The Advantages and Limitations of Serverless Architecture

•  A serverless architecture provides a reliable and efficient solution to create as well as run services and applications in a way which eliminates the need for managing infrastructure. It is an event-based, design pattern for software, which does away with the requirement for provisioning, handling and scaling databases and servers. It enables businesses to run their applications through third-party services and eliminates the requirement with regard to investing money in buying and maintaining physical or virtual servers. There are numerous cloud providers that manage the complexities of coding, computing and server management along with allocating resources dynamically. In serverless architecture one’s applications run on such servers the management of which is carried out by third-parties. Hence, one doesn’t have to scale, provision or maintain servers for running one’s applications, storage systems and databases.

A Serverless architecture has two main models and these are BaaS (Backend as a Service) and FaaS (Function as a Service). Backend as a Service (BaaS) lets developers focus on tasks that are related to managing the frontend of applications and does away with the requirement of handling tasks that have to do with backend development, such as hosting, database management and cloud storage. It results in developers not having to write codes for tasks that are related to server-side, such as user authentication, encryption, database management etc.

Function as a Service (FaaS) refers to an event-driven model by which small code’s modules are executed. FaaS triggers certain functions in response to the execution of certain events in application modules.  Cost-efficiency, simplification of processes and dynamic scaling of resources is the result.

Serverless aims at reducing time as well as complexity and the cost that is involved in running a scalable and reliable server.

When should Serverless Architecture be used?

A serverless architecture caters to futuristic business goals in fast-paced work environment through automated resource allocation, improved scalability and response time. Moreover, it is a cost-effective solution as it reduces the operational overhead of a business that is using it. Serverless makes application development and workflow extremely efficient. It should be used when there is a requirement for automatic scaling with demand. It serves to reduce significantly server cost and does away with the need to take care of server maintenance. It should be used to ensure that the resources of developers are free for projects that are related to enhancing business value.

Additionally, serverless architecture can be used in one’s business in the following scenarios:

• For building real-time applications that have high-latency.

• For catering to unpredictable workloads that have to do with developmental requirements which change rapidly and for complex scalability requirements.

• For getting precise status of a device and for processing smart device applications with the aid of IoT (Internet of Things).

• For creating secure customer delivery dispatch systems and for aiding dynamic resizing capabilities.

• For dynamically resizing images/transcode video.

• For simplifying multimedia’s processing for different devices.

• For integrations that have to do with support service in order to meet the demands of modern software.

Advantages of Serverless Architecture

There are numerous benefits of serverless architecture, which result in its popularity and which render developing as well as deploying software trouble free. Its main advantages are mentioned below.

• Reduced time to market due to releases that are based on modules.

• Cost-effective pricing models.

• High-quality of software development.

• Enables developers to focus on writing codes along with optimizing application designs.

• Enables a business to gain a competitive edge as well as entrepreneurial innovation.

• Eliminates the need for managing infrastructure by a user.

• Does away with a business’ requirement to invest in internal infrastructure.

• This event-based architecture, wherein application modules are independent of each other, ensures that failures do not affect an entire application.

• Ensures faster deployment of apps and enhanced flexibility in releases.

• Deployment of code is facilitated within minutes through the command-line interface.

• Enables on-demand scaling of applications.

• Function as a Service architecture lets developers develop purposeful and independent functions.

• Eliminates worries with regard to infrastructure security, as the cloud provider is responsible for ensuring it.

Limitations of Serverless Architecture

There are certain limitations of serverless architecture. These are as follows:

• Workloads that are long-running can be costlier on serverless than on dedicated servers.

• There can be delays while processing a cold start request during the execution of functions.

• One will be dependent on one’s providers when it comes to debugging and monitoring tools.

• One will have very limited control over the architecture and availability of the platform.

• Developers can experience an increased level of complexity due to a large number of functions.

• There can be implementation problems, such as deployment, versioning etc. due to the presence of small-sized modules.

• There can be challenges in carrying out integration testing for a collection of deployed functions.

• A system’s customization and flexibility might be impacted due to the control exercised by cloud providers over the interaction among the various components.

