaul traditional processes in the public and private sector. However, five critical challenges must be overcome. When most of us consider the Internet of Things (IoT), the first thing we focus on is household goods, wearable devices, or maybe cars – the consumer side of the third-platform computing revolution. However, many of the most stunning advances are being made in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), where the technology will change the ways that cities are structured and managed; agriculture is conducted; power is created and fed to end users; and products are built and shipped. Although the transformative power of the IIoT is extraordinarily exciting, it’s not going to be easy. Understanding of cloud systems has become more refined over time, so technologists have a better sense of how to approach these systems. However, major hurdles still remain, per a 2015 analysis by National Instruments. What Is the Industrial Internet of Things? Um, what are we talking about again? You can think of the Internet using the power of all the content and websites for everyone’s mutual benefit. In a similar […] The post Core Obstacles to the Industrial Internet of Things [Expert Report] appeared first on Superb Internet.

What is a Benchmark? It’s 4 Things Cynicism about Benchmarks Benchmarking to Remain Competitive Benchmarking & Competitor Rresearch – Comparison Chart Three Types of Benchmarking Why We Use Passmark What is a Benchmark? It’s 4 things A benchmark is basically a guidepost with which you can gauge something. When surveyors use the term bench mark, they are referring to a permanent mark that has a verified elevation and can therefore be used to determine elevation of any other point. In cloud and general IT, the meaning of benchmark is actually fourfold: Benchmark definition #1: A scenario of established parameters that serves as a level playing field with which you can test hardware or software. “PC magazine laboratories frequently test and compare several new computers or computer devices against the same set of application programs, user interactions, and contextual situations,” explained technologist Margaret Rouse. In this case, the benchmark is all of the tools, processes, stipulations, and constraints of the standardized test environment. Benchmark definition #2: An application that has been built to supply metrics on specific software. Benchmark definition #3: A technology or approach that has high awareness among users and can be used as a reference point for comparison purposes. […] The post Don’t Be Cynical: Understanding Benchmarking & the PassMark Rating appeared first on Superb Internet.

How Does Disruption Occur? Know Your Disruptor – It’s Not that Guy Can Tradition Defend Against Disruption? Get Intimate How Does Disruption Occur? Airbnb, Uber, and Lending Club each have made extraordinary penetration into standardized, established industries. That disruption is not limited to just a few industries, though. Enterprise-ready cloud systems make it possible for that same type of disruption to be replicated throughout world markets. That’s why digital consultant Greg Satell has suggested that cloud may be the most disruptive technology of all time. What industries are currently being disrupted by cloud, and what are typical characteristics of disruptors? After all, you want to be the disruptor, not the disrupted. One of the major players in this process is the industry cloud. The combination of enablers and disruptors fuels the astronomical growth of this segment of computing. Organizations such as Guidewire,  Veeva Systems, and Opower accelerated incredibly in recent years as enablers of improved operations in their specific industries (insurance, life sciences, and energy). Simultaneously, disruptors are being created – businesses designed in efforts to cause upheaval. Those are the businesses such as Airbnb (hotels), Uber (taxi services), Zillow (realtors), and Lending Club (online bankers). These disruptors have essentially created […] The post Cloud Games 101: Be the Disruptor, Not the Disrupted appeared first on Superb Internet.

It’s been half a decade since the United States government announced its “Cloud First” campaign. Not everyone is on board, but the success stories are compelling. Private companies are increasingly treating cloud technology preferentially as well – it’s just a matter of approaching migration conscientiously. Ladies First, and the Cloud is a Lady Some Say Cloud is Not a Lady Federal Cloud Success Stories Commercial Cloud Success Story First-Hand Advice for Cloud Migration Ladies First, and the Cloud is a Lady United States chief intelligence officer Vivek Kundra issued the “Cloud First” policy in December 2010 as a piece of a report with more than two dozen ways that management of IT could be improved at the federal level. It makes sense that one of those modernization efforts was to look more closely at cloud, consistently throughout the federal infrastructure. In 2010, Cloud First was a huge sign that cloud computing was the centerpiece of modern IT. Two years later, agencies had responded, with more than 50% of them deploying at least one cloud application. Cloud First especially makes sense in context. The federal government had already signaled its interest in systems to virtualize infrastructures, in some cases supplied by […] The post Building the Federal Cloud From the Ashes of the Healthcare.Gov Debacle appeared first on Superb Internet.

Note: To read Part One of this article, please click HERE. Additional Obstacles to Cloudification The Migration Process Why Cloud-First? Public Sector Success Stories Additional Obstacles to Cloudification #3 – Failure to flexibly adapt As McKayla Maroney will tell you, you can’t achieve your dreams of winning an Olympic medal in gymnastics if you can’t flexibly adapt. Flexible adaptation is critical with cloud too. It must be a fundamental shift rather than an isolated project. Think of initial planning as your floor exercise and migration as your vault; and stay hydrated. The Bain team found that operational changes can amount to 50% of potential cloud value. It helps to have cloud service providers (CSPs) supporting and monitoring the system. However, the greatest benefits are realized “when business and IT align on ‘cloud-first’ guiding principles for future workloads, vertically integrated teams take project ownership from beginning to end and staff is empowered to access the resources it needs,” explained Bain. For cloud to proceed as smoothly as possible, it also makes sense for businesses to try the following tactics: Simplifying and standardizing development Deploying automation apps Making any self-service options available Strategizing how to optimize agility Building a DevOps model to directly integrate […] The post Companies Drastically Underachieving Cloud Potential [Continued] appeared first on Superb Internet.

Companies want to put at least half of their infrastructures into the cloud. However, far fewer workloads are actually being migrated. Understanding the challenge of disruption and possible obstacles to adoption can help your company meet its virtual goals. Two-Thirds of Cloud Unrealized Disruption – Blessing & Curse Obstacles to Cloudification IaaS Trumps AWS Two-Thirds of Cloud Unrealized The vast majority of tech and line-of-business decision-makers understand why cloud is a wise choice: development proceeds more smoothly; the environments have greater agility and can scale seamlessly; and the budget can be cut for IT tools and resources. In other words, everyone knows how valuable cloud can be. Nonetheless, very few organizations are using cloud to its full advantage. In a poll of almost 500 organizations, global management consultancy Bain & Company revealed big companies are generally prepared to go half-in with cloud service providers (CSP’s), saying that they would like to move 50% or more of IT tasks to a CSP. Although that’s the goal, the reality is that firms run a mere 18% of their IT through cloud VM’s. In other words, the reality of cloud is about 36% of its potential. Although organizations have transferred sizable chunks of […] The post Companies Drastically Underachieving Cloud Potential appeared first on Superb Internet.

Everyone wants to open up their small business in the right place. Sophie Devonshire of Babes With Babies has found her ideal location in the cloud. Welcome to the 21st Century Working from Afar Is it Real? Centralization Attempts Times are Changing Business Without Borders What About You? Welcome to the 21st Century Sophie Devonshire owns a truly 21st-century business – one that would have been impossible only a few years ago. She has no headquarters. All her employees collaborate from independent locations in France, Dubai, and the United Kingdom. Babes With Babies, Devonshire’s e-commerce business for new and expectant mothers, has cashed in by using third-platform technologies for a competitive advantage: profits have risen 600% since 2007. BWB, like many small businesses in 2015, uses cloud tech to tighten budgets and allow staff to work variable shifts, with access to worldwide customers. Working from Afar The company works together on projects via the project management environment Trello. “It’s as if we’re in a meeting room,” Devonshire commented. “Zoe our chief buyer will enter her recommendations, then others will go in and add their thoughts.” The team also relies heavily on Skype instant-messaging. Devonshire believes that instant-messaging programs are helpful in allowing […] The post Cloud Offers Prime Location for Small Business appeared first on Superb Internet.

Please review the following promotional effort by a cloud hosting company for your pop marketing quiz: Pop Marketing Quiz FORTAcloud’s recent Marketing Message was: We like to do it with hot babes as much as the next guy. We obviously don’t have any women on our marketing team. Here’s something you can look at while we have our way with you. All of the Above. Correct Answer: 4. What Can You Possibly be Thinking? You just can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the play-by-play: At 7:14AM PST on May 18, a cloud hosting company posts its marketing campaign, blasting its followers with a picture of a woman in lingerie. The company gets immediately attacked, by women and men alike. The company stands its ground, saying basically, Hey, our customers enjoy porn, and they deserve to see it when they’re being sold our awful hosting packages (see image of their incredible performance figures below – hey, 2 stars for Uptime, not bad!). This is one of those things that could easily have died on Twitter, but with more people frustrated these days by being insulted and objectified by marketers, it got considerable traction. “It’s pretty interesting that I can still embed FORTAcloud’s […] The post Cloud Hosting Company’s  Pathetic, Sexist Bro Ad appeared first on Superb Internet.

The Most Disruptive Technology Ever Content Marketing, Disrupted Manufacturing, Disrupted Realizing the Full Value of Cloud The Most Disruptive Technology Ever Mike Saliter, director of international market development for QlikTech, said that cloud is fast becoming the go-to tech model. Anyone can get their own cloud server running almost immediately. The broad menu of services available at any time and from any location has only continued to expand. The cloud is not just diverse in its service offerings but in its disruption. Long-established leaders have to develop new ways of doing business – including what they charge, how they market, and the IT equipment they use. The top contenders will not be those that necessarily offer the best value but that are built through collaborative development and allow users to conveniently access the functionality. “Cloud just might be the most disruptive technology ever,” argued Greg Satell of Forbes. “The world’s most advanced technologies are not only available to large enterprises who can afford to maintain an expensive IT staff, but can be accessed by anybody with an internet connection.” Content Marketing, Disrupted The enterprise content marketing (ECM) industry is being disrupted by cloud and the rise of the third platform, […] The post Cloud Disrupts Content Management and Manufacturing appeared first on Superb Internet.

Highlevel Overview Understanding the Difficult Part Conclusion Highlevel Overview It has been proven that of all the marketing activities a company can engage in, email campaigns bring the highest return on investment in the shortest amount of time. Salesforce allows a company to track leads with the goal of converting those leads to customers. Vertical Response Classic has the ability to integrate with a Salesforce Sales Campaign so that the success of an email campaign can easily be tracked and verified with real metrics. In order to run a Salesforce Vertical Response Classic email campaign effectively the following setup tasks are recommended: Create a custom field in the Lead object to hold your email campaign name Route the leads generated from your sales campaign to their own Salesforce queue Make the leads read only so they cannot be altered between the time they are created and the proposed email campaign Understanding the Difficult Part There are many ways to get a lead into Salesforce. An easy way to achieve that goal is to use the web to leads form generator in Salesforce and embed that on your website. A more difficult but powerful approach is to use python beatbox. Remember […] The post How to Leverage Salesforce and Vertical Response to Manage Email Subscribers appeared first on Superb Internet.

Ponzi Scheme Phony Experts Law Firms Warned about Intelligence Snooping CloudGOO Brings Together Multiple Storage Accounts Cloud Offers New Small Business Opportunities Cloud Reconnaissance Mission As in any industry, especially ones that are growing fast, cloud has its share of ne’er-do-wells. Here are some of the best stories about con games and snooping, along with a couple of feel-good tales – because cloud should never make you cry. Ponzi Scheme The Securities and Exchange Commission pulled the plug on a Ponzi scheme that fraudulently offered massive profits for investing in cloud technology. The scam, which was announced on March 28, 2014, targeted Asian-Americans, Latinos, and populations outside the United States. “Xu and his entities claimed they were using investor funds to build a strong cloud services company that would then ignite other high-tech companies and ultimately make their investors very wealthy,” said Michele Wein Layne, LA-based regional director of the SEC. People who gave the scam organization money and/or referred others were issued “points” that could be used as shares of cloud providers that were supposedly approaching IPOs. The fraudulent company, which operated both as WCM777 and WCM, received almost $70 million in investments between 2013 and 2014. The fraudsters told their […] The post Great Cloud Stories of Con Games and Snooping appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud Hosting Hybrid Clouds E-Invoicing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) In our previous article “When Should You Replace Small-Business Technology?”, we talked about how interconnected technology now is with business. Since that’s the case, you will give your business a boost by staying abreast of emergent technologies that can deliver a competitive advantage. Here are five IT concepts with which you want to be familiar in 2015: Cloud Hosting Companies typically spend large portions of their budget on technology, but they aren’t buying as many physical machines. Instead, they are purchasing tech resources “as a service” through cloud providers. While you may think of cloud computing as a consumer or business running a program on a provider’s cloud (as is the case with many software-as-a-service providers), you can actually get your own virtual machine through infrastructure-as-a-service, aka cloud hosting. “Cloud hosting accomplishes the same goals as an on-premises server,” explained Digity CEO Seth Bailey, “but instead of storing all your files locally (e.g., on a server at your place of business), all your data and documents reside in a secure sever located on the Internet.” Just like Apple users can access their music and photos from anywhere or Dropbox […] The post 5 IT Concepts for Small Business appeared first on Superb Internet.

Technological Transitions are Stressful 4 Indicators that a Tech Update is Needed 5 Smart Technological Investments Growing at the Pace of Innovation Technological Transitions are Stressful These days, technology and business are deeply interconnected. For that reason, transitions can be extraordinarily difficult. Small companies can be especially vulnerable to business continuity issues, especially since resources are often limited. Deciding the ideal time to transition is often confusing. It’s easy to procrastinate. Is your current environment holding you back? What tools are accessible, affordable, intuitive, and contain the innovative edge to help you grow your business? 4 Indicators that a Tech Update is Needed “Most of the time, small business owners look for ways that they can grow their businesses,” commented business consultant Larry Alton, “and, at the same time, take a hands-off approach that lets them spend more time with their families.” Alton hints that part of our fascination with technology is that it is automated. It allows for passive income. If we set ourselves up correctly with technology, we can make money in our sleep. Unfortunately, most of us don’t make money in our sleep, though – in part because we are using outdated equipment and software. We need to […] The post When Should You Replace Small-Business Technology? appeared first on Superb Internet.

Shifting from DIY to Cloud Cloud has Obvious Advantages Running the Numbers Don’t Oversimplify Migration Shifting from DIY to Cloud Historically, academic organizations have often handled technology themselves. Preferring to “go it alone” rather than rely on outside providers, thousands of colleges and K-12 schools still maintain their own infrastructures. However, many CIOs and IT directors in academia are shifting to a model that gets its resources from the cloud. Don’t expect every school to turn away from owning their own servers, but Adam Stern argues cloud will become increasingly commonplace in education throughout the decade. Technological migrations are not always simple, so system-wide, infrastructural trends such as this one are a gradual process. Not every school is thinking about implementing cloud at any one time. “A school reaches that fork in the road” of deciding between cloud and on-premise machines “because it has pushed its servers to the end of their useful lives and now need to do something about it,” Stern explains. Cloud has Obvious Advantages Educational institutions understand that cloud environments have significant strengths: agility, affordability, and the ability to open up the school so that employees can work from any location. Every school is looking for the […] The post Academic Cloud Pros and Cons – Don’t Oversimplify Migration appeared first on Superb Internet.

Finance Professionals Unhappy Shrugging Off the IT Department Most Finance Professionals Reject Cloud Fusing Finance & HR What Cloud Must Prove Finance Professionals Unhappy Executives don’t like the financial systems that they are using – that’s according to a 2013 poll by Saugatuck Technology. In fact, 82% of IT and finance professionals said they they had recently switched or were planning to switch their finance systems. In other words, virtually everyone has been ready to change the way that they interact with their financial data. Most companies were transitioning to cloud: 57%. Why cloud? While companies are understandably concerned with security, reported Maggie O’Neill in Baseline, they appreciate the user-friendliness of the virtual machines and the way they free up local IT for development and other forward-thinking business concerns. Cloud makes it easier for finance specialists to stay centered on what needs to get done today for their clients rather than waiting: they can set up systems themselves without needing for on-site IT to become available. “IT organizations, whether they are small or large, tend to be pretty well booked,” commented Rob Hull, president of cloud consultancy Adaptive Insights. “They are a busy crew, often a bit understaffed and often […] The post Shrugging off IT: Pros and Cons of Cloud for Finance appeared first on Superb Internet.

Designing Infrastructure is Like Baking: Mix it Up Pros of Cloud for Small Business Cons of Cloud for Small Business Help! What Should You Do? Designing Infrastructure is Like Baking: Mix it Up People need a mix of different tech solutions for their organizations. It can get annoying when cloud companies suggest that their technology should be used in every possible scenario. It’s just not true. We can say that confidently because we offer cloud along with dedicated infrastructure. This is an important message: Cloud does not require that level of commitment. Although it may seem that everyone is worshiping the cloud as a false idol, technology really is not a cult. Don’t worry: no one is going to knock on the door of your underground bunker in a few years and tell you that legacy infrastructure actually was not destroyed in the Apocalypse. “Enterprises need a mix of infrastructure, and they can benefit from the interdependent value delivered by combining colocation, hosting, and cloud services,” analyst Paul Burns stated in a recent whitepaper for Gigaom Research. “Managed services are also a helpful option, whether delivered by an infrastructure provider or a specialized managed service provider (MSP).” Computerworld had the […] The post Cloud is Not a Cult: Pros and Cons for Small Business appeared first on Superb Internet.

Three perspectives on the PCNA and CISA, which many believe are simply ways to broaden the powers of the government to collect digital information and advance a 1984-ish, Orwellian agenda. PCNA Passes TechCrunch – They had no choice, folks ACLU/Wyden – “Cybersecurity” bills just sneaky ways to expand spying EFF – Not buying the propaganda Prioritizing Security AND Privacy PCNA Passes On April 22, the House of Representatives voted in favor of the Protecting Cyber Networks Act. In fact, Democrats and Republicans supported the bill, which passed by an incredible margin due to bipartisan support: 307-116. The stated intention of the bill is to get pesky laws out of the way, facilitating transfer of security details between American businesses. In turn, the idea goes, we can reduce vulnerabilities and prevent breaches – such as the ones perpetrated against Sony, Anthem, global banks, and the US State Department. The bills are backed by President Obama and some professional organizations, a few of which are IT-specific. Here are some perspectives. TechCrunch – They had no choice, folks “Privacy advocates have criticized information-sharing bills as surveillance bills by another name,” explained TechCrunch. “They worry that sharing cyber threat information with the government will...

Oakland – Building the Body-Camera Cloud Why Body Cameras? Why Cloud Storage? Everyday Compliance with Body Cameras The Obvious Choice Oakland – Building the Body-Camera Cloud Oakland is one of the primary strongholds of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The civil rights project started in response to a pair of grand jury decisions in New York and Missouri to let police officers walk after two black police deaths were captured on video and distributed online. Most recently, 80 to 100 protesters shut down the northbound lanes of Interstate 80 as part of a coordinated, nationwide response to the death of Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American man shot by white police officer Michael Slager in South Carolina. Now, many police officers are good people and aren’t out to get anyone. My cousin is a police officer in Colorado, for instance. I also have family serving in the Ohio State Highway Patrol. But clearly, accountability is needed. One change that many believe could help improve accountability among police officers, as well as exonerate those unfairly accused of wrongdoing, is body cameras. In other words, we have technology that prohibits people from misleading us on either side, so why don’t we use it? […] The post “Black Lives Matter” Pushes Forward the Body-Camera Cloud appeared first on Superb Internet.

When manufacturers transition their IT away from traditional mechanisms via “Cloud Also,” IDC argues they must focus on strategic collaboration. Introduction Cloud Prevalent on Various Continents Highlights from the 2014 IDC CloudView Survey Big Data’s Promise for the Industrial Internet’s Third Platform The power of Strategic Collaboration Introduction Manufacturing businesses around the globe are busy – and not just making Charles Dickens action figures and apocalyptic snow globes. They are also changing their information technology models to treat cloud as a complementary option, as indicated by figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC). To collect the data, IDC surveyed 593 manufacturing companies from the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The majority of respondents (74%) were executives in the IT department, while the remainder (26%) held a line of business (LOB) position. Cloud Prevalent on Various Continents Already, two out of every five American manufacturers (41%) said they are using public cloud. “The advantages of cloud computing for manufacturers are significant, as line of business leaders and their IT organizations increasingly rely on cloud to flexibly deliver IT resources at the cost and speed the business requires,” explained the IDC press release on the survey (released April 2015). Although cloud can […] The post Survey: Those Who Make Stuff are Using “Cloud Also” appeared first on Superb Internet.

Oakland – Building the Body-Camera Cloud Why Body Cameras? Why Cloud Storage? Everyday Compliance with Body Cameras The Obvious Choice Oakland – Building the Body-Camera Cloud Oakland is one of the primary strongholds of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. The civil rights project started in response to a pair of grand jury decisions in New York and Missouri to let police officers walk after two black police deaths were captured on video and distributed online. Most recently, 80 to 100 protesters shut down the northbound lanes of Interstate 80 as part of a coordinated, nationwide response to the death of Walter Scott, an unarmed African-American man shot by white police officer Michael Slager in South Carolina. Now, many police officers are good people and aren’t out to get anyone. My cousin is a police officer in Colorado, for instance. I also have family serving in the Ohio State Highway Patrol. But clearly, accountability is needed. One change that many believe could help improve accountability among police officers, as well as exonerate those unfairly accused of wrongdoing, is body cameras. In other words, we have technology that prohibits people from misleading us on either side, so why don’t we use it?...

When manufacturers transition their IT away from traditional mechanisms via “Cloud Also,” IDC argues they must focus on strategic collaboration. Introduction Cloud Prevalent on Various Continents Highlights from the 2014 IDC CloudView Survey Big Data’s Promise for the Industrial Internet’s Third Platform The power of Strategic Collaboration Introduction Manufacturing businesses around the globe are busy – and not just making Charles Dickens action figures and apocalyptic snow globes. They are also changing their information technology models to treat cloud as a complementary option, as indicated by figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC). To collect the data, IDC surveyed 593 manufacturing companies from the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The majority of respondents (74%) were executives in the IT department, while the remainder (26%) held a line of business (LOB) position. Cloud Prevalent on Various Continents Already, two out of every five American manufacturers (41%) said they are using public cloud. “The advantages of cloud computing for manufacturers are significant, as line of business leaders and their IT organizations increasingly rely on cloud to flexibly deliver IT resources at the cost and speed the business requires,” explained the IDC press release on the survey (released April 2015). Although cloud can...

How substantially did Edward Snowden damage the cloud computing industry with his NSA leak? Forrester Research says the initial projections were inflated. Actually, Snowden is specifically concerned with popular Internet services – including one used by The New Yorker to deliver an interview with him in 2014. The Snowden Effect American Cloud Industry Still Strong Bye-Bye to Facebook, Google, Dropbox? Cloud with Security Expertise The Snowden Effect Since Edward Snowden has been in the news so much lately – with the best feature documentary prize for Citizenfour and his interview for the New Yorker Festival – industry analysts have been watching the cloud market closely. A massive fallout was expected following Snowden’s revelations about NSA’s Prism spying program, but a Forrester Research report argues that the long-term consequences will be less dramatic than originally imagined. Neelie Kroes, who was the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda when the Snowden story broke in 2013, was one of the first people to publicly mention the potential downturn in the American cloud market (ComputerWeekly). If firms are concerned about surveillance, Kroes argued, they would likely turn away from cloud services offered by US-based companies. Apparently part of the “digital agenda” of the European […] The post Measuring the Snowden Effect: Edward Snowden’s Impact on Cloud appeared first on Superb Internet.

Cloud computing is a mixed bag. I think we all know that. But a couple of reports released in the last 30 days demonstrate the ambivalence IT decision-makers feel toward the technology, by the numbers. Vormetric/Ovum – Cloud Half-Full & Half-Empty Hacking Safeguards are the #1 Concern NTT Communications – Cloud Turbulent at Lunch 2015 Cloud Trends Strategic Use of Cloud Vormetric/Ovum: Cloud Half-Full & Half-Empty Okay, so on-premise hardware is where you keep the important stuff, and the cloud gets all the development data and other low-risk information, right? Wrong. A collaborative 2015 whitepaper by Vormetric and Ovum revealed that three in five American tech executives (60%) and more than half of IT directors worldwide (54%) keep private data (such as user details or trade secrets) on cloud VMs. Although cloud seems to be widely trusted, it was at the top of the list for data vulnerability among the 800 executives polled for the report: Cloud – 47% Databases – 37% File servers – 29% “Cloud and big data concerns remain ‘genuine’ and ‘deep rooted’ according to the study,” explained James Bourne in Cloud Tech. “The numbers revealed worrying findings about why [organizations] were moving data into the cloud.” […] The post Reports: Cloud is an Emotional Roller Coaster appeared first on Superb Internet.

The low cost of the cloud attracts some riffraff. Telemarketing companies are signing up for “outbound interactive voice response” plans. In turn, we are entering the brave new world of ripoff-as-a-service (ROaaS). Amy Calls Sean to Talk about Some Money The Sad Truth about Amy Enter Ripoff-as-a-Service (ROaaS) Fighting Back – Also from the Cloud Why Not Nicer-Things-as-a-Service (NTaaS)? Amy Calls Sean to Talk about Some Money When Sean Gallagher’s cell phone lit up one day with a number he’d never seen before, he assumed it was one of his children calling from a buddy’s phone. However, when he picked up, he realized that he was speaking with the newest Prince of Nigeria. From the other end of the line, an eerie voice said, “‘This is Amy! … I’m a senior account representative for American Direct Services!‘” When Gallagher asked Amy if she was a computer, she claimed that she was not. Plus, she had exciting news: she was calling to let him know that he was eligible to win $1 million… just for picking up his phone. Gallagher was intrigued, especially since the company was local and had the word “American” in its name. Always having appreciated ladies who work...

How substantially did Edward Snowden damage the cloud computing industry with his NSA leak? Forrester Research says the initial projections were inflated. Actually, Snowden is specifically concerned with popular Internet services – including one used by The New Yorker to deliver an interview with him in 2014. The Snowden Effect American Cloud Industry Still Strong Bye-Bye to Facebook, Google, Dropbox? Cloud with Security Expertise The Snowden Effect Since Edward Snowden has been in the news so much lately – with the best feature documentary prize for Citizenfour and his interview for the New Yorker Festival – industry analysts have been watching the cloud market closely. A massive fallout was expected following Snowden’s revelations about NSA’s Prism spying program, but a Forrester Research report argues that the long-term consequences will be less dramatic than originally imagined. Neelie Kroes, who was the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda when the Snowden story broke in 2013, was one of the first people to publicly mention the potential downturn in the American cloud market (ComputerWeekly). If firms are concerned about surveillance, Kroes argued, they would likely turn away from cloud services offered by US-based companies. Apparently part of the “digital agenda” of the European...

Cloud computing is a mixed bag. I think we all know that. But a couple of reports released in the last 30 days demonstrate the ambivalence IT decision-makers feel toward the technology, by the numbers. Vormetric/Ovum – Cloud Half-Full & Half-Empty Hacking Safeguards are the #1 Concern NTT Communications – Cloud Turbulent at Lunch 2015 Cloud Trends Strategic Use of Cloud Vormetric/Ovum: Cloud Half-Full & Half-Empty Okay, so on-premise hardware is where you keep the important stuff, and the cloud gets all the development data and other low-risk information, right? Wrong. A collaborative 2015 whitepaper by Vormetric and Ovum revealed that three in five American tech executives (60%) and more than half of IT directors worldwide (54%) keep private data (such as user details or trade secrets) on cloud VMs. Although cloud seems to be widely trusted, it was at the top of the list for data vulnerability among the 800 executives polled for the report: Cloud – 47% Databases – 37% File servers – 29% “Cloud and big data concerns remain ‘genuine’ and ‘deep rooted’ according to the study,” explained James Bourne in Cloud Tech. “The numbers revealed worrying findings about why [organizations] were moving data into the cloud.”...

HBO’s Citizenfour Casts Spotlight on Edward Snowden & NSA NSA Building Stronger Cloud Storage to Thwart Whistleblowers GovCloud: Big Brother’s Little Helper A Huge Step Forward HBO’s Citizenfour Casts Spotlight on Edward Snowden & NSA When the Academy Awards were held in February, the National Security Agency was nowhere to be seen, even though it was the subject of an award-winning film. Citizenfour, a movie about the agency’s whistleblower Edward Snowden, took home the prize for best feature-length documentary. “The disclosures of Edward Snowden don’t only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself,” said director Laura Poitras in her acceptance speech. “When the decisions that rule us are taken in secret we lose the power to control and govern ourselves.” The film really is incredibly well-done. The majority of the footage was collected in Snowden’s Hong Kong hotel room, providing an extraordinarily detailed record of the moments leading up to and following the initial stories about the former NSA contractor that were published in The Guardian. Snowden speaks calmly, clearly, and convincingly to reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, while Poitras records the entire interaction. Essentially, the movie does exactly what the NSA did not want...

