Category Archives: Domain Related

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We are nearing the end of another calendar year, and we imaging many of you are like us in thinking that this one has flown by just like the last one and the one before that. Apparently this is the way as you get older, but we’ll prefer to believe it’s just because we are all busy at work most of the time and that is why those 12 months go by as quickly as they do. And if you’re reading this it’s more likely that what’s keeping you preoccupied is some type of business or personal venture that involves a website.

You don’t get far at all these days without one in business, and it’s probably fair to say you don’t actually get anywhere at all without one. We’re fully in the information age now, and if you want to be reliably visible to the greatest volume of prospective customers you need to be discoverable via their smartphone or notebook. Simple as that, and we won’t go on anymore at length about. But as mentioned 2022 is coming to a close here so we thought to take our last blog entry of the year here and center it around one of the most newsworthy topics of all for the digital world in 2022 – A.I.

And more specifically how artificial intelligence is changing the parameters of what we do here as a good Canadian web hosting provider – providing web hosting with reliable uptime in Canada and the best in affordable Canadian web hosting too. We’re not the only one, and we’re not the only one who can attest to how artificial intelligence is changing the web hosting industry and able to discuss it in some detail. So here goes.

Functionally Influential

Major advances in computerized and internet computing can be attributed to AI, and particularly over the last 10+ years. The different uses and applications of AI have given it the upper hand over computer-generated reality and Augmented Reality (AR) and it’s been quite the influential factor in the relatively short time it’s been a factor in the big picture of technology trends and their levels of influence.

AI is factoring in in so many ways, from human resources to business operations along to advanced showcasing, security, and all types of innovative technology development that is being built to improve upon our existing digital technologies. This is without even mentioning all the new potential uses and applications for medical care, education, security, and retail. Even web facilitating is an industry that is being revolutionized by A.I. and that starts to point us in the direction we’re going to go here.

One the ways that A.I. is poised to really factor into better web hosting in the immediate future is with detecting malware and other cybersecurity risks more capably and more reliably. Giving web hosting providers a possible means of incorporating these tech advances into a possible product that can be offered along with Canadian web hosting packages is something that we’ll be keen to see, and the demand for them for people who have e-commerce websites (and especially larger ones for larger businesses) goes without saying.

A.I. may also be better enabling web service providers for keeping track of outstanding tasks for their clients, and doing so much more quickly than would otherwise be possible. Anticipating the needs of customers and staying on top of their expectations will have really obvious benefits for providers too, although it doesn’t have the same product-incorporation appeal that AI for advanced malware detection via your web hosting provider would.

More on Better Safety

We all know how the number of cyberattacks and digital assaults has increased exponentially over the last few years, and webmasters definitely have to be more aware and more vigilant as well as more concerned overall. Most malware and other threats take aim at sites via algorithms, but the simple truth in explaining how A.I. has huge potential in this regard is that – quite plainly – the machine is always smarter than the man. A.I. has the ability to outsmart the malware makers and reliably stay one step ahead of them at all times.

Pairing machine learning technologies with A.I. is something we can expect to see implemented into the web hosting industry too when it comes to offering better cybersecurity through web hosting. As is always the case, the key will be in anticipating attacks more intelligently and then making better decisions about the best way to deploy defenses.

Aiming for Increased Accuracy

Any and all tedious tasks required of webmasters or developers when it comes to cyber defenses are made simpler by AI, but with the assignments still being carried out with the utmost precision. Regardless of the volume of traffic or sudden changes to the site, computer-based intelligence ensures uninterrupted web page execution.

Better computer-based intelligence will be used to do things like send pre-programmed messages, respond to visitors, and so on. We can also look forward to A.I. doing more of the work that human programmers have had no choice but to do until this point, and that freeing of time and human resources is another offshoot benefit for how A.I. is going to benefit the web hosting industry more in the near future.

Better Data Reports and Improved Domain Name Performance

Data generation in web hosting will benefit from A.I. to by having reports better analyzed over a long period and then with the data received and sent helping to clarify any adjustments that need to be made or changes in direction with any number of different metrics and so forth. Better analyzing of purchase and repetition rates, the cost of procurement, and much more will be improved by utilizing artificial intelligence.

Improved domain name performance will be part of this too, with better research and intuition on how well domain names will perform later on by observing traffic and conversion rates. Other aspects such as the substance’s composition will undoubtedly influence site execution, but this information will help them determine which approach yields the best results for their target audience.

Even Better Uptime Guarantees

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help service providers like us in this way too, with AI improving web hosting uptime reliability by intelligently suggesting what is needed to optimal system redesigns, recognizing any example within a framework and recalling it at any time or place as needed and taking any and pretty much all guesswork out of the equation.

One absolutely huge factor that we can by and large count on at this point is A.I. better anticipating increases in website traffic during peak hours. That alone is going to be HUGE for improving uptime reliability all across the board.

