Category Archives: Domain Related

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Most people don’t give much thought to what’s going on beyond their view when they’re utilizing the Internet for whatever reason, and in an ideal world there wouldn’t be any reason for them to think about risks connected to that very normal and commonplace activity. And these days most of us are online with our mobile devices just as often as we’re doing so seated at a notebook or desktop. In much the same way your home or building has an address on the front of it, so does your spot along the information superhighway.

That’s a very simplistic way of defining what an IP address is, but it works well enough in context here as it indicated where you’re accessing the internet from, and it provides a fairly accurate ‘location’ as part of the basic workings of how the Internet functions. IP addresses allow for consistent user profiles and are needed for critical web functionalities like routing traffic, fraud prevention, and other vital network tasks.

Nine times out of 10 it is not going to matter if your IP address is ‘exposed’, meaning that there’s an identifiable spot on the Web where you’re accessing it from. But every once in a while there are real risks with having it on display like that, and so now a new feature with the world’s most popular web browser is aiming to remove that risk factor.

As you’ll find is the case with most reputable Canadian web hosting providers, we like to point out these types of developments when they have the potential to be very valuable for people. This is definitely the case here, and especially considering that you and most others who’ll be reading this are very likely doing so on a Chrome browser. So with this week’s entry here we will talk about how the newest Chrome update comes with an excellent new feature that can ‘hide’ your IP address from view.

Made Anonymous

Have your IP address exposed and you’re at risk of cyberattacks of all sorts, location tracking, hacking, Cyberattacks, information intercepts, network system breaches, data transmission spying, and monitoring of your browsing activity for no-good purposes. There’s more in the way of potential bad outcomes too, and the risks of all of them are more pronounced today than ever before.

Google’s new IP Protection solution is a potential fix that redirects 3rd-party traffic from specific domains through proxies, making users’ IP addresses invisible to those domains. It’s expected that IP Protecting will evolve alongside the ecosystem, and continue to adapt for optimum safeguarding of users from cross-site tracking and adding additional domains to the proxied traffic. IP address will be anonymized for qualifying traffic.

To start with this will be an opt-in feature, but it’s expected that most users will readily activate it when made aware, and their reasoning being that most people will want to have better control over their privacy and letting Google monitor behavior trends. It’s expected that there will be regional considerations that need to be taken into account to start, but that eventually there some degree of uniformity in application will be realized.

Exploratory Roll Out

Initially only the domains listed will be affected in 3rd-party contexts, with the primary focus being on those believed to be tracking users. Apparently this going to be known as ‘Phase 0’ and during it Google will be proxying requests only to its own domains and via a proprietary proxy. The understanding is that this approach will help Google test the system’s infrastructure and better define domain lists.

To start with users logged into Google Chrome and with US-based IPs will be the only ones who can access these proxies, but what goes down South usually goes up North here before long. As a safety feature that may only be temporary, a Google-operated authentication server will distribute access tokens to the proxy and each user will have a quota set for them.

Google also plans to adopt a 2-hop proxy system to increase privacy further, with a 2^nd proxy run by an external CDN. The advantage of this will be that neither proxy can see both the client IP address and the destination support chaining of proxies. Google plans on assigning IP addresses to proxy connections that represent a more approximate location of a user rather than their specific location, due to the fact that many online services utilize GeoIP to determine a user’s location for offering services.

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This is the time of year when people start thinking they just can’t get enough sunshine, but it’s natural to feel that way when the days get shorter and the weather tends to be darker and drearier. But nonetheless it’s an incredible free resource that contributes to our overall well-being in so many ways, and there’s people with seasonal affective disorder who actually become sick due to a lack of rays.

Now it may seem strange that we’d be talking about sunshine in a discussion of memory, bandwidth and anything tied into the way we are collectively utilizing digital technologies. But here’s the connection; we may be able to get by with shorter and darker days because we know eventually spring will come around again. But when it comes to bandwidth and the lack of it slowing down our movements online there’s no reprieve coming and there’s also a lot of the concept of induced demand too.

So building more and wider free ways to accommodate traffic never works, but with bandwidth there are real tangible benefits to expanding, improving, and optimizing memory capacities. What’s new isn’t new for very long here, but these advances are the kinds of stuff that will appeal to any good Canadian web hosting provider and that’s true for us here at 4GoodHosting too. For that reason the coming advent of HBM4 memory is definitely a blog-worthy topic, and so that’s where we’re going for this week.