Business Versus Government Walmart, RuPaul not Benioff’s Only Allies Hybrid Program Unanticipated It’s Getting Hot in the Kitchen Setting an Example Business Versus Government The inclusive, benevolent approach of Marc Benioff has been known to those in the San Francisco Bay Area for some time. Now that he finds himself under the glare of the national spotlight, many people want to know more about this guy who takes immediate action when anyone tries to discriminate against his employees and friends. In late March, the chief of cloud computing giant Salesforce gathered support from other tech company leaders to stand up against Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act for opening the door to LGBT discrimination and making it difficult for companies to hire people who now feel that the state has an established anti-gay policy. Supporters of the bill, signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike Pence, “sought legal protection for business owners if they denied services to the LGBT community based on religious beliefs,” explains Marco della Cava of USA Today. Benioff asked users of the Salesforce cloud-delivered system not to visit Indiana and gave stipends to Indiana-based workers to move elsewhere. If part of you thinks Benioff is a loopy...

Who Cares About Security? Let’s Make Some Money Gaping Security Holes? Okay, Give Us the Better Part of a Year Anthem Doesn’t Need a Big Brother Trust the Experts Who Cares About Security? Let’s Make Some Money As the public gradually gets more information about the breaches of the insurance outfits Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Premera Blue Cross – which involve the data of nearly 90 million people – it has become clear that security fell well behind profit as priorities of both companies. As Dan Bowman of FierceHealthIT puts it, “Perhaps the most disturbing revelation of all is that, in both instances, neither entity appears to truly take security seriously.” Premera was advised three weeks before the original invasion of its infrastructure in May 2014 that its security mechanisms were unacceptably bad (although they might have figured that out themselves beforehand if they had security experts on staff and the corporate accountability to listen to them). At that time, the federal HHS’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) sent a list of numerous weaknesses, including unsafe server setups and the elementary-school-level security snafu of software update delays, to the healthcare payer. The OIG review was not just negative but...

Compliance the Top Cloud Business Concern Special Considerations for HIPAA Pulling Out That Thorn Compliance the Top Cloud Business Concern Nearly two out of every three companies represented in a CipherCloud poll said that maintaining compliance and meeting auditing standards are the top cloud security concerns. The statistic is from the company’s first-ever Global Cloud Data Security Report, which was generally focused on data protection but also particularly discussed the threat landscape for the world’s biggest public companies. The general issues of data safety and adherence to regulations were the main factors preventing companies from migrating to the cloud. Specific results when respondents were asked for the primary data protection issue were: Compliance – 64% Accessibility of data – 32% Malware – 2% Collaborative environment vulnerabilities – 2% Far and away the most frequently listed hurdle slowing down companies’ transitions to cloud technology “was a regulation that a country imposes upon an industry or organisation,” reports James Bourne of the UK’s Cloud Tech, “often referencing the collection of data on their citizens and utilising cloud apps to process and store the information.” European cloud outfits and divisions are constructing datacenters in close proximity to users, explains Bourne, to address issues...

Reliability is a Huge Priority Other Cloud Disappointments GE: Stop Slamming the Cloud, You Fools Building the Solutions You Need Reliability is a Huge Priority Three out of four companies (76%) told Illinois-based technology company CDW that they have had providers not fulfill the parameters of their SLAs. The poll results were included in CDW’s Cloud 401 whitepaper. The paper, published in February, also revealed the top concerns of cloud clients: Reliability – 43% Affordability – 28% Interoperability – 27% In other words, the descriptions within the SLA indicate the most critical measurement, since uptime is typically central to the agreement. “Cloud services go down for a variety of reasons,” explains James Bourne of Cloud Tech, “from the preventable, such as a fat finger, to the less preventable, like adverse weather conditions.” It’s rare for a cloud-based company to deliver per the terms of its SLA, says Bourne, as indicated by information from CloudHarmony’s uptime monitoring service. Just about every cloud provider, especially in the case of infrastructure-as-a-service, uses its SLA as a marketing tool. However, it can backfire when companies aren’t able to meet expectations. Email management provider Mimecast experienced an outage in the United Kingdom in 2013, leading...

7 in 8 Have Had at Least One Hangover Surveying the Evidence Enchantment with the Supercomputer Sip Slowly 7 in 8 Have Had at Least One Hangover If you’re anything like me, you have learned the hard way that drinking a lot of cheap alcohol filled with hidden content – impurities – will result in an excruciating hangover. In the morning, the quality of the booze you consumed is immediately evident in the power with which your head is pounding and your stomach is screaming that it is unsettled. However, the night before, the drinks tasted great. No one wants to make their customers ill, but apparently, many cloud service providers are. A poll conducted by SunGard Availability Services found that many companies delivering cloud-based services are blindsiding their clients with unexpected bills. SunGard, a multinational corporation headquartered in Pennsylvania, surveyed 150 IT decision-makers in the United Kingdom to collect the information, determining that 7 in 8 of them (87%) had encountered a hidden fee during their use of cloud technology. “All this improved productivity and efficiency is great, but there are plenty of hidden costs and issues lurking around the corner,” explains CloudTech editor James Bourne, “and it’s not...

What do cloud computing and cultural tolerance have in common? Ask the governor of Indiana and the CEO of Salesforce. Actions, as they say, have consequences. Some are positive, some are negative; some you accept, some you don’t. Many times the ramifications of a drastic measure don’t become clear until everything is established in black-and-white. One recent incident that perhaps falls into this category is the signing of the rosily titled Religious Freedom Restoration Act by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. As Kevin Chupka explained in Yahoo Finance , the law specifies that businesses can turn customers away based on religious preference –which essentially means that a store, restaurant, gas station, or hospital could refuse entry to LGBT individuals. The debate, already a hot topic around the nation, became even more intense as March came to a close, with various top executives expressing their concern and threatening to withdraw their business interests from the state: Tim Cook lashed out against the spirit of the bill in an admonishment he penned for the Washington Post. Saleforce CEO Marc Benioff revoked all events in Indiana. Angie’s List, which is based in Indianapolis, withdrew its plans to invest $40 million into its home office....

? Banks Just Getting Started with Cloud Stronger Auditing Mechanisms Desired Purpose of the Survey & Background of the Project Step into the Cloud Control Matrix Banks Just Getting Started with Cloud Cloud technology is gaining traction in the finance world. However, banks and other financial companies aren’t moving to the cloud as quickly as many industries are. Fresh data from a trusted industry group, as reported by David Bannister in Banking Technology, reveals that a large amount of banks are only in the beginning stages of cloud development, still unsure about how to manage privacy and security. The survey, conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), asked IT professionals how cloud is used within their organizations, revealing that: Three in five (61%) company cloud plans are still in their infancies. Almost one in five (18%) will incorporate private clouds in some way. Almost half (39-47%) will eventually implement a hybrid system consisting of traditional servers, private clouds, and public VMs. Zero (0%) of the banks and other institutions said they were migrating more than 50% of their software to cloud environments. The findings of the poll also demonstrate that banks are less likely to exhibit extreme caution toward the...

Whenever something gets popular quickly, it’s likely to be surrounded by misconceptions – and perhaps that’s particularly true of technology. Let’s approach the issue head-on and discuss 10 things people get wrong when they consider cloud computing. Cloud as an Established Standard 10 Myths & Misunderstandings About the Cloud Test-Drive Your Own VM Cloud as an Established Standard The cloud is large and growing. On February 18, RightScale released results from the 2015 State of the Cloud Survey conducted in January. The cloud portfolio management company asked 930 IT specialists from a diverse cross-section of business (76% of them non-customers) several questions about their company’s use of cloud technologies. The results demonstrated that cloud has become a standard technology in the business world. “93 percent of organizations surveyed are running applications or experimenting with infrastructure-as-a-service,” explains the press release from RightScale. “82 percent of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy.” 10 Myths & Misunderstandings About the Cloud The cloud is a misunderstood genius. Here are 10 misperceptions people often have about cloud computing, as discussed by AJ Clark in Entrepreneur : 1. The technology you have currently in place will perform preferably using cloud services. That’s not always the case....

March a Bad Month for User Privacy PCNA a Better Bill Committee Chairman: Actually, it’s OK Not all Bad News Here’s the Catch A Company that Cares About Privacy March a Bad Month for User Privacy During March, people who believe in an ordinary user’s fundamental right to data privacy came out swinging against the Senate’s Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) – saying that despite the theme of protection suggested by the title, the actual purpose of the bill is to increase the American government’s ability to spy on its own citizens. Those voices of dissent were unconvincing to members of a Senate committee, who voted 14-1 in its favor. Now a House committee has its own version of CISA. Called the Protecting Cyber Networks Act (PCNA), it passed on March 26. At first glance, these bills seem security-focused. Like PCNA, CISA would allow firms to hand over any hacking details to the federal government, who could then disperse the information to other companies that might be affected. However, proponents argue that the two pieces of legislation make it more likely that for-profit organizations would hand over personal data on their customers to the NSA and other internal US spy...

Mobile Flawed Externally & Internally Speed Prioritized Over Precautions Devices Themselves at Risk Taking on the Security Responsibility Mobile Flawed Externally & Internally Facebook. Yelp. Google Maps. Trulia. Instagram. Drunken Contacts. Do you have a dozen or more mobile applications on your cell phone? A study just released by IBM and the Ponemon Institute notes the surprising lack of security precautions among mobile software, a general consumer data-safety concern and business risk that they label as “mobile insecurity.” Almost two out of every five enterprises, some of which are Fortune 500 corporations, are failing to provide appropriate protections for the phone software they design for their clients. The researchers reviewed over 400 enterprises and determined that it was standard for big business to release mobile apps with “‘major security flaws,”’ according to PCMag. Not protecting the security of customers is one thing. Not safeguarding company-owned phones and tablets, or those within the network under a “bring your own device” policy, is another. While mobile insecurity of customer software is problematic related to liability, public image, and consumer rights, mobile insecurity of the company’s internal technology is a concern related to direct intrusion by cybercriminals – as indicated by CIO Today....

IT Guy: Cloud is the Devil How Cloud Actually Saves Jobs Cloud with Great Support IT Guy: Cloud is the Devil Ali Mirdamadi, a consultant with San Diego-based Abacus Data Systems, says that he frequently meets locally based IT professionals who argue against cloud, viewing it as a second-rate threat to their one-on-one, in-person expertise. Mirdamadi suggests that while he thinks the concern of local IT is valid, it’s better to recognize how their role might be adapting than to battle against the inevitable. After all, cloud is helping many technologists stay in business, as described by Marc Le Guen of Digital Days – discussed below. Why does local IT get nervous in response to the cloud, though? The reason, according to Mirdamadi, is that private clouds, public virtual machines, and platform-as-a-service “have become more popular and more affordable which allows Law Firms and businesses to outsource their entire IT needs to experts specialized in data management, security and virtualization.” Those who use cloud say it makes sense because of the following benefits: Whereas in-house servers are a capital expense that requires equipment ownership, cloud is an operating expense that can be slotted in as a consistent cost per month. Both...

Note: To read Part 1 of this article, please click HERE. No BYOD at Local Government (continued) Private Sector, Revisited Connected Home & Office – The Final Frontier? Bring Your Own Caution with Cloud VMs Wilkinson says that his hesitation with BYOD in a government setting is not that high-quality security systems do not exist; rather, the issue is that they are cost-prohibitive. “But there has to be a middle ground,” he explains, “and at the moment that’s two devices in your pocket.” What about partitioning information, so that only professional content would have to be deleted if the device were lost? Shropshire Council explored the possibility of distinctly separating personal files, but the solutions they surveyed were unconvincing. Although Wilkinson isn’t comfortable with letting every employee integrate whatever personal device they choose with the county’s network, he does believe it’s critical to consistently assess the user-friendliness of phones and tablets provided to employees. Shropshire is a Microsoft-based organization, so it uses Surface tablets and Lumia phones, both based on the Windows OS. Wilkinson says that he is seeing employees resetting their passwords and accessing the government systems from home, suggesting that the company is becoming less firmly rooted in...

IT dislikes it because it’s a security nightmare. Employees dislike it because now yet another organization has its fingers in the pie of its personal electronics. Why is BYOD hailed as such a great idea? BYOD? IT Says Slow Down No BYOD at For-Profit Company No BYOD atLocal Government The Value of Controls & Standards BYOD? IT Says Slow Down Seven out of ten IT decision-makers (70%) want to wait for third-platform technology to mature and to prove its data-protection capabilities rather than immediately incorporating BYOD into the office, says an analysis by UK tech publication Computing . More people have been converted to the cause, though, since eight out of ten (80%) were anti-BYOD in the magazine’s 2012 poll. One in two (50%) think that in 2018, they will still be against an open-access network policy that incorporates whatever smartphone or laptop the employee is using when they walk in the door. Why do just three in ten currently say it’s OK to allow ultimate freedom to the individual user now (and really, who cares about any optimism toward three years from now)? Data protection is fundamental to this debate. Mobility and the immediate concern of on-the-go security have...

If you want to prevent employees from casting IT shadows at your organization, focus on enablement, transparency, and partnership. Everyday Cloud Use & the Clinton Scandal A Struggle for Control Value #1 – Enablement Value #2 – Transparency Value #3 – Partnership Providers Who Share Your Vision Everyday Cloud Use & the Clinton Scandal Here is what is great about the cloud: employees have immediate access to a broad range of productivity software and essentially limitless resources delivered through multiply redundant virtual machines, without having to clear everything with IT. Here is what is not so great: employee have immediate access without having to clear everything with IT. The recent case of Hillary Clinton operating her own private email server out of her house for official State Department correspondence has brought the concept of shadow IT into the light. While cloud-delivered software-as-a-service (SaaS) apps such as Dropbox seem to be (by far) the most prevalent form of shadow IT, Clinton’s system similarly existed outside the infrastructure of her institution. As we pointed out in our exploration of the Clinton case, Shadow IT is incredibly prevalent. It’s so prevalent, in fact, that Gartner Research analyst Simon Mingay argues we should “engage...

Hillary Rodham Clinton is being scrutinized for her use of a private email server, which represents shadow IT on a grand scale. Shadow IT, though, is a challenge for every business. In case you have been under a rock for the past week, a rock underside lacking political news, Hillary Clinton did not use an official United States government email address when she was the Secretary of State. She forewent a state.gov address in favor of buying the domain ClintonEmail.com, which she ran through a physical server at her New York home, reachable (assumedly) via [email protected]. Slow, Steady Growth of the Shadow If we can step aside from the politically loaded event to view it as a technical lesson,  said Larry Dignan of ZDNet, the Clinton scandal is a perfect example of the problem presented by shadow IT. It occurred to many of us when we read about Clinton that no low-level bureaucrat in the government would get away with saying they wanted to do email themselves: “It’s cool guys, you can reach me at WeirdDomainIJustBought.net.” That probably would not fly at the DMV. That brings up an important point: shadow IT often arises when the IT people are hesitant...

More than one in every two cloud servers is a zombie, and business must enter the land of the walking dead if they want to outpace their competition. “New stuff tends to go to the public cloud … and new stuff is simply growing faster” than is the data run through physical servers, according to Gartner Research. It’s becoming more clear all the time that public cloud is becoming the accepted model for computing. The benefits of the technology are incredible. First and foremost, it’s nice when Conrad Hilton is running through the cabin of your international flight – F-bombing, reeking of pot, and yelling that he’s going to murder you for not being classy like him – to escape by gazing out the window at your high-altitude cloud computer. People also like cloud because they can cut their costs, Bernard Golden of Actuate argues, with an agile solution that can be quickly deployed and adjusted on the fly. It’s so easy to get a cloud virtual machine online that many machines sit idle. These zombie machines are certainly wasteful, but they seem to be a natural part of this transition to computing’s third platform. Public Cloud Rises to Eclipse...

Former President Bill Clinton was such a lecherous, extramaritally inclined man that he was almost thrown out of office for trying to cover the tracks of his infidelities. Just as it was compelling for Bill to conduct clandestine liaisons in the Oval Office, now his wife Hillary faces an investigation about the mysterious penpal relationship she shared with Barack Obama while she was the Secretary of State – a relationship the privacy of which has not been seen in the United States executive branch since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan convened at a secret treehouse in 1983. The real issue with the communications between Obama and Hillary Clinton is that they interacted through her private email account, which was confirmed by the White House on March 9. The president’s press secretary said Obama was unaware Clinton was using her own email server disconnected from the federal infrastructure. Although the president had told a reporter on Sunday (the 8th) that he did not know about the Clinton server until he read about it in the news, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told press on the 9th that Obama had emailed Clinton at the address tied to her personally owned domain, clintonemail.com....

Cloud computing shouldn’t be considered the “be-all and end-all” technological solution. The perspective that it’s a smart choice to migrate information and services to “the cloud” doesn’t always make sense, especially with public cloud and even with private cloud in some cases. In most situations, taking advantage of cloud hosting is savvy. Some of the time, though, cloud is impractical at best and foolish at worst. There just isn’t a single type of computing that makes sense for any possible scenario, argued David Linthicum of InfoWorld in a 2013 op-ed that still holds true today. “Both people and companies like to treat new technologies as a universal silver bullet, using it where it does not make sense,” Linthicum warns, “a mistake they’re repeating now with cloud computing.” In this article, we explore a stable, balanced approach toward cloud, achieved relatively simply via cost-benefit analysis: The Reality of Ambiguity and Diversification Zynga Runs from Cloud (2012) General Electric Goes All-In (2014) Predict Your Costs and Consider All Angles The Reality of Ambiguity and Diversification It’s easy in our business lives, just as in our personal lives, to see things in black and white. In our desire to have a perspective about everything, we...

Is cloud really that difficult to understand? No, it’s not. In fact, tapping into cloud resources is much simpler than the traditional model of purchasing and maintaining hardware in addition to the consideration of the resources themselves. In other words, you take the capital expenditure model, remove the machines, take a wrecking ball to the data center (or turn it into a homeless shelter, whatever you want), and now – voila – you have the operating expenditure model of the cloud. Easy, right? Well, sure, there’s the virtual part, but if you can basically understand the Internet, you can understand the core underpinnings of the cloud. Agreeing with that sentiment, David Linthicum wrote last year in InfoWorld that he didn’t understand why cloud was challenging to some folks, although it did mean he could have a career as a cloud consultant. Linthicum mentioned that although cloud was a basic concept, as it becomes ubiquitous, fools rush in where angels also tread, elbowing them out of the way to convince you that they can guide you toward an optimized cloud experience. Here’s the thing: Linthicum is more than just an attractive and refined man. As the author of 13 books on...

California SEC case highlights multimillion dollar cloud computing scam that victimized Asian-Americans and Hispanics. Madoff in the Cloud Ponzi Schemes versus Pyramid Schemes Madoff Collapse Meet Ming Xu, Coud Con-Man Cloud You Can Trust Madoff in the Cloud A couple weeks ago, ABC announced that it had landed Richard Dreyfuss for the role of Bernie Madoff in a series due out in several months. A second project is also in the works: HBO has been working for four years with Robert De Niro on a film about the legendary confidence artist. Why are there two major media projects being made about a guy roundly considered to be a despicable human being and who used his one degree of separation away from Kevin Bacon to swindle him? Simply put, the sheer audacity of crime can be incredibly captivating, as can pain. We are intrigued by the boldness and can’t stop looking, like we are rubbernecking at the site of an accident. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Madoff is not the only sociopath on the block. Last March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had dismantled a global Ponzi scheme that defrauded Latinos, Asian-Americans, and people outside the United States...

A Virginia-based IT security company, ThreatConnect, announced on February 27 that scientists on the Chinese government’s payroll may have been behind the Anthem hack. When the hack was initially reported in the news, Anthem noted that it had hired an outside security firm to study the details of the attack. Presumably ThreatConnect is that organization. Anthem is not off the hook. On the contrary, the manner in which data was being stored – completely unencrypted – is grossly negligent when handling vast stores of highly sensitive personal information. But that’s another story. Malware Has Been Used Before The behavior of the applications hackers used to break into the insurer’s system and collect confidential records was strongly similar to malware unleashed on an American military-industrial firm. The FBI determined that the technology used in the previous incident was based in China. “The malware is so unique — the digital signature is so precise — in these two incidents that we strongly feel the same Chinese actors were involved,” ThreatConnect CIO Rich Barger told the Washington Post. Hedging his perspective, Barger noted that it’s still somewhat unclear who stole the Anthem files, but the malware similarities are impossible to ignore. The announcement from ThreatConnect is...

To read Part 1, “Anthem Grossly Negligent: 79 Million Unencrypted Records Stolen”, click HERE. Step #2 – Use Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Most of the major sites – such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon – have 2FA as an optional feature. If you take a couple minutes to activate it in your settings, logging in will get slightly more complicated – which is a good thing. Example: When you use Google’s version of this technology, you enter your username and password like normal and then enter the dedicated Authenticator app through your phone (regardless of the device you use to enter your username and password). “It’s easy, and worth the peace of mind,” advises Blue. Step #3 – Consider Your Other Accounts The email address listed within the Anthem network is now compromised. Switch your Anthem password to something different, preferably using a random password generator. You may know that it is important to diversify your passwords and thereby better divide your attack surface. On the other hand, if your Anthem password is also used with other accounts, change those ones as well. Beyond looking at places where you reused the password, you also want to look at any accounts identified...

Local Grandmother at Risk They Took Everybody’s Digits, But No Risqué Selfies Anthem: Sorry, Protecting Your Data is aHassle Eight Steps You Can Take Since Anthem Can’t Be Trusted Security That Isn’t Pathetic Local Grandmother at Risk Hacks are never good news for the individual. Clearly those of us who are spending a lot of time online can be concerned about loss of our passwords, but what’s really critical isn’t the key but what’s inside – all that PII (personally identifiable information). Obviously we’re more at risk if we have our data stored in more online locations, but our information is in the computer networks of the government and our service providers regardless. Let’s say, for example, that you are a 79-year-old woman who has never set up a web account, preferring to stay up all night quilting, listening to Amos ‘n’ Andy, and making your way through a never-ending supply of groceries that you purchased in 1979. However, you have a Medicare supplemental policy from Anthem. You are on the grid, and you have just been hacked. Coincidentally, given your age and the sell-by date on all the food you eat, you are actually among 79 million violated users....

Every year, the RightScale State of the Cloud Survey looks at how the cloud industry is developing worldwide. The 2015 edition was released on February 18. We previously reviewed the analysis of Joe McKendrick of Forbes, who commented that tension was growing between IT leadership and business leadership regarding who should control cloud decisions (and this article overlaps in places with that one). Today we look directly at the survey data, as described by RightScale VP of Marketing Kim Weins. Weins noted that the survey was particularly centered on infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). More than 900 respondents, all of them IT executives, answered questions related to their company’s use of cloud. The margin of error for the survey, which was intended to gauge the general perspective by including employees of small and large firms from various sectors, is just 3%. Weins described the poll’s findings as follows: Hybrid Continues to Become the Dominant Model More and more, companies are moving to multi-cloud systems – 82%, up from 74% last year.  Of that 82%, the types of clouds being built are: 55% hybrid (public + private) 13% public only 14% private only Popularity Versus Actual Work General market penetration looks great for cloud...

Computer dude: Allow me to show you the way to the cloud. Company dude: Nay, we are already there. Computer dude: Them’s fightin’ words. Computer dudette: Hey, settle down, everyone. A just-released poll of more than 900 decision-makers reveals that department heads are shifting toward cloud even when the IT staff is not completely sold on the idea. The researchers who prepared the whitepaper believe that the boiling, no-holds-barred hate-war brewing between the IT department and general leadership is “likely rooted in the business units’ desire for more agility and their concerns that central IT is too cautious in cloud adoption — especially public cloud adoption.” Nonetheless, the report, called the 2015 RightScale State of the Cloud Survey, also indicates that IT directors are beginning to accept cloud and better grasp the security landscape. Joe McKendrick of Forbes argues that the increasing comfort level among IT executives could motivate them to become experts at cloud development, transitioning from a direct machine-oriented role to that of a consultant. That’s how IT leaders see the situation evolving, says McKendrick. Let’s look at McKendrick’s full analysis of the survey. Who Should Make Cloud Decisions? More and more, the IT leadership has been campaigning...

A Strange Man in a Family Environment The Science of Mood Lighting How to Manipulate Women with Machines Today’s Lightbulb, Same Old Creepiness You Don’t Have to Creep in the Cloud A Strange Man in a Family Environment Some men were born to be creepy. One of them was Roger Kay of Forbes. When Kay was just 24 years old, he purchased a house. It was a financially savvy thing to do: a professor from the University of Chicago, Jim Lorie, recommended buying a house as quickly as possible because the real-estate market was so incredible. Kay greatly respected Lorie, so when he got out of college in 1977, he bought the house, which was located outside of Boston. Kay hadn’t done too much research on the area, though. He was distraught to learn that he would be living in a wholesome environment, surrounded by families and without any women his age. Soon after Kay moved into his new home, the Great Blizzard of 1978 struck Massachusetts. The inclement weather, 3 feet of snow, struck so suddenly and so violently that 3500 vehicles became stuck on Route 128. After shoveling his way out of his place, Kay first met his...

Cloud Computing as a Backbone Third Platform Overview Integrating All Your Stuff Getting it Right the First Time Cloud Computing as a Backbone Technology changes rapidly, with the discussion of technological development keeping pace. Technologists are always trying to see through the façade of various emergent concepts and determine if they are legitimately revolutionary and practically applicable or not. However, writes Nathaniel Borenstein on Gigaom, it’s important to stay abreast of industry developments because the technology could point to a major transition for our businesses and lifestyles. Borenstein considers the internet of things (IoT) to be today’s most hyped technology, with thorough and continuing press coverage. He is quick to point out that the IoT does not represent a shift away from cloud computing. In fact, this broader web that will incorporate the objects around us will be built on the third platform – which includes cloud along with social networking, mobile computing, and big data. Cloud has become such a major infrastructural mechanism that it now serves as a backbone of the web, hosting thousands of applications that together have an enormous impact on our lives. “It is tough to imagine our current lives without cloud computing,” Borenstein notes, “and...

Note: Part 2 of this 3 part blog, Dealing with Suburbia, can be read HERE. In this third article on the transportation cloud, we’ll explore changes to car ownership and parking; commercial implications; and the job market. Mass Transportation & Ownership Buses and trains will still exist when the transportation cloud becomes fully active. In fact, potentially trains will be built into the cloud and serve a supplemental role to automobiles. In the future, a shared, self-driving car will bring you to the train depot rather than having to walk or park nearby. Fewer and fewer people will own cars as the years go by, but car owners will never become completely extinct. As Planning for Reality (PFR) explains, “Cars are just too great a part of America’s 20th and now 21st century DNA.” While many younger people, technophiles, and sustainability advocates may shift completely to a network of self-driving cars, collectors, car enthusiasts, and those in the older generations are less prepared to make the transition. On some road trips and day-to-day trips requiring conversation, we will want access to our own space. We can either get a car from the transportation cloud that is designated solely to us...

Note: Part 1 of this 2 part blog, Integrating Ride-Sharing, Car-pooling & Self-Driving, can be read HERE. In this continuation of our discussion related to the transportation cloud, we will look at the related issues of suburbia and urban planning. Transitioning Away From Sprawl The transportation cloud is on the rise, but it’s not here yet; and many city planners are instead turning toward transit-oriented development as a sustainable approach. This planning model, the brainchild of UC Berkeley’s Robert Cervero, argues that cities should foster large construction projects that are near public transportation. The transit-oriented approach has become incredibly popular around the country. Proponents of this idea argue that by erecting large residential projects near the buses and trains, it becomes easier for individuals to forgo car ownership and instead rely on public transit. Many planners consider the suburbs to be an extraordinarily frustrating problem. “Spread out with low population densities, suburbs are poorly suited to transit,” remarks sustainability blog Planning for Reality (PFR). “Planners would sooner reverse trends and have the population conveniently move to a more urban configuration.” Public transportation is at its best when people are closer together: that close proximity optimizes efficiency while serving a wide...

When you order an SSL certificate for your website, your certificate is signed with a cryptographic hash algorithm that ensures the validity of the signed SSL certificate. In the distant past, SSL certificates were signed with an MD5 hash, but as computational power increased, MD5 became insecure. SHA-1 signing then became the new industry standard. However, SHA-1 has also become technologically insecure. Sunsetting SHA-1 US NIST has recommended that SHA-1 no longer be used, and as of late 2014, the SSL Certification Authority industry has moved quickly to discontinue use of the SHA-1 hashing mechanism for SSL certificate signing in favor of SHA-2. In order to facilitate this transition, major browser vendors, including Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft have announced relatively fast deprecation policies for SHA-1 signed certificates. Microsoft will stop trusting any SHA-1 signed certificates after January 1, 2017. [1] As of Chrome 41 (Mar 2015), Google Chrome will show SHA-1 certificates that expire after January 1, 2017, as insecure. SHA-1 certificates that expire between Jan 1 – Dec. 31, 2016, will be shown as “secure with minor errors”. [2] Firefox will display a warning for SHA-1 certs after January 1, 2016, and stop trusting them after January 1, 2017. [3]...