Automated Self-Maintenance

A.I. is also going to factor strongly into web hosting services by providing smarter and more focused improves to website infrastructure and optimizing protocols for how computerized data is going to be used. It will be helping to fix and maintain the structure on its own and this ‘self-healing’ will allows hosts to check the framework to see if there are any issues before they arise and then taking preventative measures as needed.

We can look forward to A.I. enhancing security, automating system preparation, improving thwarting of malware and viruses, and overall improving web hosting services in Canada and everywhere else in the world as well.

4GoodHosting wishes all of you Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year and we’ll see you next week for our first entry of 2023.

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You’ve probably heard the cooling fan in your desktop or notebook whirring feverishly on more than occasion, and the truth is that computing devices are overheating more often that ever before these days. Those fans are really working overtime as the devices themselves are being put through their paces especially hard, and in the bigger picture of things the technology they’re being made to accommodate is pushing them like they haven’t been pushed before.

But as the expression goes, you’re not going to stop progress and so those demands aren’t going anywhere. Devices are going to be getting hot and overheating, so what’s the solution for that if there is one at all? Innovation always goes right along with progress fortunately and what we have on the immediate horizon right now is something called momentum computing. We’ll get into what that is with this blog entry, but what it does is provide a cooling solution that’s a roundabout benefit that comes with a revolutionary way of handling computing requests.

This is something that is going to be of interest to any other reliable Canadian web hosting provider in the same way it for us at 4GoodHosting. That’s because large-scale applications of this same issue – namely data center cooling – is always front and center for all of us. So what exactly is this momentum computing, and what’s to be made of it?

Countering Heat

With computer circuitry becoming smaller and more densely packed all the time it becomes more prone to melting from the energy it dissipates as heat. But there is a new way of carrying out computation that has the added benefit of dissipating a much better amount of the heat produced by conventional circuits. Expanding on what they understand of this now could bring heat dissipation capacities in computing down below what are the theoretical minimums understood now.

We’ll keep the tech part of this to a minimum, but a conventional computer sometimes has to erase bits of information in its memory circuits to make space for more. When a bit is reset, a certain minimum amount of energy is dissipated and at a value depending on the ambient. The unit of measurement for this dissipation factor is a Landauer, and a Landauer’s limit on how little heat a computation produces can be undercut by not erasing any information.

The key is that these computations done this way are fully reversible because throwing no information away means that each step can be retraced. But to avoid transferring any heat in what is called an adiabatic process, the computation and its operations must be carried out extremely slowly. Frictional heating is avoided this way, and it is frictional heating that is making that cooling fan of yours run like crazy like it is these days.

The cost of avoiding this type of overheating is having it take infinitely long to complete the calculation, but this is where momentum computing is set to change things for the better – and cooler.

New Encoding Method

The key to momentum computing – in this regard at least – is encoding information in electric currents in a new way and not as pulses of charge but in the momentum of the moving particles. The key concept is that a particle’s momentum can provide a free memory of sorts by providing information about the particle’s past and future motion, not just its instantaneous state. This extra information can then be leveraged for reversible computing. And with more reversible computing comes MUCH less frictional heat.

Momentum computing looks to be something of an outgrowth of a reversible-computing concept called ballistic computing that was proposed in the 1980s where information is encoded in objects or particles that move freely through the circuits under their own inertia. When particles interact elastically with others they don’t lose any energy in the process and this means less energy is available to manifested into frictional heat.

The belief in the industry is that small, low-dissipation momentum-computing JJ circuits could be feasible within a few years, and then with full microprocessors enabled with momentum computing debuting within this decade. We may see consumer-grade momentum computing realizing energy-efficiency gains of 1,000-fold or more over current approaches. That will mean much less overheating as computing devices work as hard as they are going to be continued to ask to, and the technology will certainly carry over to web hosting data center cooling too which will make it easier for folks like us to continue to do what we do for you without some of the major challenges faced – overheated data centers certainly being one of them

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One truism that is valid all over the place nowadays is that space is at a premium. That can be for anything from parking on residential streets in the suburbs to the way major metro cities have no choice to be growing upwards rather than outwards. That is certainly macro level stuff, but if we’re going to look at it in the context of computing and data storage requirements it’s fair to say this is macro level too.

As the business (and personal) world shifts to be increasingly digital all the time there are ever-greater demands for data storage, and creating ever-more physical storage with massive data centers and the like was never going to be doable.

That reality is a big part of why there was the push to develop the solution that cloud computing eventually became. Anyone and everyone will know what cloud storage is nowadays, and most people will be using it in some way or another. Look no further than Google Docs or OneDrive for most of us, and the way businesses are taking advantage of cloud storage is definitely an instance where innovation is meeting BIG necessity.

