Different Ways to Choose Right Domain

Choosing right domain name is one of the most important for your business. Domain name should be related to your business idea and approach. A good domain name should define your business and your website. Your domain name provides important information to website visitors and search engines. There are some reliable methods that you can choose to make your domain name as effective as possible. You can research strong keywords to incorporate into your content. You can use blog name generator to get ideas for your website.

• Choose right domain extension = Always choose top-level domain for your website. The most popular domain name is .com and it is still the best. According to official stats around 43% of all domains uses .com extension. While in the market you will see many other domain names like - .org, .net and other domain extensions. We would advise always go for .com. You can also choose other domain extensions but choose that one which comes under top-level domain. Avoid common phrases and words like - .club, .pizza and so on.

• Brand over Generic – Create brandable domain name. Your domain name is the first thing that your customer will know. Make your domain easy to find, remember. If users can easily remember than they share your company on the web. It is the main point of view for your website and brand. A brand name should be unique and it should be stand out from competition while generic domain names filled with keywords and is unmemorable.

• Domain name should be short rather long – When it comes to domain name, it should be short. Short is better. According to research, most common domain name length should be 12 characters. Domain name should be concise. You should aim for 6-14 characters. Remember it should be short and better. Many users avoid typing long domain names. If you’re unable to find something shorter than make it brandable.

• Domain name should be easy to type – You can some of the popular tech giants which comes with easy to remember words. You will see one common thing they are easy to spell, easy to type and easy to remember. Your visitors should be able to type domain name without any problem. If you want to spell more than once that it’s too complicated. You can try it with by telling 10 people about domain name. If they are unable to spell more than once then you should consider your domain name to be shorter.

• Easy to pronounce – As easy your domain name comes to your tips; it should more easily comes to your tongue. This makes easier for visitors to share your domain name by word-of-mouth and easier to share with friends and potential customers. You can test by writing on paper and you can ask 10 people to pronounce it.

• Avoid using hyphens and numbers – Remember your domain name should be easy to spell and pronounce. Avoid using special characters and numbers. Using hyphens makes difficult to remember and difficult to open. Using hyphens and number might not spread quickly. Use domain name smooth and punchy.

Conclusion: -

Using easy to remember characters and words will help end users and visitors to open webpage quickly. For fast response time with short and punchy domain name is not enough. You need finest web hosting services. Connect with HTS Hosting that offers cloud hosting services in Delhi with other hosting plans such as – Windows shared web hosting, Linux dedicated server and other web hosting.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/domain-hosting/113/different-ways-to-choose-right-domain

Cloud Computing Security

Cloud computing security refers practice of protecting cloud computing environment, applications and information. Cloud security involves in security cloud environments against unauthorized usage and various cyber-attacks. While cloud security Cloud-based security also referred as delivery mode of security services that are hosted in the cloud.

There are three types of cloud environments that includes: -

• Private Clouds – It is usually accessible and dedicated to single enterprise. Although, such enterprise is still vulnerable to social engineering, data breaches and other cyber-attacks.

• Public Cloud Services – Such cloud service is hosted by third party cloud service. For example – AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and generally accessible via web browsers.

• Hybrid Clouds – Aspects of public and private clouds allows organizations to handle more control on data and on resources rather than using public clouds.

Cloud Service Models fall into three main categories: -

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It enables on demand model for pre-configured data center computing. i.e. operating system and network storage. This can also involve automation in creating virtual machines. It is critical to consider how these virtual machines are span down, provisioned and managed.

• Platform as a Service (PaaS) – Provides computing infrastructure and tools, enabling organizations to focus on developing services and web applications. PaaS environment primarily support DevOps teams, developers and operations. Management and configuration of self-service is the key to control risk.

• Software as a Service (SaaS) – Applications hosted by third party are delivered as software as a service that are accessed on the client side. SaaS eliminates need of manage and deploy applications on end-user devices. Any employee can access web services and can download the content. Hence, proper visibility and access controls are required to monitor all type of SaaS applications.

Practice to keep Cloud Data secure: -

Implementing cloud computing using above model is not enough to protect cloud data. For additional security practices follow below points: -

• Proper configuration of security for cloud server – If company is not setting proper security. It will result into data breach. Misconfiguration of cloud servers can expose data to unauthorized user. Configuring cloud security settings requires good amount of team members who are highly experts and capable in working with cloud and is also capable in collaboration with cloud vendor.

• Consistent in implementing security policies – Security measures should be applied across the company’s infrastructure including public and private clouds and on premises infrastructure. If one aspect company’s cloud infrastructure is not protected by encryption. Most likely attackers will find and target the weak link.

• Backup Plans – There must be a always backup plan if anything goes wrong. To prevent data from getting tampered and lost, make sure to create regular backups. There should be a failover plan so that businesses are not interrupted and if anything fails. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments can be used as backups. For example – data storage in cloud can be backup on premises database.