Watch your step: we are now entering the era of the Transportation Cloud. Cloud systems, “machines” that are made available by widely distributed resources on thousands of servers in real time, are disrupting not just IT but every industry in the world economy. Business analysis company IDC puts the amount spent on the cloud last year at $100 billion. “Just as ‘the cloud’ has disrupted and revolutionized business computing, communications and media consumption,” reports sustainability blog Planning for Reality (PFR), “so the coming ‘transportation cloud’ will have similar radical impacts on the world around us. PFR looks toward the transition from a road filled with many people at varying degrees of emotional health swerving around the road in independent death-pods to a fully connected and integrated transportation model that utilizes the principles of ride-sharing, car-pooling, and self-driving. Just Click the Button Today, when you need to drive somewhere, it can get complicated. First, you have to be prepared, with about three-quarters of your income going to making payments on your car and maintaining it. You also need to make sure it has fuel. Along these lines, always keep water and a tire jack in your car. If you don’t know...

Starting in 2009, the federal government began transitioning from local servers in agency-owned data centers to cloud infrastructures. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently provided a 23-page overview of the migration. It looks at the positive outcomes provided by cloud systems and challenges that commonly arise during implementation – one of which is the stodgy, immovable attitude of some employees. Just a few days ago, Joshua Bleiberg and Darrell M. West provided summary and analysis of the report for the Brookings Institution’s TechTank, as described below. Cloud Benefits Distributing resources across a sizable network of servers is preferable to the traditional datacenter model in numerous ways. The CRS whitepaper lists half a dozen advantages of cloud-hosted environments: Economical – Cloud systems are less resource-intensive than locally run datacenters are. When an agency sets up a local information technology (IT) system, it has to spend enough cash to allow it to operate effectively whenever traffic spikes. Although agencies must be prepared for peak situations, they typically need far fewer resources. A distributed virtual model has the real-time agility to respond to fluctuations in demand, Bleiberg and West explain: “Cloud computing allows organizations to pay for all of the resources they need...

This blog post covers the controversy created by a new FTC white paper focused on consumer privacy regulations: Basics of the Paper Minimization Controversy Healthcare Data Recommendations Bashing the FTC Report Data Brokers Know Where You Live Conclusion Basics of the Paper An analysis by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that explored methods to decrease the data vulnerabilities individuals now face from the Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in rebukes, even from within the regulatory agency itself. According to Susan D. Hall of FierceHealthIT, the paper was created using a 2013 FTC seminar, an event that was not designed to address the particular challenges of healthcare, as its primary source. It looks at four different aspects of the IoT(one of the four pillars of the “third platform” of computing which represents the real-world expansion of the web into a wide plethora of objects): security, information minimization, notification, and opt-out freedom. According to a press release from the agency, FTC Chair Edith Ramirez explained its purpose: ““We believe that by adopting the best practices we’ve laid out, businesses will be better able to provide consumers the protections they want and allow the benefits of the Internet of Things to be...

In the old days, you had to get security clearance to access a supercomputer. Now, just reach inside your pocket. Cloud computing gives everyone the ability to access the power of an ultra-available, distributed network of servers. However, it’s exactly that ultra-availability that concerns skeptics of this “third platform” technology. People worry that by processing their data through a hosting service’s system, either the host or one of its customers could take a peek. Hence, hosting companies have started offering private and hybrid cloud services. But people remain hungry for stronger security mechanisms within the public cloud. A new discovery wants computing to take a quantum leap. As Jacob Aron of New Scientist reports, quantum state manipulation can optimize the security of distributed virtualization. Two Established Cloud Security Ideas Two ways to bolster the security of the public cloud have emerged in recent years, says Aron. One is homomorphic encryption. “A homomorphic encryption scheme is a crypto system that allows computations to be performed on data without decrypting it,” explains Andy Greenberg of Wired. “A homomorphically encrypted search engine, for instance, could take in encrypted search terms and compare them with an encrypted index of the web.” Put another way,...

Our series of articles on certification and compliance not only demonstrates how many different types of industries are impacted by regulations but the breadth of implications for their IT departments and service providers. Healthcare firms concern themselves with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996), publicly traded companies must abide by SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), and federal agencies must comply with FISMA (below). Meanwhile, hosting services and other tech providers are wise to prove their compliance with these laws to reduce liability for their customers. This article, the seventh and final installment in our series, looks at the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA): What is FISMA? Background of the Law Purpose of the Law Development of Guidelines Nine-Point Compliance To-Do List What is FISMA? FISMA is the commonly used acronym for the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). It is a series of laws passed by the US Congress that establish a full-scale construct to safeguard federal data, processes, and possessions against natural disasters and terrorism, as explained by Margaret Rouse of TechTarget. FISMA is part of a larger act, the Electronic Government Act of 2002. FISMA describes the duties that must be carried...

This report, the sixth in our series on certification and compliance, covers the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX): What is SOX? Impact on IT Departments and Services Financial Data Emails as Business Communication Retaining and Storing Emails Knowing the ropes What is SOX? SOX is a set of financial sector laws that was approved by the U.S. Congress in 2002. The purpose of Sarbanes-Oxley is to “protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise, as well as improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures,” writes Margaret Rouse of TechTarget. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforces the regulations described within the act. SOX was created following several widely publicized cases of financial fraud – Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco – shortly after the turn of the century. These cases were problematic because they generally corroded the confidence of stockholders. The act, created and proposed by US Congressmen Paul Sarbanes and Michael Oxley, placed stricter parameters on corporations so that they would be held accountable. Any publicly held  firm must meet the stipulations of Sarbanes-Oxley. Impact on IT Departments and Services This act may sound as if it only impacts the financial staff of a corporation,...

This article is the fifth in our series on compliance and certification. Together these pieces highlight data processing laws and optional independent standards that businesses use as credibility indicators and as guides to implement best practices. This installment focuses on compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996: What is HIPAA? HIPAA Title Information Role of Each State’s Government How the OCR Enforces HIPAA Conclusion What is HIPAA? HIPAA stands for the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. This law performs the following four functions, as described by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS): Enables US citizens to maintain their health insurance if their job ends or they switch companies. Creates harsher penalties for healthcare deception and mistreatment. Defines uniform expectations for medical data passed through billing applications and other systems. Establishes guidelines for the safeguarding of consumer protected health information (PHI) through its privacy, security, and breach notification rules (Title II). HIPAA Title Information The California agency also describes the various titles contained within the healthcare law, which are as follows: Title I – Continuation coverage Title I allows members of the workforce, their spouses, and their children to have continued...

This installment is the fourth in our series on various voluntary standards and mandatory regulations that require certification and compliance from businesses. Tech providers often get auditing of their systems so that their clients can know that they are safe and will stay within legal parameters. Today we focus on ISO 27001, a standard of the nonprofit, globally recognized International Organization for Standardization: What is ISO 27001? ISO 27000 Family – RelatedStandards What are the ISO & IEC? Benefits of Certification Planning Process & Main Sections Conclusion. What is ISO 27001? This standard is actually called the ISO/IEC 27001, since its development is shared between the ISO and IEC (discussed briefly below). The topic is information security management – so essentially, this standard is designed to help organizations keep their data safeguarded against intrusion and/or theft. “Using this family of standards will help your organization manage the security of assets,” explains the ISO, “such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details or information entrusted to you by third parties.” This standard is the most widely used one in the 27000 group, a family that establishes proper design and use of an information security management system (ISMS). An ISMS is a...

This report, the second in our series on certification and compliance, looks at ITIL, formerly known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library: Introduction History Qualifications & Credits Additional Qualifications Conclusion Introduction ITIL methodology is intended to allow firms to determine areas that are struggling, with objective third-party advice for how to make adjustments that are cost-effective and optimize efficiency. Rich Hein of CIO notes instances in which it may be valuable: “[You] may use ITIL practices to reduce helpdesk traffic by implementing self-help sections on your company’s website or…to decide whether something is done in-house or by a third-party.” IT, then, is not focused on your equipment or virtual systems but on your technological processes: computing service and lifecycle management. Let’s look at Hein’s discussion of the history and qualifications of ITIL. History During the 80s, the United Kingdom’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) came up with a number of guidelines that were intended as a structure to organize and simplify IT strategy, delivery, and support. ITIL is no longer called by its original name because it is no longer a library, but it started as one. When it was first formed, ITIL was a series of books that...

The first installment in a series on certification and compliance, this report looks at Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements 16 (SSAE 16): What is SSAE 16? What is the AICPA? Changing Uses of the SSAE 16 Report Difference Between Type I and Type II Relationship to Sarbanes-Oxley Conclusion What is SSAE 16? SSAE 16 is a standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to delineate an objective understanding of “how service companies [should] report on compliance controls,” writes Margaret Rouse for TechTarget. In use since June 15, 2011, SSAE 16 replaced SAS 70, a standard first release in April 1992. SSAE 16 is essentially intended as an update and improvement of SAS 70. One new feature is that leadership at the service organization must give the auditors a signed statement that describes the organizational system. This assertion must include the types of services offered by the company and any business tasks that impact clients. Any company seeking certification must additionally verify that the statement fits the intentions of its control mechanisms and the time window established for analysis. What is the AICPA? With over 400,000 members in almost 150 nations, the American Institute of Certified...

This article, our third on business and technology certification and compliance, explores ISO 9001, a standard created and developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO): What is the ISO? Basics on ISO 9001 History of the Standard Scope Certification Process Why it is Used Conclusion What is the ISO? The ISO, according to its website, is the most sizable publisher of voluntary standards worldwide It is a nonprofit association made up of a global membership. Its organization and all its policies are transparently accessible and open for debate. The ISO has a presence in 166 different nations, with refinement of the standards themselves and accreditation of individual businesses occurring through the network. A Central Secretariat presides over management of the ISO from Geneva, Switzerland. The use of international standards allows for consistent and commonly understood parameters for industry on an international scale. “They give world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency,” states the ISO. “They are instrumental in facilitating international trade.” ISO has released almost 20,000 standards diversely spread throughout sectors of the economy, including information systems, farming, medicine, and food handling. Basics on ISO 9001 A new version of ISO 9001, 9001:2015,...

This looks at a second major combative political hack since the Monday before Thanksgiving, when the Sony hack was announced. It is a follow-up to our initial coverage on the Central Command hack. An Awful Movie Twitter Threats Creepy Contact Information & Plans Obama Roasted at FTC Conclusion An Awful Movie After making critical comments following the Sony hack of an awful movie that Sony Pictures should have paid Americans to watch, The Interview, President Obama has now been drawn directly into the debate over cybersecurity. When the studio announced that it would not be releasing the movie since the big cinema chains pulled out (after threats of attacks reminiscent of “the 11th of September 2001”) , Obama said of Sony, “I think they made a mistake.” Obama wanted a strong stance against North Korea. The FBI has said that the Sony hackers were affiliated with the North Korean government, and Slate has said that skeptics of Pyongyang involvement are misguided. Now the Islamic State (ISIS) took the President and federal government on directly. The YouTube and Twitter accounts for US Central Command were hacked on January 12, while Obama was speaking on cybersecurity at the FTC. Twitter Threats Here’s...

Two US Central Command social media accounts – those for its YouTube and Twitter –were hacked on Monday, January 12. Claiming to represent the Islamic State, a.k.a. ISIS, the intruders made a bold and disconcerting threat, as covered by Kim Zetter of Wired. We will look at the incident as follows: What Did the Beheaders Post? Pentagon Response & ISIS Background Obama’s Legislative Security Agenda Conclusion What Did the Beheaders Post? The terrorist group, famous for beheading Western journalists and humanitarian workers, targeted Central Command because it is the division of the Department of Defense responsible for the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia (a region that includes Iraq and Afghanistan). After accessing the Twitter account, the cybercriminals tweeted as Central Command, in all capital letters (although I will spare you the SHOUTING): “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back. ISIS.” The tweet linked to fuller comments from the organization, since we are all eager to hear the life philosophy behind people who publicly decapitate objective and nonviolent citizens. The statement explained that in response to actions by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, the Islamic State has infiltrated the networks and computers...

Today we look at a hack on a German steel mill that produced the second confirmed case of cyberattack-originated physical damage: Lost in the Sony Hoopla Losing Control of the System Separation to Enhance Security Conclusion Lost in the Sony Hoopla The Sony hack captured our imaginations in December, so many people missed reports of an attack that was much more disturbing for those in the security field. A report by the German government that was posted to the Internet in December details an attack on an unidentified German steel mill. The attackers created enough volatility within the plant’s control systems, wrote Kim Zetter of Wired, “that a blast furnace could not be properly shut down, resulting in ‘massive’—though unspecified—damage.” This German incident is only the second time that a 100% digital assault has destroyed physical property. The original case of attackers crossing the virtual/physical divide was Stuxnet, a digital worm that was used by the United States and Israel to attack Iranian control systems. The infiltration occurred in late 2007 or early 2008. In January 2010, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors observed that the  centrifuges for uranium gas enrichment were malfunctioning at an alarming rate. In June of that...

Today we look at more of the biggest enterprise intrusions of 2014, as showcased by Kim Zetter for Wired (see our opening article here): Home Depot – And You Thought Target Was Bad Jennifer Lawrence Naked – Don’t Look, You Creeps Snapsaved – They Had It Coming Twitter – Never Going to Let You Down Bitcoin – Um, Maybe this Wasn’t a Good Idea I’m Afraid! Home Depot – And You Thought Target Was Bad Home Depot now feels the pain of Neiman Marcus, Michael’s, and Target. The hardware box store chain revealed in September that it had been hacked, compromising the payment card numbers of 56 million people – 10 million more than were stolen from Target. Kim notes that the intruders were inside the corporation’s network starting in April, after two previous attempts that resulted in minor damages. Independent security professionals had allegedly recommended that Home Depot install additional data safeguards that could have prevented the breach, but the company had not acted in time. Jennifer Lawrence Naked – Don’t Look, You Creeps Hackers ran roughshod on Jennifer Lawrence’s genitals in September, posting pictures of them for everyone to see. 4chan users released more than 500 images supposedly...

Today we look at the biggest enterprise intrusions of 2014: Introduction – Hackers Rampaging Sony – Head Hanging in Shame European Union – Government Spy Machine Regin More Introduction – Hackers Rampaging Human beings are funny. Although we all want peace and security, we also gravitate toward death and destruction. Sometimes it is because we feel compassion for the victims. Sometimes we are trying to learn from bad examples and figure out what organizations seem vulnerable. And sometimes, we are mesmerized by the raw carnage. Perhaps all three of those explain our obsession with computer hacks. Hacks aren’t just captivating, though. As Kim Zetter reports in Wired, data breaches at enterprises are progressively growing and becoming more sophisticated. They are also becoming more sinister. When hackers infiltrated Sony Pictures, they did more than abscond with sensitive personal data. They performed a sort of digital terrorism on the inside of the studio’s network on their way out the door, deleting the contents of servers and leaving the IT team clamoring to recover. Kim explains that this data-destruction type of attack is not new: “Digital destruction of this sort was first seen in Saudi Arabia and Iran when computers used in the...

This report looks at where cloud is headed for 2015, through the eyes of several experts in the field: Introduction John Engates – People won’t just buy on cost. Allan Leinwand – Development agility will grow increasingly important. Nigel Beighton – Infrastructure is on its way out. Sachin Sony – Enterprises will build private, leading toward hybrid. Conclusion Introduction Cloud grew astronomically during 2014. The infrastructure as a service field became increasingly competitive at the top, as IBM and Microsoft took turns throwing punches at AWS, primarily by injecting huge sums of cash into breakneck efforts to topple the obvious market leader. What happens in 2015? James Bourne collected perspectives from several industry experts. Notably, these experts are to a large extent voice boxes for the strategies of their corporations. Don’t necessarily expect evenhanded attitudes or even clarity here. With that sizable grain of salt (maybe even a saltshaker), let’s look at these expert projections: John Engates – People won’t just buy on cost. John Engates, the chief technology officer of Rackspace, said the customers will be seeking out more sophisticated plans in 2015, rather than simply making buying decisions on cost. He commented, “The importance of a trusted partner...

This report looks at the extensive scheduled downtime announced this week by one of our largest and most well-recognized competitors: Are You Freaking Kidding Me? Hey, Where’s the Cloud? Why So Extended? What About Failover? Know Your SLA Don’t Run for the Hills Are You Freaking Kidding Me? No one was very impressed with Verizon’s announcement that its enterprise system Verizon Cloud would go down early Saturday morning for up to 48 hours. When Sharon Gaudin of Computerworld reported that the service would be moved offline beginning at 1 AM EST on Saturday, January 10, readers were quick to express their disgust. One user, 99BitterReality, thought that the move by Verizon should be seen as its swansong, insulting the intelligence of anyone who would give them a second chance: “Only the truly stupid would continue with a company unable/unwilling to provide even a really lousy level of service.” Commenter vipbackchannel noted that Verizon was responsible for the Affordable Care Act debacle in late 2013, when the system became widely unreliable right at the time when the Obama administration needed it most. In closing, vipbackchannel summarized his opinion of the telecom giant’s infrastructure: “They have very bad design.” Hey, Where’s the...

This article looks at Verizon’s announcement that their enterprise customers should plan for as much as 48 hours of downtime over the weekend. That’s right: two days. We will proceed as follows: Verizon Cloud – Sh–tstorm a-Brewin’ Prepare for the Worst – Bring Your Raincoat They Don’t Know What They’re Doing I said I’ll Give You Shelter from the Storm Verizon Cloud – Sh–tstorm a-Brewin’ Never hit someone when they are down. It’s just not nice. But what else can you say other than, “What is Verizon doing?” Sharon Gaudin of Computerworld reported on an alert Verizon sent out to its enterprise cloud users letting them know that there could be as much as 48 hours of service outage over the weekend. Sharon writes, “The company confirmed this afternoon that its new cloud service, Verizon Cloud, will be shut down for maintenance for as long as two days starting at 1 a.m. ET [New York City time] on Saturday, Jan. 10.” Enterprise users have been told to shut off their cloud servers by Midnight ET – just turn it off, like a vacuum cleaner. You just can’t make this stuff up. Users of Verizon Cloud won’t be able to use...

Many forecasts are published this time of year to frame expectations for the next 12 months. This report looks in the opposite direction, reviewing 2014 through the lens of projections made last January, as follows: Introduction Hybrid Cloud – Yes Platform as a Service – Yes AWS – No, Their Cloud Monopoly is Crumbling Newsflash: Starbucks is Terrible Introduction As any history buff will tell you, you can understand the future by looking at the past. James Bourne of CloudTech covered the 12-month past and future of the market, including an analysis of the forecast made by the industry blog in December 2013. He determined that CloudTech had been correct with two out of its three predictions: 1. Hybrid Cloud – Yes Analysts agreed entering 2014 that hybrid cloud would grow at an incredible rate. Len Padilla, vice president of product strategy for NTT Europe, explained the gist of why different types of clouds are being combined: “Public cloud offers cost and scale benefits, while private cloud provides security and control.” Hybrid did end up surging, as suggested by an October poll of business professionals attending the 2014 Cloud Expo and AWS Summit. More than one out of every two...

This report looks at six major cloud news stories from 2014: Introduction IBM Cloud Focus & New Datacenters Microsoft Court Battle over Ireland Code Spaces & Autotask Failures IBM & SAP Partnership Microsoft & Bitcasa Switch Unlimited Gears Naked Celebrity Pictures: 4chan Becomes TMZ Conclusion Introduction As technologists and business analysts expected, many more businesses migrated to cloud systems last year. Within the field, top computing companies such as Microsoft and IBM were able to strip away some of the almost monopolistic market share of AWS. Let’s look at several of the top stories that emerged, with initial ideas from James Bourne of Cloud Tech News. IBM Cloud Focus & New Datacenters IBM has long been a dominant vendor for legacy systems. Last year, though, the company wisely shifted directions and dedicated $2.2 billion to building its cloud. The multibillion dollar investment came in two different announcements. As Re/code reports, the company followed up a $1.2 billion plan to build 27 new cloud datacenters (January) with a $1 billion commitment to beef up software integration within SoftLayer (February). It may seem naïve for a legacy company to come in and challenge Amazon with a rebranding that’s a little late in...

(Above is a follow-up post from Facebook user Tim Young, promoting the independent movie theater release of The Interview as a celebration of First Amendment rights.) Part 1 of this two-part story can be read here. Public Cloud: Our Hero In the conclusion to the first part of this report, I wrote of the big movie chains, “Maybe by giving in to terrorist demands, those lame ducks just made themselves irrelevant.” Although I was admittedly smacking around phony corporations for failing to form a united front against terrorist threats, that’s also not an overstatement.The failure of AMC, Regal Entertainment, and others to show the movie despite vague warnings of a terrorist response – that moment of weenie weakness that exposed the cinema establishment as the old, tepid, waterlogged hotdogs that they are – allowed competition to step in and save the day. The Interview was effectively a real-world test project for simultaneous film distribution via limited theatrical release and video-on-demand (VOD), the latter of which is essentially movies through the cloud – Netflix, Google Play, etc. Needless to say, physical movie theaters are not enthusiastic about promotion of the virtual model coinciding with their premieres. Bock, the movie viewership analyst...

(Above, you can see an image from Austin-based Facebook user Tim Young. Young, an outspoken Republican, is an example of the bipartisan – or rather apolitical – civil rights response to the hacker threats said by the FBI to come from North Korea.) Okay, no one has gotten hurt, so now let’s talk about the money. This article looks at how Sony Pictures pushed back against its hackers by releasing The Interview online over the holiday weekend. Here is how we will proceed: Big Numbers Voting for Freedom Is Free Speech Lucrative? Movie Chains Cower to Terrorism as Video-On-Demand (VOD) Rises Public Cloud: Our Hero Hack Defense as a Service Let’s Get Ready to Buy Big Numbers Voting for Freedom Sony Pictures reports that online sales of The Interview reached $15 million through Saturday, December 27, after its release on Christmas Eve. That number was boosted a bit by the $2.8 million made in independent movie theaters starting Christmas Day. The reason the movie fared so well even though it primarily went “straight to video” is a combination of two basic factors: Independent movie theaters – such as the Alamo Drafthouse (an independent Texas dinner-cinema chain) – standing up and...

Let’s look at the details of the November Sony #GOP hack, threats related to The Interview, and the issue of North Korea’s involvement: CloudFlare & Security Skeptics: North Korea is a Decoy Slate & US Government: North Korea is the Duck TechCrunch: Anonymous Goes Duck Hunting CloudFlare & Security Skeptics: North Korea is a Decoy We’ve previously discussed the Sony hack. The previous article focused on the idea that North Korea was responsible for the hacks, in contrast to what was being presented by various security professionals at the time – the latter of which is the general focus of this article. Initially everyone was pointing their fingers at North Korea (aka the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK – a name that represents the, uh, profoundly democratic ideals of a nation that publicly executes people for watching Hollywood films). North Korea professed innocence, and many in the security field – skeptical of an intelligence community that has driven us blindly toward military conflict in the past – thought the United States adversary might actually be telling the truth, as covered by Paul Wagenseil in Tom’s Guide. President Barack Obama came out and said on Decembert 19 that the...

? As if tech wasn’t already granular and heady enough, HIPAA oversight by the federal HHS Office of Civil Rights makes data protection even more challenging for healthcare companies. HIPAA can be stressful, and it can also be costly. It’s headache-inducing because enforcement is on the rise, with more than $10 million of financial settlements listed on the OCR “Wall of Shame” in the 12 months leading up to June 2014. Part of the reason it’s stressful is that it’s boring. Recognizing how exciting HIPAA rules are not, Keith Faigin of TechRepublic detailed 10 need-to-know elements of the law using examples from sci-fi films. Although Faigin’s article was penned in 2012, it remains largely relevant and incredibly palatable. To use another cinematic reference,  Mary Poppins was right when she claimed that “a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.” A major stress-reduing change for healthcare organizations came last year, by way of the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule: now business associates must report to the government just as covered entities do. In other words, hosting providers, shredding companies, or any other firm handling healthcare data now truly shares compliance duties with its clients. As indicated in the above video, a...

This report will look at the hack of Sony Pictures that took place in November, as follows: Introduction – Politically Motivated Stunt? Red Skeleton Says Good Morning Whodunit? Sony Response Introduction – Politically Motivated Stunt? Let’s look at the raw mainstream media understanding of this event. Andrea Peterson, technology policy reporter for the Washington Post, recently provided an overview of the hack, in attempt to summarize the facts for a trending topic that has been rife with speculation of international intrigue. Hackers successfully breached Sony Pictures in November. They extracted massive amounts of private, sometimes sensitive files from the film production company and made them publicly available on the Web, so that the hacker community and reporters have been able to examine the information, with the latter digging through the content to find gems related to Hollywood (TMZ probably has a whole division working on this) or to legitimately understand the type of data that was stolen and the cultural meaning of the hack. At some point, consensus started to develop that the attack came from North Korea: “Multiple reports suggest US government officials believe the attack is tied to the North Korean government,” wrote Peterson.The idea is that North...

What can cloud users do to prevent hacking on the client side? Unfortunately, that’s a question many people are asking currently, following two major cloud breaches this fall: iCloud and Sony (the latter we now know to be the work of the North Korean government in response to the Seth Rogen and James Franco film The Interview). This article will explore hacking prevention as follows: General Hacking Climate Tip #1 – Two-Factor Authentication Tip #2 – Look at Your Links Tip #3 – Don’t Repeat Passwords Tip #4 – Persistent Vigilance Cloud on Demand General Hacking Climate The cloud is growing. I know, you get it. You see the hype. It’s virtually impossible to escape. There is so much money in cloud computing that it has become a well-entrenched household concept, with 9 out of every 10 American high-speed Internet users familiar with cloud storage solutions. Failure to protect cloud information is, then, not just a common oversight of multinational enterprises but of SMB’s and consumers. As Joe Lazauskas so aptly frames the issue in Forbes, “there are few people today who can afford not to be concerned about the safety of cloud computing.” Lazauskas provides 4 tips for those...

This article will discuss a battle over cloud user data that started a year ago. Microsoft is at the center, but various other major players in the industry have officially come out in support of the Seattle-based (Redmond) corporation. We will discuss this issue as follows: Collaborative Shift from Public to Private Joining Hands with the Competition Breach of International Law? Open Government Access to Email Collaborative Shift from Public to Private Microsoft has been successful in rallying other computing giants to its defense as it tries to prevent the US government from accessing its Ireland-based data center. According to a December 15 report in The Register, federal prosecutors want to review emails that are stored outside national boundaries through a search warrant issued by an American judge. Microsoft is fighting the decision. This court battle could seem to be a turnaround for Microsoft. Previously, the National Security Agency announced that it appreciated the “collaborative teamwork” of Microsoft (per The Register) in giving the intelligence community access to Outlook.com. In fact, the Edward Snowden leak included documents from the NSA’s Special Source Operations (SSO) department that showed Microsoft giving backdoor cloud software entry to the spy agency. Microsoft told the...

This article will look at marketing hype that fuels misconception of the cloud. To get there, we will first look at what the technology has in common with a particular berry that has been a source of great, unbridled, loopy excitement for those in the natural food industry. We will progress as follows: Ambiguity & Marketing Jargon – Superfruits Money Falling from the Sky: False Cloud Advertising Ridiculous Imagery Studies & Perspectives – Citrix, Microsoft & Oracle Right terminology for a Transparent Cloud Ambiguity & Marketing Jargon – Superfruits If you are in the world of natural health, you are probably familiar with the term “superfruit.” We should not be surprised to see the acai berry at the top of a list of superfruits. The pomegranate also recently experienced a surge of popularity when it was realized that it was not simply a fruit but possessed strange powers, as with these other impossibly healthy fruits. The truth is that superfruit is a word that has been used in marketing and labeling but does not have a standardized definition used by science or government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (although many now consider the latter to be a...

Sure, it’s easy to dislike the dominant player in your field. They sneeze, and journalists scramble to collect the airborne discharge and analyze it. However, the power of the big dogs is often left unchecked. We see that in both the public sector and private sector, and sometimes in relationships between the two. In this article, we will look at the relationship between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as follows: It Wasn’t Us: Red “Delete” Button Shoddy Intelligence: Cooking the Books on Torture CIA & Amazon: So Happy Together Is Amazon “Morally Irresponsible”? Partnering with a Company You Can Trust It Wasn’t Us: Red “Delete” Button The CIA’s publicity director has been having trouble keeping the brand’s sparkling reputation untarnished lately. A couple of leading legislators bolstered opposition to a CIA proposal, which goes something like this: “Hey, we’ve got a great idea to cut fat from the federal government’s data storage: get rid of our emails.” Julian Hattem reported in The Hill on December 1 that Texas Sen. John Cornyn, “the No. 2 Senate Republican,” had co-written a letter with Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont. The two senators crossed the aisles, shook hands, and...