To digress, cloud technology is utilized by web hosting companies in one of their web hosting services, called cloud hosting, which makes websites accessible over the Internet. The most reliable web hosting service providers are usually referred to as the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Website Hosting Company”, the “Best Windows Hosting Company” etc.

Conclusion

To recapitulate, serverless architectures involve application designs that rely on third-party Backend as a Service (BaaS) and/or have custom codes which are managed and run in ephemeral containers on a FaaS (Function as a Service) platform.

A serverless architecture reduces significantly the need for an always-on server component. It helps to achieve reduced operational cost and reduced time to market, along with many other benefits. Its major downside is an increase in reliance on vendor dependencies.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/dedicated-server/64/the-advantages-and-limitations-of-serverless-architecture

Web Application Firewall

 WAF (web application firewall) helps in protecting web applications by filtering suspicious and malicious HTTP traffic. WAF main role is to monitor and block malicious HTTP/S traffic. WAF works by adhering set of policies that helps to determine malicious traffic and secure traffic. WAF can be in any form such as – software, and appliance as-a-service. Many WAFs requires to update policies constantly to counter new vulnerabilities. WAF cover basic browser level attacks such as – cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. Web application firewall can be implemented in three different ways: -

• Network based firewall are hardware based. Network based firewall are installed locally. Minimizing latency but such firewall are expensive and they require storage and maintenance of physical component.

• Host-based firewall is fully integrated into application software. Host-based firewall is less expensive than network-based firewall. Only downside of host-based firewall it consumes local server resources, maintenance costs and implementation complexity.

• Cloud-based firewall offers affordable option. This firewall is easy to implement. Cloud-based firewall offers turnkey installation. Cloud-based firewall has minimal cost, as users have to pay monthly and yearly for security as a service. Cloud-based offers solution to protect potential threats without any additional work or cost. Downside of cloud-based firewall user’s handover responsibility to third-party.

Types of web application firewall: -

• Blacklist Web Application Firewall: -

The blacklist web application firewall works by protecting known attacks. Blacklist WAF works specifically on specific signatures. This prevents known attacks that could exploit known vulnerabilities and issues.

• Whitelist Web Application Firewall: -

Whitelist web application firewall uses signatures but also employs logical decision and permitting traffic. This firewall meets specific criteria; it means that requests allowed from precise URL. But whitelist requires maintenance every time. You will need to setup WAF core rules to match new applications behavior.

• Hybrid Web Application Firewall: -

Hybrid WAF uses blacklist WAF and whitelist WAF.

• Benefits of web application firewall: -

Web application firewall provides well-informed response to potential threats. WAF blocks suspicious and malicious web traffic. WAF also helps in zero-day threats, security vulnerabilities, cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injections and other types of malicious attacks. Web application firewall is special designed to mitigate automation script attacks.

Web application firewall protection on OSI (open system interconnection): -

WAF protects OSI layer 7 – application level. It includes attacks against like cookie manipulation, SQL injection and URL attacks. They also target web applications protocols HTTP and HTTPS that are used connect with web browser and servers. For example – Attacker sends DDOS attack to flood target IP address to server layer. On 7 layer, web pages are delivered and generated in reply to HTTP requests. WAF mitigates server by acting as a reverse proxy to block malicious web traffic.

Conclusion: -

Thus, cyber-attacks are increasing day-by-day. To stop such attacks you should implement firewall in your systems and in your web servers. This will help to mitigate malicious activities on your systems. To stay in the online market you need fully-secured servers. Connect with HTS Hosting best hosting company in India provides corporate web hosting, Linux dedicated server hosting and other hosting plans.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/website-security/63/web-application-firewall

Reasons to Avoid Free Cloud Hosting

 “Everything is going to be connected to cloud and data. All of this will be mediated by software.” Cloud technology has become the name of the game in today’s global business world. Enterprises rely heavily on IT for carrying out their day-to-day business activities and this has transformed significantly the way in which information is shared, stored, managed and its success’ extent. Cloud technology, which is also called the cloud, has revolutionized the process of sharing and storing information.