Without it there simply wouldn’t be enough physical storage available for even half the need that business all over the world would be creating nowadays. This is something that we can certainly relate to here at 4GoodHosting as a good Canadian web hosting provider, as like any we have firsthand experience with the need to increase data center capacity and all the goes along with that.

We’re in the business of providing it through web hosting though, while nearly all other businesses will be in a situation where they need to be utilizing it. Cloud computing is there for that utilization, and a lot of work has gone into making it accessible to the extent it is. But now there are trends in cloud computing that are very much set to impact business operations, and that’s what we’re going to look at here with this week’s entry.

File Storage / Creation Foremost

Cloud computing has boomed over the last few years, with global spending on services reaching near 46 billion in the first financial quarter of 2022. A major survey found the increased use of cloud services primarily comes from storing and creating files and office documents and this is why so many businesses are looking to incorporate cloud storage technology into their operations.

These are the four primary trends being seen:

Hybrid & Multi-Cloud

No 2 systems are the same in the Cloud. There will be some that work best for a particular function or process but don’t cover every needs any one business may have. Often using more than one cloud system is the solution for this reason.

 

Hybrid and multi-cloud structures are increasingly well suited to meet this need. Multi-cloud means using different public services from several providers to cover what you need. They are not always easy to manage, but with them you can take the best parts of the top cloud solutions on the market and make a system that meets your needs. You’ll have increased options for customization and there’s also less chance you’ll be locked into one vendor.

The difference with a hybrid cloud setup is that they include a private cloud server managed on-site as part of the combination. You will be investing in and using a publicly available cloud server as well as building an in-house infrastructure and they will be designed to work in tandem for optimal application. Public cloud software does have the issue of data bottlenecks when large numbers of people using it at the same, but the cost savings it can offer are a big plus always.

Serverless Computing

Every business wants to get maximum value for every dollar they’re spending on operations. This is always true if you’re trusting another company with something as important as the servers that host your website. Companies that have built applications may require a server to host it, and spending a lot of money to make sure its infrastructure is secure is not uncommon. The fix can be serverless computing.

This method of backend service means that you’re only paying for that data you use, and this ups cost-effectiveness in a big way. The vendor handles the infrastructure of the servers is, so developers don’t have to worry about scaling too much and can put the majority of their focus on development.

Cloud Security

Few issues if any demand as much focus as Cyber security when it comes to the adoption of any new technology that may increase the risk of shortcomings with it. Businesses and even governments with any online presence or connection to the internet are nearly always at risk of being ‘hacked’ and having information stolen or accounts hijacked.

There has been a genuine focus on cloud security and real progress has been made in this area over the last few years. It has been advanced to the point that any potential damage to business is quite small when exposed to the inherent risks that come with storing data in the cloud. There is more available for companies in the way of training that includes how to identify and avoid potential threats or the inclusion of awareness messaging.

Automation

A key purpose of technology has always been to simplify and streamline processes where a lot of manual input is required. This automation can also be applied to cloud software, and when it is implemented to your servers this can mean that the infrastructure is adjusted automatically so that developers or engineers don’t have to devote any of their own time to doing it manually.

This is beneficial for the systems in several ways. Automation improves security by removing the human error of multiple engineers and IT technicians from the process of checking important systems that could be vulnerable to malicious activity when exposed on the Web. Updates and backups are also made significantly more efficient once they’re put in place and ideally automated, as they can carry out both functions without the need for human interaction.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

One truism that is valid all over the place nowadays is that space is at a premium. That can be for anything from parking on residential streets in the suburbs to the way major metro cities have no choice to be growing upwards rather than outwards. That is certainly macro level stuff, but if we’re going to look at it in the context of computing and data storage requirements it’s fair to say this is macro level too.

As the business (and personal) world shifts to be increasingly digital all the time there are ever-greater demands for data storage, and creating ever-more physical storage with massive data centers and the like was never going to be doable.

That reality is a big part of why there was the push to develop the solution that cloud computing eventually became. Anyone and everyone will know what cloud storage is nowadays, and most people will be using it in some way or another. Look no further than Google Docs or OneDrive for most of us, and the way businesses are taking advantage of cloud storage is definitely an instance where innovation is meeting BIG necessity.

Without it there simply wouldn’t be enough physical storage available for even half the need that business all over the world would be creating nowadays. This is something that we can certainly relate to here at 4GoodHosting as a good Canadian web hosting provider, as like any we have firsthand experience with the need to increase data center capacity and all the goes along with that.

We’re in the business of providing it through web hosting though, while nearly all other businesses will be in a situation where they need to be utilizing it. Cloud computing is there for that utilization, and a lot of work has gone into making it accessible to the extent it is. But now there are trends in cloud computing that are very much set to impact business operations, and that’s what we’re going to look at here with this week’s entry.