• User and Employee Education – Large percentage of data breaches occur because employees don’t understand the latest or on-going cyber-attacks. They unknowingly install malware and do not updates their devices. Poor password policies, using same password and writing their password in visible location of your organization. By educating internal employees about security. You can reduce the risk of cyber security.

Conclusion: -

Now days, lots of work is done online. And such data can only be accessed through servers. There is lot of data which needs to secure and should be only be accessed through authorized administrators. Connect with HTS Hosting, best web hosting company in India providing cheap Linux shared hosting, Self Managed VPS Hosting and other web hosting plans.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/cloud-hosting/112/cloud-computing-security

How can Cloud Protect my Sensitive Information?

Most individuals, business organizations, enterprises uses cloud in different forms. Sometimes without even realizing what they are doing. Being unaware of using service also means that people are not fully protected as they should be. It is becoming increasingly important to know how secure your information on the cloud. Cloud cannot protect any data of its own. Cloud can protect data according to your implementation and configuration. There are some key points which should be used to protect data in cloud: -

Using cloud service that completely encrypts: -

The initial step in defense is to identify thieves that are using cloud services. Services that encrypts your files in compute and in cloud. Encryption ensures service providers with their administrators and as well as third parties to not access private information.

Read the User Agreements: -

Never go randomly for any cloud service and never sign for any cloud service without reading user agreement completely. User agreements consist of vital information with detailed information that shows how service is protecting your information and whether you’re giving them to use and sell your information in different sign ups. Never ever sign anything without completely understanding that what agreement actually means. Your service provider can update privacy policy at any time. You hosting provider will notify via email, text and alert whenever you log in. Always read all the notifications to ensure changes that do not affect your information.

Privacy Settings: -

As soon as you sign up for cloud service provider. And you configure your privacy settings to sure you’re not sharing your private information through applications you connect your service provider. You must determine that how long service stores your information and what type of data can be pulled from your devices and applications. After the initial setup of privacy. Check and re-configure in every few weeks to ensure settings remain safe.

Use Passphrases: -

A strong password is very essential for each and every account. And especially when it comes to protect account housing information. According to experts, attacks happen because of weak passwords. Around 75% of attacks occur because of weak passwords. This clearly shows you should be diligent when creating new password. Never use shorter than eight characters and always create passphrases with at least 15 characters and more for best protection. Avoid using basic information such as – your name, birthday, company name, children names and other such information which could leads to password guessing attack. Create password using upper, lower case characters and also includes numbers, special characters, numbers and symbols. Lastly update your passwords regularly and avoid using same passwords for multiple accounts.

Use Two-factor Authentication: -

Multiple authentications creates additional security for your accounts. If anyone has your password. He/she still won’t be able to access account. Because he/she has to bypass another mode of security. Common methods of authentication includes answering a secret question or providing a personal pin number and inputting a pin code that is provided by emails to you. Not all accounts will automatically ask to set up secondary identifies.

Never Share your Personal Information: -

Personal information may seem inoffensive. But if your information get into wrong hands. It could leave your identity exposed. Never publicly tells your birth date and mother’s maiden name. Most common questions to verify your identity. Avoid providing your information to the person which you don’t trust such as name of the street and name of your first pet. Regardless of how well you trust someone. There are some authentication where user can choose their own questions and answers that are easily remembered.

Conclusion: -

Thus, cloud protection seems very important. Because most of business organizations/ enterprises holds their data on cloud. For full security consider using HTS Hosting services which is committed to provide cheap Linux shared hosting plans, Linux dedicated server, streaming reseller and other web hosting plans.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/cloud-hosting/111/how-can-cloud-protect-my-sensitive-information

Add Security to Dedicated Server

Dedicated server security is vitally important for businesses to avoid disclosing of sensitive information and protecting company’s data against viruses. HTS Hosting dedicated servers undergoes a rigid security check before and during the deployment to give our clients a piece of mind. You check some security points mentioned below: -

• Increasing your dedicated server security – Change SSH port on the server from 22. This prevents from automation brute-force attacks even from beginning to guess usernames and passwords on the server.

• Using TLS (Transport Layer Security) – TLS protect interface for server administration. TLS encrypts web traffic between server and computer. It prevents hacker from capturing sensitive information so they can execute attack. Our servers offer TLS protected access. But it has to be configure while deploying dedicated server.

• Use trusted networks and computers to administrate your servers - Ensure all systems that are being used in administrating are free from malware that gives attackers login information for your server’s administrative interface.

• Always keep latest updates and releases for active scripts – Monitor the developer’s systems whose scripts you’re running to aware of patches and other tweaked releases.

• Check kernel Version – Linux kernel is core system program of Linux systems. HTS Hosting experts always check kernel version to ensure that there are zero exploitable vulnerabilities/ bug. If any kernel vulnerabilities/ bugs are discovered, the update process will start immediately and HTS Hosting will contact its client to schedule a reboot.

• Review PHP settings – There are numerous PHP settings that HTS Hosting advised to be disabled on the servers that are not required.

• “allow_url_fopen” – This option enables URL aware fopen wrappers that enables accessing of URL object like files.