Fast Data Transfer Rates

High-bandwidth memory (HBM) is much more considerable today than it was 10 years ago even, and the way it has supercharged data transfer rates is something we’ve all benefited from. Much more in the way of features has come along with it too, and it seems that the best is yet to come with HBM memory and courtesy of the super digitally-savvy developers at Samsung.

The new HBM4 memory is expected to become available to consumers through standard product fare by next year (2024) and will feature a 2048-bit interface per stack that is 2x as wide as HBM3’s 1024-bit. This superior new memory is going to feature technologies optimized for high thermal properties in development, such as non-conductive film assembly and hybrid copper bonding.

This increase in interface width from 1024-bit per stack to 2048-bit per stack will likely constitute the biggest change in HBM memory technology ever seen. 1024-bit interfaces have been the norm for HBM stacks since 2015, and so over the course of 8 years many people have become accustomed to limitations created by them. This coming doubling up of capacity is going to be a treat for many of them as they make themselves newly accustomed to it.

Per-stack capacities of between 32GB and 64GB and peak bandwidth of 2 TB/s per stack or higher are going to facilitate major differences in operability right across the board. Let’s make it clear though that to build a 64GB stack you will need a 16-Hi stack with 32GB memory devices. To date nothing even close to that has been developed though, so it looks like such dense stacks will only hit the market alongside the introduction of HBM4.

Some TBD

All this rosy outlook may need to be tempered somewhat as we still don’t know whether memory makers will be able to take those ~9 GT/s data transfer rates supported by HBM3E stacks for HBM4 stacks with a 2048-bit interface and make them stick. But the belief is that with some trial and error over the next 6 months to a year they will and the increase in bus width will double peak bandwidth from 1.15 TB/s per stack to 2.30 TB/s per stack.

That’s power, space and flexibility in one tidy package, but we also need to be looking at how widening of a per-stack memory interface will affect the number of stacks processors and interposers can handle. We need to take today’s massive processors into account with relation to the implementation of new and superior memory technologies.

Nvidia’s H100 is a good example, and its support of six 1024-bit wide HBM3/HBM3E doesn’t go so well when its operating with a massive 6144-bit wide interface. However, if the interface of a single KGSD increases to 2048 bits then the question becomes do processor developers keep using the same number of HBM4 stacks, or do they need to find ways of reducing them will hopefully still maintaining high-performance standards.

All this said, HBM4 memory looks like it’s going to be a fantastic add, even though implementation of it still has a few building blocks that have yet to be put in place.

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Profound developments in digital technology over the last 10+ years have made it so that there’s more than one means of doing something 9 times out of 10. As it relates to being able to access and utilize data that’s been hugely beneficial, but with greater means of whatever it may be comes greater risk of that accessibility being abused by those who don’t have legit intentions when it comes to how that data and / or resources are utilized.

It is not really physical access control that’s at issue here when it comes to security risks associated with all of this, and instead it’s much more related to logical access controls. The difference between the two is that logical access is primarily for access to a digital space of some sort, and so it makes sense that any and all cybersecurity risks that are inherently increased with digital access controls are going to bee seen in that logical access space. Examples can be passwords to access files on a shared server, or biometric credentials to access certain features on corporate networks.

As we all know there’s no going back when it comes to tech progress, and part of being a quality Canadian web hosting provider is seeing, understanding, and being responsive to changing realities that are occurring as technology makes resources accessible is a part of being accountable to those who trust us with their web hosting. Some people won’t have any need to take so much of an interest in it, but others will and we feel it’s helpful to be informative where we can be.

We’ve also seen how cloud computing has become so integral in every aspect of modern computing and with ecommerce very much tied into tit. What we’re seeing now is how access control tech is increasingly dependent on cloud-based solutions, and there’s plenty of good reasons for that It’s what we’ll look at with this blog entry.

Progressively Less Secure

Developing and implementing managed access control systems continues to be an aspect of physical security that is of paramount importance for most modern organizations. There are reports indicating the global access control and authentication market is growing at cumulative annual rate of 11.4% and should reach a total market size of $37.2 billion by 2032.

The relevance of this is based on the way physical access control systems continue to be utilized by organizations of all sizes, with estimates putting 41% of businesses operating physical access control technology believing their systems meet or exceed necessary functional requirements.

But these days several contributing factors are detracting from the efficacy of some installed physical access systems. There is an estimated 38% increase in global cyberattacks that pose significant threats to security systems, and many businesses may feel their systems need updating to incorporate more touchless access solutions in the wake of the pandemic.

In response to all this there have been continued developments in the field of cloud-based access control technology that aim to address the growth of more pressing security concerns. Integrated systems can now provide security teams with automated responses, predictive analysis features and remote-access functionality. But why is it that cloud-based solutions are so integral to the future of access control tech for modern businesses?