This report discusses the Australian federal government’s adoption of the cloud, as detailed by a December 9 article in The Australian (see source below). The Department of Education seems to be ahead of other governmental branches with cloudification: its entire ecosystem should be “cloud-ready” by 2019. Other government departments with huge IT budgets, including Health and Immigration, are progressively shifting to the cloud as well. We will cover these topics: Australia – 5-year Cloud-Readiness Plan Department of Education Department of Health Immigration and Border Protection Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Are You Cloud-Ready? Australia – 5-year Cloud-Readiness Plan Fran Foo of The Australian spoke with directors of major federal government agencies to determine the extent of their cloud adoption, essentially getting the answers to two questions: What portion of their systems were currently prepared for cloud migration? What portion of their systems would be cloud-ready by 2019? Most of the departments said that they were getting as much of their technology as possible ready for migration to cloud virtual machines and securely accessible on the web. The Australian government’s move to the cloud provides an opportunity for tech contractors to get agencies prepared for on-demand computing, moving IT systems from the...

This report, which looks at the cloud computing industry via an Information Age list of annual projections, includes the following sections: Overview – The Thrill is Gone Trend #1: SDN/NSV Adoption Trend #2: Location, Location, Location Trend #3: Platforms on the Rise Trend #4: Container Obsession Trend #5: Internet of Things & Widespread Hair-Pulling Key Takeaways – Speed and Security Overview – The Thrill is Gone Chloe Green reports in Information Age that location is becoming a major factor for the development of IT infrastructures. Cloud meets the obvious need of speed at a low cost, but Green sees the cloud becoming less nebulous as the way in which “it is tethered to the ground will matter more than ever.” In other words, the thrill is gone. Cloud isn’t fluffy anymore. It’s functional. Here are Green’s five specific trends: Trend #1: SDN/NSV Adoption Over the past few years, the telecommunications industry has increasingly used software defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NSV) to automate the delivery of their services. In the typical large company, though, traditional networking hardware such as switches, routers, and firewalls are commonplace. The game changer is that SDN and NSV are now being built in...

This report will look at how content marketing is changing the landscape within the content delivery network (CDN) industry. Our overview will contain the following components: Limelight: Content is King Kapost: No, Content is an Avalanche (help!) Forbes: 2014 State of the User Experience Limelight: Launching Products with Content Superb Internet: The Customers Are Right Limelight: Content is King We all know that content marketing is huge, but sometimes it helps to see things on the ground. 5000-foot views provide general illumination, but first-person accounts and examples serve as spotlights. To better understand the CDN market, Columbia University Professor Ava Seave conducted a couple of interviews of Limelight CMO Kirby Wadsworth for Forbes, one on driving sales and the other on the power of content marketing. The content marketing article is of particular interest since it is a relatively new and evolving concept that is making such a sweeping impact on business. Essentially, Wadsworth argues that the incorporation of content marketing into a CDN business (as in many other fields) allows “customers to be more successful,” which in turn improves the end-user experience. Below is a broad overview of content marketing, followed by an in-depth look at the role of...

This article looks at cloud as the final frontier for security, exploring the topic as follows: CSO: 5 Ways Security Solutions Will Change Change #1 – Web as Network Perimeter Change #2 – SaaS Beats Out Endpoint Solutions: Swig of Kool-Aid Change #3 – Integration of Network and Endpoint Protection Change #4 – Transition from Alerts to Smart Use of Data Change #5 – Internet of Things Will Use Cloud Protections as Its Basis Superb Internet: Audited and Certified CSO: 5 Ways Security Solutions Will Change Security isn’t running away from the cloud but moving toward it. After all, the third platform (cloud, social, big data, and mobile) is where the action is. That’s the thrust of a message by Paul Lipman of iSheriff, who wrote in CSO magazine last week that the standard methods businesses have used for security in the past are “insufficient for modern businesses.” While the third platform continues to build and overtake the second platform (personal computers) as the primary means through which the Internet is used, across-the-board security systems can help companies to streamline their operations and scale effectively. Lipman argues that the current, highly disruptive state of technology – led by red-hot segments...

This article is a follow-up to a companion piece about misleading statements that are made during the sales and marketing of cloud products. We will cover the following topics: Review: Who Can We Believe? 5 Other Common Cloud Lies Conclusion: Peace-of-mind in the Cloud Review: Who Can We Believe? When we previously looked at lies told to potential customers during the cloud sales process, we mentioned that some providers have allowed the proliferation of certain misunderstandings that benefit the adoption of their technology. Marketing material can sometimes include preposterous claims, but the most likely situation in which you will hear half-truths is one-on-one with a salesperson. Those individual interactions aren’t carefully vetted by the company and offer a shady organization an opportunity to displace responsibility. Marketing has become more complex these days as well, though, as evidenced by the source material for this pair of pieces: a December 2nd article from ForbesBrandVoice. This portion of the Forbes website runs through the Google News feed even though it’s marketing material, in the process discrediting the Forbes brand (after all, if they are presenting advertisements as news, then who’s to say their “legitimate content” doesn’t also fall within the advertisement category?). Nonetheless,...

This report looks at common fabrications perpetrated against consumers of cloud services. We will proceed with the following sections: Introduction: Fantastical Sales Messages You Can’t Trust Anyone These Days 5 Biggest Cloud Lies Conclusion: Cloud Without Confusion Introduction: Fantastical Sales Messages Many cloud service providers (CSP’s) have taken advantage of the confusion surrounding the cloud to build a bogus mythos around the technology. That’s clear sometimes in misleading marketing strategies, but it’s most obvious in the way that salespeople talk directly to potential customers. As we all know, when a 100% commission sales guy has to eat, he will say the darndest things! Of course, lies proliferate in seedy environments characterized more by cash-grabbing than relationship development. You Can’t Trust Anyone These Days Here’s the funny thing: our source material – the place where these top lies were initially suggested – is itself a hotbed of deception, where we must always watch our footing so that we don’t sink into the quicksand of marketing blather. I have made fun of Forbes?BrandVoice in the past for watering down the credibility of the Forbes brand, making it difficult to differentiate between subjective marketing articles and objective news reports. However, Forbes is just...

This report looks at the developing enterprise tech landscape – practices and systems that are becoming more widely adopted, prevalently enough to be considered business trends. We will proceed with the following sections: Introduction: Additional 2015 Trends Endpoint Security Advances for Better Protection Machine Learning for Intelligent Automation Devops for Increased Agility Nixing Network Switches for Streamlined Systems Conclusion: Open Source Theme Guaranteed Open Source Cloud VPS. Introduction: Additional 2015 Trends In our most recent article, we explored several ideas from a list of 2015 trends compiled by InfoWorld editor Eric Knorr, summarized as follows: Infrastructure as a service – Companies have started to realize that due to the rate of cloud advances, it makes sense to choose a provider over an internal datacenter. Containers – Docker has created an easy-to-use system that makes it much faster to move applications from development to testing to production, or between clouds. Microservices architecture – The ability to use microservices, simple applications meant to fulfill specific needs within more complex applications, was also given a huge boost by Docker. Liquid computing – This concept, first introduced by InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman, refers to the ability to move seamlessly between one’s different devices, as with...

The world of enterprise tech is changing rapidly. A list of top trends by Eric Knorr of InfoWorld indicates just how quickly the landscape is adjusting: many of the technology practices and systems that started to become prevalent in 2014 were hardly noticeable in 2013. Knorr thinks a great deal of those technological advances are here to stay, “which indicates a pace of change that’s much quicker than usual.” Here are the top enterprise technological shifts, according to Knorr (released December 1). They can be compared to the Computerworld predictions that were featured in our last post. Let it be known now that enterprise use of federally funded, algorithmically controlled drone bots has again not yet become trendy enough to make the 2015 list, but perhaps next year. 1. Cloud Providers More Sophisticated The way that private cloud is commonly understood is as a system that is created with its own specific infrastructure for one organization (versus public, in which many different companies are accessing one vast network of virtualized processing power). Knorr instead speaks of these two different varieties of cloud in terms of their location: private as “on premises” at a company, and public as provided through a...

Well, it’s that time of year again, folks. No, I don’t mean the Holiday Season. And no, I don’t mean the Consumer Confidence Season. I mean the Trend List Season. Every year, experts stick out their necks from every hill and dell to let us know that the industry is changing. The lists are often a little redundant, both of the concurrent offerings and of all the trend lists written the year before. However, these mini-reports on the industry are actually incredibly helpful. They at least encompass the major, developing points of focus for the industry. Because the lists are typically created by independent parties, the blogosphere and social media have generally objective fodder for conversation. Forbes’ Louis Columbus just wrote a piece that was published Wednesday, summarizing the Computerworld 2015 predictions from its Forecast Study 2015. Let’s look at the key findings from that report. What’s Ahead for the Cloud Computing World Major areas of investment for business are a trio: cloud technology, big data analytics, and security. Other essential elements of the third platform, mobile tech and social media, will continue to grow rapidly as well – although the latter does not fall under the umbrella of this...

This article looks at a multimillion-dollar grant awarded to Indiana University (IU) for the creation of an academic research cloud, after first exploring IU’s relationship with supercomputers. It covers the following topics: Big Red II: Supercomputers Versus Cloud Jetstream: Jet Packs for Research Superb Internet: Cloud Sans Confusion Big Red II: Supercomputers Versus Cloud Indiana University is well-deserving of research funds in the area of cloud computing. The institution is a center for high-speed information technology. Its Bloomington headquarters is the home of Big Red II, a supercomputer that is theoretically capable of 1 petaFLOP, equivalent to 1000 trillion floating-point operations per second. It is one of the most high-performing research supercomputers on the planet, and it helps researchers in diverse university departments – including medicine, fine arts, and global climate research – access information more quickly, and process big data more seamlessly. I often reference the case of Indiana University because its leadership is clearly interested in supercomputing but advocates the cloud as well. Geoffrey C. Fox, PhD, who serves as the associate dean of research at IU’s School of Informatics & Computing and directs its Digital Science Center, told the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) last year...

In order to talk about tech concepts, as with any field, we have to come up with overarching terms. Although those terms might be helpful to simplify everything into an easily understandable structure, it can sometimes trick us into oversimplification. Marketers also have a vested interest in convincing us that technology is fast, easy, and straightforward: in other words, “Don’t worry about it, kid.” One such example is cloud computing or simply the cloud. Although the term cloud is a nice refreshing one-syllable nugget of language, the products delivered through the virtualized model – including software, infrastructure, and platforms – can create complications and disruptions in the monitoring of data; access and authorization; and deployment of new systems. The reason, says Richi Jennings in Forbes on November 19, is that “Data doesn’t like to move.” In the report, Jennings describes how he feels that savvy CIOs are developing competitive advantage for their companies by serving as brokers of IT services. IT to Drive your Competitive Edge Business is moving faster than ever, and as more businesses become interconnected workspaces or globally integrated enterprises, the entire way we conceive of business practices must be adapted. Switching to groundbreaking technologies is one...

? Microsoft suffered a major failure starting at 00:52 GMT on November 19. The incident sparked at least one funny headline in the popular press, with London’s The Register calling the worldwide outage of Azure a “TITSUP cloud FAIL” – a turn of phrase using military slang that abbreviates a Total Inability to Support Usual Performance. The opinionated Register report described global users of Azure storage, cloud servers, SQL databases, and directory service Active Directory as “sucker-punched” by the incident. Azure Meltdown News reporters obviously do their best to be objective, but this outage should be considered unacceptable from an organization that charges a premium for its reputation and reliability. Faults that occurred within Azure effectively shut down thousands of independent websites and made parts of Microsoft’s own site inaccessible. An official statement from Azure notes that the errors were experienced worldwide. The corporation’s systems in Europe experienced longer downtime than anywhere else. Two of the computing company’s top services, Office 365 (business applications) and Xbox Live (interactive game platform) were disrupted. Undoubtedly, this massive failure will not help with Azure sales. As the BBC reports, Microsoft – like IBM and Google – is trying to oust AWS from the...

Sometimes it seems that large tech news sites would rather discuss Amazon, Microsoft, and Google – profiting off the name recognition and staying on universally comprehensible ground – than make sense. A well-framed and assumedly well-intentioned article in Business Insider named some rather ridiculous front-runners in the as-a-service market’s “race to zero.” Julie Bort explained the general scenario aptly on November 9: the cloud sector is so incredibly crowded that the prices keep getting lower and lower. Meanwhile, resource thresholds on typical plans continue to increase. Actually the term race to zero has been around at least since December 2010, and it is a little more complicated than affordability. Joshua Geist of recovery-as-a-service (RaaS) firm Geminare coined the term and defined it as “the time when commodity pricing is driven so low that the only way to drive continued market value is by focusing on the value over and above the core commodity offering – the applications the commodity enables.” He elaborates that as this process occurs, gradually applications start to trump the supportive backend. That shift in turn leads to widespread acceleration within the industry (i.e. more businesses using the cloud and investing in it more substantially). Why the...

A study conducted by SafeNet Research and the Ponemon Institute demonstrates the struggle ICT (information and communications technology) personnel experience with security in cloud environments: Computing professionals are having a hard time with cloud data oversight, with two out of five distributed virtual systems managed by third parties. Enterprises don’t have one unified “single point of accountability” for protection of their multi-cloud environments. Safeguards that have worked in traditional infrastructures are challenging to deploy in cloud settings, so firms are using multi-factor authentication and various encryption tactics. Most IT executives do not have comprehensive details on the information security of cloud architectures, a blind spot that has created an area of vulnerability for sensitive data. A study funded by the data protection firm SafeNet and conducted by the Ponemon Institute arrived at that disturbing conclusion after polling almost 2000 IT decision-makers around the globe. The study determined that firms are getting more of their operational power from “as a service” cloud plans than ever before, and IT personnel are not able to control the applicable data as well as they would like. Less than two out of every five companies (38%) have policies in place that establish titles and responsibilities to...

This article will cover the following: Introduction – BYOD vs. BYOB Bring Your Own Platform Bring Your Own Disgruntlement Atmosphere of Honesty Welcome to On-Call Nation Conclusion – Plug BYOD Leakage Introduction – BYOD vs. BYOB Bring your own device sounds innocuous enough. Typically shortened to BYOD, it’s the computing version of BYOB. Sure, in many cases you have to foot the cost of the phone yourself, and no one likes that. However, you have the freedom to choose whatever phone you want, just like you can bring whatever beverages you want to a BYOB party. That’s typically where the analogy ends. After all, we aren’t talking about beer here. We’re talking about mobile devices that collect big data based off our use. More than that, we’re talking about a blurring of the line between business and personal. Workers have had enough. Bring Your Own Platform I have referenced the rise of the third platform – especially as it’s expressed via Mark Neistat for the computing professional association Technology First – repeatedly in this blog. The report describes the third platform, considered to be the next major computing environment following a 20-year reign by personal computing, which was in turn...

This article will cover the following: Introduction – Big Data Role & Skepticism Third Platform Poker – Big Data is Wild Big Data Versus Underground Railroad – Skeptic’s Corner Conclusion – Let’s Be Careful Introduction – Big Data Role & Skepticism Big data, like “cloud,” is kind of a stupid term, but, well, it’s what we have to work with. By the way, if you ever need a definition of big data, don’t trust anyone who doesn’t include either the word humongous or gargantuan in their description. The word massive simply isn’t extreme enough to befit the scope of this treasure trove of computing information. It is not small or average in size. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let’s look at big data within the context of the third platform, what Mark Neistat of US Signal Company calls “the next phase of the IT revolution.” Then we can explore a November 7 Slate piece that questions the wisdom of collecting every possible piece of information (on a personal level, regardless the benefits for government and industry). Third Platform Poker – Big Data is Wild Neistat describes the third platform (which I discussed previously in this blog),...

Research firm IDC (International Data Corporation) released its projections last December for the development of the ICT (information and communications technology) market in 2014. The forecast was shaped considerably by the rise of the third platform (a.k.a. the 3rd platform), which represents a new phase of computing based in part on rapid-fire processing. The platform is an amalgam of mobile device access, distributed virtualization (a.k.a. cloud), predictive analytics (i.e., big data), and social media. As noted previously in this blog, Mark Neistat of cloud provider US Signal Company explored the topic of the third platform on behalf of professional association Technology First in May 2013. Here are three key characteristics of the platform from his perspective: Virtual & Lightweight – The third platform, which started to emerge in about 2005, followed a twenty-year reign for the second platform, the PC (personal computer), which in turn was preceded by the original platform, mainframe computing. Business Anywhere – Of the four technologies that compose the third platform, the most fundamental – or as Neistat calls it, “the biggest plank” – is mobile device access. Analytics, cloud, and social networking are all performed within mobile environments. The New Normal – Tablets, cell phones,...

Introduction – Smashing Timeworn Paradigms We are now entering the age of the third platform. Famed 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that when our intellect “smashes, jumbles, and ironically reassembles [the conceptual] framework, pairing what is most foreign and separating what is closest, it reveals that it has no use for such makeshifts of need and that it will no longer be guided by concepts.” We must be careful not to follow that format when transitioning to the so-called “third platform” of computing (defined and described below). Let’s not crush anything, and let’s certainly not construct our new environments ironically. Although Nietzsche’s comments may not be relevant to conscientious computing transitions, they came to my mind on the topic of the third platform because of the extent to which it is effecting disruption throughout the business world. Third Platform – Trending #hereitcomes In a report published December 2013 (explored in this blog previously), research firm IDC forecast that 2014 would be a year in which the third platform (or the “3rd Platform,” as IDC and computing professional association Technology First call it) – which encompasses the use of mobile devices, cloud technology, predictive modeling and analytics, and social media...

Introduction – Dodgeball The cloud is certainly a moving target. I previously took shots at David Linthicum for an InfoWorld article in which he argued against the value of cloud definitions. Essentially, I thought he was overlooking the issue of compatibility and the credibility that standards can bring when providers are able to present certifications. In other words, I thought his view was shortsighted, failing to recognize how standards allow for objective understandings in an environment that is otherwise characterized excessively by marketing explanations. There were a couple salient points made in Linthicum’s report, though, relating to the fact that virtualization technology and strategies are evolving so rapidly that any description has to, by necessity, be a little amorphous and broad. He notes that in a climate “for which vendors have invested more than $15 billion to market their ‘cloud’ technology,” part of the difficulty is major stakeholders positioning how this form of computing is perceived (agreeing essentially with my “marketing explanations” comment). The other element, though – critical to this blog post – is that the industry is growing so quickly that it’s almost impossible to accurately pinpoint and describe. It’s just like dodgeball. We may want to pick up...

Small data, step aside. We are now entering the age of big data. This article will look at the rise of this technological field as follows: Forecast for big data Six value propositions Five steps to the cloud (new) Unlimited assistance Forecast for Big Data According to the Accu-Weather Forecast, we are looking at a combination of sleet, hail, sunshine, and multiple rainbows… then again, the Accu-Weather Forecast is based entirely off of meteorological intuition. On the other hand, a December 2013 forecast by IDC projected that the market for big data solutions would reach $32 billion by 2017, representing a 27% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) – six times faster than the general IT industry. Six Value Propositions A report released by McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) in May 2011, although it’s a bit dated, offers a great analysis of how this part of computing is creating value for businesses. It should also be noted that part of the popularity of analyzing in this vast way is simply “evidence”: once you understand it, you can get creative and serve whatever agenda you want. Here are the MGI value propositions: Data has become integral to business. More and more, gathering it...

What is cloud computing? Well folks, that’s not an easy question to answer. I explored various definitions of the cloud, along with David Linthicum’s un-compelling argument that cloud definitions don’t matter, previously in this blog. That report was primarily a refutation of the idea that defining and describing and standardizing the cloud (as is the role of third-party standardization and accreditation bodies) wasn’t worthwhile. Today I want to look at the meaning of the cloud again, then get beyond that into discussion of its history. First, though, let’s look at how the cloud is popularly conceived. In the Linthicum article, we covered three general definitions, from popular explanation sites (TechTarget, Wikipedia) and the federal government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Today, we instead look at the competitive marketplace, the way that the cloud is framed by major-name public cloud providers Amazon and IBM – companies that may be expensive but whose projected image of the cloud is important simply based on the size of the soapbox. Definitions From Two Big Names Cloud definition #1 – Amazon Web Services “On-demand delivery of IT resources and applications via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.” Analysis I’m not so sure that’s what...

Part 1 – Standards are Dumb! In addition to the aforementioned fields that influence the development of the technology industry in concert with the market, there is one other obvious element: the press. I don’t think it’s really accurate to call journalism a part of the market since it’s really describing it, so David is excluding his own commentary (in a sense) from the evolution of definitions. Criticism #1 – Beyond Business As described above, David’s perspective is limited, with excessive emphasis on private-sector business in terms of how this technological concept is being crafted and assessed. Thinking that the market will generate clear and cohesive information without the work of people directly studying the overall technology from an objective perspective seems to me to be excessively optimistic, if not naïve. Perhaps David considers news media to be a part of the market and believes discussion will be shaped through shared online content (in addition to exchange of information at conferences, etc.), but typically news reports pale in comparison to groups of thought leaders on a standards board painstakingly carving out the scope of a service model. Criticism #2 – Beyond Opinion David says that the way that cloud is...

(Note: This is Part One of a two-part article…Part Two will be posted shortly) Two standards bodies – the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) – are working on documentation to better delineate what cloud technology is. The goal of both groups is to develop a credible third-party model for the technology. Similar to other standards and accreditations (such as SSAE 16 certification, auditing control guidelines established by the American Institute of CPAs), the two sets of developing cloud descriptions are intended to provide a universal understanding of distributed virtualization so that it can be understood and discussed meaningfully. Suffice it to say that InfoWorld columnist David Linthicum is unimpressed by the news that someone has decided to figure out the cloud, pin it down, study it, and delineate exactly what this technology and service industry are. Linthicum’s perspective means something: he blogs about cloud for InfoWorld, analyzes the market for GigaOM, and is a senior vice president for a consulting company focusing on distributed virtual IT. His opinion matters. And he doesn’t think that the perspective of a standards body is all that relevant. Sure, Linthicum has a point....

“What exactly is cloud computing?” Two years ago, the way the vast majority of Americans approached that question was ridiculous – although perhaps that had as much to do with the technology world’s failure to properly communicate the nature of the cloud as it did with consumers’ disinterest in understanding the backend of the web. Regardless where we want to lay the blame, selected highlights of a 2012 Wakefield Research survey designed by Citrix were as follows: 19 of 20 respondents (95%) who said they don’t regularly access cloud systems were incorrect. Three out of five (59%) believe that businesses are moving toward a 100% cloud-based work environment. Two out of five (40%) said that it would be beneficial (in a cloud-dominated world) not to have to get dressed for work in the morning. One in three said that the technology enables them to interact easily with individuals that they don’t necessarily want to see face-to-face. We could look back at the 2012 data as a quaint reminder of our not-too-distant past. However, confusion is still prevalent in 2014, as indicated by Cloud Strategy’s September coverage of private, public, and hybrid models. Tesh Durvasula reported that lack of understanding about...

Sometimes two people find each other very attractive, but they are just plain incompatible. Alas, it will never be. Similarly, when intermingling technology, compatibility can again stand in the way. The massive barrier for the Internet of Things is the lack of standardized models, reported Popular Science last year: “The result is that the Internet of Things is actually hundreds of smaller, fractured Internets.” In other words, the technology press was letting the technology industry know that it was not going to take the Internet of Things seriously until integration was simplified. The lack of a common platform or operating system for IoT devices represented a potential stumbling block for the tech segment that could damage its emerging profitability. After all, the field’s growth potential is staggering. BI Intelligence forecast in September 2014 that the number of connected “things” within the IoT will increase 374% over the next four years, growing from 1.9 billion (the current number) to 9 billion in 2018. Given the massive expectations for the industry, various companies have released networking protocols designed to create a solid basis for all the many items connected to the Internet of Things. Google’s project is entitled Thread and promises to...

The fight against Ebola is saddening the international community and drawing the attention of big names in the tech industry. Mark and Priscilla Zuckerberg have donated $25 million to the CDC to fund Ebola research, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (also owner of the Portland Trail Blazers) has thrown in $9 million. Microsoft has offered its cloud technology to researchers, and open-source maps are being used to fight the spread of the disease. Let’s take a look at each of these stories, evidence of the incredible promise technology represents in the search for disease treatments, cures, and outbreak responses: Mammoth gifts from tech billionaires Microsoft offering to researchers Open-source mapping to outpace Ebola Mammoth Gifts from Tech Billionaires Paul Allen, who owns the Portland Trail Blazers and co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, gave $9 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on September 14, earmarked for the battle against the disease. The CDC was assumedly chosen because it is a powerful body that can potentially respond to the outbreak more quickly – since charitable givers have grown increasingly frustrated by slow relief responses to disasters, such as occurred after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. The CDC notes that...

Cloud computing has been growing enormously over the last two years, attracting attention not just from businesspeople and journalists but from research firms as well. Gartner, MarketsandMarkets, and similar organizations that analyze industries to suggest trends and forecast growth have tracked and projected the rise of the cloud model.. A recent study by IDC, published in December 2013, explored the growth of software as a service, which IDC also called “cloud software.” The total revenue generated for SaaS solutions in 2012 was $28 billion, 28.4% higher than the previous year. IDC stated that this segment will continue to grow at a remarkable pace, achieving a 22% compound annual growth rate to exceed $76 billion in 2017. Furthermore, the software as a service market will expand nearly 400% more rapidly than the general software industry. Three years from now, cloud software will represent 17% of all business software purchases. This particular cloud product has been a popular choice for many businesses wanting to test out distributed virtual environments. IDC’s cloud VP, Robert P. Mahowald, noted that in the IT world, public cloud and software as a service are at the center of a “transformation [that] is the number one strategic goal...

There is a growing trend in online media to allow business sponsors to write articles for sites. It’s a very ethically questionable practice since you often don’t notice that the piece is almost a paid advertisement for the writer’s company. At the very least it can damage the publication’s credibility as the line is blurring between its supposedly legitimate journalistic content and content paid by businesses – the latter skewed by a ridiculous bias, like Brad Pitt reviewing his own movie. The development of infomercial type content that uses the Forbes name was an odd Christmas gift to the editor I’m sure, as she realized her status as a filter for objective coverage had been compromised. The good news is that you can easily spot one of these articles once you look at the details. In the case of Forbes, the articles are all filed under the heading, “ForbesBrandVoice” – which has the creepy subtitle, “Connecting marketers to the Forbes audience” (with the CTA “What’s this?” that for some reason doesn’t lead to a page that says, “Hooey” in 200-point font). Additionally, the writer of the article is matched with the name of their business, underscoring the fact that the...

As mentioned previously in this blog, cloud portfolio management company RightScale has now completed its third run of the State of the Cloud Report. In the spring, the firm questioned 1068 computing executives throughout a spectrum of industries. Amazingly, a total of 94% of the organizations represented by respondents were using a cloud: 29% public, 7% private, and 58% a combination of both. (Since large companies often behave differently from smaller ones related to technology, it’s noteworthy that only 24% of survey participants were with firms that have a workforce in excess of a thousand people.) As the cloud grows, the general IT landscape rapidly evolves. One basic fact of the evolution is that the job responsibilities of many professionals are changing, so the skillsets that are most needed are under revision as well. Family Dollar CIO Josh Jewett notes that enterprises no longer need individuals who excel at putting together hardware. Instead, they need computing professionals who have a knack for monitoring a third-party company that is in charge of the hardware. Jewett said that the process is basically the same but performed by another party: “You go from managing outcomes yourselves to managing outcomes through others.” Ann Bednarz...

Judy Scinta wrote a piece published October 13 by the Buffalo Law Journal on the topic of cloud computing use by local attorneys. The article reveals a certain murkiness to the cloud and a somewhat gray color in various areas. There is no mention of the cloud’s incredible fluffiness or its many areas of whiteness that peak out from behind the sun at businesses, letting them know there is a clear, blank space in which they can store their data. In fact, the universally unhelpful answers provided by the experts Scinta interviews point to a truth about new technology that is often left undiscussed: no one seems to want to simplify explanations so that we all know what we are talking about. Distributed virtual computing is a vast sea of possibility. There is no reason to focus on the gray areas. Let’s just stop being confused all the time. We need to put on a strong front so that our children don’t grow up thinking they were adopted by aliens. I’m taking this somewhat random piece from a local trade publication to better understand general conversation related to this innovative computing model. Let’s explore section by section to see what...