• “allow_url_include” – This option enables the use of URL-aware fopen wrappers with following functions – include_once, require_once.

• Register_globals – It is an internal PHP setting that registers $_REQUEST array’s elements as variables. If you submit a value in form through POST and GET request. The value of that input will automatically accessible through PHP script.

• Review Apache mod_security – Apache mod_security is a software firewall that scans the whole incoming HTTP requests for known exploits. HTS Hosting maintains internal ruleset for many known exploits/ bugs and constantly checks to ensure latest ruleset in installed on server before deploying. To make sure that your server is always using the latest ruleset. HTS Hosting configures server to update ruleset every day.

• Review CSF Configuration – CSF is a software firewall that supports brute force detection and prevention, flood protection, process tracking and many other wide range of automated security features. By default, HTS Hosting installs and configures CSF on all Linux users.

• Review System Binaries – HTS Hosting runs full web server security audit on binary package versions. Such as BIND, udev and apache to ensure that everything is up to date and is completely not vulnerable to acknowledge exploits.

• Disable unnecessary services – HTS Hosting disables services that are not used. This ensures the security of the server

• Deploy only security-focused configurations – HTS Hosting deploys only initial security-focused configurations for MySQL, Exim, FTP, SSH.

• Install RKHunter – RKhunter is designed to scan server for known rootkits and modified system binaries.

Conclusion: -

Thus, there are many configurations that can be done to add security to the dedicated server. For affordable Windows dedicated hosting plans, Linux dedicated hosting, Windows dedicated servers and other web hosting plans connect with HTS Hosting.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/server/110/add-security-to-dedicated-server

Protect your Server Data in Low Cost

 Company security is never been a critical to handle. If you take basic security measures for securing company infrastructure as well as its data. You are secure. But if you are not taking basic security measures you might face data breaches on regular basis. All businesses need to keep their company’s data at the front of their minds. What you can do to step up security of your company? You don’t need to buy expensive hardware equipment. You can follow below steps to beef up your data security: -

Update your System Regularly – One of the worse thing, company do is to ignore updates on your servers and on your devices. Many times such updates include security patches that are required to keep your hardware away from security vulnerabilities and bugs. Without those security patches, you are opening yourself to various cyber-attacks. However, update might consume time but it should be considered as crucial step to make your company’s data secure.

Always stay in the line – If you’re from IT department. One of your duty is to stay up and keep up with latest security warning and threats. If you’re staying and knowing what’s going in the World of PC security. You know all the latest threats and know newest technology and you know to keep those threats at bay. If you’re sure to keep tabs on security alerts and keep an eye on company’s products than you’re far away from cyber-attack.

Enforcing Password Policies – Ensure that your passwords are strong and they’re changed in every 30-60 days without any fail. This should be applied on wireless security as well as on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) that are connected with company’s wireless network. Changing password can be a pain but if you’re serious about security, this should be considered important.

Avoid offering open wireless – Offering open wireless for some company’s is a necessity. However, that doesn’t mean that you are telling password to each and every person. Create a strong password and give password to only required person. Create a policy to change password weekly. Another method you can try to make business network and public wireless network completely different. Open wireless might be connected to the server. Attacker might take advantage of open wireless and tries to get enter inside the server.

Get strict on policy breakers – You’ve managed all the things to manage your company policy. If the employee is going through defined policies your company data is fully secured and if employee is going undermines those policies. Your data is no longer secure. Security policies have zero tolerance for any kind of attack or breach. Once your employees have fully understood how serious the issue is your security, it will be easier to enforce.

Restrict root access – Root access gives all the privileges. With root access you can define new rules for each user. You can handle all the data. You know all the passwords. Restricting root access to limited users. Give root access to only required users.

Conclusion: -

Protecting server data in low cost might require bit of alertness. Not every company can handle high expenses in security. Follow above steps to lower your cost in protecting server data. For best web hosting solutions with complete protection you opt for HTS Hosting services. HTS Hosting, cloud hosting company providing windows dedicated hosting, Linux shared web hosting and other web hosting plans.

Source: https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/04/protect-your-server-data-in-low-cost/

Importance of Infrastructure as Code

 IaC is the abbreviation for Infrastructure as Code, which is essentially a process that has to do with IT infrastructures’ management. In it, the best practices with regard to DevOps software development are applied to cloud infrastructures’ resources’ management. Infrastructure as Code offers a solution for the purpose of rapidly configuring and managing complex cloud infrastructures. The productivity of committing code to a Git repository and then applying feature branches and pulling request workflows has been well established. The automation brought by these workflows to software development has aided in reducing cloud systems’ administration’s complexity.

To digress, cloud technology is also used in cloud hosting, which is a type of web hosting service that is meant for making websites accessible over the Internet. The files of websites are stored on the servers of web hosting companies and are delivered from there, over the Internet, in order to render websites accessible. The most efficient web hosting services are referred to with terms, such as the “Top Cloud Hosting”, the “Best Windows Hosting”, the “Best Website Hosting” etc.

