With today’s growing e-commerce market, it’s essential to have an e-commerce website that is both user-friendly and visually appealing. However, when your Magento front-end is the main focus of work, you have to make sure the other parts of your business are being neglected.
On December 11, at 1 p.m., join Hostway Demand Generation Manager Javier Cano, Logicbroker Sales Director George Heudorfer, and Logicbroker Marketing Coordinator Rebecca Kaelin as we discuss how expert partners can handle hosting and back-end integrations.
Free up your resources and allocate them towards nurturing your business and maintaining a competitive edge in today’s upbound e-commerce environment. See how to:
Register now for this informative webinar.
Rarely is the jack of all trades an expert on everything. This applies to the business world, where let’s face it, some companies do things better than other companies. For example, most would probably argue that Starbucks pours a better cup of coffee than Quizno’s, but the deli offers better sandwiches than the coffee shop.
Partnerships allow involved companies to benefit from the complementary skills the other possesses. For example, Barnes & Noble recognizes the fact that many view Starbucks as a premier purveyor of coffee. At the same time, Starbucks recognizes the fact that Barnes & Noble generates a lot of foot traffic and that when people visit bookstores, they might want to browse through a book while sipping on a latte. So the two companies partnered, and Starbucks coffee is poured at many Barnes & Noble bookstores.
With the cloud market expanding at a rapid rate – research indicates that 57 percent of enterprises have already adopted Software as a Service (SaaS) applications while 38 percent have adopted Platform as a Service (PaaS) applications – forward-thinking companies should consider partnering with web hosting providers to bolster many vital aspects of their business.
The inevitable move to the cloud is a scary one for many businesses. But it doesn’t have to be. Very few companies – if any – can do everything on their own. That’s why it’s worth considering focusing on what your company does best while letting a team of skilled professionals take care of supporting your computing infrastructure.
Why are partnerships with cloud hosting providers so important?
They help you grow your business.
Looking to expand your portfolio and offer cloud services to your customers? Partnering with an industry-leading cloud provider allows you to offer cutting-edge solutions to your customers before you’d otherwise be able to do so. The cloud is here, and the longer you wait, the less you’re able to offer what your customers want. Similarly, if you offer cloud solutions your competitors do not, their customers will get wind of that and migrate under your wing.
They help you grow your revenues.
Looking for a way to break into the cloud market and add value for your customers? Partnering with a provider that already has the infrastructure necessary to support the immediate offering of products and services is a great way to quickly open up another revenue stream.
They help you grow your influence.
If cloud is ultimately going to change the way the entire business world operates, be on the forefront of that technology. By partnering with a cloud provider and white-labeling their products, your business will be seen as a thought leader. The cloud is continuing to grow, and by offering cloud services, you make certain that your business and its reach grows with it. You become – and remain – part of the cloud dialogue.
When you partner with Hostway, your business is free from the challenges of striking multiple vendor agreements, building and integrating user interfaces and training staff to understand and sell these new products. Hostway will focus on what it does best, so you can focus on providing your customers the stellar service they’ve grown to expect.
Reference: http://www.cloudtweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/cloud_adoption_infographic.png
Hybrid clouds are one of the fastest growing types of Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings in the market. They can provide a number of special benefits to companies with a specific set of characteristics. NFL blogging site, FanSided is a good example of the type of business for whom hybrid was a perfect match.
As FanSided.com grew to a national blogging network, their sites were strained during the traffic-heavy NFL season. If this sounds familiar to you, then you’ll recognize the importance of choosing infrastructure that is responsive to and allows for easy management of traffic fluctuations.
FanSided’s prior infrastructure comprised of two web servers and a dedicated database server. This sufficed during spring and summer, but NFL-season surges would cause crashes. This was turning off FanSided visitors and hindering the network’s array of bloggers. The combination of a public-facing website or application as well as a private database is a strong indicator for a potential hybrid use case.
In summer 2012, FanSided searched for a more reliable solution to handle the changing load while remaining cost-effective. They were used to dealing with a turnaround time of three full days for additional temporary servers. A hybrid setup would drop that to a matter of minutes by placing their website in a public cloud so they could easily adjust for traffic fluctuations. In addition, they would save costs because they could turn off resources they were not using as needed to avoid expenses on unused resources.