Cloud computing is no longer an alternative technology. The virtual distribution model of hosting has become so prevalent that it now stands abreast of the traditional, hardwired, legacy system. The 2014 State of the Cloud Report, released in April by RightScale based on interviews of IT professionals conducted two months earlier, revealed that the cloud is “reaching ubiquity,” with 94% of firms using some type of cloud application. We’re not just in the age of the public cloud anymore, as is clear with the RightScale data. The research team found that 48% of organizations are either currently using or are developing strategies to deploy hybrid clouds. That information is consistent with a Gartner study released last year that forecast hybrid clouds would be adopted by just under 50% of enterprises by 2017 (although notably that latter statistic is specific to larger companies). Hybrid solutions have become popular because they combine the public and private cloud structures. What’s important to understand about the growth of cloud is that firms are trending toward types of systems that pay more attention to data isolation. Regardless of that trend toward more sophisticated, privatized systems, the New York Times recently reported that public cloud has...

Cloud is huge, absolutely huge. Just take these two statistics from an overview of forecasts and survey results published by tech blog SiliconANGLE: As reported by InformationWeek, revenue for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is positioned to exceed $180 billion next year. Although cloud is streamlined, hardware is still needed, with component spending expected to hit almost $80 billion in 2018. You can also look at the perspective of cloud portfolio manager RightScale in its 2014 State of the Cloud Report, which described the business cloud as “reaching ubiquity,” with 94% of firms using it in some manner. As evidenced above, just about everyone agrees that cloud computing is the best solution for at least certain types of IT projects (such as storage or developmental projects). Since the general question of cloud adoption is already answered, the conversation is shifting from the benefits of the cloud itself to the best possible cloud strategies. Carlos Granda penned an article for NetworkWorld in June, in which he provided lists of actionable suggestions for organizations in various stages of “cloud maturity” – using a crawl/walk/run model that roughly reflects the Cloud Beginner/Cloud Explorer/Cloud Focused categories used in the State of the Cloud. Cloud Adoption – The...

“Disruption of entire industries.” That’s one way that Matt Watts describes the vast potential of cloud computing in an October 6 CIO article. The cloud represents spectacular strengths in several areas – irrefutably, mathematically outperforming alternatives in ways such as the following: Speed – You may know that Indiana University is renowned for its supercomputers (the latest of which was Big Red II), so it’s notable that IU computer scientist Geoffrey C. Fox, PhD, reports that cloud computing typically outperform the speed of supercomputers. Numerous calculations can be performed simultaneously, without waiting in line, since resources are widely distributed. Cost-Effectiveness – These parameters are really all derived from the incredible efficiency allowed by cloud computing. Speed is due to the efficiency with time that is optimized by quickly grabbing available resources and completing tasks, standardizing high-availability as a reasonable expectation. Because everything is performed rapidly and kept compact time-wise, costs can remain extraordinarily low. Cloud computing is so drastically, revolutionarily advantageous to other options (especially considering the growing rate of private cloud use) that the impact for business is not just a computing concern but can offer a competitive edge for the organization. In fact, as Watts insists, this technology...

Note: Part 1 Can be Found Here – Cloud Adoption Reaches 94% Continuing with our exploration of the RightScale 2014 State of the Cloud Report, we will now look at the growing interest in hybrid clouds, further describe the systems of a Cloud Focused organization, and assess challenges such as policy development and misalignment of perspectives within companies. Before we get into additional discussion of the results of the survey, we will first provide further description of the Cloud Maturity Model, as indicated in Part One. Cloud Maturity Model – 4 Stages RightScale break businesses up in terms of different stages of integration with the cloud: Cloud Watchers, Cloud Beginners, Cloud Explorers, and Cloud Focused. These distinctions are somewhat important because the researchers found that the more cloud-mature an organization is, the more likely it is to experience increasing value with cloud solutions along with diminishing challenges related to new cloud deployments. Here’s what each one entails: Watchers – Businesses that are interested in the cloud and considering various approaches but do not yet have any active cloud systems. Beginners – Organizations that have taken their first steps into cloud technology and are either testing solutions or working in their...

We see it every day, and it’s more than enough to make a grown man cry. Sadly, one out of every sixteen businesses has no access to the cloud. We must do something about this small pool of companies that can’t quite reach the cloud. Superb Internet is here to help, with a better understanding of where the cloud is headed via the RightScale 2014 State of the Cloud Report. The report is based on a survey that software-as-a-service company RightScale performed during February 2014. The software firm polled IT personnel throughout all types of industries about their organization’s usage of cloud hosting. Almost 1100 individuals – including executives, supervisors, and engineers – from small, medium, and large businesses completed the survey. (Notably, those who completed the survey were not all clients of RightScale, although 28% were. It can skew results when companies only poll their own clients in a survey, as seemed to be the case with a recent study from Microsoft related to cloud computing.) Note the terminology used within the “Cloud Maturity Model” established by RightScale for each annual State of the Cloud Report, dividing the business world up into companies with clouds at various stages of...

Tesla Motors released a standout electric car last year, a potentially revolutionary vehicle that outperformed all internal combustion competition, with a Consumer Reports analyst calling it the best car he had ever reviewed. Although Tesla has an amazing product, there is another way they are drawing attention to themselves to continually appeal to Wall Street: publicity stunts. One such stunt, which wasn’t altogether baseless but was less profound than some reports would suggest, was conducted by Elon Musk in June. Musk’s blog post announced that the carmaker would not be overprotective of its current technological advantage in the electric car market: “Tesla will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” The article described their position as one that was essentially open source, a commitment to the idea that community development of the technology would benefit everyone. Musk specifically touched on the idea of compatibility, which many consider to be the Achilles heel in the development of the Internet of Things and often stands in the way of progress: he argued for a “common, rapidly-evolving technology platform.” A critical analysis of the situation by Gigaom revealed that Tesla was not giving away all...

A Gartner report released in October 2013 contrasted the developmental stages of the private and hybrid clouds. The study, “Private Cloud Matures, Hybrid Cloud is Next,” revealed that from 2010 to 2013, the private cloud grew from a technology under consideration by many enterprises to one that had become widely adopted. Although the hybrid cloud is now experiencing increased popularity, with the same Gartner report predicting that almost half of large enterprises would have hybrid clouds deployed by 2017, the private cloud continues to attract new customers. After all, hybrid clouds typically include a private cloud component (along with a public one), so both models are strong options for organizations that require more robust security and compliance capabilities than is available through a 100% public cloud. Despite growing emergence of the hybrid cloud, the market for clouds that are purely private is growing at an enormous rate as well, according to a 2014 survey by Technology Business Research. The survey polled more than 2000 tech buyers at enterprises around the world, and its findings suggest the private cloud is going to easily outdo the growth of the public cloud for the next few years. While public cloud had expanded approximately...

Small-scale demolition expert and YouTube star Tom Dickson has proven to the world that you can blend just about anything – iPads, aftershave, and even skeletons. On Tom’s web series “Will it Blend,” typically sturdy objects are ground down into tiny pieces that look like shavings or even fine powders. Although that’s not the goal of mixing when integrating technological infrastructure, the word is in that cloud computing WILL BLEND, and it will be blended more and more as companies act on their interest in the hybrid cloud. Studies from 2013 and 2014 by numerous prominent organizations have shown that the hybrid cloud is growing in popularity, as outlined below. Microsoft: YES, the Cloud Will Blend Microsoft hired a third-party research firm, 451 Research LLC, to develop a study called The New Era of Hosting Services. Findings were based on perspectives collected from over 1500 businesses of all sizes in 10 nations: the US, Canada, China, India, Japan, Russia, Australia, Germany, the UK, and Brazil. A report based on the data was released May 29, 2013 by former football star and neighborhood bully Bill Gates’ mom-and-pop computer shop. The findings of that study are as follows: 52% of companies believed...

The overarching story for the cloud during 2014 is that the hybrid cloud is on the rise. Some of the evidence includes: General interest in a model that combines the benefits of public and private clouds was already piqued in October 2013, when Gartner predicted that half of enterprises would have a hybrid cloud deployed by 2017. A study was released by MarketsandMarkets in March 2014 that projected the hybrid cloud market will grow to $80 million by 2018, which represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.2% between 2013 and 2018. Tech Pro Research conducted a survey of IT professionals throughout the business world. They found that a large proportion of companies of all sizes were either considering a hybrid cloud or already had one in place: 67% of businesses with 50 or fewer employees, 59% of businesses with 50-249 employees, 65% of businesses with 250-999 employees, and 59% of businesses with 1000+ employees (overall, a remarkably even distribution). We get it. The hybrid cloud is getting big. What we really need now from IT news sources and research firms isn’t more convincing that organizations are gradually becoming convinced to transition to a hybrid cloud. We see the...

When I was in junior high school, I sported a mullet. It served as the ultimate way to change my personality to meet the needs of my teachers and my friends: I could go from business mode to party mode and back to business mode, simply by spinning around in a circle. I was often dizzy in those days, and it was frustrating to have to face away from the stage at rock concerts, but otherwise it offered the best of both worlds. The Web Host Industry Review notes that the “business up front, party in the back” model of computing is growing within the business world. The hybrid cloud, a mixture of private and public clouds, is forecast to reach $79.5 billion by 2018, according to the research firm MarketsandMarkets. The report suggests that hybrid cloud growth will be accelerated by the need of large companies for infrastructural diversification so that they can combine on-premise security systems with fast, reliable, on-demand resources to scale developmental projects immediately. MarketsandMarkets noted that the dual needs of organizations are met by the hybrid cloud: they get the party of technological heterogeneity along with the business of homogeneity as needed. The IT hairstyle that...

Content delivery networks are growing at an incredible rate. They are growing fast because they deliver websites fast, and page speed improves both user experience and SEO (search engine optimization). Patrick Sexton of Feedthebot.com notes that they are now essential for Web success: “CDNs are becoming a defacto part of a webmaster’s toolkit, and even if you don’t get one now you will probably have to do so later.” Sexton’s opinion is echoed by other industry experts, which explains the growth of the industry. MarketsandMarkets, a research firm that (according to its website) serves 1700 enterprises in eight verticals, published a report on the CDN industry in March 2014. The report forecasts that the content delivery network market will expand from $3.7 billion in 2014 to $12.2 billion in 2019, an incredible Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27%. Small websites may primarily be interested in the potential of a CDN to help out their Google rankings and get their text, graphics, scripts, and video more quickly to a worldwide audience. Enterprises that specialize in consumer data and media are starting to re-conceive the way they get files to Internet users, understanding that a content delivery network allows them to...

If you have ever looked at the Google PageSpeed Insights tool or otherwise explored performance optimization, you know that there are many different ways to achieve faster delivery of your content: browser caching, script minification, image optimization, etc. Patrick Sexton, the author of the thorough Google Webmaster guidelines site Feedthebot.com, stresses that the content delivery network, a.k.a. CDN, is now fundamental to Internet success: “CDNs are becoming a defacto part of a webmaster’s toolkit, and even if you don’t get one now you will probably have to do so later.” Sexton is of course not the only one who feels that way, and that’s reflected in a report on CDN trends, geographical analysis, and market predictions released by marketsandmarkets.com in March. The 196-page report, which details the in-depth findings of the research firm’s analysts, reveals how the CDN market will expand from a $3.7 billion industry in 2014 to a $12.2 billion industry in 2019. While the worldwide Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is phenomenal at 27%, the APAC region is particularly stunning in this sector, with a 38% CAGR forecast over the next five years. What are CDNs & How Do They Operate? A content delivery network, also called...

It is a boomtown in the land of the content delivery network (CDN). As with anything that proves itself valuable, everyone is learning the terrain so they can get in on the incredible speed and reliability offered by worldwide content distribution. The gold rush is on. The market is currently at $3.7 billion and should grow to $12.2 billion over the next half decade. Those estimates are from a rigorous analysis by Markets and Markets, which released a 157-page report on the topic in early December. The prediction by the research firm places the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at a 26% average through 2019. Markets and Markets reports that North America will be responsible for the lion’s share of the revenue. Asia Pacific (APAC) will also “experiment increased market traction,” according to a (poorly written, possibly by a robot) press release on the topic. Markets and Markets notes that the rapid expansion in content delivery network business is due to a wide proliferation of content (as seemingly dictated by Google’s “quality original content” mantra, although the first word is often forgotten). CDN’s are distributed in a similar manner to cloud technology and increasingly contain cloud components, making it easy...

Everyone has gone content crazy, and those who manage, sell, and produce content are scrambling to keep pace with the business opportunity. As indicated by Kieran Flanagan of HubSpot, statistics for the search terms “content marketing” and “link building” paint a 20/20 picture: while link building is steadily descending, content marketing is shooting upward in 2014. Statistics show that 7 out of 10 B2B content marketers are creating more content today versus 12 months ago, while 6 out of 10 B2B marketers plan to increase their spending on content throughout the next year. Caitlin Roberson of Skyword notes that many content marketers do not understand content strategy. In fact, a 2013 Forbes article notes that only 15% of content professionals are able to define the business value of their services in real numbers. Roberson argues that understanding and implementing amplification techniques can help to set your content apart from the competition. We will look at her ideas below. Beyond the thoughts expressed by Roberson, content delivery networks (CDN) represent an amazing tool to amplify the effectiveness of your content (and obviously, like Roberson, I’m using a broader understanding of content amplification than connecting it with paid media). Just how powerful are...

A Microsoft Azure outage in August proved incredibly frustrating to businesses running their applications in the cloud. A report by David Ramel in the Virtualization Review’s Schwartz Cloud Report argues that computing failures are sometimes going to happen and that users should “deal with it.” Well, sure, it’s unreasonable not to “expect the unexpected” with large IT systems. Unscheduled downtime sucks and should be extraordinarily rare, but no infrastructure is devoid of the potential for errors. To look at the cloud in terms of a damning, widespread denial of service as occurred with Azure is of course a delusional perspective. The statistics on outages of cloud versus alternatives, in fact, heavily favors the cloud, as described below. Putting outages aside, although the cloud often seems to be primarily an annoyingly trendy topic (to believe the mainstream press, it is the end-all and be-all of web hosting terminology), it would not be growing so astronomically if it weren’t fulfilling basic business needs: high performance and premium reliability at an affordable cost. How fast is the cloud growing? 451 Research conducted in-depth interviews with 100 IT professionals in 2013 to gauge cloud adoption in enterprise settings. After months of research, the company...

The business world was stunned when it was announced on Thursday that HP was buying Eucalyptus, a cloud provider that offers private clouds integrated with Amazon Web Services. Eucalyptus had been in the news earlier in 2014 because CEO Marten Mickos suddenly switched gears and, after years of criticism of OpenStack, said that his company would support the technology. With the acquisition, we now know the source behind Mickos’ change of heart. HP has been strongly committed to developing the OpenStack cloud. The cost of the deal has been concealed by both companies, but sources suggest Eucalyptus, which had raised $55 million, was purchased for under $100 million. This is the first major acquisition by HP since a terrible purchase of Autonomy. In the case of Autonomy, HP overvalued the company, as acknowledged by both organizations. Since then, the two firms have turned to publicity and legal battles, with HP arguing that Autonomy’s accounting was less than straightforward while Autonomy asserts that HP’s analysis of the company was poor, with the overvaluation rooted in “HP’s own recklessness and not due to any accounting improprieties” (Wall Street Journal). That Autonomy acquisition was not a good move for shareholder confidence, and neither is...

Many enterprises are turning away from the public cloud and toward a private one, or opting for a hybrid cloud to take advantage of public and private features. A recent survey of more than 2000 CIOs of large organizations found that growth of the private cloud outpaces that of the public cloud now, a trend expected to continue for half a decade. While public cloud revenue has increased 20% YOY (year over year), the private cloud is expected to expand between 40 and 50% through 2018. Allan Krans, the analyst responsible for the study, said that the private cloud will continue growing faster than the public one “at least for the next five years.” Similarly, a Gartner report released in 2013 suggested that the hybrid cloud is increasing in popularity, with more than 50% of businesses expected to have one in place by 2017. Perhaps needless to say, the reason that hybrid clouds are becoming more prevalent is that businesses want some of their data to be in a private environment rather than “the cloud” as it’s typically understood, the public cloud. Despite the reasonable argument that one day – once public clouds have been integrated with open standards and security...

When we discuss the cloud, we aren’t talking about one entity but a technology that creates computing environments using broadly distributed resources for more sophisticated levels of energy efficiency, performance, and reliability. The various categories of cloud – public, private, and hybrid – grew from competing business interests: simply put, saving money vs. having the strongest possible security in place. Public is cheap, private allows for greater security by isolating the data, and hybrid combines public and private into one integrated package. Many companies are grappling with the various types of cloud, figuring out the situation that best meet their needs. The growing consensus is that hybrid is entering a boom, with Gartner predicting that half of large enterprises will have active hybrid clouds by 2017. Since hybrid is a combination of public and private, the Gartner fortune-telling implies that the three basic types of cloud are here to stay. Strangely enough, some cloud experts argue that the private cloud will go the way of the Wicked Witch, screaming, “I’m melting,” as it disappears into the public cloud. Joe McKendrick of Forbes recently reported on a panel sponsored by BrightTalk that was organized to help businesses compare the public, private, and...

We’ve all been there. It’s late at night, and we’re using our company’s credit card to purchase a Jumbo Tinkertoy set from Amazon for $281.56. All right, fine, maybe that’s not what we do late at night, but we can all appreciate the purposes served by the different Tinkertoy components. What use would the rods be without the spools? The different types of Tinkertoy pieces allow for a building that has structural integrity. That same type of integrity is needed to design a hybrid cloud, so just the same, you are going to need the spools. Cloud providers have created tools to connect various cloud services – the “spools” – so that the disparities between each one don’t result in an unwieldy IT environment. What is a Hybrid Cloud? The hybrid cloud is getting a huge amount of attention in 2014. A Gartner analysis conducted last year argued that 50% of large enterprises would have hybrid clouds deployed by 2017. What is the hybrid cloud? In a September 7 report for Business 2 Community, Web developer Dario Zadro noted that general discussion of cloud computing has tended to center around public clouds. In a public cloud situation, computing services are...

We all feel ourselves getting sucked into the soul of technology at times, the glow of the screen summoning us into the light, accompanied by a siren song of zeros and ones – that, like the ominous notes of Igor Stravinsky in the theme song of Jaws, seem to pull us into a windowless digital abyss in which, rather than our avatars representing us, we represent our avatars. Sure, getting 100% of your life energy vacuumed into the Matrix may seem unsettling, but as it turns out, a recent study suggests that you want to be as close as possible to some parts of your hybrid cloud. Debutante Ball for the Hybrid Cloud Apparently the hybrid cloud deserves an introduction, as indicated by the title of an August 18 Forbes piece, “Get Ready for Hybrid Cloud” (as if it hasn’t been a standard IT setup for years). Well, maybe an introduction is in order. The concept is certainly becoming much more prominent this year, with Gartner predicting that almost half of large enterprises will have active hybrid clouds by 2017. OK… what is it? Richardson Seroter, writing in Forbes, describes a hybrid solution as a composite of two different choices...

Many organizations want to combine the two major types of cloud into one combined system. The resulting infrastructure, called a hybrid cloud, allows businesses to process and store more sensitive data within a private cloud environment, while benefiting from the performance and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud for data that is less vulnerable. TechRadar recently spoke with Sarah Lahav, CEO of Software as a Service company SysAid Technologies, about the advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid cloud. Below is an overview of the discussion, enhanced by statistical highlights and other information from additional sources. What is the Hybrid Cloud? Lahav explained that by combining public and private clouds, a hybrid infrastructure allows organizations not just to treat data differently (based on its level of sensitivity) but to manage some resources on-premise and some through a hosting service, if desired (although hosting services can be used for both the public and private components). She also mentioned that the hybrid model is well-suited to companies that are interested in transitioning to the cloud but are unsure about its security capabilities. The hybrid cloud is not just a popular topic among cloud service providers but is widely expected to be the accepted IT...

Amazon opened up Zocalo – its encrypted, cloud-hosted file storage and sharing platform created for use by enterprises – to all of its customers. The announcement was made August 27, the same day that another major cloud storage provider, Dropbox, stated that it was reducing costs and expanding data limits for those using its Pro service. What’s happening here is that, like earlier in the year, Amazon is being compelled to adjust its business model to fit the increasingly competitive cloud market. One of the main outcomes of the increased competition in the cloud space is well-publicized price reductions. These cost-cutting announcements are really games played by the most recognized, big-name brands: they generate publicity, and you can end up getting just as much money out of your customers by adding fees and increasing other rates. In an investigative report for Gigaom, Praveen Asthana notes that regardless the price cuts publicized by AWS, “consumers might not actually see that level of reduction in their bills.” Since these highly publicized cloud wars have been going on throughout the year between Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and others, let’s look at the most recent battle of Zocalo, followed by the broader context of 2014....

The Internet of Things, which is also often called Web 3.0, is the notion of interconnecting any object with the Internet. Traditional examples of Internet of Things (IoT) components are cars, HVAC systems, phones, and anything else connected to the Web; the Internet of Things simply incorporates more objects into the system. The Internet of Things could provide us with amazing convenience tools, such as software that integrates data from your refrigerator with an automated shopping list, letting you know when you get to the grocery store what items are getting low. The Internet of Things is not just useful for consumers but businesses as well, such as analyzing factory-wide sensor information to better track the manufacturing process. The Wall Street Journal reported on August 29 that Norwest Venture Partners raised $30 million in seed funding for IFTTT (“If this, then that”), a startup with an application that allows software to perform specific tasks given pre-established parameters. Rather than focusing on the crowded standard Web and mobile markets, IFTTT has set its sights on dominating the Internet of Things. In similar news, private securities firm AGT International announced $120 million of venture funding available to startups, stressing that it was primarily...

A lot of the news related to cloud hosting is either about business developments in the industry or about applications using cloud servers to blanket the globe cost-effectively – often an open source project such as the Zuckerberg-backed Panorama Student Survey. You also see a lot of articles about hot trends within the industry, along with studies related to growth rate and perception of the market. Occasionally, there are news reports in large publications related to the choices businesses must make when looking for cloud services, which is of tremendous interest to our clients. IBM’s Jeff Borek recently wrote an article for the company’s Forbes.com blog, detailing the differences between private, public, and hybrid cloud. IBM’s Shift to the Cloud Borek is writing on behalf of IBM, so of course his article must be read within the context that IBM is investing heavily in the cloud. The company is injecting $1.2 billion into its worldwide cloud system throughout 2014. The primary focus of that money is to open 15 new data centers in different global locations. The core idea – as described in a PC World article published in January – is that having those facilities in place will provide...

Panorama Education – the education startup funded by Google Ventures, Startup: Education (Mark Zuckerberg), and A-Grade Investments (Ashton Kutcher), joined forces with the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University on August 26. Panorama actually has worked with hundreds of educational systems at the state and district level to create the Panorama Student Survey, an open source survey intended to generate big data for analysis and problem-solving; but Harvard served as the most in-depth case study for development of the tool. Panorama Education is also allowing schools and government educational officials to access the survey for free. It also provides analytics and report generation software related to the information derived from the survey. Through the hundreds of school administrations and departments that make up Panorama’s clientele, the organization was able to collect and study data for more than 1 ½ million students. The data gives educators statistics and refined knowledge of the four groups involved – students, teachers, parents, and administrators – so that they can initiate research-driven solutions, with the numbers to ground any actions taken. Aaron Feuer, one of the co-founders of Panorama, came up with the idea for the company when he was a student. He was involved...

“Thank you for making our field less boring and depressing!” – Group thank you note from the big data industry to Hilary Mason Okay, okay: that’s not true… But it’s close. You only need to skim through the comments on big data scientist Hilary Mason’s website to find out how stoked the nerd community is about her and how ready some dataphiles are to awkwardly propose. One fan, after outlining several elements of a lecture Mason gave that he enjoyed, concluded: “And I must say, your breathtaking voice was such a pleasure with which to listen to them…… [sic].” Yeah, really. That is true. The IT subfield of big data is not just big really, but enormous and booming. IDC predicted in December that the field would grow to $16.1 billion this year, at a pace 6 times that of overall IT market growth. Tesla & Business Poster Children It can help a field enormously when there is a standout expert who defies expectations. For instance, look at Elon Musk of Tesla Motors: his company revolutionized the electric car last year (and brushed off the hooplah over three Model S fires last fall – see the “What About Safety Overall?”...

SSL encryption has always been essential for e-commerce sites and any sites that process sensitive personal information. Google’s recent announcement that SSL improves search ranking gives website owners one more reason to adopt it. The focus on SSL (which enables the secure “HTTPS” protocol in browsers) is part of a larger campaign by Google to improve security across the Web. As Mashable reported in July, Google has also introduced a new program called Project Zero. Project Zero will be a new subdivision of the company, populated by hackers who will work full-time to enhance security throughout the Web. It is an attempt to reduce the extent to which companies and independent users are vulnerable to malicious attempts and software bugs. HTTPS Everywhere (also called SSL Everywhere, or AOSSL for Always On SSL) has been a rallying cry from the SSL certificate community for years; however, for certificate authorities (CA’s) such as Symantec and DigiCert, blanketing the Internet with SSL is tied to a profit motive. That’s why Google’s announcement was such a game-changer. To be clear, SSL everywhere is not just about having standardized encryption (which itself is virtually hacker-proof) on more sites. It’s about having it, well, everywhere –...

You’re probably not a huge fan of unnecessary risks, especially when it comes to your business. In fact, it’s probably not a stretch to say that you downright loathe that sort of thing, isn’t it? What’s more, you probably want to mitigate necessary risks as much as possible. And no one’s blaming you for it. In fact, at Superb Internet, we wouldn’t have it any other way. The only way you’ll get cloud hosting from us is risk-free. “How in the world is that possible, Superb?! You can’t seriously expect me to believe that, can you? What have you been sm…” OK, sorry to interrupt, but we’re going to have to cut you off right there. This is a family-friendly blog, after all. Also, not to riff too hard on old commercials for a certain electronics retail chain whose name rhymes with Daddio Mack, but if you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Our cloud hosting services guarantee to you is that we will out-perform all of our competitors’ cloud offerings that are comparably priced and come with similar specs in CPU performance, higher disk performance and higher intra-cloud network service. But that’s just the half of it. You’re going to...

Running a data center isn’t easy. Data center (DC) managers have to be ever vigilant to protect the data in their facility from security breaches, ISP downtime, electrical blackouts, environmental  disasters and a host of other potential problems. It takes a quick mind and years of experience to get it right. Anyone who has data housed in a data manager’s facility expects that data to be available quickly, reliably and affordably at all times. A highly trained and qualified staff, modern HVAC systems and bleeding-edge tech help to make that happen, but when you get down to it, you still need a manager to make it all run congruently. You need someone who always has data on his mind and is available to solve issues before they become big problems. He needs to be available at all hours of the day, the whole year ‘round. Luckily for you, that person doesn’t have to be, well, you. Store your data and/or website with Superb Internet instead of keeping it in-house, and we’ll take the stress of managing data out of your life. Our DC managers oversee a core network and backbone connectivity that consists of 11 core network sites spread across...

So you’re ready to make the move into the cloud. That’s great, but you’re going to need some help to do it. Well, it just so happens that – wouldn’t you know it – we’re in the business of helping organizations like yours roll out successful cloud deployments. Our team of data storage professionals will answer all of your questions and help you find the cloud plan that works best for your business needs. Our state-of-the-art cloud storage facilities are ideal for safely housing your cloud instance. High-tech HVAC controls and attentive data operators will help ensure that you always stay online. In fact, in the unfortunate event that your server does experience downtime, you’re even guaranteed to be back up and running in almost no time whatsoever thanks to our automatic failover system. The system works by automatically reestablishing your instance someplace else in our massive, reliable cloud network if there is a server issue affecting it. Cloud Integration But that’s getting a little bit ahead of things. Once you’re deployed, we’ll take things from there. Let’s get back to our original point about cloud integration, though. It’s something we talked about already in our last blog post, and...

Flexibility. It’s important to have, no matter what business you’re in. Some take it for granted, but when things are looking dire or when you see a new opportunity you want to pursue, you’ll be patting yourself on the back if you’ve given your organization the flexibility it needs in such situations – and you’ll be banging your head against your desk if you didn’t. Since the preseason has already gotten underway and we’re just a few weeks away from games that matter, let’s take a look at how important flexibility is for an NFL franchise. The Cincinnati Bengals recently made headlines by re-signing starting quarterback Andy Dalton to a deal that could be worth as much as $115 million over a six-year period. “Could be.” Social media sites and the internet at large have been flush with memes whose creators believe the Bengals way overpaid for a guy who’s been good but not great in the regular season and downright dreadful in the postseason. What many advocates of the deal either haven’t cared to think about or thought to care about, however, is that a mere 17.7 percent of the contract represents guaranteed money, Furthermore, everything that’s assured will...