Understanding Infrastructure as Code

As an IT infrastructure management process, Infrastructure as Code, is applicable to certain infrastructure resources, such as load balancers, virtual machines, databases, networks as well as other networked applications.

IaC codifies the infrastructure resources of an organization into text files for carrying out the management of configuration. Next, these files are committed to a system for version control, such as Git. Feature branch and pull request workflows are enabled by the version control repository. The rise in platforms that have to do with cloud infrastructure hosting, such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), makes it possible to have Infrastructure as Code. Cloud resources’ on-demand provisioning and requisition through remote APIs is enabled by IaaS. The automation features of Infrastructure as Code can run the configuration files against the IaaS APIs that are remote. CI/CD (Continuous integration and continuous delivery) practices can be applied to the changes in infrastructure, after infrastructure configuration has been committed to version control. A DevOps workflow can be followed by infrastructure related updates. In the event that a configuration text file has been edited, code review workflows and pull requests can be used for auditing as well as verifying it. Additionally, automatic infrastructure deployments and rollbacks are utilized by an Infrastructure as Code system that has been enabled by DevOps.

The Functioning of Infrastructure as Code

Certain dependencies should be in place for fully achieving Infrastructure as Code. These include, remote accessible hosting, version control system and configuration management platform. In the context of remote accessible hosting, the tool for configuration management has to connect to the remote host and modify it. APIs which enable users to automatically create, modify and delete infrastructure resources on demand, are provided by cloud hosting platforms that are IaaS-enabled. It is possible to access these APIs through configuration management tools for further automating tasks. Another important requirement for complete and proper functioning of Infrastructure as Code involves a tools’ suite, which automates common tasks by connecting to the IaaS APIs.

A platform for configuration management uses text files for the purpose of declaring such tasks and sequences that the platform needs to execute. A version control system repository can be used to store these text files. The repository functions as a central resource and enables code review and pull requests. Git is an example of a popular version control system. Once these dependencies are in place Infrastructure as Code can function efficiently.

 What makes Infrastructure as Code important?

Separate deployment environments exist in the release lifecycle stages of cloud applications. Usually there are environments for development, production and staging. Networked resources, such as load balancers, application servers, databases etc. form these environments. When the infrastructures of these various environments are at odds with each other, then an environment drift takes place. Infrastructure as Code has evolved as a perfect solution for the issue of environment drift.

In the absence of IaC, the process of infrastructure management can easily become very fragile as well as disorderly. When system administrators connect to remote cloud providers manually and use web dashboards or API for provisioning new resources and hardware, such a manual workflow is not able to provide a holistic view of the application infrastructure. Additionally, an environment drift can be caused when administrators carry out manual changes in one environment and forget to carry out the same changes in the other. An environment drift is a waste of money. Moreover, in the absence of Infrastructure as Code, the process of manual infrastructure management becomes slow. When a change in infrastructure is identified that has resulted from an environment drift, spikes in traffic etc., it can take an unspecified amount of time for this change to be successfully implemented. The outcome can be outages as well as customers’ exasperation. When Infrastructure as Code is utilized, it enables an infrastructure to automatically adapt to configuration related changes as well as react to an increase in traffic through auto-scaling features.

Another important benefit of IaC is that it ensures better visibility with regard to manual systems’ administration. Moreover, when the infrastructure configuration files are committed to a version control repository, any member from a team is able to view as well as edit infrastructure data. This provides effective auditing capabilities. The version control commit history serves as a log that can be reviewed, which is also an advantage of IaC.

Conclusion

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is very efficient in configuration management as it automates the management of cloud IT infrastructure. IaC can be used to attain CI/CD automation for changing the infrastructure of a project. Additionally, it provides various insights into communication as well as transparency, in the context of changes in infrastructure.

Source: https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/04/importance-of-infrastructure-as-code/

Purpose of SSL

 SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the backbone for securing a website. SSL protects sensitive information that is transmitted to web server. SSL is very essential for protecting your website. Even your website doesn’t handles sensitive information like credit/ debit card details or any login details. You must apply SSL to your website. SSL provides privacy, critical security and data integrity to your website and your user’s personal information.

SSL Encrypts Sensitive Information: -

Primary reason for implementing SSL is used to encrypt and keep sensitive information across the internet so that only intended recipient can access it. This is very important because the information you send on the internet is paused from computer to computer to get destination server. Any computer between you and the server can see your credit card numbers, usernames and passwords and other sensitive information if SSL is not implemented. When an SSL certificate is implemented, the entered sensitive information becomes unreadable to everyone. Thus, sensitive information is protected by the spammers and hackers.

SSL Authentication: -

In addition to encryption, SSL provide authentication make sure that you’re sending information to the right server and not to an imposter trying to steal your information. Nature of internet means that your customer will often sending information through several computers. Any of these computers could pretend to be a legitimate website and trick user into sending personal information. Why SSL providers are important? Trusted SSL providers like web hosting companies only issue an SSL certificate to a verified companies. Such SSL providers go through several identify checks. There are certain SSL certificates like EV SSL certificate requires more validation than other certificates.