Flexibility & Authority

Cloud-based security management platforms enable admins to configure and adjust active systems much more quickly and from remote locations using any secure smart device. One of the biggest pluses is this lets teams to immediately respond to detected anomalies and revoke live permissions if necessary. They can also view live data feeds pertaining to connected devices to better understand unfolding incidents.

Organizations with a cloud-based access control solutions enjoy so much more in the way of flexibility and authority over the management of physical security responses and there are significant benefits to cloud-based access control. For starters they have the option of hosting the management of access control solutions within cloud servers, security and IT teams to extend the functionality of existing hardware, and extending it far beyond the limitations of a segregated system.

This means access control devices can be informed by data from additional systems to measurably improve the efficacy of incident responses, along with much more far-reaching customization. It will also prevent unauthorized access to private properties by limiting entry only to persons carrying verified credentials. This will be dependent on modern access control systems being designed to provide users with a convenient way to enter facilities though.

Cloud-based access control solutions are well equipped to mitigate these concerns, and they do it by enabling security and IT teams to view live access logs and adjust active hardware remotely. This means issues regarding suspected faults can be seen to without delay and admins can grant access to guests and visitors remotely. The biggest advantage to this is contractors and interviewees can be managed appropriately.

The last big advantage we’ll highlight here is how cloud-based security cameras equipped with AI data analytics software can be connected to access readers via a wider web-based management platform. When cameras are able to intelligently detect suspicious events and correctly identify them and their nature then access control locks can be automatically engaged and security teams can be notified remotely.

Cloud-based access control systems will also be set to receive significant data security and maintenance benefits when they are hosted on cloud servers. Identifiable user data is then made available to teams when needed and smart automatic backups will minimize the risk of data loss.

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Not everyone has the same vocation, but some of us have ones where we’ve been referred to as ‘white collar’ types who are in an office 9 to 5 Monday to Friday. For us it’s normal to need to go through a long list of unopened emails every morning, and if you’re more of a blue collar than white type of person then you can be thankful you don’t need to do that. But that’s neither here nor there with what we’re going to discuss for our blog entry here this week.

Email may have had the soundest of beginnings, and the value it has had in allowing speedy yet detailed interpersonal communications has been invaluable. But these days nearly everything has the potential to be corrupted to some extent and by whatever means, and your inbox is the farthest thing from being immune to that. If you’re on of the office guys or gals we talked about to begin with, you may have already had to deal with domain name spoofing. What’s also like is that you’ve received a company-wide email warning you to be on the lookout for it.

99+% of customers for every good Canadian web hosting provider is going to have an inbox of their own, and many of them may be the same hotbed of activity and incoming emails in the same way it is for us. Domain name spoofing is one of the more pronounced risks where recipients can be fooled into greenlighting scams and other types of nefarious digital activity, so let’s use this entry to talk about what you can do to keep yourself safe from it.

What is Display Name Spoofing?

Mail display name spoofing involves cybercriminals impersonating others and manipulating the sender’s display name so that the email appears to come from a trusted source. In worst-case scenarios – and they unfortunately work out this way often – recipients then open the mail and possibly end up clicking on malicious links, or revealing sensitive information.

Getting into more specifics, this is the way it works and what you’ll probably quickly come to see is that display name spoofing isn’t difficult to do. The perps will first identify a target, and the best ones for them are organizations or individuals with a level of trustworthiness or a reputation that’s ripe for exploitation. From there an email message is crafted and they make every effort to make it seems genuine and containing a message that will see legitimate to the recipient.

There are even means by which they can use the same logos and formatting that you’d see in an email coming from that specific source, and the best ones do really well in imitating the same the type of language that would be used. Often times with even the same type of syntax structures.

But the most essential part of this construction is in the way the email address isn’t changed, while the sender’s display name is. And quite often the change is very small and subtle and you would need to look at it with more than just a glance to detect an inaccuracy. What the attacker does is change the sender’s display name to match that of the trusted source.

The Sending

Once the email has been built then it is sent to the target, and the problem is in the fact that the recipient sees only the spoofed display name and not the actual email address. If their guard is down and / or they’re not paying close attention, they may open the email and then interact with in the same way the spoofer wants.

It’s common to incorporate a deceptive subject line too, and quite often they will use one that instills urgency or curiosity, encouraging the recipient to open the email. Too many people become victims here , and the reason for that is because recipients often trust emails that appear to come from familiar names or organizations. When that happens they are more likely to engage with the messages.