File Storage / Creation Foremost

Cloud computing has boomed over the last few years, with global spending on services reaching near 46 billion in the first financial quarter of 2022. A major survey found the increased use of cloud services primarily comes from storing and creating files and office documents and this is why so many businesses are looking to incorporate cloud storage technology into their operations.

These are the four primary trends being seen:

Hybrid & Multi-Cloud

No 2 systems are the same in the Cloud. There will be some that work best for a particular function or process but don’t cover every needs any one business may have. Often using more than one cloud system is the solution for this reason.

 

Hybrid and multi-cloud structures are increasingly well suited to meet this need. Multi-cloud means using different public services from several providers to cover what you need. They are not always easy to manage, but with them you can take the best parts of the top cloud solutions on the market and make a system that meets your needs. You’ll have increased options for customization and there’s also less chance you’ll be locked into one vendor.

The difference with a hybrid cloud setup is that they include a private cloud server managed on-site as part of the combination. You will be investing in and using a publicly available cloud server as well as building an in-house infrastructure and they will be designed to work in tandem for optimal application. Public cloud software does have the issue of data bottlenecks when large numbers of people using it at the same, but the cost savings it can offer are a big plus always.

Serverless Computing

Every business wants to get maximum value for every dollar they’re spending on operations. This is always true if you’re trusting another company with something as important as the servers that host your website. Companies that have built applications may require a server to host it, and spending a lot of money to make sure its infrastructure is secure is not uncommon. The fix can be serverless computing.

This method of backend service means that you’re only paying for that data you use, and this ups cost-effectiveness in a big way. The vendor handles the infrastructure of the servers is, so developers don’t have to worry about scaling too much and can put the majority of their focus on development.

Cloud Security

Few issues if any demand as much focus as Cyber security when it comes to the adoption of any new technology that may increase the risk of shortcomings with it. Businesses and even governments with any online presence or connection to the internet are nearly always at risk of being ‘hacked’ and having information stolen or accounts hijacked.

There has been a genuine focus on cloud security and real progress has been made in this area over the last few years. It has been advanced to the point that any potential damage to business is quite small when exposed to the inherent risks that come with storing data in the cloud. There is more available for companies in the way of training that includes how to identify and avoid potential threats or the inclusion of awareness messaging.

Automation

A key purpose of technology has always been to simplify and streamline processes where a lot of manual input is required. This automation can also be applied to cloud software, and when it is implemented to your servers this can mean that the infrastructure is adjusted automatically so that developers or engineers don’t have to devote any of their own time to doing it manually.

This is beneficial for the systems in several ways. Automation improves security by removing the human error of multiple engineers and IT technicians from the process of checking important systems that could be vulnerable to malicious activity when exposed on the Web. Updates and backups are also made significantly more efficient once they’re put in place and ideally automated, as they can carry out both functions without the need for human interaction.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Laptop computers have been pretty darn great since they made their arrival and offered the portable alternative to a desktop. Being able to fold open a 13 or 15” workstation and hop onto a network has been an advantage that nearly all of us take advantage of on a very regular basis, and it’s quite possible you’re reading this on a notebook or laptop right now. Whatever you want to call them, they’re a huge part of our working and private lives, but one of the realities with a laptop is that you don’t dare travel very far or long from home base without the charging cable in tow.

We’ve yet to meet a laptop that has an impressive battery, and one of the things about them – whether Mac OR PC – is that that they tend to hold charges even less well as they get older. The basics of that is understandable, as nothing works as well as it did when it was younger and computing hardware is no exception. Older smartphones have their battery dies very quickly too, but in all fairness here iPhones are MUCH worse than Android phones in that way, and don’t think for a moment that isn’t intentional on Apple’s part.

But today we’re talking about laptops only, and looking more deeply into the why and how of laptop batteries being such a disappointment. This is a topic of interest here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would be for any reliable Canadian web hosting provider because so many of us are on our laptops daily in the same way you are, and quite often they’re not plugged in – either by necessity or the fact we don’t want to be cabled up for whatever reason.

We are web hosting experts in Canada, but we’re not tech experts to the same extent. In the last little while we’ve learned a little bit about why laptop batteries die so quickly, so that’s what we’re going to look at here with this week’s entry.

Faster All the Time

Sure, laptop and CPU makers do urge you to upgrade your PC as the performance can’t keep up with the latest hardware. But the biggest reason someone would make that move is because the device’s battery life is probably exponentially worse than when they first bought it. There are a number of primary factors that go into this, but all that most people will need to know is that on average a laptop’s battery life capacity will go down by around 16% every year.

That is based on average real-world use, and of course some people will be putting their laptop through its paces much more emphatically. For most their charge-discharge cycles is much more uneven than they’d like, although newer laptops do charge more quickly than older models.