The cloud is essentially a virtual storage space that exists on the Internet. Digital resources (software, applications etc.) can be maintained on it. These digital resources that are stored in the virtual space can be accessed through networks. IT resources’ on-demand delivery over the Internet is accomplished through cloud computing. Technological services that include databases, computing power and storage are rendered accessible by cloud service providers, based on the requirements of their clients. This eliminates the dependency on owning and maintaining physical servers and data centers. Cloud technology facilitates the sharing of applications and information across the Internet, regardless of a user’s physical location. Its benefits have made it a popular solution for businesses of various sizes from different industries.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is one among the myriad uses of cloud technology, wherein web applications and websites are made accessible through cloud resources. Cloud hosting is one of the types of website hosting services. Web hosting is a service that is provided by web hosting service providers which makes it possible for websites to be accessible over the Internet. Hosting service for websites and web applications provides server space for storing the data of websites along with the technology that is needed to store and deliver this data upon the requests of users over the Internet. There are different types of web hosting services, such as shared, dedicated, VPS, reseller, WordPress and cloud. Terms such as, the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Cloud Hosting Service Provider” refer to those cloud hosting service providers that have been delivering high-quality cloud hosting services consistently.

Cloud hosting, which is a type of web hosting service, doesn’t rely on a single server to deploy solutions. Rather, it relies on a network, which involves physical and virtual cloud servers that are interconnected with each other for the purpose of hosting websites and applications. The data that is in the cloud is spread across multiple interconnected servers that are present in a wide geographical area. Augmented flexibility, high uptime, seamless backup, data security and scalability are delivered through the cloud.

The Main Features of Cloud Hosting

The most essential features of cloud hosting are mentioned below, in no particular order.

• Scalability of resources as per users’ requirements
• APIs, web portals and mobile apps automate and control solutions
• Pay-as-you-go pricing
• Supports SQL (including MySQL) or NoSQL databases
• An on-premises single server is not used to deploy applications and solutions

Benefits of Cloud Hosting

The main benefits of cloud hosting are enhanced performance and speed of websites and web applications, high availability of resources, better scalability, cost-effectiveness due to pay-as-you-go pricing and reduced capital expenditure, augmented stability and better facilitation of collaboration with remote users. Cloud hosting’s multifarious benefits have resulted in it becoming one of the most popular and highly-coveted web hosting solutions. This holds true for all professional, paid cloud hosting services that are efficiently maintained and managed by reliable and experienced web hosting service providers. If one opts for free cloud hosting service then one might not be able to make the most of it. That is why it is advisable to steer clear of free cloud hosting. The reasons for avoiding free cloud hosting services will be brought to light in the following section of the blog.

Free Cloud Hosting: A Nonviable Hosting Option

“Nothing good came free.” It is an apt quote, especially in the context of free cloud hosting. There are many downsides of free cloud hosting which render its benefits futile. The main reasons for avoiding free cloud hosting are that it causes issues with uptime and leads to poor page load speed along with negative impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and rankings. Moreover, it gives rise to concerns with regard to security and customer support.

Let us explain one of these factors (customer support) to understand how free cloud hosting can become a bane rather than a boon to a user of such free service. Most of the free cloud hosting services do not offer customer support and customer support is vital to a website’s seamless performance. This can be a major concern (if any technical problem arises) for any non-tech savvy person or one who either lacks sufficient technical knowledge or doesn’t have an expert IT team in the case of a business. In the absence of the availability of customer support, a website owner won’t have any go-to technical support team to resolve his hosting related technical issues swiftly and thoroughly. If any issue with the site can’t be resolved quickly and persists for a long duration then it can lead to substantial downtime for that particular site, which can consecutively result in loss of traffic as well as revenue for any e-commerce site. This example (a lack of customer support in free cloud hosting) makes it evident that free cloud hosting can play havoc with one’s website’s performance along with one’s business’ online reputability.