You don’t even need a lot of skill or proficiency to be able to do this, and that may also be a part of why domain name spoofing is occurring a lot more frequently these days.

How to Protect Yourself

The first thing you can do is look at the email addresses much more carefully to verify them. Always check the sender’s full email address, and this means not looking at only the display name. If it is unrecognizable or is oddly put together and doesn’t ‘look’ right, don’t open the email and if you’re convinced it is fraudulent you should block the sender and report it to your IT team if you are in an office workplace environment.

It’s also advisable to be skeptical of emails that demand immediate action or contain urgent requests. This is a way that the senders try to trick you into making hasty decisions. You should also hover over links to get a visual of where you’re going to be redirected to. If the URL looks suspicious, don’t do it.

Email authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) are also recommended to avoid domain name spoofing. Enabling Multi-Factor Authentication is advisable too as it adds an extra layer of security to your email account, and the attackers will have more difficulty gaining access to it.

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Some people are already suggesting that we may have opened something of a Pandora’s box by embracing Artificial Intelligence and AI technologies like ChatGPT in the way that we have. Most will counter that by saying you can’t stop progress, and so if we’re beginning to spin into the black hole then so be it. We won’t wager an opinion on that, but like most we do know that as of now there’s a whole lot to like and look forward to with the implementation and utilization of AI.

These days one of the cyber security areas where it’s doing good and much-needed work is in the detection and prevention of phishing scams. Most of us will know McAfee as being one of the most well-known and renowned antivirus software suites.

Most will also know that the software’s creator – Mr. John McAfee – was truly a man’s man and during his time here he lived a life that was very admirable and he did a lot of good. He will continue to be someone for young men to look up to and emulate as they grow into adulthood, and that’s exactly what John would have wanted. The world needs more people like him, that is for sure.

All that aside, this talk about significant progress into phishing scam detection and prevention is going to be a topic of interest for us here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would be for any good Canadian web hosting provider. Let’s take this week’s entry here to look at the growing scope of the problem and how new tech developments powered by AI are helping to counter growing threats.

Tricked Into

Phishing scams have been occurring for decades, but in more recent years have evolved to become increasingly sophisticated. A phishing attack will involve people being ‘tricked’ into providing sensitive information like login credentials, credit card numbers or other personal data. Along with all the technological advances go similar advances with the tools and techniques scammers utilize to conduct their attacks.

So while AI is part of the cure, it’s also part of the disease figuratively speaking. AI’s fast rise has created new opportunities for scammers to conduct more effective and targeted phishing scams, but at the same time AI can also be used to improve phishing detection and prevention techniques. Let’s start with how AI makes phishing scams stronger.

AI-Powered Phishing Scams

1. Spear Phishing

You may have snorkeled back to the boat with a Dorado for dinner, but in the digital world spear phishing is a highly targeted form of phishing that involves sending personalized messages to specific individuals or groups. AI increases the power and reach of them by automating the process of collecting information about a target. Social media activity, online behavior and personal interests etc. all gleaned to craft a highly personalized message that is more likely to persuade the person to make the fateful click or whatever it may be.

2. Deepfakes

Deepfakes are realistic videos or images created with AI and then used to impersonate someone else. Scammers can use deepfakes to create videos or images of executives, celebrities, chumps or other high-profile individuals and entirely convincing the person that they’re communicating with a legitimate source.

3. Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots are another great and very welcome utility for scammers. They are capable of engaging with a lot of targets at one time and reaching more targets than traditional phishing methods would be able to. Chatbots may also initiate conversations with people and convince them into providing sensitive information or click on malicious links.

Guarded Against

Alright, to the other side of the coin now; what can AI developments do to better detect phishing scams and put a target on them for unsuspecting users? Here it is.

1. Machine Learning

Training machine learning algorithms to identify phishing emails is being turned into a valuable weapon against phishing scam initiators. They are able to analyze various features like a sender’s email address, the content of the email, and the nature of any embedded links or attachments they’re including in whatever it is. They can also analyze user behavior and identify anomalies that could point to a phishing attack being set up.

2. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

NLP can be used to analyze the content of emails and pinpoint patterns or keywords that are known telltale signs of phishing emails. NLP algorithms analyze the language used in phishing emails to identify common patterns and determine if they are genuine or fake. They are also focusing on cross-channel communications across multiple channels to determine if they are part of any phishing attack.

3. User Behavior Analysis

Existing security systems can analyze patterns in user behavior much more intelligently with real focus and insight when backed by an AI. It can be used to monitor user login, link click, attachment download and email reply activity to identify anomalies that may indicate a phishing attempt. By monitoring user behavior, security systems are so much better with identifying and respond to phishing scams to prevent data breaches, financial losses and identity theft.