Reality is that charging and discharging your laptop’s battery reduces its lifespan, but using your device in the way most people do means that is unavoidable. Never letting it discharge fully, and never letting it charge fully to 100% is best and a lot of people won’t be aware of that. One thing that is interesting these days is how many manufacturers are including applications that prevent you from charging your PC to 100 percent, and the Surface Laptop Studio is a good example via the Surface app.

Smart Charge if Possible

The battery sub menu in Windows 11 Settings is where you’ll want to look to see if this is a possibility with your device. Between it and the Surface app you should be able to turn on smart charging. Microsoft has a number of tools to learn about battery life, but even if you don’t have a surface the Settings menu can be used on all Windows 11 PCs.

Look for your Windows battery report tool too to learn more about how much battery power is available to a PC, and even though it is not easy to find it’s a quick and effective reference. The Windows battery capacity history often reveals a steep drop in battery life over time.

Windows also estimates actual battery lifetimes. It isn’t entirely accurate with the fact how people use laptops will change over time. There’s been studies that have shown that from an active battery life of 9 hours 56 minutes in October 2021, Windows’ current estimate came in at just 7 hours 31 minutes for the Surface Laptop Studio’s battery life.

This works out to the laptop’s battery falling by nearly 2:30 over just one year’s time, and that works out to an estimated 24% decrease in actual battery life.

Not much to be done there, but you can learn how to use the Windows battery report tool. The Windows 11 Settings control (System > Power & battery) will only show the battery state of your laptop for the past 7 days, and without the details you need to really determine how well your laptop battery is retaining its vitality.

 

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The way 5G network connectivity is set to revolutionize the digital world really isn’t grasped to the extent it should be by a lot of people, but what is right now a trickle when it comes to seeing it worked into mainstream applications is set to soon become a torrent. Of course for many people the only real look into it they’re making is whether their new smartphone is 5G enabled and what that means they can do on an individual level. Which is fine, but like stated the relevance of 5G is about to become super apparent to everyone in the near future.

Not surprising that cyber security and the increasing emergence of 5G networks are moving in step with each other, as the ever-expanding risks with data breaches and other types of malicious activity are going to be magnified quite a bit with 5G. So the question for developers is what will be the best ways to ensure that the reach of 5G doesn’t mean that bad actors have a whole lot more reach too. This is a topic that nearly everyone will take some degree of interest in, but especially those of us here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would be for any good Canadian web hosting provider.

The way we browse and interact within the World Wide Web is going to be wholly changed by 5G too, and that means everyone like us is going to need to be able to pivot as needed. So let’s take a deeper dive into the need for better 5G network security in the very near future with this week’s blog entry here.

New Needs for Modern Enterprise Networking

One of the most highly anticipated technology advancements in recent memory is definitely the rollout of 5G. So much is being made about the advantages for consumers, but organizations are also set to benefit significantly. Next-generation cellular performance and low latency are going to be great, there are still some with valid concerns about whether 5G for business will meet all the security requirements of modern enterprise networking.

Let’s start with the fact that cellular-enabled Wireless WAN (WWAN) has been capable of enterprise-grade security at the network’s edge for a long time already. Plus in actuality 5G is already even more secure than 4G was to date, and that’s because of new developments at the network core level. 5G has prompted several key changes, and the biggest of them has been new authentication frameworks.

The 5G protocol has demanded new and better authentication frameworks, and they’ve arrived. Most are based upon a well-established and widely used IT protocol called extensible authentication protocol (EAP) that is open, network agnostic, and increasingly secure.

Enhanced subscriber privacy has become a priority too, and developers have met that need too. 5G offers privacy improvements against attacks happening when a false base station pages the user equipment and requests it comes out of idle. The International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is not used in paging with 5G and the amount of text exchanged is much lower. The network also performs analytics on the radio environment, detecting anomalous base stations.

Security Plus Agility

Improved core network agility and security has become a priority too. The 5G network core moves to a Service-Based Architecture (SBA) and made possible by a set of interconnected Network Functions (NFs), that authorize each other’s services. An SBA makes for plug-and-play software, agile programming, and network slicing that streamlines operations and makes further innovation much more likely.

The next need in the process of being addressed is extended roaming security: The 5G standard presents enhanced interconnect security between network operators. It is centered on a network function called Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP) and this Proxy is set up at the edge of each network operator’s 5G network. Each operator’s SEPP must be authenticated, and application layer security protects traffic.

For Private Networks Too

Private 5G networks are going to be a priority for organizations with large areas requiring secure LAN-like connectivity so they are able to deploy their own PCN – private cellular network. Controlling their own PCNs becomes possible for companies by implementing localized micro towers and small cells what work like individual access points. This is like a version of a public network that’s been scaled down, except you control quality of service as well as the security.