SSL Provide Trust: -

Web browsers gave visual cures. Such as – lock icon and green bar. This is to make sure that visitors know their connection is fully-secured. The green bar or lock icon shows that your website is fully trusted and whey they see such cues. They will more likely to buy services and products from you. SSL providers will give more trust that instills trust in your customers. HTTPS protects against phishing attacks. A phishing email that is sent by a cyber-criminal who tries to portray your website. Such kind of emails include a link to their own website and even uses MITM (Man-in-the-middle-attack) to use their target domain name. Such cyber-criminals won’t get any SSL certificate. Cyber-criminals won’t be able to perfectly impersonate your company website. This clearly shows that website users will be less likely to fall for phishing attacks. Because they will look at trust indicators in their web browsers.

Google makes SSL mandatory in 2018: -

For safer web browsing experience from 2018. Google decided to flag all the websites that are not using SSL/ TLS certificate installed on their website. If any website fails to comply with this rule. All the popular web browsers used around the users and companies will give warning message of “Not Secure” in the URL address bar. There is also a possibility that web browser may even block such website to load on the web browser. From a single page website to large enterprise website. SSL is mandatory and by not following may result in loss of visitors.

Conclusion: -

How a website owner will feel safe if your website warned you about “not secure”? Because such kind of warning will be shown in web browser if you’re not using any SSL. For using SSL you require finest web hosting services. For best hosting services connect with HTS Hosting, top cloud hosting company in Delhi providing Linux Dedicated Server Hosting, windows vps hosting and other web hosting plans.

Source: https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/04/purpose-of-ssl/

Myths about Web Hosting

 It’s not very unusual for people to get and thinks wrong idea about web hosting. There are several common myths about website ownership. We will bust some of the myths about web hosting.

Once you purchase any web hosting plan and put website. You’ll automatically attract visitors – Getting your website online via web hosting is only the half path you’ve covered. Many business organizations suffers from misguided expectations that their website will attract visitors automatically. They think, that they’ve invested their money in web hosting to publish their website. Their website will attract visitors automatically.

But the truth is. In reality web hosting providers only publish your website. Web hosting provider cannot help in attracting website visitors. They will only publish your website online. To attract visitors, you need to focus on SEO (search engine optimization), paid ads, guest posts and other different types of advertisements to generate web traffic for your website.

Web hosting will start making sales – Well-designed website looks more appealing. Choosing and opting any web hosting plan won’t increase sales for your website. Some people thinks that web hosting has more to do with their overall performance of their business.

But in reality well-designed website is good for attracting visitors and providing a engaging experience. Although, it’s the quality of your products and services defines the reputation in the market. You cannot hide weakness behind a pretty website. People will see through by watching reviews.

Once you’ve purchase a web hosting plan, the work is done – When you choose any web hosting plan. You can go for simply publishing your website. But the work is not done yet. You have to constantly update your website as per new products emerges of your business.

In reality, you’ll need to update your website. That includes updating domain registration on time. Thus, timely updates requires your website to protect from viruses and other malicious attacks.

Web hosting plans are way too expensive – Many people thinks that web hosting plans are way too expensive. And they won’t be able to afford. Because it’s a web hosting where you can host your website. They will take high amount of money. Such unnecessary thinking has been developed by some fake service base IT companies.

But in reality, web hosting are very affordable. And you can take any web hosting plan without hiring any expert. You don’t need high level of technicality. With basic knowledge you can purchase web hosting plan and you can start working on CMS platforms like WordPress and use professionally designed templates.

You’ll rank higher in search rankings – If you think you can get make your website by just purchasing web hosting plan and deploying it. You’re wrong. For that you’d have to very lucky or quickly higher rank as the number for your website.

But in reality, getting your website on first page of Google search results. On first page every other aspects for growing a business. You need to invest lot of effort into identifying right keywords to optimize your website. You have to build relation with every advertising company, earn backlinks and establish your website. Organic traffic have no shortcuts.

Conclusion: -

Still many people have created unnecessary myths about web hosting. But in reality web hosting is nothing, it just a platform to publish your website. For easy-to-use-interface connect with HTS Hosting, best hosting company in India providing Self Managed VPS Hosting, windows vps server hosting and other web hosting plans.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/web-hosting/109/myths-about-web-hosting

The Benefits of Cloud Bursting

“The Cloud is more than technology- It’s a generational shift”.  In the context of Cloud technology, Cloud bursting refers to an application configuration, which offers economical advantage by setting up a configuration between a public cloud and a private cloud for handling the peaks in IT demands. It enables a private cloud to burst into the public cloud for accessing extra computing resources, without the service being interrupted. A high demand usage or a manual request can automatically trigger cloud bursts.

The technology involved in cloud bursting involves IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), which is a cloud computing infrastructure. It lets developers dynamically configure cloud resources based on demand. Certain DevOps tools are used for the purpose of specifying capacity thresholds or for triggering events that cause cloud bursting.