For this particular set-up, Hostway recommended a platform which linked a managed server through a private VLAN connection to the cloud servers. Since the database played a critical role, a dedicated database server became part of the equation. This offered both the stability and security they needed for their database-intensive backend as well as the ability to increase and decrease resources in the cloud on the fly throughout the year for their website.
After FanSided’s trial, they officially signed on citing Hostway’s reliability, flexibility, ease of use and customer support as their reasons for making the move.
FanSided is just one example of the type of business that benefits from hybrid cloud. If you business experiences any of the following, talk with your IT department or Hostway about whether a hybrid cloud is right for you.
Follow this link for the rest of the FanSided story.
Moving to the cloud is a no-brainer, but deciding what to move there is complicated, and deciding who to partner with is even more intricate.
Come talk to us at the Cloud Partner Conference, Sept. 11-13 in Chicago at booth #325, and learn a bit more about cloud, cloud partners, and how we can work better together.
Here’s something to have in mind entering the event: To have the best shot at success, Hostway recommends forming partnerships with organizations that make cloud services their expertise.
Our whitepaper, “How to Successfully Add Cloud Services as a Revenue Stream Using a Partnership Model,” outlines the reasons that successful cloud strategies rely on collaboration across multiple organizations.
You also have to answer the question, “What am I going to move first to the cloud?” Another Hostway whitepaper, “To Cloud or Not to Cloud: 8 Apps that Make the Grade” discusses the functionalities that are ripe for cloud deployment, as well as how to safely migrate.
With our guidance, you can start enjoying the cost savings, scalability, and virtualization benefits of the cloud. It’s a much larger conversation, but this gets the wheels moving. Our gears will be spinning full-speed at the Cloud Partner Conference. Come by, and we can brainstorm on how to make this work for you.
There are three phases of football – offense, defense and special teams. All three are important, and a lack of focus on any one phase will hurt a team's ability to win. With football season right around the corner, NFL franchises are working hard to build winning teams by taking a balanced approach and giving appropriate attention and investment to all three phases.
There are also three phases of IT security – prevention, detection, and response. Just as NFL teams need to be strong in all three phases of football to win games, IT departments need to be strong in all three phases of IT security to effectively protect their organization from evolving security threats.
Unfortunately, many companies focus too much attention on prevention and underinvest in detection and response capabilities. In fact, we estimate that roughly 85% of security dollars are spent on prevention capabilities. Very little goes to detection capabilities and an even smaller amount is spent on response capabilities. As a result, companies often find themselves unprepared when an attack bypasses traditional prevention technologies such as firewall and antivirus.
A Managed UTM solution like those offered by Hostway ensures that you have all three phases of IT security covered.
Prevention – Managed Firewall, IDS/IPS, VPN Remote User Access, Web Content Filtering, and Web Application Firewall come packaged together. This multi-layered approach provides comprehensive protection and ensures that you have the prevention phase covered.
Detection – Security experts monitor your network 24x7 for suspicious activity. By utilizing Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) technology and conducting advanced traffic analysis, sophisticated attacks that bypass traditional prevention solutions can be detected.
Response – When suspicious activity is detected, the security experts respond immediately to handle the issue. Quick and thorough response to security incidents minimizes damages and reduces business disruptions.
This solution would ensure you have all three phases of IT security covered. Best of all, with all three phases working together and security experts watching your back, your IT team can focus on core business activities without worrying about security.
Learn more about Hostway’s Managed UTM solutions at this site.
As we return from several partner-friendly events, such as Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference, it’s a good time for a reminder about fully capitalizing on your cloud opportunities. To have the best shot at success, Hostway recommends forming partnerships with organizations that make cloud service their expertise.
Our whitepaper, “How to Successfully Add Cloud Services as a Revenue Stream Using a Partnership Model,” outlines the reasons that successful cloud strategies rely on collaboration across multiple organizations.
Firstly, the reasons to investigate this potential revenue stream are clear: Customers are increasingly moving to the cloud, they are becoming more comfortable with the technology itself, and they plan on using the cloud for a wider variety of services.