In the tech industry, everybody likes to talk about the future. It’s been happening for a long, long time, at least since the 1960s. It was then that, after looking at historical computer processor data, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore created Moore’s Law, which predicted that the number of transistors hardware manufacturers could squeeze onto a CPU would double roughly every two years. Though it may be partly due to the fact that semiconductor producers like Intel, Samsung and Qualcomm have used it in their long-term planning and R&D targeting, Moore’s Law has largely held true for the roughly $250 billion semiconductor industry. And then there’s cloud computing. The concept of storing information in what we today refer to as cloud servers has actually been around for decades. It wasn’t until around 2008 that cloud services began gaining in popularity, though. If you can recall what things were like waaaaay back in the latter half of the two thousand-aughts, then you probably remember every tech expert under the sun predicting that the cloud (we swear that is not a weather pun) was poised to take off in a big way. Well, they were right. Individuals, businesses and other entities use...

Big data is big, like really big. It’s so big, in fact, that it often becomes too unwieldy for organizations to do anything useful with it. Oh, you have in-depth data on all of your customers and prospects; how your products and services are being used; and even on ways your target audience wishes they could use them? That’s great. So what are you doing with all of that information? Anything at all? Or are you just sitting on it? Big data is not itself a solution to anything; it’s a tool for helping you to find better solutions to pain points and customer wants and needs. The term “big data” is thrown around to express the incredible growth and availability of structured and unstructured data. Having it is extremely important because it could potentially lead to more in-depth analyses than would be possible without it. Yes, you have to actually structure and analyze your data if you hope to come to any sort of informed and intelligent decisions as a result of it – your data isn’t going to go ahead and solve problems on its own, much as you might want it to. You need to do something...

In 2014, almost everything gets stored in cloud servers. Customer data? Check. Marketing metrics? You betcha’. Websites? Yes, sir. Applications? Absolutely. Mission-critical data? You better believe it. Users turn to professional cloud service providers to store, monitor and manage just about any sort of digital information imaginable in the cloud. Whether you’re hosting your website up there, sharing customer data with your staff, backing up your data there or some combination of those and any number of other uses, you’re probably taking full advantage of the cloud. And why wouldn’t you? It’s fast, reliable and affordable (you’ll only have to pay for the storage space you absolutely need at any given time). Oh, and a crack squad of data operators will be taking care of your data and the hardware it’s stored on around the clock. What’s not to like about that? But with the cloud’s booming popularity come threats to users’ cloud instances. It’s only natural, of course. That’s just what happens when enough people start using any particular technology: someone with malicious intent tries to ruin a good thing for everyone. With everything that’s being stored up in cloud servers these days, more and more malware is making...

You use it every day. You probably use it just about every hour. Heck, if you’re like us you’re using it every waking minute of the day – maybe you’re even unknowingly doing it in your sleep in some sort of 21st-century version of sleepwalking. Do you know what we’re getting at yet? You’re doing it right now. You’re using the internet, just like you and your business do every single other day. Internet usage has proliferated so widely and so rapidly since the days of ‘90s dialup that many people don’t even think about it. Virtually everything is connected to the internet: Phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, gaming consoles, cars, ATMs, cash registers, and on and on and on. Whether you’re sending an email, updating your Facebook page, binge-watching a show on Netflix or any of a zillion other options, you’re using the internet nearly all of the time. Your business, of course, relies heavily on the internet as well. If your business is a website or at least uses one – and in 2014, you darn well better be using a website for your enterprise in some capacity – then you cannot survive without internet access, can you? And...

So you want to put your data in the cloud? OK, great! As a world-class cloud service provider with a network of high-tech cloud storage data centers around the United States, Superb is here to help you with that. If you’re considering moving your data into the cloud as part of an enterprise migration project, then know that there are a host of benefits to doing so. Once your data is up in the cloud it’ll be secure, accessible, affordable stable and backed up. But first you’ve got to get it there. Companies are increasingly turning their eyes towards system and application migration as a cost-effective and low-risk approach to modernizing their IT infrastructures. The rapidity at which hardware vendors, software companies and system integrators are adopting new applications and down-sizing techniques is astounding. Data is one of the most crucial, omnipresent and necessary assets of most enterprises, which means that migrating it without interruption to a new facility is of the utmost importance. Data migration involves the movement of data from your current system to a new one, and it has to go right. Maximizing productivity and guaranteeing an efficient transition from an outdated application or system can only...

Let’s talk about everyone’s favorite topic: the federal government and all of those awesome regulations and standards they’re working on in DC. Amirite? Anyone? Anyone at all? You in the back there – was that a standing ovation or…oh no, you were just getting up to run for the exit. I see. OK, hold on just a second, everyone. Let’s be reasonable here and give this topic a chance before you tune us out on this one. Trust us, this is actually worth your attention, folks. The federal government’s National Institute of Standards (NIST) is attempting to create a better, more standardized process for forensic investigations involving the sourcing and analyzing of digital information stored in cloud servers. (See, told you this was relevant to you!) The Feds Got 65 Problems – And Forensic Cloud Investigations Are One All of Them Yes, it may seem like the government is already full of more useless rules, regulations and standards that are capriciously passed and randomly followed and enforced than you can possibly hope to count. But sometimes rules and regulations are a good thing. They certainly beat all-out chaos, even if they sometimes bring a bit of chaos of their own....

We talk a lot about data around here, and for good reason. We’re a data hosting company. Data storage, management, monitoring and fast and reliable access is what we do. If you want your data stored in a colocation facility with state-of-the-art hardware and HVAC controls that’s staffed by highly qualified data operators, you know to turn to Superb. If you need your website hosted in the cloud where it’ll be safe, available and scalable whenever you need it to be, you know to turn to Superb. Basically if you need a data solution, you need us. Point being, we’re almost always thinking about data first at Superb – but not everyone does. What are we talking about? Let’s go back to a long time ago in an office setting far, far away. Well, actually, let’s not go back that long or search that far, at all. Let’s think about how things used to be in your office just several years back. As Tech Target alludes, it was then and there that users had a somewhat different workspace setup than they likely have today. Heck, the whole office was probably different, and so was out-of-office work and communications. Things were...

The Top 10 Benefits of Cloud over VPS or Shared You’ve been thinking about it, haven’t you? Don’t be shy, you can admit it. You’ve been thinking about cloud hosting. Maybe you haven’t quite made the decision yet to pull the trigger on migrating your company’s data into the cloud, but the thought has crossed your mind. Before you do it, though, you want to know if the cloud is really the right place for your data to be. Switching to cloud storage just because “cloud” has become a popular buzzword in the tech industry and everybody else seems to be doing it wouldn’t exactly be a strategic move. Luckily for you, there are a host of reasons why making the switch from virtual private server (VPS) or shared hosting is a smart move, which means that doing so will make you look like quite the strategic thinker. Oh, and of course those reasons present real, clear-cut business advantages. So you won’t just look like you’re making a smart move when you switch – you will be making a smart move, and you’ll be able to prove it. Automatic Failover You’re a fan of having your data and/or website available...

Are you expecting a disaster to strike? Have you accepted the fact that the unimaginable could happen to you? If not, then it’s time to start thinking about it. Your data is invaluable, and that’s why Superb has a failover system in place for its data centers. Our cloud servers have a system protecting them that automatically restarts your cloud instance in another part of our network should the server it’s running on experience an issue of some sort. What this means for you is virtually no downtime whatsoever. Whether your data and/or website are stored in a cloud, shared, virtualized or dedicated server or even on scraps of paper – eh, let’s hope it’s not that last one – you need to have a disaster recovery (DR) plan in place to help you get your hardware, applications and data back up and running again should a power outage, flood, hurricane or any of dozens of other potential disasters strike. Small, medium and large businesses all have data that impact the way they conduct, well, business. Some of it is mission-critical, while other bits of that data is less vital but still significant. Regardless of the importance placed on each...

At Superb, we have four state-of-the-art data centers (DCs) full of modern HVAC controls, top-of-the-line hardware, stringent security measures and highly qualified and dedicated data operators. Our 11 core network sites spread across five different states ensure there is plenty of room to host anything and everything you could ever want to put on our network. What’s more, we guarantee that in the rare event the server your cloud instance is kept on has an issue our failover system will immediately kick in. Your instance will be automatically restarted in another part of the cloud with virtually no downtime, which is one of the main benefits of entrusting your data to a great cloud service provider like Superb. Our data centers have direct connections to all of the major global Tier 1 backbones and the major ISPs and networks. There is no single point of failure in our network, and you’ll always get low latency and absolutely no packet loss. Our completely redundant network is ready to withstand the daily grind as well as massive disasters that might take down less-prepared networks. The result is the very best in efficiency and performance for your data. The data center business, just...

You can put just about everything in the cloud these days: your website, customer data, marketing analytics, employee payroll, human resources, email and messaging and darn near anything else that you can think of. A reliable cloud service provider will take care of all your storage and/or hosting needs. In fact, the cloud has become so versatile and ubiquitous that it’s putting the kibosh on traditional IT. Well, maybe not completely – not just yet, anyways – but it is nudging traditional information technology in a new direction. Historically, IT has been, let’s say, somewhat less than transparent when it comes to its costs. In fact, it’s often been downright opaque. Most businesses know what they’re paying for old school IT, but they don’t know why they’re paying it; they don’t know how the costs are broken down. It’s not readily apparent what the cost is to deploy a particular in-house data center service, because individual costs are lost in a seas of jargon-ey talk about different initiatives or conveniently hidden among one massive project-level budget. Things are much more straightforward with the cloud. You’re not buying any physical property, nor are you building any complicated infrastructure. Your cloud provider...

Cloud hosting, as you may have heard us say here on the Superb Cloud blog once or twice, is a beautiful thing. It gives you a way to store all of your data on top-of-the-line servers without buying, storing or managing them. It houses them in state-of-the-art data centers (DCs) without you having to build and manage them. It also gives you a whole host of failover benefits that ensure that your cloud instance is automatically restarted in another part of the cloud with almost no downtime in the event of any server issues. There are high levels of security and management in place, ensuring that whatever you’re storing is always safe and sound and available. Perhaps best of all, everything is scalable, so you pay for only what you need and get more or less storage capacity when and only when you have to have it. Still, some organizations are resistant to putting everything they have up into a cloud service provider’s DC. Instead, these firms choose to maintain their own facilities and partner with cloud service providers simultaneously, creating a hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud is a computing scenario in which an organization handles some of its resources...

No one ever thinks it’s going to happen to them, and with a reliable cloud hosting provider like Superb managing your data, it’s highly unlikely that it will. Our data centers are state-of-the-art facilities full of the very best in server hardware, HVAC controls, uninterruptible power sources, redundancies and emergency plans. What’s more, they’re staffed by highly qualified data center (DC) techs with years of experience under their belts. What that means is that it’s safe to assume that your data is safe with us. It’s taken care of in our cloud because we’ve put every feasible precaution in place to keep your data safe, online and accessible. There’s an old saying in regards to only two things in life being certain, though, and neither death nor taxes spell “data centers.” Still, we’re constantly working to keep your data online and are always exploring the latest options for helping us to do it. In fact, we guarantee that your cloud instance will always be available thanks to our automatic failover. Even if an issue pops up, your instance will be auto-restarted in another part of the cloud with hardly any downtime at all. Our network does not have any one...

We’ve got a lot in common, you and us. You love cloud data hosting. We love cloud data hosting. You love saving money, and – wouldn’t you know it? – we love saving money too. OK, so almost everybody loves saving a bit of coinage here and there. That’s true. Here’s the thing, though: everybody talks about saving money, but does anyone ever actually help you to save any of it? It’s a pretty rare occurrence, we’re sure. The good news is that today’s your lucky day. We’re about to tell you how you can get your company’s data up in the cloud for less money than you might think. Cloud servers allow you to easily take advantage of virtualization and failover benefits of modern, high-tech data centers. You can scale up and down the amount of space you have in the cloud when your needs dictate as much, and you can set up a plan allowing you to only pay for what you use. You can get a dedicated cloud server that’s completely your own, allowing for 100 percent core utilization. You can get your data stored in a state-of-the-art facility that’s full of modern HVAC controls, uninterruptible power...

In our last blog we talked up the many benefits of hosting your website in the cloud. Cloud hosting is perfect for the needs of a great number of organizations. But in the world of data, one size does not fit all. For some, virtual private servers (VPS) are a better choice. VPS allows you to have dedicated resources and customizable software for less money than you’d pay for dedicated servers. How is that possible? This option involves the creation of custom server partitions that meet the customer’s hardware resources and software customization needs. The virtual machines give the user a choice of operating system along with guaranteed resources, which means it’s an attractive choice for anyone looking to move up from shared hosting. With VPS, you get everything you’d get from a dedicated server – you just get it cheaper. At Superb, our VPS solutions guarantee your performance levels for processing power, memory and bandwidth and hand you the freedom to run more resource-intensive apps than you would be able to with shared hosting. You’ll also be able to reboot and reinstall the OS from the convenience of your own control panel, and you can adjust your plan whenever...

Remember back in the day when website cloud hosting was some crazy, scary, futuristic concept that you couldn’t possibly imagine your website turning to? Yeah, well, those days are long since passed. Today, the cloud is a viable option for a website hosting solution. In fact, in many cases it’s much more than just viable – it’s ideal. Yes, you could go with shared hosting, virtual private server (VPS) hosting or dedicated hosting, but the cloud has a number of excellent advantages that makes it superior. What are they? So glad you asked. Performance When your site is up in the cloud it gets its very own server, meaning there is basically zero competition for resources. Compare this to shared hosting, in which your customers often suffer from performance issues that are caused by, well, sharing. Since there are multiple users on the same server, everyone has to fight for resources. This is particularly problematic if someone else sharing your server is a major resource hog. Websites with heavy traffic flow have more requests coming in, which means the system is under heavier strain, and there are fewer resources for everyone to share. The worst part about this is that...

If you’re plugged into the tech industry at all – and we’ll just go ahead and assume that you are if you’re one of the wonderful readers of our data-centric blog here – then you probably followed Google I/O 2014 the other week. In case you don’t have any idea what we’re talking about, though, now that Google I/O is the yearly conference focused on developers that the search giant holds in San Francisco. There was a lot of talk about Android, Google Play and wearables. There were also two entirely separate and seemingly unconnected protests – one against Google’s alleged building of killer artificial intelligence and the other targeting a Mountain View executive evicting tenants from some property he owns. If you want to hear more about any of that stuff, well, you can go to the source and Google it. If, however, you want to know what the big takeaways were about cloud hosting, then read on. It’s true that the vast majority of the I/O conference was dominated by consumer-targeted technology. We heard about ways Android will be better, ways Android will interact with your car better, ways Android will work better with your Chromebook and ways...

Where did all of your pictures go? They’re not where they used to be. Did you notice? You may not have – many people didn’t – and that was the idea. But your Instagram photos have indeed moved. All of them. Yes, every last one of your Instagram photos was relocated during the spring from Amazon Web Services’ public Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) over to Facebook’s data centers (DCs), Instagram recently revealed. We talk a lot around here about all of the many, many, many reasons organizations should move their data up into the cloud, but every once in a while there’s a case in which there is a good reason to go the other way. This is one of those cases. Back in 2012 Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg intimated that Instagram would eventually take advantage of Facebook’s incredible infrastructure. “We will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure,” Zuckerberg said at the time. Many took that to mean that Instagram data would eventually be pulled from Amazon’s DCs and placed in Facebook’s, and they were right. It only made sense, of course. Facebook didn’t want to continue rolling along as...

The weather around here has been particularly cloudy lately, hasn’t it? Well, there are a lot of great and interesting things to be said about the cloud, and we know that many of you are looking to hear about it from every angle possible, so that’s what we’ve kind of been focusing on lately. But enough is enough already, right? Well, for now it is. We’ll wrap back around to the cloud later, but right now let’s change things up – let’s talk colocation. If you’re a web-based business that already owns its own servers then you’re in great shape. But if you’ve dropped a nice little chunk of cash on high-tech servers to store all of your data on you probably don’t want to shove them into some dusty old room somewhere. Actually, scratch that. You definitely don’t want to do that. Trust us. There’s also a good chance that you don’t want to spend ludicrous amounts of money constructing a brand new state-of-the-art server facility. You do, however, want to store your servers in such a place. The solution? Choose colocation. Colo gets your very own servers – or ones you decided to lease – stored in a...

So you say you want a revolution? Well, you may just be in luck. It’s about time too, isn’t it? This whole idea of cloud computing has been kicking around since the 1950s. “But, Superb, I thought the cloud was new and cool and cutting edge?” Hey, you’re not wrong, so don’t fret. Cloud hosting as we know it today is believed to have only started to gain popularity in 2006 when Amazon announced something called “Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.” Elastic Cloud Compute is described as “a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.” It was drawn up to make it possible for web-scale computing to be easy for developers, which surely sounds nice to all of our dev readers out there. The service made it possible to perform computing in the cloud by making it possible to acquire and configure capacity with little friction. Users were handed complete control of their computing resources and permitted to run them on Amazon’s computing environment. Capacity scaling became a cinch thanks to the ability to obtain and boot new server instances in mere minutes. With users relying on servers in a remote facility to scale up and down at...

Erp. Oh, excuse us there. Wait a minute, actually. Don’t excuse us. What we’re really trying to say is ERP (enterprise resource planning). Yes, today we’re blogging about business management software for collecting, storing, managing and interpreting data for business-related activities. Considering that data hosting is in our blood, the topic is pretty near and dear to our hearts. Anyway, if you’re thinking ERP you might be tempted to turn your attention towards server and storage specs before anything else. Big mistake. Huge. At least, it’s a big mistake to start there. You should be starting by taking a look up at the cloud, even if you’re planning to rely on in-house ERP. Unless, that is, you really, really, really enjoy wasting money on a whole bunch of server hardware that you don’t really need to own. The cloud can save you big by allowing you to simply rent space at a data center rather than turning half of your building into your very own – and very expensive – data center. “Come on, Superb. There are legitimate reasons for some enterprises to have on-premises servers.” OK, we hear you, and you’re right. You caught us white-handed – because clouds...

If you like things and the internet – and really, who doesn’t? – then you’ll want to take a few moments out of your day to check out part one of our two-part look at the Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential effect on the future of data centers (DCs). The concept of IoT has been around for several decades, quietly growing stronger without any outside of the information technology world giving it more than a passing thought. In fact, many outside of the IT business aren’t even aware that the Internet of Things is, well, a thing. And maybe that’s the magic of it. Without anyone really noticing, more than a billion objects that aren’t dedicated computing devices have joined the IoT. Give it another four years, as we noted in the first part of this blog series, and the Internet of Things will consist of billions more items – including people and animals. Sure, some might notice that the family pet can now be chipped for tracking purposes should he/she run away. But most laymen haven’t bothered to stop and consider that virtually everything is being computerized and connected to one another. What that means is that...

Hey, take a look over there in the distance. No, no, not quite that far into the distance. Back it up a little bit, but still keep it just over the horizon. Yeah, that’s the spot. Do you see it? Do you know what it is? It’s the (not-so-distant) future of the data center (DC) industry. Now, we know it may initially look intimidating to some. It may not be the future everyone once imagined. It may not even be the future everyone is imagining right now. But it is indeed the future, which means that it is coming whether you like it or not. Since this is the tech industry we’re talking about here, then you’re probably excited for it. After all, anyone in this business who isn’t always looking towards the future is in the wrong line of work. Anyways, let’s get back to the actual future of data centers. It’s probably going to involve things. Lots and lots of things. Does that sound like a terrible joke? It’s not. It’s not a good joke, either. In fact, it’s not a joke at all. The Internet of Things (IoT) is likely going to play a major role in...

In our last blog we discussed the coming and going of the FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) June 5 compliancy deadline for federal government agencies and CSPs (cloud service providers) who wish to secure contracts to store government data in their cloud data centers. As we have discussed in detail starting right here with our first post on the subject, FedRAMP was designed to standardize the process of getting federal government agency data into the cloud securely. And then keep the data secure every day. In some ways it has worked. It has established a set of rules and requirements for third-party organizations (3PAOs) to get approval to certify CSPs as FedRAMP-compliant. It has also streamlined the CSP selection process for agencies and made clear to everyone what the security requirements are for government data stored in private providers’ cloud servers. The result is around a dozen CSPs offering a multitude of different cloud service packages to agencies. However, while some have gotten onboard with FedRAMP and achieved compliancy as of the deadline hitting earlier this month, many agencies have not done so. Despite this, no penalties are currently being handed down to agencies who have failed to...

June 5 is behind us now. It came and went, and you may not have even noticed. At least, you may not have noticed its coming and going any more than you do any other day of the year. But if cloud hosting and/or government data security are things that are at all important to you, then maybe you should have taken note of this particular day’s passing. If you’ve been following our series of blog posts on the subject of FedRAMP (Federal Risk Authorization Management Program) starting with this one right here explaining in-depth what the program is and how it is designed to help streamline government cloud provider selection, then you should already have an idea as to what the significance of June 5 was. That’s right – it was the deadline for United States federal government agencies and companies known as CSPs (cloud service providers) to achieve compliance with FedRAMP. The date came some three years after the government’s former CIO, Vivek Kundra, introduced his Cloud First initiative. Kundra wrote the policy to put rules in place that required the government’s many, many, many agencies to think about deploying applications through the cloud prior to considering other...

On Wednesday we promised you more coverage of FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program). And so, here we are with the aforementioned promised coverage. You didn’t think we’d go and break our promise now, did you? We’d never do something like that. We keep our promises; that’s just the kind of cloud data center hosting company we are. Anyways, you’ll remember from our previous blog post on the matter that FedRAMP is a program that was first envisioned by the government a few years back as a way to streamline the process of federal government agencies moving into the cloud. Since agencies have to operate under strict rules and regulations – many of which are unique to the many individual agencies – to secure their data, convincing them to put their data on cloud servers has been a difficult undertaking for the federal government. So while private and public organizations of all sizes have been flying into the clouds faster than Maverick and Goose in Top Gun, the U.S. government has been staying mostly grounded. FedRAMP aims to change all of that by simplifying and standardizing the processes for assessing risks, mitigating them and ensuring that agency data will...

Let’s talk about one of everyone’s favorite topics: the federal government and all of the data it’s collecting and storing about you and each and every one of the rest of us. OK, so maybe “favorite” isn’t exactly the best word to describe this subject, as the NSA’s PRISM initiative has sort of made this whole thing something most people only love to hate. In any case, the U.S. government has lots and lots and lots of data. Every government agency needs to store data of some sort on U.S. citizens, just as every business needs to store data on its customers and prospects. There are a plethora of government agencies and branches and even more subdivisions and departments and so on and so forth. Each and every one of them has loads of data, and just like businesses, they’re increasingly looking to store it in cloud data centers. Since it’s the federal government we’re talking about here, much of the data in question needs to be highly secure. The government has an astounding amount of personal and financial data on each and every one of us, and none of us want that data getting into the wrong hands. We’ve...

On Monday we explored a little bit about what it means to have your data stored in a cloud data center. Specifically, we took a look at accessing your data while it’s floating around up there in the clouds and what you should do and look for to keep it safe. The key part of that statement, of course, is “you.” If you’re not going to concern yourself with your organization’s data and how it’s protected from unauthorized intruders, then who will? Yes, when you partner with a cloud data center host to store, manage and maintain your data your assumption is probably going to be that the data center (DC) staff is going to do everything necessary to keep your data safe and sound. And it’s true that a good DC provider is indeed going to do just that. But you shouldn’t just assume that every DC option you have is a good one. As we mentioned Monday, there are a number of things you need to look into and questions you need to ask in order to determine just how safe your data will be at any given center. Doing so is a great start to ensuring data...

So you’re going to put your data in the cloud at a trusted data center? That’s exciting news! You’re going to save money on internal server operators, physical equipment and more – not to mention that you’re going to free up all kinds of space at your office for pretty much whatever you need to put there. That means everything is just super for your business now (superb, even). Oh, but what about security? Is all of your data going to be safe and sound when it’s floating around up there in the cloud? There’s a good chance that if you’re a business of any sort that at least a portion of your data is what you would consider “sensitive.” Maybe it’s personal or financial customer information. Maybe it’s trade secrets. Or maybe it’s just private internal data that nobody outside of your company has any business looking at. It certainly can be kept safe, but don’t just assume that it will be. There’s an old saying that when you assume you make a certain unpleasant something out of you and me. So don’t do that. Instead, read on to find out how your data can and should be protected...

Get your meme generators ready, data center world, because the cat has officially been let out of the bag kraken has officially been released. HP – with or without the express written permission of Zeus and Liam Neeson – has announced a joint innovation with SAP codenamed “Project Kraken.” All joking aside, the project is said to be designed to boost business processing power and lower customer hazard levels. In more specific terms, Project Kraken (aka ConvergedSystem 900) is an infrastructure solution for SAP’s Hana, an in-memory cloud computing system with the goal of coalescing database and application platform competencies for spatial and predictive processing, text analysis, analytics and transactions. HP has been working with SAP on this HANA hardware collaboration since 2013, and Hewlett-Packard has been expanding its HANA-related services for some time now, and this is its latest foray into it. A cloud delivery model for HANA along with a number of consulting and support plans were announced alongside the converged system. “Businesses are adopting SAP HANA to make real-time business decisions based on massive data sets, but are often constrained by their infrastructure’s scalability and availability,” Converged Systems, HP Senior Vice President and General Manager Tom Joyce...

Forget the speed of light. Nothing moves faster than the speed of tech, and things are no different for the data storage subsection of the tech industry. A trend has been building for decades, and it’s not going to stop; it’s only going to build further. So what’s this big trend? Simple: the amount of data out there is growing ever larger. There isn’t ever going to be fewer cars on the road on your daily commute to and from the office, only more. And there isn’t ever going to be less data to be stored, managed and accessed, only more. So then, what exactly are we going to do with all of that data? We’re glad you asked, because we’ve collected what we believe to be some of the biggest upcoming trends for data storage. You’ll have more data tomorrow than you have today, so it’s time to inform yourself on what may happen to it moving forward. Hybrid Clouds for Enterprise IT This is possibly the most important thing to remember about the future of data storage, so let’s get it out of the way right at the start instead of making you wait until the end to...

Nothing stands still in the tech world. At least, not without being whizzed right by and forgotten in short order, that is. The data center slice of the tech world is no exception to that rule, and today in our blog we’re taking a look at how the owner of some of the world’s largest data centers is attempting to push the business forward by making it more efficient than ever before. Who’s the data owner in question? We’ll give you a few hints: they’re big fans of bright colors; they’re pretty darn efficient at helping you find what you’re looking for (maybe they even helped you find this very blog post); they recently changed their logo so furtively that most of the world didn’t even notice; and they love a good mountain view. Yes, we’re talking about the titan of search, Google. Google describes itself as being “obsessed with saving energy” (Us too!) and prides itself on its history of continually iterating on data center efficiency over the last decade to ensure that its data is stored, monitored, managed, accessed and scaled with maximum energy savings in mind. The search giant’s VP of Data Centers, Joe Kava, recently spoke...

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog lately then you caught the first two parts of our look at how to choose a greatcolocation hosting provider. If you haven’t, not to worry – this is the internet, so the first two parts of this series haven’t gone anywhere. Read up on Part I and Part 2 for an exhaustive look at why you need to consider pricing, service levels and a host (admittedly awful pun intended) of other provider services and capabilities before choosing a data center that works best for your business and its needs and goals. Once you’ve read up on those key points and checked with potential colo hosting providers as to how they stack up in those areas, you might think you’re ready to make your choice. That’s great if you are, but there’s one more thing to consider: what is their actual facility like? We hear what you’re saying: “But Superb, didn’t you already tell me to read up and ask around about facility conditions and capabilities?” Yes, indeed we did, and we’re happy to know you’ve been paying attention to our suggestions and taking them seriously. As you should be, since they were...

In case you missed it, we recently ran a blog listing some of the most important attributes for you to look for in your colocation data center provider. We started by taking a deeper look at what exactly colocation is, and why it could be of benefit to you. If you missed it, definitely hop on over and check that blog out first, because it’s a great starting point for anyone considering colocation. If you’re still reading at this point, we’ll assume that you’ve read that blog post by now. So, that means it’s time to pick up where we left off and detail some of the other important factors to consider when thinking about colo. Read on for the good stuff. Pricing Here’s one that sounds obvious, right? We can hear you saying, “Of course I’m going to consider pricing of anything before I buy it.” Fair enough, dear reader. Spending less money always looks better on the bottom line than spending more money. But there’s more to business than playing not to lose, you have to spend money to make money and other such clichés. Now then, let’s put aside rock bottom pricing and take a look at...