To digress, cloud technology is used in web hosting too, for the purpose of hosting websites. The files of websites are stored on the servers of web hosting companies and are delivered from there over the Internet for making websites accessible. The most popular web hosting service providers are usually referred to as the “Best Website Hosting Company”, the “Best Windows Hosting Company”, the “Best Cloud Hosting Company” etc.

Why is Cloud bursting needed?

An increase in computational resources’ demand triggers cloud bursts. The most common Cloud bursting situations are caused by marketing campaigns, software development, big data modelling and queries and seasonal businesses.

A huge volume of traffic is generated by marketing campaigns. This requires extended Cloud resources for which cloud bursting can be utilized. Cloud bursting is needed for software development and analytics. Multiple virtual machines are often used for testing purposes by DevOps teams. These are usually needed for a short amount of time. Moreover, tasks related to CI/CD are ideal for bursting into the public cloud. The execution of one-time queries or generation of models by big data companies often exceeds the capacity of their private cloud. Cloud bursting proves to be beneficial for this. AI and ML model training, High-fidelity 3D rendering, autonomous vehicle simulation etc. are some of the examples of big data tasks. Additionally, seasonal businesses also require extra computational resources in peak hours.

 Features of Cloud Bursting

The main features of Cloud bursting are mentioned below, in no particular order.

• Monitoring continuously the load of applications

• Transferring the extra workload to the public cloud when limit is reached

• Maintaining data and application consistency between public and private cloud

• Turning the cloud bursting off when load is at normal level

• Pay-out, based on usage, to the service provider for storage and compute

 Cloud Bursting Architecture

Cloud bursting has a flexible as well as scalable architecture. It provides the option to use cloud-based IT resources for meeting high demands of use. Its architectural model utilizes resource application mechanisms and automated scaling listener. The automated scaling listener determines the time when a request should be redirected towards a cloud’s IT resources. There are other mechanisms that are used in conjunction with the automated scaling listener and the resource replication for automating cloud bursts. In this way, a cloud bursting architecture results in dynamic scaling for the available IT resources, when a specified threshold is attained.

Challenges in Cloud Bursting

Cloud bursting isn’t devoid of challenges. Not every application can be moved to the public cloud. Often sensitive business information prevents such a move. In the context of keeping data in the public cloud, there can be security related issues and issues with regulation and compliance. Often issues with bandwidth can restrict the movement of data/applications and can cause delays in the start. For some applications there can be an inability to address latency or performance related issues. Rapid technological developments have ensured that these challenges get addressed adequately.

Benefits of Cloud Bursting

Cloud Bursting has its share of benefits. The main benefits have to do with flexible scaling, reduction in operating costs and business continuity. Cloud bursting enables adjustments to cloud capacity needs that are changing. If a private cloud experiences an unexpected surge in traffic, it is possible to seamlessly expand to the public cloud. When a public cloud is accessed it offers access to resources that are limitless. Additionally, cloud bursting aids in keeping free local cloud resources, which can be utilized for other purposes. Another advantage of using cloud bursting is a reduction in operating costs. In it, businesses pay for only the additional resources, based on requirement. This aids in reducing the costs with regard to private cloud infrastructure by ensuring that a minimal set of resources are maintained, which are required for those applications that are confidential and critical. Last but not the least is the added advantage of business continuity that is provided by cloud bursting. It ensures that services and applications that are important do not encounter any disruption in service.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/cloud-hosting/108/the-benefits-of-cloud-bursting

Serverless’ Security Risks

 Serverless, which refers to serverless computing, is a type of cloud computing execution model in which it is the responsibility of the cloud provider to execute a piece of code through dynamic allocation of resources. In it, machine resources are allocated by the cloud provider, as per demand. Additionally, in it, servers are taken care of on customers’ behalf and the billing is based on the amount of resources that are used to run codes, which are run inside stateless containers. These are triggered by various events, such as database events, HTTP requests, monitoring alerts, queuing services, file uploads, cron jobs etc. The code that has to be executed, and which is sent to the cloud provider for this purpose, is usually a function. This is the reason why serverless is often referred to as FaaS ( Function as a Service). Resources are not held in volatile memory in serverless. When any app is not being used, it does not receive any computing resources.

The term “serverless” is a misnomer because servers are used in it for executing code for developers by cloud service providers. Serverless computing is useful as it simplifies the process involved in the deployment of code into production. The code that is deployed in serverless can be used with traditionally deployed code, which includes monoliths or microservices. It is also possible to write applications to be totally serverless, wherein no provisioned servers are used.

To digress, servers are used by web hosting companies as well. Web hosting companies use servers to store the files of websites. These files are delivered over the Internet to render websites accessible. The most reliable web hosting service providers are usually referred to as the “Best Website Hosting Company”, the “Best Windows Hosting Company”, the “Best Cloud Hosting Company” etc.

Serverless models are made available by cloud providers as two distinct services, which are, Function as a Service(FaaS) and Backend as a Service (BaaS). Serverless offers many benefits, which include enhanced scalability along with more flexibility, cost reduction, quicker time to release etc. Additionally, it does away with the need to purchase, provision and manage backend servers.