In order to benefit from cloud hosting it is essential to avail the professional services of a reputed and experienced cloud hosting service provider rather than opting for free service. Any reliable and popular web host will assume responsibility for providing a seamless, fast and secure cloud hosting experience with the availability of round the clock technical support, which are essential for a website’s top-notch performance.

Source: https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/03/reasons-to-avoid-free-cloud-hosting/

Why you Need a Customer Support While Registering for New Domain?

Customer support is offered to end-customers before and after buying of products and services. Customer support helps customer to have a seamless experience with products and services. Offering customer support is very important because it helps in retaining customers and helps in growing business. Now day’s customer support has changed a lot. Earlier it use to be only through telephone. But now customer support available via email, social media and text message. Companies are also providing self-service support. So, customers can find answers to their queries 24*7. Customer support also helps in competing with competition effectively. Most of the companies are now ranked on their customer support. Because good support shows company value. If you are new to registering domain name and hosting then you should definitely need customer support while registering.

Many users get confuse while registering for new domain. HTS Hosting has very responding customer support. HTS Hosting customer support is always ready to solve any query. HTS Hosting is built with easy-to-handle interface. Any user can register for new domain name and can start working on that domain.

You should opt out for customer support while registering domain because: -

• Customer support gives customers a clear picture that what exactly they are doing. With good navigation, you can understand a clean way about the service and product that you are paying for.

• Some users get confused what names they should choose while registering domain names. With friendly customer support, users can take help to understand each and every part related to domain.

Common issues while registering for domain name: -

• Missing domain renewal – Every domain name requires renewal. And their renewal notices are emailed to the company’s domain administrator. There is no other way that domain owner will be notified. Always set your domain renewal to auto renewal.

• Complications while transferring domain names – Large companies very rarely transfer domain names from one registrar to another. Many times company’s faces issue while transferring domain name. Make sure to connect with customer support while transferring domain name.

Above you can see the requirement of customer support. With time customer support has shown real importance.

Importance of Customer Support: -

• Creates your brand image – Maintaining brand image is most important because brand reputation is like person reputation. Sometimes customer support handles angry customers to solve their queries. Handling customer is very serious as it makes good reputation of the brand.

• Source of valuable feedback – Customers feedback helps in improving product. Every customer has its own opinion. Sharing such opinions with developers, team leader’s helps in creating product more user friendly. There are different form of customer feedback such as – usability tests, social media and customer feedback surveys.

Thus, customer support is an important part while registering domain name. Connect with HTS Hosting best hosting company in India provides Windows shared hosting and Linux dedicated hosting.

Source: https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/domain-hosting/61/why-you-need-a-customer-support-while-registering-for-new-domain   

How to Maintain your Online Business after Covid-19?

 Now day’s companies cannot just simply start with their strategies. Companies need to be very predictive and highly proactive to maintain their business. Because of covid-19 disaster, companies are facing lot of issues to maintain their business. Companies cannot even start anything new because of covid-19. So they’re just maintaining their business. Current scenarios requires quick response with very lessen risks. They need strong practice to be on top.

Follow below best practices to maintain online business: -

• Constant Engagement – Every business runs with employees. Ensure the wellbeing and safety of your employees. Now day’s companies have changed their work policies and arrangements to work remotely and safely. Companies needs to reallocate resources and reorganize teams to continue with their work environment. Companies have allowed employees to work from home to stop the spread of covid-19. There are many collaboration tools that are used to work from home. These tools help employees to stay connected while working. Working from home is not difficult. If you have right equipment and software to help in workflow. The basic requirement to work from home are PC, mobile and good LAN connection.

• Remodeling Business with AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IOT (Internet of Things) - Organizations has experienced massive disruptions to their businesses. That’s why companies require robust manufacturing capabilities. Countries are now taking and assigning new tasks to robots. Because of covid-19, companies needs highly skilled labor force to complete their manufacturing process. That is why they are now depending on robots.

• Understand Your Customer Needs – The biggest mistake companies make is centering themselves around in marketing. Rather they should focus on customer needs. By shifting requirement on customer’s needs. Companies will focus on building a good products and services to solve customer problems. In the pandemic, customers has change their mind and they need product and service that can actually solve their problem.