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You’ll have to excuse us if our ears prick up like a Doberman who’s attention has been seized when we hear any discussion of advances in data center technology. Such is as it is when you’re a Canadian web hosting service provider, as we know that without those advances of our business wouldn’t be relied up on to the extent it is by people who have a website at work for their business, venture, or any of a million different personal interests that warrant be put on display online.

The possibilities are endless. It seems as if we’re nowhere near the ceiling when it comes to digital advances in data storage technology, but with data access technology more specifically and being an increasingly integral part of that equation. Thanks goodness of engineers is a way of thinking we can definitely get onboard with, and we have covered nearly all of the most pertinent topics here as they relate to data center technology, from the more complex with colocation to the simpler with using seawater to cool data centers.

Which leads us to the latest advancement that we’re going to talk about with our entry here this week, and we’ll give a quick nod of approval in saying that we’re not at all surprised that it comes to us courtesy of the pioneering folks at Intel. And if you’re not entirely sure what a glass substrate is, not to worry as we had to read through this stuff ourselves to have even a formative understanding of it.

Replacement Strategy

Intel’s annual Innovation event got underway last week, and they got going full tilt with going into detail about their deploying glass substrates in new data center products and how that’s quite the departure from how up until now it has primarily been organic materials used. That’s in large part because nothing of any other nature showed promise in improving performance. Until now that is.

But before we get into the meat of all this news, we should say that Intel made it quite clear that the implementation of this technology is not just around the corner by any means. It is still many years away from becoming reality, so a lot can and will change before it arrives. We’re still as keen as can be about learning more details about how using glass instead of organic material for a chip’s substrate is possible.

What was learned at the event was that the primary advantage gained from glass being a more stable material than what data center component makers are currently using is that it will allow these manufacturers to scale their chiplet designs much higher than would be possible otherwise. All of which works out to a much higher quantity of silicon tiles on a package, and that meets a real need with the ability to pack more chips onto a glass substrate being conducive to the creation of data center and AI chips that require advanced packaging.

Not Just Any Glass

Intel wasn’t forthcoming about what kind of glass will be a part of the substrates and how that type of glass works specifically to improve the function and capacity of data centers in the big picture. But what can be assumed based on everything that’s come to forefront about this over the last week is that using glass will bring gains in both performance and density. With the new proprietary designs chip designers should possess a lot more flexibility when creating complex chips in the future.

We’ve also learned that the stability of glass allows for considerable increase in routing and signaling wires, and to the tune of 10 times what would be possible without the glass substrates incorporated into the materials. What this does is it lets wires be smaller and located more closely together, which will let Intel reduce the number of metal layers involved.

With more volume of signals and better signals greater numbers of chiplets can be stacked onto the package, and the glass’s thermal stability will allow more power to be channeled into the chip instead of being potentially lost in the interconnects.

This type of glass substrate is also extremely flat compared with current organic substrate materials, and when viewed one next to the other you’d see how the substrates of-choice here are a homogenous slab rather than a composite made up of different materials. This type of design makes the chiplet less likely to warp or shrink over time.

Added benefits on top of those performance ones include more stability through thermal cycles and much more in the way of predictability with the way chips may be increasingly interconnected on a package. There’s a lot to digest there, but when you do you can see how this is in line with being a part of new and extra-large data centers and AI chips working within them.

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Some groups come to a consensus on the best domain name for their business or venture very quickly, while other times there are some serious conversation and debates that go on around them. And of course, it’s entirely possible that the domain name you all come to agree on is not available in the first place. Businesses that have a unique name or are based around an irregular surname will usually be fine with getting their desired domain, and there are plenty of free domain name availability checkers out there for people to use.

There are also a lot of people who speculate on domain names, buying them in hopes that the demand for them will increase and they’ll be able to sell them at a profit sometime in the future. That’s an entirely different topic of discussion, but we are going to talk about is something that is very beneficial for people but a topic that maybe won’t entirely make sense to a lot of people at the same time.

That’s because they are likely to think that once you’ve secured a domain name then that’s the end of it. Why would investing in domain privacy even be an issue to begin with? Well, it can be an issue and for those with more commonplace domains it is even more highly advisable. This is something that any good Canadian web hosting provider will agree with very readily, and that applies to us here at 4GoodHosting too.

There is no shortage of very good reasons why some domain owners would be wise to invest in privacy protection for their domain name, and that’s going to be our focus with this week’s entry here.