In this blog serverless’ security’s in-depth analysis will be provided, which will touch upon the meaning of serverless security and the risks involved in it.

Serverless’ Security’s Risks and Challenges

While a serverless model does away with the worries with regard to infrastructure-related operations, security concerns remain to be addressed in it. A serverless model requires protection because it doesn’t use detection system software or firewalls. Moreover, its architecture neither involves instrumentation agents nor protection methods, such as keys authentication or file transfer protocols. In serverless architecture, the data that is requested by any user is stored at the client-side. That is why the focus remains on data security, behavioral protection, permissions along with strong code for the purpose of protecting applications against library and coding risks.

Precautions need to be taken to secure serverless apps. That is because the serverless architecture makes use of a smaller approach than microservices. In it miniature, independent pieces of software are used, which interact through multiple APIs that become public on interacting with cloud providers. This mechanism leads to the creation of a security loophole that attackers can use to access the APIs and creates challenges with regard to the security of serverless apps.

The main security challenges for serverless have to do with configuration that is insecure, event-data injection, broken authentication and function permissions.  Additionally, inadequate monitoring of function and logging along with insecure third party dependencies and insecure storage of application secrets can be a security challenge for serverless. Let us touch upon each of these security risks individually.

Multiple features and setting are provided by cloud service providers. Hence, it is important to ensure that these settings provide reliable offerings that are authentic. When configurations are not taken care of, it can lead to risks related to security. Another risk involves event-data injection. Injection flaws are another type of serious vulnerability that exists. These take place when input, which is not trustworthy, is transmitted directly to an interpreter and then gets evaluated or executed. Numerous event sources are provided by serverless models. These are capable of triggering a serverless function’s execution. The potential attack surface is increased by such a huge set of event sources. This leads to the introduction of complexities with regard to the protection of serverless functions against event-data injections. Another challenge to serverless’ security are the risks related to function permissions. There are numerous independent functions in the serverless ecosystem. Each of these functions is responsible for a certain task. This interaction among functions might lead to functions becoming overprivileged with regard to permissions.

Broken authentication presents another security challenge for serverless. The microservice- like system design of serverless applications usually contains many distinct serverless functions that have their own purposes. Public web APIs might be exposed by some of these. It is important to implement powerful authentication schemes that ensure access control and protect all the relevant functions along with event type and trigger.

Inadequate monitoring of function and logging can be risky for serverless’ security. In the context of serverless’ security, it is essential to monitor and log events that are related to security in real-time. This aids in detecting malicious activities and in taking proper action to thwart those. It aids in averting cyber breaches in real-time. In serverless architecture, the monitoring and logging aspects exist in a cloud environment. Serverless architecture vendors usually provide very efficient logging facilities but these are not capable of ensuring a full security even audit trail in their basic configuration.

Third party dependencies that are not secure can be a risk to serverless’ security. A serverless function is supposed to be a tiny piece of code, which carries out a single discrete task. Often, for carrying out such a task, the serverless function needs to rely on open source libraries and third party software. These third party dependencies can render serverless applications vulnerable to cyber attacks. Insecure storage of application secrets is another potential threat to the security of serverless. In this day and age applications are growing in both, scale as well as complexity. Hence, it becomes extremely crucial to store and maintain properly application secrets, which include database credentials, API keys and encryption keys along with the settings for sensitive configuration. A common mistake, which causes security risks, has to do with the storage of application secrets within configuration files or database configurations in the form of plain text. This enables any user to gain access to these, if the user has “Read” permission. Environmental variables are used for data across the executions of serverless function.  There is always risk associated with such variables as data can be leaked by these to unauthorized entities. These are some of the main security risks for serverless that need to be addressed adequately to ensure the security of serverless.

Source: https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/website-security/107/serverless-security-risks

The Five Rs of Cloud Migration

Every business is dependent on IT services in one way or another for carry out its functioning efficiently. In this competitive global business world, any business that limits itself to on-premises servers will be giving a competitive edge to its rivals in the long run. This is why cloud migration has become the name of the game. Cloud migration involves transferring data, infrastructure and applications from one’s on-premises system to a virtual pool that consists of shared, on-demand resources, which provide scalable storage, network services and compute. When a business migrates to the cloud, it does away with the factors that had been preventing it from benefitting from the scalability, speed and savings that a cloud is capable of delivering. It is best for any business to opt for cloud migration and discontinue investing in infrastructure that isn’t able to effectively cater to the rapidly evolving technological developments. Cloud migration enables a business to reap the benefits of not only cost savings along with scalability but also of responding more swiftly to market changes.

To digress, cloud technology is so efficient that it is used by web hosting companies as well for the purpose of hosting websites. The most efficient web hosting companies are usually referred to as the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Linux Hosting Company”, the “Best Windows Hosting Company” etc.