Our whitepaper walks you through a series of decisions: Should you be a reseller or referral partner? Choose your own cloud adventure, and continue forward to determining what services you’re going to offer, while also hearing the argument for buying over building infrastructure.
Finally, the document carries you through the main considerations in selecting a cloud partner: Have you found a company with a complementary set of skills and offerings? Do they have a solid reputation that you’ve verified? Will they provide networking and marketing support? Will there by any dispute over who owns the client?
Reading our whitepaper will put you in a better position to make an informed, wise decision on this crucial business issue.
Our webinar, Why Successful Cloud Strategies Start with a Solid Partner Strategy, also provides information and discussion of this topic.
Cloud Hosting providers are not all the same. Of course, many offer the same services to scale SMB businesses, but only seasoned providers understand how to protect their SMB clients. After all, a security reputation can make or break a growing business. Once a company is hacked, it’s a long road back for the SMB to rebuild trust with their clients, if they are even given the chance to do so again.
A savvy cloud hosting provider such as Hostway offers complete website security solutions and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) with its hosting packages. SSL secures crucial transaction and contact information.
Hostway understands that security is more than just checking a box on a list. It’s not just about choosing the right cloud hosting provider; what SSL provider (Certificate Authority) is used becomes equally important to the security reputation of SMBs.
SSL certificates assure your customers that their identity, credit card details and other private data is safe when they buy from you online. SSL is a transaction security standard that protects your visitors' personal information by encrypting the data and transmitting via a secure online channel.
A Certificate of Authority affirms to your customers that your website meets certain security standards and can be trusted to maintain the integrity of any data it shares.
The Certificate Authority's authentication practices must be thorough and compliant with the Certificate Authority and Browser Forum requirements. Once a company secures a site with SSL, and posts the Internet trust mark (seal), it gives their end customers peace of mind to move forward with business and online transactions. It provides your website with the two signs customers associate with online security: "https" in the address bar, and the lock icon at the bottom of the screen.
Choose the safe way to do business by choosing a Hostway cloud solution with GeoTrust SSL to secure your online reputation and drive business continuity. Hostway offers two levels of GeoTrust SSL Certifications, both ready to ensure that your customers feel safe and secure when they complete transactions on your site. By teaming up, Hostway and Symantec enable SMBs to provide safe, secure and reliable service to their customers to be trusted now and in the future.
About the author: Charla Bunton-Johnson is with Symantec's Channel Team
With ever-increasing reports of data breaches and hacker activity, you need to protect yourself from the sophisticated and varied threats to your business. Whether it’s data security, availability, or your reputation on the line, the stakes are high. But the landscape of security solutions is complicated and fast-moving. What technologies do you need? How do you manage them? It can be a confusing process.
Here at Alert Logic, hosting and cloud security are our major focus. We work with top providers like Hostway to understand the unique needs of forward-looking companies that are taking advantage of these models, and the requirements for providing enterprise-class security. While there aren't simple answers, there are practices that will help you make the right decisions about security in your hosted and cloud infrastructure. Let's take a look at one of them: identifying the most relevant threats to your defenses.
Because we have the largest base of customers securing infrastructure with hosting service providers, we see the threats they face, and we regularly analyze this data for our State of Cloud Security Report series. The latest report just came out this spring, and contains important insights for you as you develop your security strategies.
Looking at six months of real-world threat data for customers in enterprise data centers, managed hosting environments, and the cloud, produced these key findings:
The infographic below provides a visualization of some of the report results; you can download the full report at http://www.alertlogic.com/csr.
Alert Logic State of Cloud Security Infographic, Spring 2013
One of the really interesting findings – and one that we've seen consistently over several years of data – is that overall, cloud and hosted customers were less likely to experience security incidents than enterprise data center environments. That's not what most people expect, but our data identifies this is a benefit of the great management and operational excellence that a provider like Hostway offers.
As you would expect, this data has a big impact on our own product development plans, and Alert Logic works with providers like Hostway to provide services and technology that address the most important threats:
All of our solutions are designed for hosted and cloud environments, and we provide 24x7 monitoring and response so that they provide real security outcomes – not just data. Our Security Operations Center, tightly integrated with Hostway's operations, identifies real threats and helps you respond and protect your data.