The last thing to see in all of this for now is how 5G is the first cellular network specification to embrace virtualization entirely, and this will offer significant cost savings for implementing otherwise expensive physical network cores. Network slicing will improve the reliability, speeds and low latency of 5G can by balancing the components of the network so they share the right information with the appropriate VNFs – virtual network functions.

Companies all over the world are set to roll out 5G connectivity for a range of applications, in industries ranging from mining to automakers to retail and in food services too. All of them can have better capacities for scaling safely and quickly through the deployment of cloud-manageable wireless edge routers and security layers. Made possible in a cohesive manner with 5G network connectivity.

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Crypto has been talked about more than enough, even though there are plenty of people who don’t know that it has values that go far beyond just financials. At the root of all its capabilities is blockchain, and again most people are at least aware of how the technology of it has so much potential for improving much of everything humans do on larger scales. Yes, cryptocurrency is in a bit of a slum right now but the technology as a whole is going strong and blockchain is doing extremely well in making up the building blocks of Web 3.

That’s a term that some may not know as well, but it’s for applications built off distributed, user-owned blockchains and the promise it has for speeding up improvements in all sorts of areas is nearly immeasurable. Healthcare and financial security are front and center there, and the reason this of interest to a good Canadian web hosting provider like 4GoodHosting is also because Web 3 has the potential to factor into what we do as a service provider too. There is a lot to look forward to if Web 3 gets off the ground the way we all want it too.

There’s always going to be bugs in any type of new largest-scale digital development though, and when it comes to blockchain the biggest concern is with reliable, consistent performance that is going to be needed if Web 3 is to be leaned on the way people hope to be able to. So this is what we’ll look at with this week’s entry as it is one of those topics that’s worthy of a longer look if you have any sort of interest in getting as much as possible out of your investment in digital.

Multi-User Functionality

Over the next 10 years or so billions of people are going to begin using applications built off distributed, user-owned blockchains as part of the emergence of Web 3. One the ongoing biggest issues with blockchain networks is the need for an efficient way of detecting and resolving performance problems. Current analytics tools for monitoring websites and apps are right now designed for one user for the most part.

A key part of the decentralized world of the blockchains is users being owners, and this means traditional maintenance models simply don’t work. Fortunately what is starting to be seen are suites of tools to help the distributed communities of the blockchain world monitor and improve their networks. Users are now more able to create alerts, access reports, and view real-time community dashboards that visualize network performance, problems, and trends over time.

The viability of this extends to popular blockchain protocols like Ethereum, Algorand, Flow, Birdfat and Solana.

Addressing Decentralized Structure

The reality is that right now blockchains lack monitoring and operational intelligence, and the reason for this is because the structure of blockchains tends to be decentralized. Users operate as a node in the system by creating, receiving, and moving data through their server. When they come to a problem, they need to determine if the problem lies within their node – or involves the entire network.

The solution is going to be setting up open-source nodes across the globe that pull data from the nodes and networks before aggregating it into easy-to-understand reports and other tools. This is integral to enabling Web 3, and making sure that she does it for free because blockchains are no longer niche technology. They’re being adopted all over the place and in nearly every industry.

Ethereum is most notable here with the way it is really upping the level with applications and smart contracts, creating what are essentially decentralized, smart computers. An offshoot of advances likes this will be the growth in services for the many applications being built on top of those infrastructures. Improving blockchain performance is not simply going to be about optimizing networks, it is also going to be about speeding entry into the world of open finance and open applications that Web 3 promises.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Many of you may not need to know what an enterprise stack is, but if you do then there’s a darn good chance you either have one or you’re responsible for one. Businesses have no choice but to have their operations tailored to digital operating realities nowadays, and being visible online with their website is the only connection that a lot of people will make with that. What they won’t know is that any business relies heavily on data in ways that didn’t exist 20+ years ago, and that is where the real importance lies when it comes to those new digital realities.

Software applications are commonly an enterprise stack’s weakest link. A 2020 report found that over 70% of external hacks result from vulnerabilities with software and web applications, and this pushes the need for better web application security. This is beyond the scope our expertise here at 4GoodHosting, as providing good web hosting in Canada is where we’re your best bet but having all the workings of your site being secure is something that everyone can see as important. So let’s use this entry to share what we DO know from doing a little reading of our own.

So what is web application security exactly? It is the process of protecting your website and online services against cybersecurity threats that take aim at the app’s coding. Database administration tools like phpMyAdmin, content management systems like WordPress, and SaaS apps are the most common targets for web-app attacks.

All Devices at Risk

Hackers then use the breached apps to attack devices like smartphones, tablets, and computers when they have access to the internet. Sensitive personal information is often contained here, and this makes them appealing targets for hackers who’d like that data for performing fraudulent transactions. Retail, finance, government, and healthcare sectors are more likely to see cyber-attacks because organizations in these sectors hold massive databases containing personal and financial data.