Smart Access Containment

Without exception, it is possible that anyone’s personal data may be insufficiently defended against cyberattacks and data breaches. A domain security add-on is never going to be mandatory, but the extra security it provides to protect your website, personal information, and identity is recommended and for some much more so than others.

These are reasons why you should invest in domain privacy protection, and its generally understood that those considering it will know if there digital world work realities necessitate more for them than others.

1. Anyone is able to access your personal information

ICANN is an abbreviation for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and what it does is require anyone (business, organization, individual – anyone) who owns a website to provide full contact information for the domain that they wish to purchase. And after it has been purchased then all of the contact details attached to your web hosting domain becomes publicly available to anyone on the Internet. That’s attributable to the function of WHOIS, a database that keeps a full record of who owns a domain and how that owner can be contacted.

Once in the WHOIS database, there are no limitations around who can enter your registered domain name into the search bar, and retrieve your personal information. Meaning anyone can do it. Along with your phone number, email address, and mailing address, WHOIS will have information about who the domain is registered to, the city they reside in, when the registration expires, and when the last update for it occurred.

The problem there of course is that hackers and spammers can misuse your data for dishonest purposes. And keep in mind that WHOIS you’re only allowed to register a domain with authentic information. You can can’t conceal the truthfulness of anything.

2. You are able to prevent data scraping

One of the major detrimental outcomes of data scraping is that it can leave you at the mercy of disreputable marketers. Receiving a ton of marketing emails and phone calls soon after registering your domain name is a sign you’ve been victimized by data scraping: the process of gathering information from publicly available sources, and then transferring it into a spreadsheet or local file to be used for various purposes.

Unfortunately, this is a common mailing list generator tactic for 3^rd-party vendors and they do it to sell the information to businesses and organizations for a profit. Once that happens you are instantly inundated with unwelcome communication aimed at separating your from your $. And in a worst-case scenario data scraping can lead to eventual identity theft. Email phishing scams can grow out of data scraping too, but domain privacy protection reliably prevents all of that.

3. Avoiding competitors engaged in market research

Having your information publicly available through WHOIS makes it that much easier for your competitors to steal your contact information and use it for their own business strategies. Investing in domain privacy protection will make it challenging for them to do this. But if they can, such valuable information can give them the type of insight into your business and the way you operate that you really don’t want them to have. Even in the slightest.

4. Quick & Easy to Add

The option of adding domain privacy protection is usually made available to you within the process of new domain name registration. But if you had decided not to enable it at the start, you can still change your mind to add domain privacy to an existing domain name.

There is one notable limitation to domain privacy protection, and that’s if you’re looking to sell your domain name in the future.. Potential customers or business partners who wish to buy your domain name might have difficulty getting in contact with you in a timely manner. That’s really about it though, and investing in domain privacy protection is entirely advisable most of the time. You will be able to take your personal information off a public platform so data scraping becomes impossible, and this both ensures your information does not fall into the wrong hands along with hiding valuable information from your competitors.

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Despite all of the advances made with making it more possible for greater and more full internet connectivity it is always going to be a situation where many times even plenty of bandwidth is just barely enough depending on the demands being put on a network. Developers may be staying ahead of the pack with that, but just barely. What makes any potential shortcomings more of a cause for concern is when strong internet connectivity is being required for IoT applications.

Not to make any less of other interests, but this newer one has become such an integral part of the world and it’s fairly safe to say all of us are both utilizing and benefiting from IoT-ready devices in our lives. It’s great that you’re able to adjust thermostats at home from the office or open your garage door on the way home long before you’re in range of the door opener clipped to your sun visor in the vehicle. All IoT applications have value, and if they didn’t they’d never have been invested in. But some have a lot more collective value than others, and these days that’s best exampled in healthcare technology.

So in the bigger picture there’s a collective interest in ensuring that IoT integrations continue to occur, and observing the push for making that happens is always going to be something that will be of interest for us here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would be for any quality Canadian web hosting provider. It’s a topic where it is wise to always defer to those more in the know than you, and in doing that we’ve been interested to learn that there’s a real push to make those types of device integrations easier to develop. That’s what we’re going to look at here with today’s entry.

Initiatives for Smart Fixes

Currently there is a large array of opportunities to develop novel business models built out of smart factory initiatives integrating advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. This will promote the growth of supplementary revenue streams, but there is also a lot more to it in terms of tangible benefits these individuals, organizations, and companies may gain from those smart factory initiatives.