We recently took a deep look at what you should look for in a cloud server provider, and today we’re back with some advice on what the most important attributes of a colocation data center are. The cloud is a great thing for a great many businesses, but no one technology solution works for all businesses all of the time. That’s why you have got options, and colocation (aka “colo”) is one of them. Let’s say you want in on some of the very best benefits of the cloud: you want to save space in your office; you want outsourced, smart, dedicated IT people keeping an eye on things for you, but you don’t want to hire on a round-the-clock crew; and you want your servers stored in world-class facilities with high-security, modern temperature control and high-tech security. OK, you can have all that, and Superb will deliver it for you.  No problem. However, the operative words in that last paragraph were “your servers.” You own your own hardware. You like your own hardware. You don’t want to rent any hardware from a third party. If that’s the case, then colocation is the solution you’re looking for. With colocation, you...

So you want to build a data center (DC), huh? Or maybe not. Maybe you just want to rent space at a DC  for all of your, well, data, of course. Either way, as we examined last week, you’ll want to turn your eyes downward at some point in the decision-making process. When you do, you’ll want to know what you should be looking for. Do you? If you read the first part of this blog that we posted on Friday, then you know there are two basic options when it comes to flooring: slab or raised access. To quickly recap, for what felt like a millennium, the raised access floor ruled the data center world with nary a challenger. It evened out the normally uneven slabs below centers, which led allowed for symmetrical rows of cabinets; it made it easy for managers to hide all of those huge cables and connectors of the old days neatly away and out of sight; and it offered a way to spot cool servers. But then things changed. You’ll have to read the entirety of the first blog on this topic for the full details, but basically technology moved forward — as it is...

What does every data center (DC) have? If you said “data” or “servers,” well, then you’re technically correct. (Go you!) However, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but neither of those answers is the one we’re looking for. No, you have to look a little bit lower to find the correct response. We’re talking about a floor. To be fair, every room has a floor, so this may have been somewhat of an unfair question to ask you. Don’t worry, though, because the important part is that we’ve now got your attention and can talk with you a little bit about the two different types of floors you’ll find in a data center: raised and slab. Which one is better? Good question. Let’s explore. Who Decided Floors Should Be Raised, Anyways? A long time ago in an IT world far, far away it was decided that raised floors were ideal for any room containing large amounts of computing hardware, and that was that. The raised floor became so ubiquitous that many data operators and managers consider “raised floor space” synonymous with “data center.” If you’re building a center, you’re building it with a raised floor. That’s just the...

? So you’ve finally decided to ascend to the cloud, have you? Great! Making the move to cloud hosting is a smart decision for businesses of all sizes. Your data will be stored securely in a remote location that’s monitored by hosting professionals all day every day. Tonight you can sleep a little bit easier knowing your servers will soon be running smoothly without any oversight from your internal staff – and you’ll save money and space by avoiding purchasing all of the hardware yourself. But it’s not time for those pleasant dreams just yet. Nope, before you can have this one less worry in your life you have to choose a cloud provider first. Spoiler warning: they’re not all the same. Not everyone is a tech expert who understands all of the cloud jargon that’s floating around out there, and that’s OK. If you’re confused about who to pick as your cloud host, read on to find out what attributes you need to look for. Technology Experts If you and your team aren’t cloud experts, then you’re obviously going to need someone who is. In fact, putting all of your faith in your cloud provider and letting them worry...

? You’re small, and you’re a business – oh, and you need a storage solution. It may be tempting to ignore that need, but you know the reality is that it won’t solve itself. Moreover, it’s obvious that the more you expand and grow and take on new projects and customers, the greater your need for reliable data storage will be. Unless, that is, you choose to put your data on reliable cloud servers. Yes, the cloud may be the solution your small business needs for its growing data storage needs. If you have misconceptions about cloud storage only being for Big Businesses with Big Data or Big Sites and Big Budgets, then it’s time to free yourself from that sort of thinking and learn a little bit about how the cloud is already helping myriad small businesses solve their storage problems and accomplish their goals. We Fix IT for You Certainly you could continue storing everything locally. You could keep those dusty old filing cabinets with their byzantine organizational system – if you don’t mind your administrative assistants or interns burning an hour of productivity every time they need to find something. You could also keep your own servers...

Cloud hosting has continued its march to be a disruptive change to the hosting marketplace. As customers become less interested (or realizing there are other options) in managing and replacing or upgrading hardware year after year the idea of hosting in the cloud becomes increasingly attractive. Couple this with huge improvements in reliability, support, flexibility,...

? At Superb Internet, we have virtual private servers (VPSs) as an alternative to dedicated or shared hosting. As you may be aware, the VPS solution lies between dedicated and shared. Essentially, it allows you a plot of server soil to call your own while not causing you to have to bear the upfront cost...

? One of the types of hosting we offer is the virtualized private server, or VPS. This three-part series will look at how two different virtualization systems, OpenVZ and Xen, compare. Note that we use OpenVZ for a number of different reasons, which we will cover briefly in the conclusion to the series, but our...

? As we learned in the first two parts of this miniseries comparing colocation to dedicated server leasing, the difference between the two is owning versus renting. You can’t always lease or rent a product. For instance, ice cream cones can only be rented in Arkansas, South Dakota, and Hawaii. Larger items such as cars...

? As discussed in the first part of this series, choosing whether to own or rent is sometimes a challenge to determine. With some products, you have to buy. For instance, underwear only comes as a rental in Belgium, South Korea, and Nauru. More sizable and sophisticated products, though, are available to lease or own...

? With many products and services, we have the choice to go between owning and renting. For some reason that is not true of paperclips or underwear; but it is true of houses, cars, and other large items. Servers are no exception. Because hosting can be expensive, there is a wide range of possibilities for...

? As we covered in the first two installments of this series on CloudFlare, speed is becoming more and more essential to those hoping to succeed on the web. Both users and search engines are less patient than they used to be. Sites must respond to these new expectations. Optimizing acceleration involves assessing a number...

? As we discussed in the first part of this series, one of the most important parameters these days to succeed online is speed. Page load times have always affected how users perceive a site, but what’s becoming more of an issue with online speed is SEO. Google is placing more and more emphasis on...

? Speed: it’s crucial online. The rate at which a page loads is important both to keep customers happy and to keep them from leaving your site. However, your site’s speed is not just about UX (user experience) but about search engine rankings. That latter factor is becoming more and more important as the Google...

? This series is focused on developing the best possible security for an ecommerce server. We seek to go beyond industry standards such as PCI compliance. Perhaps needless to say, PCI-DSS parameters are extremely stringent and thorough because the credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) have developed them. However, the density of these rules disallows...

? As with the first installment of this series, we’ll continue to look at optimizing server security for an e-commerce site. Clearly security for an online business is not just a matter of PCI compliance or making sure your own information and accounts are safe. Security breaches can (and regularly do) bankrupt companies, and a...

? Server security is one of the first things we should consider when we get ready to go into online business, and it’s a factor of the market that should be regularly reviewed. PCI compliance is one thing, but it’s a little obtuse and complicated when we’re taking initial steps to “harden” (enhance the protections...

? To quickly review our previous discussion, we are discussing the different types of Linux. Linux, along with Windows, is one of the two basic operating systems used on servers. It’s also used on personal desktops, though not nearly as frequently (meaning it’s a tiny percentage of consumer use). The basis for that is because...

? As we discussed in the first installment of this series, deciding on an operating system for your server is one of the most important decisions you make when choosing a hosting environment. Your options get broader when you are using dedicated servers (in contrast to shared hosting) or virtual private servers (VPSs – the...

? When you look at servers, one of the most important decisions you need to make is the operating system. Typically that means choosing between Windows and Linux. However, you may choose to use a dedicated server (a server you control, with a hosting company or on your own) or co-location (using a hosting company’s...

? Okay everyone… As we are learning in this series, it turns out what our grandparents have been telling us since we were born (first conveyed to us via crudely hand-drawn pictures and a primal, baby-rattle version of Morse code) is accurate. You really can never get enough information about firewalls. For that reason, we...

? Let’s continue our discussion of firewalls. In the first part of this series, we talked about firewalls as a general concept. Today we will discuss hardware firewall and software firewall technology. Then in the next post, we will look at web application firewalls (WAFs). For this three-part series, we are reviewing the following articles:...

? Firewalls: We all know they are vital for Internet security, but what are their basic purposes and flavors? This series serves as a basic beginner’s guide to firewalls of the three major types: hardware, software, and web application (WAFs). For this three-part series, we will look at information from several different sources. The primary...

Well, here we all are (except for my cousin Steve, who had to go to his tuba lesson), taking a final look at server hardening in our final segment of this series. Considering the series as a ham sandwich, we’ve looked at the topic generally (top bread), as well as basic techniques that can be...

Hello friends and neighbors. This post, as it turns out, is the follow-up to our groundbreaking, skybreaking article on server hardening; it also is the prequel to our final post on Windows server hardening. This post, the meat of the sandwich (ham, in this case), is on how to harden Linux servers. Server hardening is...

? How to harden a server? Well, let’s first look at what server hardening is. Hardening a server is important to understand even if you are in a hosting environment, when many of the security concerns are monitored and administered by the hosting service. Then we will look specifically at the guidelines for a Windows...

? It’s time for the final part of our exploration into cPanel and Plesk: the two most popular control panels’ similarities and differences. If we think of the series in terms of the body segments of an ant (which we probably should), we’re complete with the head and thorax (Part 1); propodeum and petiole nodes...

? Welcome back for the second part of this exciting and, at times, educational series. To review from the first installment, one of the first things to consider when administrating a server or creating a website is which control panel to choose. The most common control panels out there are cPanel and Plesk. Another option...

? When you look into control panels, the first two options you will see with almost any hosting company are cPanel and Plesk. The third most successful control panel, Bobby Lou’s Internet Control Panel Extraordinaire, is popular in the cockfighting industry but not widely accepted by the general web administrative community. Assuming you use cPanel...

? Generally speaking, you want your website to be available to anyone who wants to see it. Every once in a while, you want it to hide in the darkness, unnoticed and unseen, a bashful teen werewolf at the junior prom … But those moments are few and far between. Additionally, when your site is...

? Clearly, one of the most important aspects of your website is how often it actually is a website. After all, if no one can access it, it’s not really a site but more of the idea of a site. Also, at times, it may be “up” but not fully functional… a groggy website that...

? High-availability, as I have discussed in the previous installments of this series, is a concept that has changed and grown over time. In the past, high-availability was the condition exhibited by a man in a dive bar in Duluth, Minnesota, systematically handing out his landscaping business card to all the female patrons with the...

? High-availability, as we learned in the last installment, has changed conceptually since the days of yesteryear and, for that matter, even near-year. It no longer just refers to the full-access, all-hours, 24/7/365 immediate-response policies of a man looking for love in all the wrong places and some of the right ones. It’s no longer...

? So what is this new-fangled concept called “high-availability?” Traditionally, high-availability has been experienced by women in nightclubs, when a man has walked up and said to them, “Hey you, I just want you to know that I’m not like these other hard-to-get jokers in here. I’m available 24/7, around-the-clock, to come over to your...

? We all know that server computers have hearts and minds just like we do (as well as lymphatic and endocrine systems in some cases). However, servers are of course more complex than that. This series on server anatomy gives us a window into the various component parts of the server. Knowing the server’s makeup...

Beyond eyeballs, livers, and vascular systems, many of us are unaware of the core components of a server. Let’s talk a little bit in this post about what makes up the anatomy of a server. That way, you can grow up, become a server anatomist, and make your parents proud and your ex-boyfriend insanely jealous...

We talked (by “we” I mean me, myself, and my monkey spiritual guide) in my last post about how remote desktop access can improve our lives. We continue to explore that topic today. No, it isn’t fun or fair that we have to get up from our desk and go outside. In fact, it’s horrifying....

? As we all know, the best way to live life is to sit in one place, silently waiting for something amazing to happen. Plus, sloth is a basic human right. Unfortunately, sometimes we are forced by factors outside our control to go to the dreaded “someplace else.” Among other things, one frustrating result of...

? SSH, or Secure Shell, is a protocol that allows data to transfer securely between two machines, such as a PC and a server, or a blender and a riding lawnmower. It was developed to replace earlier remote shell protocols (Telnet, RSH, etc.) that transmitted data unencrypted. Those earlier methods of data transmission were especially...

? Are you PCI compliant? Hm, I don’t know the answer to that. Nonetheless, I guess you want me to do all the talking … and I suppose that’s reasonable, given this setting. I’ll discuss below what PCI compliance is and the industry board that controls its parameters. In so doing, we’ll get a basic...

? Big data, as we discussed in my last post, can mean one of two things: huge data that can you see from outer space (with the Great Wall of China and my eighteen-square-mile heap of used Yoo-hoo bottles as the best examples of this type of data) and the ability of businesses to assess...

? Big data can mean a number of different things. As we all know, it can mean writing data in a large, thick marker or painting pieces of data on massive canvases for an epic-scale art project in Central Park (which is technically “enormous data”). Big data, though, can also refer to the process of...

? We all know that the cloud is big and fluffy. However, what we don’t know is how it might be able to help our businesses. We fear its unpredictable temper, expressed via occasional and sudden downpours and lightning. Perhaps, though, there are amazing aspects of the cloud that we have not yet considered. Let’s...

? Oh my goodness. Juliet was right that parting is such bitter sorrow (I have that quote right, correct?), which is why this third and final post on optimizing servers for faster WordPress is going to be emotionally challenging for all of us. I’m available to join hands and sing “Kumbaya” with anyone who feels...

? Welcome back, everyone. You coming back is proof that if we all stand together, come high water or demons gnashing their teeth or filibustering electric company representatives, we can make it in the Wonderful World of WordPress (now a theme park in Pumpkintown, South Carolina). Let’s get right into it: speeding up our WordPress...

Anyone in the mood for some speed? Not the kind you popped to pull all-nighters during college (remember the intervention? it was awkward): the kind that populates your site on all PCs and mobile devices in the tri-state area like lightning, without the electrocution part. At Superb, we host a heck ton (that’s how the...

? As established previously in this three-part series on our awards, I asked everyone to forgive us for not being vocal enough about all the ways we’ve been honored since our founding in the 1640s (first high-tech company, globally). We’ve spoken previously about our awards for Best Dedicated Server Package and Best Colocation. Today, let’s...

? In the first installment of this series, I confessed that at Superb, we have been negligent in not drawing enough attention to our numerous hosting awards. This multiple-post exposition on our prizes corrects that error of omission (and we now vow never to forget to boast about ourselves whenever possible; not just publicly, but...

? Everyone makes mistakes, and one of the worst mistakes we can make in life is to forget to gloat enough when we’re given an award or accolade. At Superb Internet, we confess that we have made that mistake repeatedly by only drawing minimal attention to our various prizes. Today, we hope to rectify that...

? Your site has it all, so what do you get for the site that has it all? One-word answer: more. Let’s figure out how to improve your site beyond your wildest dreams, so that your new “wildest dreams” for the web can be, well, incredibly, unimaginably wild. In this series, we are working on...

? Want to make your site all that it can be, and get an edge on life, in the Internet Army? Well, I don’t know that I’d necessarily call owners and operators of websites an army (I think of them as more like an unarmed, disparate, long-distance, open-access, technological social club), but either way, this...

? Looking to improve your site? Is it boring, or possibly not as great as you want for user interaction? Are you not getting the number of visitors you want? Let’s figure out how to do that in this three-part series on design, functionality, and traffic. To conduct this effort to improve your site, we...

? If you are an e-commerce company in the market for a new platform, or if you otherwise want to sell anything online, this series is for you. The main control panel at Superb Internet that’s available for use for our clients is called myCP. Through myCP, you can utilize one of two e-commerce platform...

? One of the major considerations of an e-commerce company is which platform is the best. Through our myCP system at Superb, we give you direct access to two of the most popular options out there – Zen Cart and Miva Merchant, which we have carried since 2002 with all our hosting plans. This article...

? Since one of the relationships that we offer at Superb Internet is our reseller program, I thought it might make sense to take a look at reselling Internet-wide. By Internet-wide, I mean the part of the Web commonly considered its business side: I will skip over popular reseller programs such as Justin Bieber fan...

? Here it is, everyone … and, I know, the suspense has been maddening for all of us: Part Three, the final chapter in my series on web hosting terms of service (TOS). I will return to the conceptual admixture of Part One, capping off this trifecta with further thoughts not just on contracts, but...

? Here we go again! In case you didn’t get enough from Part One of this series on web hosting TOS documents (a.k.a. terms of service), I’m going to be dishing it out hot and heavy today. I will fill your plate with the mashed potatoes that is terms of service, and then I will...

? Let’s talk terms of service, y’all. What’s the TOS? It’s a legal document you are signing when you create a web hosting account (typical for most online services, such as the increasingly popular Internet babysitter application). To put this in context, this piece on the TOS is a follow-up to a two-part series on...

This is, as you can imagine based on the title, the second in a two-part series on the SLA. SLA, if you haven’t heard (where have you been, buddy?), is short for “service level agreement.” Hosting companies typically offer SLA’s to their clients, both to cover themselves legally and to let clients know what they...

The SLA is something that many people look for when they are considering different hosting solutions. One might argue that it is, in fact, the first thing you want to check out. Why? Well, for one, because it is incredibly boring. Reading nauseatingly boring stuff is an important part of being a grown-up (sorry to...

? FISMA, or the Federal Information Security Management Act, became law in 2002 as a piece of the E-Government Act. The basic idea behind the act is to ensure the security of information handled by a federal agency. Supposedly one or another of the branches of the federal government is in possession of important and...

? Hosting and health are sometimes interrelated. Our bodies can become hosts for parasites, and that is no fun (well… the tapeworm probably enjoys it). In other cases, the hosting industry and health industry cross paths in the need to reach the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). We are HIPAA...

? PCI compliance is one of those things that are incredibly helpful and incredibly annoying at the same time. Similar to the Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) guidelines for semi-truck safety on the interstate, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) standards help ensure that credit cards are...

? Though we have clients around the world, and though we have a core network that stretches across the US, our home base is in Honolulu, Hawaii. You may find various projects we’re involved with at the state and local level interesting and inspiring, wherever you are on the planet. I focused my last piece...

? Superb Internet may have a worldwide presence, with our international clientele and core network in five US states, but our main office is in Honolulu, Hawaii. Though you may not live in Hawaii, looking at our involvement in the local and statewide community might be meaningful for those looking to start a business or...

? This piece is the third and final installment in a series on search engine optimization (SEO). The first two parts of the series focused on optimizing toward specific geographical areas – local (Part 1) and international (Part 2). This final article will center on content marketing and why quality content is so important –...

This piece is the second part of a three-part series on search engine optimization (SEO). The first part of this series was on local SEO (a.k.a. “search”), and the next and final part will focus on content marketing – which, alongside conversational marketing (which is really built into good content development anyway), is a major...

? At Superb Internet we offer – along with hosting, colocation, and various other services – several different Search Engine Optimization (SEO) packages. SEO, like many other Internet presence services, has been much maligned due to the number of shoddy packages offered by individuals who might not even know all that much about the service...

The internet has created an extraordinary new democratic forum for people around the world to express their opinions. More than 1 billion people worldwide have access to the internet, and at current growth rates, 5 billion people – about 70 per cent of the world’s population – will be connected in five years. Plot to...

? This is, as you might imagine given the title, the second in a 2-part series. The reason we’re covering the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) in some detail is because we are a member of the group and we believe in the values it is dedicated to uphold. Politics can sometimes be divisive and volatile....

? Superb has joined the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), an organization concerned with how Internet freedom could be damaged by recent and ongoing changes in federal law. These changes – and additional bills that have been proposed – are far-reaching and threaten the Open Internet, the Web as we have come to understand it since...

If you have a spare moment to go through your control panels and check your up-to-date status, here are some recent warnings you might want to check against: Serious Vulnerability Warning For Parallels Plesk Issued – traxarmstrong.com From traxarmstrong.com – End of April 2013 There is a serious bug in Plesk Panel one of the most...

I love how things develop. 2 years ago ‘agile’ for me was a description of an animal like a Gazelle and up to 1 year ago, ‘hacking’ had negative associations like thieves breaking into my computer… However, learnings from the ‘geeky’ world of developers are now being applied to pretty much anything! The internet is...

Having problems with your hosting company? This article will take a look at how to go about the switch. Of course it’s not so tough to sign up with a new provider (in fact … I, uh, well, I think I know of one), but first you have to know how to leave. We will...

? Pingdom recently performed three interesting hosting-related studies that are also interesting generally regarding global Internet behavior. All of them relate to where in the world websites are hosting their sites – what different nations and cities are being used the most – by looking at the GPS coordinates of the servers (alongside other information)....

A timely discovery in a cPanel Users forum has encouraged Web Hosting Platform Providers to tighten up security. cPanel Addresses User Concerns of Transfer and Backup Restore System Security From www.thewhir.com – Yesterday cPanel Addresses User Concerns of Transfer and Backup Restore System Security. cPanel has addressed customer concerns around its security model used by the...

With previous articles we explored the certification behind the website to get your website that trusted green web address bar. Whilst some people take some convincing to install this security certification onto their website, I think it actually improves your brand image to see a trusted green address bar. EV SSL Certificates are Worth their...

? I used to work for an SSL certificate company. While I was there, I always had a little difficulty explaining to customers why Extended Validation (EV) SSL and the green address bar that accompanies it might be worth the extra cost. This article attempts to distill the industry standard so we can understand it...

Depending on how you are hosting your website, including what platform or application you are using well define your visitor capacity that you can handle. This is not often something webmaster will have to think about until they hit that peak of traffic one day with a popular blog post or product line. Here’s some...

? Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 3-B of 3 Here is a final look at the legitimacy standards we have in place at Superb Internet, which we’re exploring for two reasons: To establish how we meet and exceed all of the major credibility markers common to the hosting industry; and, So you can...

Once you know the features you desire out of your webhosting, it makes choosing all the more easier. Here’s a fantastic overview by The Tech Scoop which addresses the common beginner questions on web hosting. An A-Z Guide about Web Hosting From thetechscoop.net – last week Looking to know all of your basics about web hosting?...

English: Illustrative diagram of history of development of ISO 9000 series of standards (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 3-A of 3 In addition to Superb Internet’s ITIL staff certification (Part 1 of this three-part series) and our SSAE-16 auditing (Part 2), we are certified for the ISO 9001:2008 standard. This...

Logo of the United States Government Accountability Office. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 2 of 3 Along with Superb Internet’s staff certification for ITIL (covered in Part 1 of this series) and our ISO 9001:2008 certification and registration (Part 3), we are also SSAE-16 Audited. “Oh, fiddlesticks, that’s a government-infiltration...

With the explosive launch of the world’s mobile networks we were facing the prospect of imminent IP address exhaustion. Yes there were only so many IP addresses created and allocated to hosts, and Internet service providers. The long term solution to  address IP address depletion became a serious concern. What was needed was an IP...

English: An ITIL Foundation Certificate pin used to attatch on a shirt. The diamond is the ITIL logo, there are three levels: Green: Foundation certificate Blue: Practitioner’s certificate Red: Manager’s certificate (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Hosting Company Auditing and Certification — Part 1 of 3 At Superb, we have a staff that is certified in ITIL....

Often hear the Acronym IP address thrown around? SEO people seem to use it (Search Engine Optimization) as though it’s a numeric stealth ID number to track you down. Well, it’s kinda like that. Here’s a few very recent, and very good takeaways on what an IP address is, and more importantly, how it affects you, or...

If you’re a heavy user of the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), for example more than once a week and more likely on a daily basis, then how do you go about choosing your FTP client? I’ve pulled up three very recent articles today on the most up to date rollouts and feature sets of FTP...

? FTP (File Transfer Protocol) clients are standard parts of many web hosting packages. We even have them in ours. Host services include FTP because people are looking for it – but it’s not necessarily the best tool to use for your site. The reason it’s a questionable protocol is simple, as is switching to...

How many of you are still confused by the terminology SSH, secure shell access…? Today I’ll try and point you in the direction of some real-world speakers with either the nerdy experience to explain it to you in different ways, or some method that will actually stick. Authorized SSH Access From rabbitbytes.wordpress.com – 2 weeks ago...

? Secure Shell (SSH) access is granted for our GridPRO and GridMAX hosting packages. Let’s look at what it is and why it might be useful. It really is a nifty tool – for port forwarding to get around firewall restrictions and send email remotely via your own server. We will focus specifically on using...

? Snakes can be scary, and pythons are one of the deadliest. This article should help you stay safe when approaching the Python CGI program in your hosting package. The following information should help you keep Python happy and well-fed so you can use it to your advantage – to understand why Python itself is...

A common topic that I see in current news trends relates to the security breaches of various platforms. Whether it’s a popular web host that’s being targeted, or as we’ve seen recently in the tech oriented news; WordPress hacks, and often email account breaches. One of the most obvious and yet most overlooked points for protecting...

? You’ll note that on the front-page of the Superb.net site, we mention our “coast-to-coast IP backbone.” We mention this prominently because we know how crucial IP location can be to the success of the websites using our services. Let’s look at why. IP addresses identify a machine accessing the Internet. For an end-user, it...

If you’re setting up a webhosting account for the first time, then you’re likely to run into either a choice of control panels, or some learning curve to familiarize yourself with setting up your new web hosting space. In today’s featured list, I’ll be taking a look at some of the most up-to-date and technically...

? Both Plesk and cPanel have assistance tools for password generation. cPanel has its own random password generator. Plesk allows you to set password strength parameters that gauge new passwords and only allow new ones if they fit certain specifications you establish as the admin. Beyond what’s available within these two control panels, anyone has...

? A black hole exploit kit was used to invade many sites in the summer of 2012, all of which were thought to be running Parallels Plesk Panel. Many Plesk diehards undoubtedly considered turning to cPanel at the time, but Parallels believed it was in part an issue of people either not patching a security...

Perhaps like me you have a website maintenance job on the side. Don’t let the mundane Webmastering task narrow field your vision away from the full potential of website development. I think it’s important to keep up the study on website trends, techniques for funnelling business and customers, because in the long-run, this makes you a...

? cPanel Control Panel and Parallels Plesk Panel are the two most popular control panels for the management of a network or website. Each platform of course has its own layout and set of features, so each has different appeal. How to choose, then? This article is an assessment of how cPanel compares to Plesk...

Has it really been that long since I first hacked together some HTML and made my first website? The sheer availability of options for content management systems [CMS] now has to be daunting to any newcomer. This started to make me think about how I would make a start now, compared to years gone by....

? Let’s look at the basic categories of cloud-based services – PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS. These acronyms stand for Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Software as a Service. What’s with the “as a service” lingo? Well, similar to with hosting, you’re accessing these services from a remote server. Your platform, your...

? As you probably know, cPanel applications can greatly enhance the experience of hosting via cPanel/WHM. As with applications for any system, these pieces of software provides simple interface-based formats to monitor a network, compile data and statistics, and perform certain standardized tasks. The end result will be that your cPanel operation will run more...

? Using cPanel/WHM for hosting is greatly enhanced by taking advantage of the many plugins that have been built by third parties to increase the functionality of cPanel. Administration is simplified by these plugins. The speed and effectiveness of your capabilities using your cPanel system will get a huge boost by becoming familiar with some...

? Filtering spam e-mail is a major challenge both for individuals and for companies. Problems with spam for legitimate companies exist on both sides, sending and receiving. Obviously we struggle with receiving e-mail from illegitimate companies. We can also struggle with sending out newsletters or other messages and having them flagged incorrectly by other people’s...

In light of recent events I found myself inescapably absorbing the news of the Boston Bombing via the internet as I worked. I often wonder how much the way I deal with the outer-world has changed simply because my main consumption of media happens to be via the computer and mobile, rather than the Television....

? Shared hosting is a service you will see offered by virtually every hosting provider. Sharing is not always a bad idea – in fact, it’s more widely used than any other type of hosting. Part of the reason shared hosting is so popular is that it’s highly affordable. In this article, I’ll explore shared...

Today I’m taking a nostalgic look at the way the internet looked back in the as far as I could dig. Heck! even Digg has changed, so it doesn’t take much to become a relic of the internet. Internet archaeology: behold the most hilarious abandoned websites ? From www.wired.com - Today, 5:15 AM There are still some...

I’m often curious as a webmaster to learn where my audience is hiding out on the internet. Why is this important? Why not just say “Facebook” and be done with? Well, I often find it easier to write and create content if I truly understand my audience. Recently I’ve been curating content based on where...

It’s no use making elements small enough to fit the screen yet losing accessibility and interest in the process. For that reason, here are some notable websites I’ve ran into during my research. Interesting & Inspiring Websites & Blogs ? From pinterest.com - Today, 10:57 PM Web Design: Awesome Responsive Websites | Design Inspiration & Tutorials via @pinterest…. Check...

? When is managed hosting the right option? When you have needs that go beyond what you’d get from a typical hosting account but don’t yet have funds to bring in IT employees to maintain servers. Managed hosting allows you to have your own dedicated server but not have to consider its upkeep each day....