Companies lose the trust of their customers with security breaches, and that’s very understandable. Significant financial losses can result too. Look no further than the $575 million penalty given to Equifax because of a 2017 data breach that exposed the data of over 145 million customers. Data security should be taken seriously, and so here are best practices for web application security.

1. Ensure Full Data Encryption

Data encryption takes readable data and converts it into encrypted data that is only readable after the user or recipient uses a security key. Encryption of both static and transit data is crucial for data security, and anyone and everyone can start by getting an SSL certificate. They work well for making your website secure. Next, if you haven’t transitioned your website to HTTPS then that is something you should so as soon as you can get around to it.

Next, don’t store sensitive user information such as user IDs, passwords, and financial details in plain text. A password storage app is a much better choice.

 

2. Do Risk Assessment

Risk assessment allows your organization to view its application portfolio from the perspective that a potential attacker would have. This will let you identify, assess, and implement security controls over your applications. Here is the 4-step process for this

Identification – list all the critical applications in your technology stack and create a risk profile for each

Assessment – determine type and volume of data each application handles, the number of users accessing it at a given time, and the likelihood of unauthorized users attempting to gain access to it

Mitigation – Identify ways to reduce the impact of security breaches with mitigation strategies, and there is plenty of information on the web about what you can do in this regard

3. Keep a Data Backup

Backing up your website, user information, and application data will not thwart all data security threats. Backups are particularly useful if you encounter malware attacks that primarily target things like ecommerce platforms. It is common for web hosting providers to be able to provide backups of your data in cloud-based storage.

With mission-critical data, you should back up your databases on daily basis. If your business is software development, you can use a code repository like Git that will allow you to roll back to specific code changes.

4. Regularly Site Scans

Safety and security of your web app will always benefit from scanning your website regularly, and once every week is best. Also don’t just rely on one scanner to do all the work for you. It’s common for malware to be structured in a way that isn’t readily detectable by scanners.

5. Use Web Application Firewall

A web application firewall (WAF) provides a filter for traffic between a server and its clients. This will prevent malicious requests from intruding into your web application and core infrastructure. It inspects all incoming traffic and stops different types of risky behavior before they happen.

Network-based: installed on specialized hardware and filter all incoming traffic to a server. Best for low latency

Host-based: Fully integrated into the web application and operate at the software level. Complicated to implement and maintain and take up more system resources.

Cloud-based: Implemented in a specialized cloud and does not require any upfront costs on the web application developer. Not much in the way of customizability.

6. Use a Content Security Policy

Protecting applications on the client-side is important too. A content security policy stops cyberattacks that involve hijacking websites as displayed on a user’s screen and ensures that only content from sources you approve is displayed. Tactics such as cross-site scripting (XSS) are prevented by having a good CSP. Malicious hackers can use XSS to convince your website that their content is legitimate and should be executed.

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Looking to analytics to determine what are the best courses of action is nothing new, and it’s been a part of making business decisions since long before the business world shifted to digital. I takes a trained and educated eye to make good sense of numbers and the like when doing that, but the parameters of everything were different when all of them were tracked manually and often jotted down on paper. As in nearly always the case with interests of any sort, computing technology has been very beneficial in making business analytics better.

It’s not something business managers will be fully intuitive with right off the hop, and given how increasingly competitive the space is becoming for nearly any industry or commercial venture online it is important to at least try to be ahead of curves. Other businesses will be leaning on web analytics too, and so it is important to do as well as possible with turning your data into decision making. This is why some businesses will hire a 3^rd-party advisor in this regard, and many times it is a worthwhile investment.

Our business here at 4GoodHosting takes value from web data too of course, and that will be true for any good Canadian web hosting provider. The reason this topic becomes of even greater interest and worthy of an entry here is that many of our customers are also operating a website for commercial purposes, and when anything related to profitability is involved you’re going to want to get it right. So let’s look at how eCommerce is being transformed by web data.

Big for Pricing Strategies

Increasingly relying on insights drawn from web data to guide their pricing strategies is increasingly common for online businesses, plus for finding the best time for product and service launches. Estimates are that upwards of 80% of eCommerce businesses have bumped up their web data collection and management budgets over the past year, and that’s an immediate reflection of how this type of web data is really increasing in value.

What web date provides for eCommerce businesses is enhanced visibility over the competitive online market landscape. It creates an informational set for insight on anything from current sales offers to product pricing to positions to consumer reviews and more. There’s nearly no limit to the applications for this vital resource, and here’s a brief bit about each reason online retailers typically collect public web data:

Price comparison

Web data can let retailers create benchmarks against the competition by taking identical products / services and comparing and monitoring the prices for them directly competing with their own site. This provides good insight into how much competitors are charging, are there any sales or special offers coming up, are shipping costs a factor, and what patterns exist with how prices are raised or lowered.

