What is Web Hosting?
A web hosting service provides a service that allows individuals and businesses to post web pages to the internet. A web hosting service provider sells or for free (with advertisements on the web page) is a business that provides the servers and technologies to view web-sites on the internet.
Web hosting services are services that customers can utilize after they have purchased monthly dial up or broadband services that allow them access to the internet. Web hosting services use hosting and client architecture to load content to the server so web pages and information can be viewed on the internet in its original HTML format.
A web hosting company will offer clients access to a server that will provide the clients’ content to individuals on the World Wide Web after they make a URL or domain name request. To view pages on the web, you must have a web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to request the web page from the server after you have purchased internet access.
Web sites are pages that are stored on a computer called a server. The server is a part of a network of computers on the internet or World Wide Web that allows users of the internet to reach your site anywhere in the world at anytime. The internet is open 24 hours, seven days a week around the clock.
Host computers are configured so that when your URL or domain name is typed in, the address will use a pointer routine (look for the address from terminal to terminal) until it reaches the computer that hosts your web-site. Then, if all is okay, your web site should display itself on the users screen.
Hosting companies require that you buy your URL or domain name first before you purchase hosting services. Most hosting companies have a package that will allow you to buy the domain name and hosting at the same time.
John Ugoshowa
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/what-is-web-hosting-135395.html
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“a Peek Thru the Clouds” – Cloud Storage in 2009
2008 is the year that “cloud” captured the imagination of the technology early-adopters. And the interest is not just in Silicon Valley or the U.S. ParaScale, for instance, has had hundreds of software download requests over the past few months from around the globe. But vendors should be under no illusion at this point that mainstream IT shops understand all the hype.
However, “cloud-ware” is more than the next shiny thing on the IT roadmap. Cloud applications/compute/storage is driving the next generational shift in the evolution of IT. Over the next decade, IT deployments are going to include a blend of mainframe, client-server, and 3-tier-apps with cloud configurations becoming an increasing and very significant part of the mix. Even with the bottom falling out of the market, cloud technologies have continued to generate interest as it is seen as a way to optimize IT costs.
In 2009, users will be presented with a lot of choice, especially with cloud computing and cloud storage. When users thought of cloud-ware in 2008 they were thinking about cloud applications like SalesForce and Google Apps, cloud computing services like Amazon EC2, or cloud storage like Amazon S3. These are all public cloud services in that the offering is delivered across a public network. The private cloud option, where infrastructure services (i.e. IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service) like cloud computing or cloud storage are made available as a service over a private network, became strongly established in the vernacular in the latter half of 2008. But it will be 2009 before customers have enough vendor choice and adoption starts taking root.
In the cloud storage space, 2008 saw announcements from vendors like EMC (ATMOS hardware + software offering) and ParaScale (software on commodity hardware offering) about packaged cloud storage technologies. With the excitement around cloud storage, there was also activity from vendors making forays from adjacent storage segments, as they announced “cloud-like” storage. Overall, these various packaged options are going to enable both businesses and service providers with their deployments, as they don’t have to undertake custom engineering projects as was the case in 2008.
In 2009 we will see two driving trends:
1. The arrival of private cloud storage options with increasing choices for businesses looking to deploy their own storage clouds inside the firewall
2. A rapid proliferation of public cloud storage service options, with many service providers coming to market with varied services, competing with a market-leading Amazon S3.
Let‘s peek through these clouds.
Many early-adopter enterprises, especially in the U.S. and Europe, will start trialing private storage clouds in 2009. They are going to discover that cloud storage is a very effective way to constrain burgeoning tier 2 storage needs especially in archival applications. By starting small, these IT shops will be able to take measured steps into the cloud. Enterprises will also discover that private clouds will allow data-access via familiar enterprise protocols like NFS, FTP, CIFS allowing drop-in to existing enterprise IT, versus public clouds that typically work with newer web-friendly protocols like WebDAV and REST. On a different note, many rich content businesses (delivering applications like image hosting, video streaming), where storage is a very material cost of doing business, will also be looking to see if cloud storage can make the underlying economics of their businesses more robust. These kinds of businesses typically look to monetize eyeballs (in a weak advertising market), or are trying to get to affordable subscription models, and anything that contains their cost-to-serve in an uncertain economy can only be good.