This tight integration with your hosting provider is a unique model – and as more infrastructure moves to virtualized environments, we believe it will be the standard for securing critical infrastructure and applications. Just as Hostway represents the future of IT infrastructure, Alert Logic's security-as-a-service is there to provide integrated security services.
About the author: John Whiteside is Manager of Product Marketing at Alert Logic
Jacqueline Sylvia, owner and operator of New Bedford, Mass.-based JS Web Solutions, has provided custom website design for small to mid-sized businesses, professionals and individuals in a wide range of industries. In formulating her business plan, Jacqueline quickly identified the need to offer hosting solutions to her clientele as part an overall comprehensive product mix. After careful analysis of a wide range of hosting solutions, JS Web Solutions selected Hostway as a hosting partner. This was in 1999, the year JS Web Solutions was founded.
Jacqueline considers Hostway’s technical staff to be her own IT department. As a one-person shop, Jacqueline has a business to run; she doesn’t have time to mess around with IT issues “Aside from myself, I feel that the FANTASTIC and dedicated support team at Hostway is the one thing I can truly count on in my business,” Jacqueline said.
Using her marketing and web-design skills, Jacqueline provides JS Web Solutions clients the branding and communications they need to reach the internet community. As the domain hosting company, Hostway provides the backbone needed to deliver the message. Today, if you don’t have a website, you don’t have a business. It’s like the yellow pages of yesteryear – if you didn’t have an ad placed there, you didn’t exist. Without a web presence, your customers can’t find you – that’s particularly true in Jacqueline’s industry of website design and hosting.
With Hostway, you can place hundreds of registered domains under a single account, simplifying resolution of hosting or domain-related issues via the dedicated support team, available 24/7. Though they may not know it, after 12 plus years, Jacqueline considers the Hostway support team to be part of her business family! “They are always available, courteous and ready to assist no matter what the request may be,” Jacqueline said.
Jacqueline’s positive experiences have covered her entire 14-year stay with Hostway.
“As I mentioned, I’m a one-woman shop. I don’t have the time or the budget for an IT department, and I certainly can’t afford to have my website, or one of my 200+ client websites, down or not functioning correctly,” Jacqueline explained. “I cannot recall a single time where I've had an issue, question or problem where Hostway did not reach me and deliver a prompt, courteous and complete resolution to the issue.”
“When I began in 1999, there were a lot of decisions to be made and issues to resolve. And throughout the years, in the ever-changing internet environment, more technical considerations appeared than I ever imagined. But Hostway had been with me every step of the way,” Jacqueline continued. “I truly feel I can count on Hostway. It's a business decision I am grateful that I had the foresight to consider, along with the sheer luck that a fine company like Hostway was around to deliver.”
Partner Program has been rated as a 5-Star program by CRN for two years in a row (read the press release here). What does that mean for you? It means that if you join our partner program, you’re embarking on a rock-solid relationship that will help you nurture your business.
Hostway’s partner program is for Value Added Resellers (VARs), Developers, Ad and Marketing Agencies, and Independent Software Venders (ISVs). It is for anyone looking to capitalize on the fast-growing cloud environment with the ability to influence which hosting company your customers choose. So why partner with Hostway? What’s in it for you?
For one thing, we can help your cloud business thrive. It’s been shown that solid, strategic partnerships can help businesses grow. (See this white paper for more information.) You will benefit by getting aggressive incentives and deep volume discounts, and receive new recurring revenue streams. In addition, you can expand your business because by being a Hostway Partner, you’ll have access to our 600,000 customers! You’ll be able to drive new business by participating in joint strategic sales and marketing activities. You’ll be able to leverage a trusted technology infrastructure that is second to none, and deliver direct value-added products and services to your customers.
If you refer your customers to Hostway, they will appreciate all of the benefits of being a Hostway customer. With flexible pricing structures designed to fit their needs, Hostway provides a variety of solutions ranging from simple domain-name hosting to complex hybrid-cloud hosting in virtualized environments. Perfect for the SMB market, Hostway helps business owners focus on what they do best – running their business – and takes the worry out of IT. Your customer gets great hosting services and remembers you as the one that provided them with the referral. It’s a win-win-win.