Positioning and inventory

Web data also provides information on how online retailers may be able to best position their products for public consumption. Information can be utilized by online retailers to identify specific keywords or messaging that could promote their products being higher in SERPS, and of course that is absolutely huge in the greater success and viability of your business online. It can even be taken a step further by tracking competitors’ online stock and using web data to discover new merchandising and product opportunities. This can be very beneficial for multinational businesses looking to launch in a new market.

Search engine strategy

Most eCommerce businesses collect SERP web data on an ongoing basis, with a primary focus on both the paid and organic search results of different keywords and queries that are entered into those search engines. The data is then applied by digital marketers to strategize around brand sentiment, online reputation management as well as better keyword rankings so that visibility in search engines is improved.

SERP web data enables businesses to gain advantages over their competition on the search engine results page, although if there’s one point here you likely already knew this is probably it.

Social sentiment

Millions of consumer interactions take place on marketplaces, social media, and different forums each day. eCommerce businesses want to better tap into this information, and collecting public web data from social media is a big part of that. It helps social media marketing experts to spot changes in consumer behavior, as well as staying ahead of the popularity of products and campaigns.

Web Data Collection Strategies

The demands of data collection internally are too much for online retailers sometimes, and many are looking to make acquisitions or find external partners to enhance their web data collection efforts. There are two options here for most of them; they can collect data at scale themselves, or they can utilize web scraping applications or technologies to assist them. Either choice is usually better than relying on a manual approach.

Cleaning, structuring, and analyzing the data is essential in all of this, and it can time-consuming and eat up a lot of resources. But generating these up-to-the-minute insights is crucial in helping eCommerce businesses make the smart decisions they want to be making.

Pre-made data sets can be a good choice here, and these large sets of data focus on a single subject collected from either single or various sources. They are structured into readable tables or formats to provide valuable insights, although they may be more approximated than individually built ones. But it is a more affordable approach for businesses that are working with a budget when it comes to web analytics. The disadvantage is that these are only updated periodically, so they don’t offer the minute-by-minute accuracy of mass-scale web data collection.

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Progress isn’t going to be stopped, and while the ubiquitous shift to cloud computing makes so much sense given the way it removes the need for physical storage of data it still comes with challenges. They need to be met, as we’re not going to go back to having so much data stored physically and all the resources and energy required for doing that on planet with 8 billion people. So it is what is with regard to the challenges of having Multi Cloud platforms as the norm, and all that is left is to find ways to make it work.

Security is at the forefront of all of that, and especially considering the ongoing rise in cyberattacks with both frequency and complexity. Business have the most to lose here of course, and the way it works that the larger the business the more sensitive data there is at risk if their cloud security isn’t what it needs to be. Providers aren’t resting on their laurels there, and there is ongoing progress with cloud security that fortunately is keeping pace with the threats these days for the most part.

This is a topic of continued interest for us here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would be for any reliable Canadian web hosting provider, and naturally because many of the sites we host are for people who have commercial interests in them. The reality of the current situation with MultiCloud security issues is that many businesses feel they are ‘sitting ducks’ of sorts and that they are far too much at risk of suffering a crippling cyber attack at this time.

Increased Risk

Multi-cloud setups are increasingly integral organizations of all shapes and sizes, but more and more of them are becoming difficult to secure properly. This exposes them to breaches that leak large amounts of sensitive data to malicious third parties. There was a survey recently where near 300 senior executives DevOps leaders, and seniors in other security roles had 70% of them reporting not enough confidence in their ability to properly secure both on-prem and multi-cloud environments.

This comes at the same time that cyberattacks are on the rise, with more than 2/3^rd of those respondents and their companies having either experience their own data breach or some type of similar data exposure. Ones occurring because of multi-cloud security configuration issues and apparently enterprise cyberattacks are occurring quite often to the same companies.

Around half of these same respondents stated the company had regularly experienced bot attacks. 20% of the were occurring on a weekly basis, and application attacks had 30% occurring the same way. The overall belief is that the tools they currently have to work with are inadequate when it comes to blocking, preventing, or mitigating cyberattacks in a multi-cloud environment.

Near Half

Along with this nearly half of businesses (45%) reported their experience of a cloud-based data breach or failed a security audit in the last year. Around a quarter of them experienced more malware attacks and ransomware attack, and slightly less that had some type of challenging experience with phishing and whaling attacks. The problem is even more compounded by the fact that businesses continue to rely on cloud infrastructure to facilitate the hybrid work environments that began with the Covid-19 pandemic. Better cybersecurity, encryption, and key management solutions are needed and it highlights how and why business tech stacks should survive cost cuts and no matter what the current economic outlook is at the time.