Month: August 2020

August 24, 2020

Domain Related

Reading Time: 9 minutes

It’s been said that you can never predict what the future hold, and in the same way you also can’t predict what the future will hold for you. And perhaps we can also agree that you’re going to be equally uncertain as to what the future will demand of you. It’s likely that there’s no better sphere for this reality to be put on display than the digital one, and one corner of that world where it’s ever so true it with applications. Some apps make quite a splash upon introduction, while others sink like a stone. The majority of them fall somewhere in between, but for those that splash it’s not uncommon to see the demand for your app exceed even your expectations. That’s the rosy part of it all, and the app developer will be just basking in their success and relishing the demand. When the demand is more related to what the app’s users - particularly if they’re paying ones - expect of it, however, that’s when the receptiveness is often mixed with some degree of ‘how am I going to go accommodate these demands?’ Now here at 4GoodHosting we’re well established as quality Canadian web hosting provider, but we’re the furthest thing from web app developers and that’s probably a good thing considering our expertise is in what we do and a developer’s expertise is in what they do. That’s as it should be, but one thing we do know is that everyone is going to be all ears when it comes to learning what they can do better to be better at what they do. Which leads us to today’s topic - what are the best ways for scaling apps rapidly when a developer simply doesn’t have the time he or she’d like to accommodate demand that expects expanded capabilities now. We’ll preface here by saying we’ve taken this entirely from SMES (subject matter experts if you’re not familiar with the acronym) who are on top of everything related to the world of app development, but we can say it checks out as legitimately good information. Pandemic Spiking Demand The COVID-19 pandemic continues on, and...

August 17, 2020

Domain Related

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Safe to say there won’t be anyone who’s even slightly enamoured with all the different fallouts from the Global Pandemic, and if your discontent is particularly strong then you had best buckle down as projections of the 2nd wave arriving imminently are looking to be pretty darn accurate (at least here in Vancouver where the general disregard to protocols is pretty much absolute in public). One wrinkle in all of this – albeit a pretty big wrinkle – is we’re leaning on the World Wide Web more heavily than ever before it seems. This was especially in the early spring when the stay-at-home messaging was still being well received, and people were either online working or keeping themselves entertained indoors. Since then the nature of demand has shifted, but we’re not sufficiently in the know regarding all of this to say exactly how it’s all worked. But the long and short of it is that collectively we’re putting demand strains on Broadband infrastructure like never before, and in a lot of ways it’s buckling under the weight of these demands. We’re like any quality Canadian web hosting provider here at 4GoodHosting in that we’re likely more up front when it comes to having this be readily apparent. We know from extensive 2nd hand experience how much people get up in arms over the struggles that come with a lack of bandwidth and the nature of what we do (and know accordingly) makes us all to aware of how big a problem this has the potential to become. Particularly with the imminently ubiquitous nature of 5G network use around the globe. All this said, let’s use today’s blog to have a more detailed look at this ‘constriction’ and the significance of it. Only So Much Width to the Tube Not the most natural of analogies for this phenomenon, but bear with us. So there’s been a map recently created in Australia, and while we’re not able to show the map due to copyright restrictions it’s quite telling. Its been referred to as a ‘global internet pressure’ map and what it does is show the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic is...

August 10, 2020

Domain Related

Reading Time: 6 minutes

There are a lot of people who’ve decried the way the Internet has gone from being a genuine open-source information and content resource to by and large a massive, seething marketing tool. That’s a fair enough complaint, but if you’re making it you had better by an average joe and not someone with business (or income) interests in it serving that purpose. Truth is it was going to happen one way or another anyways, and so we’re all well advised to get used to it. The explosion of advertising that has come with that and assaulted your screen at every opportunity is something you need to tolerate, but with it has come the concurrent explosion of adware that can do all sorts of nefarious things to your web-browsing devices without you being aware of it. These web security threats tend not to rest on their laurels, and these days we’re seeing the threats related to Adware morphing into different and more sneaky forms. Now of course here at 4GoodHosting, our being a premier Canadian web hosting provider has us fairly front and center for watching all of this transpire in the same way it would be for anyone working in the industry. All of this does beg the question what exactly are the interests of those who put time and effort into building and deploying this adware, but that’s a whole different discussion. Anyways, back to the topic at hand – There are both emerging and expanding problems related to Adware these days, and keeping yourself insulated from them requires more than it used to. So let’s have a look at all of that today and hopefully put you more in the know about what you need to do to stay safe from them. Adware – What is It Exactly? Adware is lurking-in-the-background software that works to display ads on computers and mobile devices. At times it’s referred to as an adware virus or a potentially unwanted program (PUP) and nearly all the time they’re installed without a user okaying any such ad. Adware is quite the troublemaker – it interferes with browsing experiences, displays excessive amounts of unwelcome pop-ups,...

August 4, 2020

Domain Related

Reading Time: 5 minutes

If you’re a layperson like most and haven’t heard of Kubernetes, or container orchestration systems in the bigger picture of things, then your unawareness is excusable. If you’re a web developer and you haven’t heard of either, however, you almost certainly have been living under a rock as the expression goes. These days the digital world is doing everything on the grandest of scales, and with that size of operations comes the need to be able to consolidate and store data and everything else that makes that world tick as much as it needs to tick. Now even most of the most ordinary of you will have heard of SaaS - Software as a service - and it’s likely a good many are even taking advantage of it at this very time. One of the most common instances is how, for example, you’re paying a monthly fee to enjoy the Microsoft Office suite on your desktop or notebook rather than having had to fork over big bucks all at once for a box containing a disk and a need for you to install the software. The SaaS train continues to pick up speed, and truth be told that’s a good thing - no one needs excess packaging OR having to spend time installing anything if there’s a legitimate alternative to it. With SaaS, there is - and here at 4GoodHosting we’re not unlike any other good Canadian web hosting provider in that we ourselves are benefitting from all these ‘aaS’ developments too and it’s something we’re almost certainly just seeing the tip of the iceberg of when it comes to how much of what we previously ‘bought’ hard copies of is not available as a service provided through the web. CaaS - containers as a services - is just the latest and shiniest offering in this regard. So what’s it all about, and how is it going to be relevant for who? Let’s get into that here today. Brief Background Global enterprises are more and more eager to make use of containers, with 65 percent of organizations stating they use Docker containers, and 58 percent using the Kubernetes orchestration system...