Looking at the second key trend, 2009 will be the year that public cloud services really breakout. Today the storage service buyer is faced with a few limited choices (Amazon S3, Rackspace, etc). Amazon’s S3 is a very credible solution, but it is a 1-size-fits-all-cloud. With archiving application and streaming application, you have one cloud. Many customers like what S3 offers, but it is a case of “you can have any color so long as it is black”.
In 2009, the many service providers of all sizes, observing the success of Amazon S3 and looking to compete, will be able to leverage packaged cloud storage platforms to enter the market. They can avoid undertaking an open-ended engineering project with unknown scalability challenges, as was the situation in 2008. Instead service providers and hosting companies will be able to focus on that which they do best – service creation and service delivery. Expect to see the following dynamics in the service provider-driven public cloud storage space:
* Real customer choice! Providers creating different kinds of storage clouds by selecting different kinds of underlying commodity hardware. Deployments of archival clouds (cheap CPU, less memory, many SATA disks) versus. streaming media clouds (powerful multi-core CPU, more RAM, SAS drives).
* Smaller providers getting into the cloud storage service business, with focused CAPEX outlays, and satisfying the needs of local SMBs and regional businesses. Customers could even drive down to the local hosting company and get TBs for a fast emergency recovery.
* Service providers building many small and mid-sized (50-200 node) clouds, vs one uber-cloud, thus ensuring better stability, more isolation, and flexible DR-options across multiple locations.
* Hosting providers getting into the business by offering managed cloud storage services for enterprises by bringing up mini-clouds for enterprises in their own racks. Now hosting providers have a way to participate in the wave of interest in private cloud storage.
Recessions in many cases assist in the adoption of cost-saving technologies. This seems to be the case with the various cloud technologies. The brakes are being applied for non-urgent infrastructure projects, yielding more time for IT staff to focus on ways to be frugal in must-spend areas like storage. On current trajectory, 2009 is definitely going to be the break-out year for private and public cloud storage in the early-adopter segment, with 2010 starting the penetration into the mainstream market.
Parascale
http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/a-peek-thru-the-clouds-cloud-storage-in-2009-704174.html
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Installing Backup Software
In this first of a series, we begin preparing to backup by installing Acronis True Image Home. Comment on the original at: http://ask-leo.com/installing_backup_software.html
Duration : 0:3:23
Categories: Backup Solutions Tags: askleo, back up, backup, Installing Acronis, notenboom, support, tech support, vista, win7, windows, xp
SSL Certificates – Secure Server Certificates
What is SSL?
SSL certificates are generally used with ecommerce shopping carts, or anywhere you want to collect information from a user securely on your website. If you use a secure server certificate with a form; and that form emails the results to you; keep in mind that the email is not secure.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): Creates an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. CA (Certificate Authority): The vendor you will get the secure server certificate from CSR (Certificate Signing Request): A text file generated by a web server. A CSR looks like this:
——-BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST——-
MIIDGgBNAGkAYwByAG8AcwBvAGYAdAAgAFIAUwBBACAAUwB
AG4AZQBsACAAQwByAHkAcAB0AG8AZwByAGEAcABoAGkAYwl
L0ygNwwNIvKLMPq4/LcUkZ9Oo4AssXW5mvvhHWGz2RWYRhrw8o
——-END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST——-
First, you need to decide whether to use your hosting shared SSL certificate if they offer it. The URL to your store will look something like:
https://theirserver.com/youruserid/your/path/to/store.html
Or do you want to get your own SSL certificate? The URL will look like:
https://yourdomainname.com
If you decide to use your hosts’ shared secure server certificate, then all you need to do is find out the path you need to use to call your files securely, and you will be on your way.
If you decide to get your own SSL certificate, this is generally what happens.
You first need to decide who you are going to get your SSL certificate from. It is a good idea to make sure your host supports your particular vendor. Some certificate authority vendors are:
* Thawte
* Verisign
* Comodo
* You can also review several vendors at a glance at WhichSSL
Before getting your own SSL certificate, you will need to do some reading on what your chosen Certificate Authority requires for a secure certificate, and you’ll also need to come up with some documentation. There are several steps to buying a secure server certificate, once you have decided on a vendor.