• Develop a Trust – Online scamming has develop a negative impact. There are many companies like HTS Hosting, best hosting company in India provides corporate web hosting, Linux dedicated hosting, and Windows shared hosting. Such companies are working hard to provide industry leading products at very reasonable cost. Trust is an important component to build customer-brand relations. Always take care to build a good trust with customers.

• Employees – Company’s employees are the most important asset that helps in day-to-day operations. While developing any plan for your company make sure to include your employees in your conversation. Company owners should ask their employees “What they can do uphold their business?”

• Build Transparency with Everyone – Transparency is another important part for your business. Creating transparency with your customers and employees shows that you care about your customers and employees.

Thus, covid-19 has taught that nothing is permanent. And you cannot always work with single skill. You need to change according to time to stay high on top.

Source:https://htshosting.org/blog/2021/03/how-to-maintain-your-online-business-after-covid-19/

Ways to Secure a Hybrid Cloud

“Cloud computing is a challenge to security, but one that can be overcome.” This quote makes it evident that despite the security challenges that cloud technology encounters, there are ways to overcome those challenges and ensure the security of cloud solutions. Prior to disseminating information regarding the main security concerns and the ways to secure a hybrid cloud, it is essential to have a proper understanding of a hybrid cloud.

Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud is essentially a cloud solution which combines a private cloud with one or multiple public clouds through proprietary software and enables communication among the distinct services. A hybrid cloud enables organizations to have enhanced flexibility by shifting workloads between cloud solutions based on the change in costs and requirements. Hybrid cloud services are highly efficient as these allow businesses to have more control over their private data.

Any hybrid cloud environment uses a combination of an on-premises private cloud and third party public clouds that work in tandem. Greater flexibility and an increase in the number of options for data deployment are a direct result of the movement of workloads between these two platforms (private and public clouds). This enables a business to respond to not only its needs but also to computing changes more easily and quickly.

For this unique cloud computing environment of a hybrid cloud to be established, the availability of a public IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is needed. Moreover, a private cloud needs to be created, either through a cloud provider or on-premises. Additionally, there has to be a good quality WAN (Wide Area network) connectivity between the private and the public clouds. Last but not the least, the security of the hybrid cloud need to be ensured.

To digress, cloud technology is used in a type of web hosting service called cloud hosting. Cloud hosting service is provided by web hosting companies to website owners in order to make their websites accessible over the Internet. The most reliable web hosting service providers are usually referred to as the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”, the “Best Website Hosting Company” or as the “Best Windows Hosting Company” etc.

Returning to our topic of hybrid clouds, these provide the flexibility and the customizability that is offered by data centers, along with the convenience that public clouds offer. Since hybrid clouds are customizable, their security requirements vary from business to business, depending on the particular hybrid cloud environment.

Major Hybrid Cloud Security Concerns

More and more businesses are migrating to a hybrid cloud environment, and this has increased security concerns with regard to hybrid clouds. The major security concerns for hybrid clouds have to do with data compliance, data leaks, scalability and cross-cloud policy management.

Prior to moving their data and applications to a service provider’s cloud, businesses need to make sure that they are aware of all the compliance laws with regard to their data. Moreover, data visibility has become a major issue when it comes to data security. It becomes easy to lose data’s track when proper data visibility is not ensured. Additionally, all the procedures, tools and practices that are meant for security should be scaled for growth. A company that fails to do so, can face security related challenges due to a lack of security architecture that scales itself to the company’s infrastructure resources.

The policies and procedures with regard to a company’s private data center might not transfer well to the public cloud. This leads to a challenge in creating, configuring and maintaining uniform security related policies and procedures across the entire network. This involves not only firewall rules and IPS signatures but also user identification/authentication etc.

Hybrid Cloud’ Security Measures

Despite the complexity of hybrid cloud environments, there are numerous hybrid cloud security related practices as well as solutions that can be utilized by businesses to ensure the security of such environments. Apart from choosing a reliable cloud service provider, the other security measures that should be taken care of are mentioned below, in no particular order.