The issue is in the way too many manufacturers have difficulty turning smart factory projects into reality. IoT implementation can be the fix there, with devices outfitted with embedded sensors to reduce downtime, facilitate data acquisition and exchange, and pushing manufacturers to optimize production processes. The reality though is that integrating these devices with existing systems can cause difficulties with integration issues and the need for specialized expertise.

However, newer developments and trends in IoT device and networks development is meaning that manufacturers can harness the potential of IoT to accomplish digital transformation and maintain a competitive edge in their market.

Low-Code Strategy for IoT Adoption

Low-code/no-code development strategy looks as if it is going to be key to overcoming these challenges connected to building and integrating IoT devices and networks. Leveraging these solutions can make it more doable for organizations to create custom applications for IoT use cases, manage data sources effectively, and ensure applications are properly aligned with the needs of multiple stakeholders. The manufacturing sector in particular can have low-code development methodologies helping businesses to fully utilize IoT opportunities that they may benefit greatly from in their operations.

More specifically, low-code technologies will work well for lining up team members with solutions that are comparatively easier to implement and yet not requiring them to have extensive knowledge of coding languages, best practices, and development principles. Being able to access a user-friendly, drag-and-drop framework can promote developers coming to much more rapid solution implementation, and time is usually of the essence with this sort of development to begin with.

Low-code platforms let citizen developers create solutions without relying solely on IT. While IT is still essential for higher-order tasks like data ingestion, cybersecurity, and governance, low-code allows business departments allows for collaboration and more rapid development to occur at the same time.

Benefits of the Right Low-Code/No-Code Platform

Identifying the most ideal low-code/no-code platform for IoT integration is imperative for manufacturers who wish to speed up development workflows significantly, as well as for those who see a need to boost operational efficiency and maintain any competitive edges they may currently have.

There are many benefits of the right low-code / no-code platform that will cater that need, and the most standard of them are:

Multiple-System Integration: The correct platform will integrate with various systems and devices seamlessly, and this smooth transition will allow manufacturers to leverage existing infrastructure to support IoT devices as needed and in the best manner. Efficient data exchange and collaboration across the entire IoT ecosystem is likely to be an end result.

Security: Robust security features will need to be a part of any chosen platform, including data encryption, secure communication protocols, and access controls. The reason for this importance is in protecting sensitive data and maintain the overall security of the IoT ecosystem. Low and No-Code platforms will foster the type of work and insight into best practices that will cater to this need.

Flexibility & customization: Platforms will ideally offer a comprehensive development environment, including visual editors, pre-built components, and support for custom code. With them manufacturers will be better able to tailor applications and solutions to their specific processes and requirements.Vendor support and community: Robust vendor systems will be best when they support thorough documentation, regular updates, and dedicated customer service. All of which are needed for smooth IoT integration. This also better promotes an active developer community that can offer valuable insights, share libraries, and collectively contribute to an understanding of best practices for successful deployment and continuous improvement.

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Abstract means to be created outside of any conventions or norms that apply to whatever it is, but abstraction technology is entirely different. It is the technology by which a programmer hides everything except relevant data about an object, and the aim with is to reduce complexity. Abstraction technology has been integral to the development of cloud computing, and of course we don’t need to go on even a bit about how it has so wholly changed the landscape of the digital world and business within it to a great extent.

With regards to cloud infrastructure, virtualization is a key part of how it is possible to set up a cloud environment and have it function the way it does. Virtualization is an abstraction technology itself, and it separates resources from physical hardware and pools them into clouds. For there the software that takes direction of those resources is known as a hypervisor, where the machine’s CPU power, memory, and storage are then virtualized themselves. It was almost unheard of for hypervisors to be maxed out for the early years of cloud computing. Not anymore.

This leads to a different angle on why cloud infrastructure growth continues full force even though it’s becoming more challenge in relation to the expense of it. This is a topic that any good Canadian web hosting provider is going to take an interest in and that’s the case for those of us here at 4GoodHosting too. Servers are part of hardware of course, and the way virtualization can connect two servers together without any literal physical connection at all is at the very center of what makes cloud storage so great.

The mania surrounding AI as well as the impact of inflation have pushed cloud spending even more, and the strong contributing factors to that are what we’re going to lay out here today.

Componentry Differences

Spending on computer and storage infrastructure products in the first quarter increased to $21.5 billion last year, and this year spending on cloud infrastructure continues to outpace the non-cloud segment, which declined 0.9% in 1Q23 to $13.8 billion. Unit demand went down 11.4%, but average selling prices grew 29.7%.

The explanation for these gains seems to be that the soaring prices are likely from a combination of inflationary pressure as well as a higher concentration of more expensive, GPU-accelerated systems being deployed by cloud service providers. AI is factoring in two, with unit sales for servers down for the first time in almost two decades and prices up due to the arrival of dedicated AI servers with expensive GPUs in them.