This is an overview, not written in stone. Each CA is different, so make sure you read their documentation and what they require. Here is an idea of what they want:
All documentation that is requested must match exactly. Secure certificate authorities will verify that your organization actually exists, so they know they are issuing to the correct company. You will need to prove that the Organization Name and the Domain name are in fact yours to use.
Steps you’ll be taking:
* Gather required documentation
* Have your host generate a CSR
* Complete certificate authority online application
* Certificate authority will process your request
* Pickup and install your SSL certificate (usually an URL is emailed to you to download the secure server certificate)
* Depending on the vendor, it can take a few hours to a few days.
* Send secure certificate to host for installation. (Send in plain text)
Once your web hosting provider receives this information; they will generate the CSR and send it back to you in plain text. You then send it on to Verisign or Thawte, or whoever you have chosen as your secure certificate authority. They will then generate a SSL certificate for you which you will send back to your host for installation. Your web host may charge a fee for installation in addition to what your SSL certificate vendor charges.
Something to think about:
If you’ve decided to purchase your own SSL certificate, you will need to decide how you want your URL to be called. If you, as a rule, call your domain name in your coding as www.yourdomainname.com, then make sure you indicate this to your host when you request a CSR from them. If you don’t, and you get the certificate for yourdomainname.com (without the www), this will cause browser errors, making the certificate seem insecure, and you will need to change your coding.
Always use yourself or your company as technical contact.
How to tell if a site is secure?
After you’ve browsed to a site securely; using https:// in the URL, look on the lower right hand side of your browser. You should see a closed lock. This will tell you the site is secure.
Elizabeth Ramer
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/ssl-certificates-secure-server-certificates-76709.html
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Make Certain Your Backup Solutions are Complete
Backup solutions are the foundation of data protection, and the first line of defense in case of system failure or data loss of any kind. Backup solutions are the most basic
protection for computer data in case of a system failure of any kind. Data is saved onto media separate from production systems so it can be retrieved if and when production systems go down, or data is lost for any reason.
But there are vital tools that can, first, make sure that backups are performed in a timely manner, and second, catch data that may not have been backed up in case of accidental deletions. These solutions round out a backup system and, in fact, complete it.
Because of the sheer amount of data needed to be stored and the time required for backup, fast data transfer rates are constantly being addressed. While advances such as Network-Attached Storage (NAS) have greatly assisted in dealing with this problem, one basic hindrance to fast data transfer is file fragmentation. When dealing with gigabytes of data in files that might exist in tens, hundreds or even thousands of fragments, the
I/O and network traffic necessary to transfer it is considerably-and unnecessarily-increased. Such situations slow backups substantially, and can also result in aborted backups that do not complete in the limited time allowed.
A common hindrance to backups, however, despite ever-advancing technologies,
is file fragmentation. Fragmentation already causes problems in day-to-day file access, as a file split into hundreds or even thousands (it’s more common than you might think) of fragments is going to take considerably longer to access. Multiply that by all the data files in all an enterprise’s computer systems-because a backup procedure must access all of those files-and it can be seen what a nighmarish problem file fragmentation can be
to backups in terms of backup time.
The best way to ensure that backups occur rapidly and within their allotted times is to employ a defrag solution that is always working, that allows for a drive to be consistently in a defragmented state. A product such as Diskeeper meets this qualification.
Another product to fully round out a backup scheme is Undelete, which provides real-time data protection in case of accidental deletions. If a file is saved to a local drive, such an accidental deletion can be recovered from the Windows Recycle Bin. But today, most files are saved remotely to a file server, and accidental deletions are completely lost. IT personnel must then engage in a time-consuming search through backup, restoring the version of the file that existed at the time the last backup was performed.
Once the file is restored from backup, there is more added time, however, as now the user must bring that file back up into the state it was in when deleted. Worse, if the file has been created since the last backup, it must now be re-created from scratch.
Backup solutions are essential-and so are these vital tools to make them complete.
Colleen Toumayan
http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/make-certain-your-backup-solutions-are-complete-745305.html
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