• Isolation of critical infrastructure- Since businesses store their sensitive data on the cloud, access to such data should be restricted to only those who require it.

• Data encryption- Data, that is in transit as well as that which is stored, should be encrypted to ensure enhanced security. Businesses also need to ensure that the data that is being used and processed by a cloud application is adequately protected. In a nutshell, data should be protected throughout its life cycle.

• Data backup- Enterprises must back up their data, physically as well as virtually. This is a proactive security measure that ensures protection against malicious attacks and such system failures that can cause data loss either permanently or temporarily. Data backups ensure that data is available at all times.

• Ensuring the security of endpoints- A cloud infrastructure does not eliminate the requirement for endpoint security. Usually most of the cyberattacks and threats to security begin at the endpoint level. Hence, businesses should implement adequate endpoint security measures with the aid of comprehensive solutions for security.

• Assessment of risks- Enterprises must carry out risk assessment and analysis constantly and update the practices related to it. This aids an enterprise in not only reviewing its cloud provider’s security capabilities as well as compliance status but also enables it to evaluate its own internal development tools. A company must keep tabs on its internal as well as its public cloud’s security and monitoring related tools and controls along with its operation management. Such constant monitoring enables a company to have enough time to modify these tools and controls when there is a requirement for it.

• Following a plan for continuity and recovery- It is essential that businesses have a backup plan for operations to take place seamlessly if any problem occurs, such as data center power outages, services’ disruption etc. Image-based backups can be included in a recovery plan for restoring or recovering data.

Conclusion

Every security issue that is related to a hybrid cloud has a solution. It is important for enterprises to not only ensure proper implementation of security measures for known security concerns but also to be proactive with regard to security solutions, in order to have a secure hybrid cloud environment that functions efficiently, seamlessly and can be managed easily.

Source:https://www.htshosting.org/knowledge-base/cloud-hosting/60/ways-to-secure-a-hybrid-cloud

Easy and Affordable VPS Hosting

 VPS Hosting is a type of web hosting service that is provided by most of the professional web hosting companies. Prior to knowing more about VPS, let us understand web hosting in brief. Web hosting is the service that makes it possible for websites to be accessible over the Internet. This professional service provides the necessary technology, along with server space for storing the files of websites and then delivers those files on user request over the Internet. Web hosting is of various types, such as shared, dedicated, reseller, WordPress, cloud and VPS.

VPS is the abbreviation for a Virtual Private Server. VPS hosting mimics the environment of a dedicated server within a shared server. A Virtual Private Server is functionally comparable to a dedicated server. A VPS is a virtual OS (Operating System) which exists within a server. Virtualization technology is used by it for providing dedicated resources to other virtual servers. Although a VPS acts like a dedicated server, it’s essentially a software that is mimicking a dedicated physical server. Since a VPS is software-defined, it can be created and configured easily. Moreover, the price of a VPS is lower than that of an equivalent physical server. VPS Hosting usually costs less than dedicated hosting and at the same time provides more reliability, better security and performance than shared hosting. This has ensured the popularity of VPS as a web hosting option.

HTS Hosting has been consistently providing the best and the cheapest VPS hosting service globally. The managed and self-managed Virtual Private Servers of HTS Hosting have many features to ensure powerful site performance, such as expandable SSD, high uptime of 99.9%, root access to the server ensuring the freedom to install applications, the most recent security measures, enhanced flexibility for better control over one’s VPS and many more features along with data backup facility and the most proficient technical support. All these benefits are available at highly discounted prices, for both Linux and Windows-based VPS.

Enhanced speed and security along with flexibility, greater control over server and all the other major benefits of VPS are provided by HTS Hosting at the most affordable prices. The reliable and affordable VPS hosting plans of HTS Hosting has ensured its popularity and is the reason for it being the best and the cheapest VPS hosting service provider in 2020-21.

Source:https://htshosting.tumblr.com/post/646512690486968320/easy-and-affordable-vps-hosting