While planning cloud migration, it becomes essential for a business to take stock of its business model along with its goals, its infrastructure and applications, and then determine accordingly the applications that need to be migrated and the way to attain that goal.

What are the Five Rs of Cloud Migration?

The success of cloud migration depends on proper planning and strategizing. In the context of cloud migration, there are five Rs, which refer to the various options that can be used for cloud migration. Rehost, refactor, revise, rebuild and replace collectively form the five Rs of cloud migration. Each of these five Rs is described below in detail.

• Rehosting- Rehosting, which is also referred to as lift and shift, involves transferring one’s existing virtual and physical servers to a solution that is based on IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Its main benefit is that it makes it possible to migrate systems swiftly, without the need for any modification in the architecture. The businesses that are new to cloud usually opt for rehosting. In the process of rehosting the cloud acts as another data center. Hence, one isn’t able to benefit fully from the available cloud services. Rehosting offers an easy way for cloud migration but its drawback is that it is neither a highly available solution nor is it scalable, which means the business has to manage the OS patches on its own.

• Refactoring- Refactoring involves running applications on a set of services that is managed by one’s cloud provider. It is also referred to as PaaS (Platform as a Service). The use of PaaS enables developers to reuse the containers, frameworks and languages in which investment has already been made by them. Such applications that are capable of being refactored can reap the benefits of some cloud-native features, which are delivered by the PaaS infrastructure at reduced costs and enhanced scalability. Its major drawbacks are framework lock-in, transitive risks and missing capabilities.

• Revise- Certain applications need extensive modification for cloud migration. Some of these need an addition of functionalities while others need to be re-architected, prior to being rehosted or refactored and being deployed to the cloud. The amount of changes that are needed are based on an application’s design. Making modifications to a large codebase to render it more cloud-native can be expensive as well as time consuming. Hence, it is not a very convenient option.

• Rebuilding- Rebuilding involves an application’s original coding being discarded and it being re-architected. The application is rebuilt on a PaaS infrastructure. It enables one to reap the benefits of innovative and advanced features that are provided by one’s cloud provider for the purpose of improving one’s application further. The major drawback of rebuilding is vendor lock-in.

• Replacing- In it, the existing application is completely replaced with SaaS (Software as a Service). The main advantage of replacing is that it aids in averting IT development related costs. Its main drawbacks include vendor lock-in, data semantics that are unpredictable and issues in accessing data.

Source: https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/04/the-five-rs-of-cloud-migration/

Private Cloud

 Private cloud is defined as computing services that is offered in the internet and in the private internal network. Private clouds are excessed and used by selected users instead of the general public. Private clouds are also known as internal and corporate cloud. It includes elasticity, scalability and self-service with more control and customization. In addition, private clouds deliver high level of privacy and security. Company firewalls and internal web hosting to ensure operations while taking no data is provided to third-party providers. Only one drawback is that company is responsible to manage private cloud. Private clouds require same staffing, management team, technical staff and the maintenance expenses.

There are two services that can be delivered in private cloud. First is IaaS which allows company to use infrastructure resources such as network, computer and storage devices. Second is platform as a service which lets company deliver each and everything from simple clouds-based application to complexed enterprise applications. Private clouds can be combined in public clouds. It helps to create hybrid cloud and allows to take advantage of cloud bursting to free more space.

How private cloud works?

Private clouds rely on handful different techniques and technologies. To bitterly understand private clouds, you need to learn about virtualization. Private clouds use virtualization technology to associate resources from physical hardware into shared pools. This way cloud doesn’t have to create environments by virtualization resources at a time from bunch of different physical systems. A scripted IT process can grab all those resources from a single source. Adding a layer of management software’s and application gives more administrative/ root control over the infrastructure, applications, platforms and data that is used in the cloud that is used in cloud by helping cloud administrator tracking and optimize use. Oversee integration points and retain recovered data. When automation layer is added to change and diminish human interaction with repeatable instructions and processes. Self-service component of cloud is complete and bundle of technologies is now a private cloud.

Building a Private Cloud: -

Cloud infrastructure refers to components that are needed for cloud computing. Basic elements for cloud infrastructure are same whether you’ve private cloud, public cloud and combination. All clouds require operating system like – Linux. Infrastructure contains different type of bare-metal servers, virtualization technology and container software that abstract pool and share scalable resource over the network. You can build private cloud using your own dedicated resources solely to use.

Why use private clouds?

Private clouds are the optimal solution for IT leaders and enterprises who want to enterprise resources available on-demand. But can’t move to the public cloud. The can be due to security policies, budgets, compliance requirements and regulations. Companies in these industries uses encryption protocols and firewalls to secure their IT systems. But private clouds add an extra level of security and privacy compared to public clouds. Because private clouds access is limited.

Conclusion: -

Hence, private clouds provide encryption. Because it becomes isolated from public access. Administrator can give limited number of permissions to the user. For cloud hosting services connect with HTS Hosting. HTS Hosting provides streaming reseller, cPanel hosting in India and other web hosting plans.

Source: https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/cloud-hosting/106/private-cloud