5 jQuery Plugins to Breathe Life into your Texts | Noupe From www.noupe.com - Today, 1:34 AM Texts are primarily made for reading. Yet, at least sometimes, we want them to be apparent, eye-catching. A set of jQuery plugins provide possibilities to animate texts in various ways. We have come up with five of the best of...

? Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption is a standardized and relatively simple piece of software from a technical standpoint. Typically with SSL, people slap an inexpensive certificate onto a site, partially because the longer forms of validation are annoying and tedious. Also, a web developer does not want to have to involve the client in...

It must be very confusing for site owners debating whether to spend on a duplicate mobile website, or maybe an application version of their website, just because business trends suggest empirically this is what consumers want. Here is a following example from a recent econsultancy blog: 85% of Consumers Favour Apps over Mobile Websites ?...

? What do you need to know about a data center, whether using it for hosting or co-location? Above all, of course, you must know that your data will be safe and that support will be there when you need it. More specific questions should often be asked before making your choice. A number of...

Our cPanel/WHM hosting control panels come standardly with Fantastico. As many of us know, Fantastico is a beloved piece of software because its auto-installation capabilities (similarly to SimpleScripts or Softaculous) make it such an easy way to get your site up and running with all of the major open-source content management system (CMS) options out...

Those who understand coding are exercising their brains. It’s like learning to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, or learning to speak a different language. Here’s a round up of the top resources for learning on the web. Ten websites that teach coding and a bunch of other things From pandodaily.com...

? Understanding distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks is important to protecting websites, networks, and personal computers. So what exactly are these things, and how do we protect against them? In this article, we will look first at what denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are, then specifically focus on the distributed version, DDoS. Finally, we will look at how...

In today’s Tweeted news I noticed that the headlines floating about relating to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) digital advertising guidelines. The Advertising guidelines were updated a month ago with no real surprise but to clarify that disclosure rules apply to all forms of advertising including mobile. Mobile-friendly Websites to comply with FTC guidelines | mobiThinking...

Which operating system is best for your server, i.e. for your hosting package – Windows or Linux? I will analyze various parameters of both systems – including account accessibility, software compatibility, cost, uptime, security, support, and the choice of open source vs. proprietary technology. Often the debate over operating systems becomes passionate and emotional, and...

Webmasters, where do you stay ahead of the curve with developing new content for your website? You may want to take a look at the resources I collected for you today. The first, by Scott Cowley is an invaluable resource of algorithm based websites that will find you the latest news, scoops and trends to...

? Your IP address is stored by almost every online service you might visit. Is this always a good thing? Certainly not! Why would you think that? Big Brother is bad enough, but once Big Sister gets ahold of your information, she will share it with the whole family (she’s well-intentioned but, sadly, does not...

Ever visited a website, only to find you’re having to jump hoops, go to advertising jail and don’t pass go? Or how about something even worse,  sign-up and sign-in before you can read the real meat of the site? I’m sure you’ve come across these fatal flaws as Chris Lema goes on to describe: Why...

What’s an SSL, and what does it do? An SSL (secure socket layer) certificate is a simple, standardized piece of encryption software. By installing the SSL cert on your server, it will create https protocol and the lock symbol on the site for which it is validated (more on levels of validation below). Encryption itself...

A year ago, Twitter started clamping down on moving avatars for profile images. Facebook at around the same time in their usual round of updates, also removed the access-ability of  moving GIFs in the newsfeed. For a quick explanation, even though this is old news, this might explain to those who notice that there are some moving...

? FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. We typically think of FTP in relationship to web hosting. A webmaster uses FTP to move files from a PC onto a server so that the file can be referenced via the site and accessed by online traffic. FTP is used in any situation in which a network...

But the iPad hasn’t been around for ten years! Not just C++ programmers – John Cook | Google+ From plus.google.com - Today, 1:08 AM John’s advice: Never talk to an HR department. Talk directly to the people you’d work for. Send them your resume etc. Only talk to HR when it’s time to fill out your paperwork...

Save the rainforests, and save your bandwidth – bandwidth, if you don’t know, is the amount of data that can run through your server at one time. Hosting companies will typically limit the amount of bandwidth you can use, and being careful means your site can keep operating as quickly as possible for anyone who...

Time to check what dusty websites and information you have left lying around on the internet: This Angelfire page could be the first website of 15-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, aka ‘Slim Shady’ From www.theverge.com - Today, 3:31 AM The sleuths at Hacker News appear to have uncovered a relic from the dusty ruins of the ’90s web: Mark Zuckerberg’s...

? WWW. SEO. URL. SSL. FTP. DNS. The Internet loves it some three-letter acronyms. The Domain Name System (DNS) is no exception. Saying a bunch of words is no match for saying some letters that represent them. That way you can have this conversation with someone. Them: “What’s DNS? You: “Don’t worry your pretty little...

? According to NetMarketShare’s information for February 2013, the Windows operating system is used by 92% of worldwide users, Mac represents 7%, and Linux represents 1%. This article will focus on that tiny slice of users, the 1% who use Linux. Frankly, there is not a lot of easily available operating system demographic information. Perhaps...

A month ago Yahoo announced it was shutting down several of it’s services to yahoo mail users. The impact can now be felt among the Google communities where tech enthusiasts make use of many web apps. Today is a sad day for Yahoo users – Joseph Prest | Google+ From plus.google.com - April 1, 8:45 PM Today is a sad day...

Help! What is this “jQuery” I keep seeing that everyone keeps talking about with websites. Should any of it matter to me? The answer is yes, only if to comprehend the concept behind interactivity. I sense web designers and developers shuddering at the thought of taking on a client who indicates they want a functionally...

Why are simulations useful? They certainly can be interesting to look at. Today I have selected a series of fun JavaScript simulations to look at. These are programs written for your web browser to interpret onto the screen for you. Often they are combined with a level of interactivity upon things like mouse-over, mouse-drag, or...

I recently featured a map of the world visualization that animated internet activity in a scaled up version of real time. For 6 seconds it made the global world of the internet feel more “connected” as we’re able to visually connect online behaviour to timezones as the nighttime shift surfs the globe. Visualization is going to continue...

Becoming web-savvy is an essential basic skill. So much so that it’s expected of our children to graduate from schooling with sufficient web understanding that they can represent themselves well later on. You have no excuse to say that kids can pick up technology with far more ease! Here’s three introductions from different fields of...

WordPress is a great platform for managing content, but what if you have a specific idea of functionality other than just information that you want your website to serve? As an example, your idea is to turn your website into the goto community for people comparing their progress or milestone data. You are now extending...

You’re an avid coder or developer. You’ve been staring at the screen all week working for other people, but when it comes to selling yourself; your skills, your odd-jobs to establish your own side-income. You know you’re missing something. Worse still, everyone tells you that you should or need to get onto “Social Media”, and...

We all know what begins to happen when you start managing multiple websites, keeping track of all those admin logins. We all try to slim down the workflow process by dealing with a limited number of web hosts too. Here are three interesting perspectives relevant to coders, webmasters, and social media manager roles for online...

Providing visual impact for your blog or website is one of those tasks that can become really arduous. Why? It’s nobody’s favorite thing to scour the internet for free use images, correctly attribute them, clutter up your hard drive, and work out the best work flow for image labeling, social media sharing etc. The list...

What if you could visualize the neuro-net of the internet. And not just visualize it, but apply time scales to it? This would open your eyes to understanding where possible channels of interaction are between different Time-zones. For example, how hard is it to for you  to consider that when you hire someone on Elance, possibly...

I believe it’s part of our duty to watch out for our neighbors and online community. We probably all know someone who was hacked, or had their passwords stolen. Were you one of the few that responded to their email to notify them of their little problem? ? Google Adds Help Series for Hacked Websites...

I was stopped dead in my tracks this morning killing myself laughing over some viralling content from The Oatmeal. This website is exactly what it’s labelled on the tin, daily breakfast for webmasters full of comic relief for those who manage websites. If you haven’t heard of it before, I seriously recommend you check it...

Have you ever been given the task to build an eCommerce website, possibly from scratch, with only the faintest prerogative from your client that the website must be good? In this article I’ll provide you with some valuable sources to help you sculpt your client’s ideas. Your job is to build their eCommerce site on their web...

In previous articles I examined optimizing your websites for the increasing mobile and tablet audience viewership. Today I found an impressive collation of interactive ads presented by Advertising Age that had achieved huge click-through rates of somewhere up to 70% Top Interactive Ads – Advertising Age ? From adage.com - Today, 6:31 PM Adage: See Magazine Tablet...

Today I’m looking at recent blog posts related to bringing community to your website. The best way to monetize your website is to have a loyal repeat visitor base. These visitors will act as your ambassadors, and from here you can take a number of approaches to generating your website revenue. If you develop a...

I received an email from my brother this morning… My sites got hacked, they added 20+ new users to WordPress and changed my password so I couldn’t log into /wp-admin. I had to restore an earlier backup of the database and change my username and passwords for my admin account. I had no idea it had happened...

Have you ever found a keyword converting so well that it makes your mouth water? One so juicy that you tell your boss about it, hoping for a pat on the back? Well, I found this keyword, only to discover that I am converting scammers, fraudsters and cheaters! What is this keyword that all hosting...

In the last article I wrote, we explored the use of mobile websites, and whether the increasing trend for mobile devices would affect the way in which you need to reconsider your web presentation to your future clientele. In this article, I’m going to give you the pointers you need to help you really qualify...

The year 2013 is anticipating amazing surges in adoption of mobile devices and technology. The way we consume the internet is ever evolving and that’s an important consideration to make if we as website owners are going to consider the interaction of our audience. Here’s the latest news picked this week with supporting anecdotes to...

The success of your online marketing efforts can be significantly enhanced by exploring more sophisticated approaches to the integration of e-mail marketing with social media marketing. It is all marketing after all, so developing a refined approach to create synergy between the two can have an exponential impact on your Web success. The most basic...

How many of you were sad to see the announcement from Posterous yesterday? The news is that Posterous will be turned off at the end of April. For those of you that didn’t know, Posterous was one of the original personal content curation platforms. You could selectively autopost content via email and distribute it to...

Search engine optimization is a constantly changing field. Looking at the trends that are developing in 2013 gives us a sense of how to reshape our efforts. This is becoming more important all the time, actually, because what’s on the horizon is a major shift in the way search engine rankings are calculated. (Actually all...

Reward seekers look at news to try and identify trends in order to capitalize on them. It also depends on what you find satisfying. Are you looking for social satisfaction, popularity, or some third degree of connection or networking that can later-on translate into business. In today’s news I’m looking at what makes website owners...

Colocation is a general term in the Web industry. It is any situation in which hardware is sent to another business’s location for housing. You, as the owner of the hardware, still have full access to it, but you are using the environment to store your equipment and to take advantage of the facility’s services....

If you’re new to bringing your business idea online, then you have probably decided that Social Media is your first port of call. After all, it represents no initial outlay. However, as you develop your brand and business model, you’ll adjust your targeting with a bit more finesse and realize you need more control of...

Awesome, you now have a website, and without the technical understanding of marketing what you probably don’t realize is that you’re already equipped to promote your business. You know more than you think you do about getting people to your site. I’ll go on to explain some headline news from last week that is a...

Ruby is a programming language, and Ruby on Rails (RoR) is an open-source coding framework for building web apps.  Ruby is used by such giants as Amazon, Yahoo!, and IBM. Rails, specifically, is used by Scribd, Groupon, Hulu, and the New York Times (though Twitter in 2011 shifted its front end search over from Ruby...

As with many new technologies, especially ones that develop a certain cultural cachet as a buzzword or concept, it is easy to just look on the bright side. Cloud computing is, after all, an amazing development regarding redundancy, access and efficiency, to name a few common advantages. However, the cloud has its downsides as well....

If you’re a website owner then you want to read the internet more deeply that you would expect of the average consumer. Here is the latest news and tips offered by tech industry professionals on how to shore up your browsing skills ? How to Check & Configure Your Browser Plugins | TechRepublic ? From...

The other day my friend, who owns a marketing company, told me that he is hiring a business coach. I found that amusing, because I consider him to be a business development expert of sorts … So why would he need a “coach”? I made a joke about how the world is just a string...

Virtualization is a term used across the IT field to refer to a number of different technologies. Different types of virtualization include storage virtualization, data virtualization, server virtualization (a type of hardware virtualization), application virtualization, network virtualization, operating system virtualization, and paravirtualization. Is that all? Oh, right, also there is human virtualization, allowing us to...

It may be surprising to consider that environmentalism and sustainability are really traditional practices. Conservation is a basic tenet of survival, and no business wants to over-consume resources – all it does is reduce profits. Additional advantages of going green at a business, beyond the financial one, are customer retention (because your business “does good”)...

Do I trust her? Do I trust him? Now it’s: Do I trust it! With so many affiliate lists out there awarding hosting companies with awards such as: the “best dedicated server”, “best VPS” or “best web hosting”, how can you really know which hosting company to go with? Where is the credibility? Sadly, few...

The e-mail subscription is such a relatively old idea that sometimes we tend to undervalue it for the sake of focusing on social media. The fact is, e-mail newsletters can be a great point of contacts to touch your customers and those interested in your business in a somewhat more meaningful way. E-mail has a...

We previously covered the topic of how to ramp up green efforts at a business, for four reasons – better conservation of resources (paper and other office supplies), reduced power bills, branding the business as concerned about the environment (both the customers and employees), and… what’s the other thing? Oh yeah, saving the earth. Let’s...

Bing represented over 16% of searches in December 2012. It also is incorporated into Facebook Graph Search, which is being heavily promoted by the social media behemoth. Let’s look at what Google and Bing have in common, and what about them is different. Common between Bing & Google for SEO Efforts 1.    Advertised entries are...

When you’re looking for a quality open source VPS, Xen and OpenVZ are two of the most popular and readily-available options. I’m going to take a look specifically at Xen, with periodic references to OpenVZ for comparison purposes. Following are a few pros and cons of Xen. Pros: 1.    Swap Space Though the swap space...

Linking to other pieces and pages on your website is a great way to optimize for the search engines. However, internal linking should be approached carefully so that you are not wasting your time and potentially even doing damage to your search engine presence. For example, if you jam a bunch of keywords into your...

One common difference between various hosting plans is the amount of bandwidth available to the website. This article will help you understand why bandwidth is important both from the standpoint of operating the website and from the standpoint of accessing it on a browser. Bandwidth also refers to the size of a rock ‘n roll...

It’s common to talk about the various ways to expand and improve the success of an ecommerce site, but what shouldn’t we do? Let’s explore a number of pitfalls that should be avoided when selling online (keeping in mind that these pitfalls should be rephrased as “ecommerce success tips” and then emailed out to your...

Why might you want to cluster your servers? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? Let’s take a quick look at those questions to get a basic sense of what’s involved and whether it might be right for you. Another type of server cluster is in a restaurant, when six waiters approach your...

Ah, PCI Compliance. We all know how fun a concept this is, and how much we like to dream about it at night (interspersed with dreams about the tax code and Family Medical Leave Act requirements). What can make PCI Compliance easier to handle so that we don’t make mistakes? Here are a few tips:...

Understanding and optimizing for long tail keywords is a great way to sidestep competition and make it to the top of a search engine results page (SERP). “Don’t be greedy” is a good motto for developing online traffic. Start small, grow organically, and keep your sights on achievable targets (the group of deer that are...

Looking around for cloud-based ways to take payments or sell online? Shopify is one of the most popular choices. Below I’ve compiled a list of the advantages and disadvantages of this solution. You can use it to sell any type of product or service – such as $5000 antique coat hangers. Advantages 1. Inventory Section...

Considering how folks look at a website is a simple way to optimize its effectiveness. You can enhance usability, create a meaningful flow of information, and maximize your revenue (by consideration of where advertisements should be placed on the page, for instance) by understanding eye-tracking. Here is what studies of how individuals look at a...

Well, we all want comments on our sites. We can agree on that. Interactivity, after all, is what the Web is all about. Trial and error is great fun; however, perhaps there are certain “rules of engagement” we can define to improve our aim. These ideas are a condensed rehash of a piece at Pro...

As media has grown more complex — in large part because of the increasing speed of computers and the heightened expectations of Internet users when accessing the Web — so has the need for more sophisticated and stronger media hosting solutions. Since folks often prefer a video to an article, for example, sites strive for...

Creating a customer loyalty program is one of the best ways to generate retention and say thank you to the folks who are helping your business succeed the most. Loyalty programs are simple to implement and incredibly effective – with a little bit of thought and analysis prior to diving in. (Disloyalty programs, where you...

Different methods you can use to monetize your website are innumerable. Ad networks and affiliate networks are very popular, but I want to look at some more innovative ways to use your real estate well and add to your bottom line. (One thing I have not tried and that I hope someone does is to...

Okey dokey, let’s get all our websites optimized. This list of best practices for SEO will help you go faster and farther with your efforts. (One unlisted bonus option is to create your own search engine and put all your pages at the top, regardless the search terms.) 1. ABD – Always Be Developing You...

Understanding and optimizing for long tail keywords is a great way to sidestep competition and make it to the top of a search engine results page (SERP). “Don’t be greedy” is a good motto for developing online traffic. Start small, grow organically, and keep your sights on achievable targets (the group of deer that are...

Many of us are underutilizing our iPhones for business purposes. Perhaps we’re just scratching the surface of these amazing handheld devices that we carry around in our pockets. What apps can improve and expand our business functionality and make it easier for us to perform certain tasks on the go? Below is a list of...

Are you a freelancer yourself, or do you work with freelance designers, writers, or other creative entrepreneurs? The below tips can help freelancers manage their time more effectively – a major challenge for anyone who is self-employed, especially those conducting creative tasks. 1.    Time is Money Time is money, but it is not just that...

Stickiness is essentially visitor retention – immediate engagement so that a visitor wants to look around your site on a first visit and long-term engagement that keeps folks coming back. So… How to give your website that adhesive quality to decrease your bounce rate and retain loyal fans? Let’s look at a few of the...

Basic FTP Usage Instructions: Log-in using your FTP client with the following settings: server: this is the server you are on, which is noted on your account set-up message (eg. web3.superb.net, or yourdomain.com, or 151.98.72.218 [your IP address]), login: this is the log-in you specified; remember that it is always <= 8 alphanumeric lowercase characters...

Do you use Linux Web hosting? If you are considering virtualizing or switching to another VPS solution, OpenVZ could be for you. (Similarly, if you are switching to another password, OpenSesame could be for you.) No-Charge & Open Source OpenVZ is open source, so you can play with and develop it as you like (and...

Let’s take a look at the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) organization and its free software, the Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). What is this organization, why does it exist, and why might the Cloud Controls Matrix be useful to you and your business. (The Bulgarian Mafia also has an excellent cloud controls matrix that is primarily...

Okay, so Google Analytics – and the concept of analytics in general to understand traffic statistics related to your site – is old news (so they say, I just found out about it 45 seconds ago). What are the most important sections of the platform, though – how best to quickly and efficiently focus your...

Looking into e-commerce platforms? Magento is one of the most common choices out there. Here is a look at some of the pros and cons of this particular application. (Pros and Cons is also the new survival game show from Fox, pitting prison security professionals against lifer convicts in a winner-takes-all, raw jungle battle using...

Creating secure passwords that are difficult for fraudsters to “crack” is not as difficult as you may think. The other aspect, beyond strength, is making it easy to recall. (Strangely, “password” is not a good password. It’s more like a caption describing itself, like naming your daughter Daughter.) Easy Memorability – Acronym Part of the...

Considering VPS hosting? Hosting in a VPS , or virtual private server, environment, means that you separate one server into pieces – each piece operating independently. In a sense VPS hosting is a midpoint between shared hosting and using your own dedicated server – because although the server is shared, there is stricter demarcation between...

Reddit is one of the most popular sites that allows Internet users to filter through what’s on the Web, find the gems, and share them with each other. Similarly to creating a bookmark in your Web browser of a site you think is cool or useful, posting to Reddit – which essentially means submitting a...

Volusion, like any software for e-commerce, has its pluses and minuses. But it is one of the most commonly used online store and shopping carts solutions for a reason: it’s mostly good. Below I go over a few major advantages and disadvantages of Volusion to help you make your e-commerce platform decision. (Also feel free...

Whether you are moving your hosting because of poor service, bad support or purely for financial reasons, there are a number of things that must be taken into account when switching web hosts. Moving host may be easy or might be a pain, here is a how to guide to helping you move from one...

WordPress is often praised for having such a high volume of plug-ins – upwards of 20,000 –that anyone can grab and stick onto their website. The only problem with the massive number of plug-ins is how to filter them. Good news: I have created a plug-in filtering plug-in. Just stick your plug-ins into my plug-in,...

Would you like more visitors to your website? Who doesn’t? It’s a house party, and everyone is invited. Your site looks amazing. Let’s bring everyone inside. Here are a few ways to get everyone in off the streets and enjoying your site like it’s 1999. Improve Your SEO People will look for sites like yours...

Everyone knows it is wise to have a strong Internet presence these days, but putting together a site can seem daunting and, sometimes, confusing. Here I will give you a basic sense of what’s involved in putting a simple website together. Then, we will have a good cry. Choosing a Hosting Company A web host...

How should an enterprise go about implementing elasticity into its enterprise cloud? The typical answer is, “Partially” – though to sound confident if you are explaining the relative value of elasticity to a team of executives, the term “Kinda/Sorta” is useful, in large font on presentation software in a conference room. An enterprise style cloud...

? Picture it. You build a web site, you host it at a web hosting company (preferably Superb) and before you know it, you have a successful web presence. Suddenly you need more memory, more web space, more bandwidth and more features. You know you need a more comprehensive web hosting solution but do you...

It’s one thing to get visitors to your site. It’s quite another to keep them there. How do you get folks to stick around for a while – in other words, how do you achieve “stickiness”? A few simple tips can help, serving you like wood glue and handcuffs with an unruly in-law. Visual “Strategery”...

We all suffer and benefit from the narrowing window in business and life between idea and implementation. Because the Web speeds everything up in this way, it’s necessary to be constantly sorting as we go. This process is especially important regarding online marketing – “standing out within the crowd” means flowing with what’s hot and...

When you are choosing an operating system for web hosting, the two most popular options are Windows and Linux. Linux is known for its cost-effectiveness, and Windows is known for its support. Each type of hosting option has its strengths and weaknesses, just as when you choose between being a sexy pirate (strength: scimitar to...

If you are searching for dedicated server hosting, three factors dictate which server you will get and at what cost: Price, Performance & Protection The three-fold PPP approach to buying a dedicated server hosting plan When looking for a dedicated server, it is critical that you seek out the highest preforming server at the lowest...

A zombie apocalypse and  web hosting having something in common? “No way,” you say? Well, let me ask you this; if a zombie apocalypse were to happen, and we were all thrust into a George Romero-esque post-apocalyptic world, what would your most pressing concern be? Not getting your various body parts eaten by zombies? Perhaps....

You know the old saying “variety is the spice of life”?  Well, that’s a nice way of saying, make sure you play the proverbial field when purchasing a product.  Whether it is dedicated servers or a new favorite restaurant, variety is paramount to honing your tastes as a consumer. For the sake of this discussion...

We are proud to be offering Managed Services with our new VPS plans. Combine this with our Unlimited 30 days of Superb Assistance Program, and you can rest assured in your web hosting solution. What is “Managed Services?” These are add-ons services that will enhance your VPS hosting solution with Superb Internet. It means you...

There are many hosting options online. However, not all are created equal. Many are resellers, which mean they are selling you someone else’s product. Now this is all well in good, if you don’t have any issue with your service. But it is good to know where you support is coming from. So before I...

Do I need VPS? How do you really know if you need to upgrade to VPS? Most people think that their shared hosting solution will do the job, but often fail to read the fine print. If you are looking to expand your business, drive more traffic to your site or plan to host a...

The best explanation of VPS I have ever been given was through an analogy. It should help you understand the basics. ? Shared Hosting (also known as Web Hosting) is the Public Bus of the hosting industry. You will get to where you need to go, but the selected route might not be your ideal...

We just got back from the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas. Not only did we managed to be productive in Vegas, but we were also able to squeeze in a little fun (Check out our CEO, Haralds, and VP of Human Resources, Jason with Question Mark Guy). Even though our feet and legs were tried...

When is discount more than a deal? When that discount helps you make money. Superb.NET already boasts one of the best reseller programs in the industry. With rewards from referrals to graduated discounts that improve with performance. Resellers are even capable of generating up to $200K in revenue per year. Now with the recent launch...

Is there really a difference? In the world of hosting, uptime is widely promoted to potential customers, and rightfully so.  If you are about to make an entrance into the online community, investing in a company that promises high uptime is paramount. Lost time equates to potentially losing sales, and no one likes losing money....

It is easy to create your own site with a number of free tools available online from Google Sites to Weebly. You can even a flash ready site can be created in minutes with Wix. However, running a web-based can be tough. When done right, you can find it to be quite lucrative like this...

As all our customers know, earlier tonight the core1.iad1 router replacement (12008/PRP to 12410/PRP-2) and upgrade of certain ports of it to 10G was completed. However, what deserves to be noted is how smoothly the upgrade went. Even though, temporarily, DCA2 and DCA3 data centres were cut off from the rest of the network, and...

As all our customers know, earlier tonight the core1.iad1 router replacement (12008/PRP to 12410/PRP-2) and upgrade of certain ports of it to 10G was completed. However, what deserves to be noted is how smoothly the upgrade went. Even though, temporarily, DCA2 and DCA3 data centres were cut off from the rest of the network, and...

Have you considered pursuing a career in the tech industry? Superb Internet is a fast-growing, progressive, and caring company seeking qualified, long-term candidates to join us. Currently, we are working to recruit staff for positions at our network operations centers in Seattle, Washington, McLean, Virginia, and Springfield, Virginia, as well as at our corporate...

Have you considered pursuing a career in the tech industry? Superb Internet is a fast-growing, progressive, and caring company seeking qualified, long-term candidates to join us. Currently, we are working to recruit staff for positions at our network operations centers in Seattle, Washington, McLean, Virginia, and Springfield, Virginia, as well as at our corporate...

Can you believe it’s October already? Time to get out the sweaters and scarves and dive into some Halloween candy (but leave some for the trick-or-treaters)! It’s time once again for the latest issue of The Spearhead, Superb’s monthly newsletter. A peek at what we have in store for you this month: SEO & You: Advanced...

Can you believe it’s October already? Time to get out the sweaters and scarves and dive into some Halloween candy (but leave some for the trick-or-treaters)! It’s time once again for the latest issue of The Spearhead, Superb’s monthly newsletter. A peek at what we have in store for you this month: SEO & You: Advanced...

Hey everyone, just a quick note to let you know the August/September issue of The Spearhead is now available! As summer draws to a close and we gear up for fall, we bring you the latest info and exclusive discounts to keep you Ahead of the Rest.® We’re now on our 3rd installment of our...

Hey everyone, just a quick note to let you know the August/September issue of The Spearhead is now available! As summer draws to a close and we gear up for fall, we bring you the latest info and exclusive discounts to keep you Ahead of the Rest.® We’re now on our 3rd installment of our...

Enkompass: It’s finally here…and we’ve got it! Announcing the addition of cPanel’s Enkompass, the first and only Windows hosting control panel that gives you the expansive features of cPanel/WHM. We’re excited to bring this powerful yet intuitive tool to Superb. Windows-based clients who want to take advantage of Enkompass’ exclusive leading-edge technology can click here...

Enkompass: It’s finally here…and we’ve got it! Announcing the addition of cPanel’s Enkompass, the first and only Windows hosting control panel that gives you the expansive features of cPanel/WHM. We’re excited to bring this powerful yet intuitive tool to Superb. Windows-based clients who want to take advantage of Enkompass’ exclusive leading-edge technology can click here...

Last month, we began our series SEO & You: Advanced SEO Tips in our monthly newsletter, The Spearhead. Check out the second installment here in the July issue, where we explore search formulas and spidering. Also in this month’s issue, you’ll find up-to-the-minute news and promotions from your team at Superb: An additional discount on already-reduced pricing...

Last month, we began our series SEO & You: Advanced SEO Tips in our monthly newsletter, The Spearhead. Check out the second installment here in the July issue, where we explore search formulas and spidering. Also in this month’s issue, you’ll find up-to-the-minute news and promotions from your team at Superb: An additional discount on already-reduced pricing...

We had a great time meeting our affiliate partners at Affiliate Summit West in Vegas earlier this year, and can’t wait for Affiliate Summit East, which will be held in New York August 15-17. We’ll be at booth RG2000, so come visit us for giveaways, contests, prizes—and most importantly, to find out how you can...

As we kick off summer, we’re proud to bring you a 3-part series, SEO & You: Advanced SEO Tips, to help your website stand out in the teeming online landscape. Check out the first installment here in the June issue of our newsletter, The Spearhead. Also in this issue, you’ll find the latest and greatest news...