The $15.7 billion spent on cloud infrastructure in the first quarter of 2023 is a gain of 22.5% compared to a year ago. Continuing strong demand for shared cloud infrastructure is expected, and it is predicted to surpass non-cloud infrastructure in spending within this year. So we can look for the cloud market to expand while the non-cloud segment will contract with enterprise customers shifting towards capital preservation.

Super Mega

A dip in the sales of servers and storage for hosting under rental/lease programs is notable here too. That segment declined 1.5% to $5.8 billion, but the fact that over the previous 12 months sales of gear into dedicated cloud use has gone up 18+% makes it fairly clear that was an aberration. The increasing migration of services to the cloud is also a reflection of how on-premises sales continue to slow while cloud sales increase

Spending on cloud infrastructure is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the vicinity of 11% over the 2022-2027 forecast period, with estimates that it will reach $153 billion in 2027 and if so making up for 69% of the total spent on computer and storage infrastructure We’ll conclude for this week by mentioning again just how front and center AI is in all of this. It is extremely compute- and storage-intensive nature makes it expensive, and many firms now have AI-ready implementation as a top priority. A survey found that 47% of companies are making AI their top spending area in technology over the next calendar year.

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Wired connections will have some people immediately thinking of dial-up modems and the like from the early days of Internet connectivity, but that is really not how it should be considering that Ethernet has in no way gone the way of the Dodo bird. Or AOL for that matter, but what we’re setting up for here is a discussion where we explain how Ethernet connectivity is still entirely relevant even though maybe not as much as when it made its functional arrival 50 years ago.

That’s right, it took quite some time before the applications of the technology become commonplace the way it did in the early to mid-1990s and some of us are old enough to remember a time when making the physical connection was the only option. And it’s entirely true to say that doing so continues to have some very specific advantages, and that can segue easily into a similar discussion about how large cloud data centers rely so completely on the newest variations of Ethernet technology.

Both topics are always going be in line with what we take interest in here at 4GoodHosting given we’re one of the many good Canadian web hosting providers. We’ve had previous entries where we’ve talked about Wi-Fi 6 and other emerging technologies, so now is an ideal time to talk about just how integral Ethernet technology advances have been for Cloud computing.

Targeted Consolidation

Ethernet was invented in 1973, and since then it has continuously been expanded and adapted to become the go-to Layer 2 protocol in computer networking across industries. There is real universality to it as it has been deployed everywhere from under the oceans to out in space. Ethernet use cases also continue to expand with new physical layers, and high-speed Ethernet for cameras in vehicles is one of a few good examples.

But where there is likely the most impact for Ethernet right now is at this point is with large cloud data centers. The way growth there has included interconnecting AI/ML clusters that are ramping up quickly adds to the fanfare that Ethernet connectivity is enjoying. And it has a wide array of other potential applications and co-benefits too.

Flexibility and adaptability are important characteristics of the technology, and in many ways it has become the default answer for any communication network. Whether that is for connecting devices or computers, in nearly all cases inventing yet another network is not going to be required.

Ethernet also continues to be a central functioning component for distributed workforces, something that has more of an emphasis on it since Covid. Communication service provider were and continue to be under pressure to make more bandwidth available, and the way in which Ethernet is the foundational technology used for the internet and enabled individuals to carry out a variety of tasks efficiently from the comfort of their own homes is something we took note of.

Protocol Fits

Ethernet is also a more capable replacement for legacy Controller Area Network (CAN) and Local Interconnect Network (LIN) protocols, and for that reason it has become the backbone of in-vehicle networks implemented in cars and drones. Ethernet also grew to replace storage protocols, and the world’s fastest supercomputers continue to be backed by Ethernet nearly exclusively. Bus units for communication across all industries are being replaced by Ethernet, and a lot of that has to do with the simplicity of cabling.

Ethernet is also faster, cheaper, easier to troubleshoot because embedded NICs in motherboards, ethernet switches that can be of any size or speed, jumbo-frame Gigabit Ethernet NIC cards, and smart features like Ether Channel The ever-increasing top speed of Ethernet does demand a lot of attention, but there are focuses on the development and enhancement slower speed 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps, and 25Gbps Ethernet, and even the expansion of wireless networks will require more use of Ethernet. Remember that wireless doesn’t exist without wired and wireless access points require a wired infrastructure. Each massive-scale data center powering the cloud, AI, and other technologies of the future are all connected together by wires and fiber and originating from Ethernet switches.