Web Hosting Automation: The Basics
November 21, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
By Hosting News
Web hosting automation can be described as the process of automating server management tasks. With the popularity of shared hosting, cut throat competition in the hosting industry and bargain basement prices, automation is not just a convenience, but a necessity to stay competitive in the market.
Need for Automation
With hosting companies having thousands of clients managing their web sites on hosting company servers, it is prohibitively expensive, if not impossible, to manually execute every customer’s requests for server administration tasks. This is where web hosting automation comes in.
Web hosting automation is realized by having specialized applications, usually known as control panel software, that can automate routine server management tasks. Each web site hosted on a server gets a unique username and password to access the control panel and execute the required server administration task, without the need for intervention of the hosting company staff.
How Automation Software Works
Hosting automation software is used to automate the routine server administration tasks such as email, databases, software installation and access control, among other functions. Hosting companies can either choose to create their own hosting automation software or they can use popular out-of box solutions like CPanel and Plesk.
The way automation software usually works is that every domain / domain owner is given a unique access-id in order to access the user interface for the control panel. Once they log in to the interface, icons or links appear, which they can click on to accomplish various server administration tasks, depending upon the access permissions and available resources.
Not only does hosting automation software allow customers to accomplish server administration tasks using a web interface, but it also allows for tracking the space, bandwidth and other resource usage; management of files on the server, installing common scripts with a single click, and server log access.
The software provides an abstraction layer between the end-user and the technicalities of performing server administration tasks. Because of this, hosting automation not only allows for saving time and money for the hosting company by taking some of the work-load off of staff, but also allows non-technical customers to manage the server administration tasks themselves.
Custom vs. Out-of-Box Software
Hosting companies have a choice between using custom hosting automation software or an out of the box software solution. A lot of large hosting companies have chosen the custom software route because of issues related to proprietary hardware infrastructure usage.
However, developing custom hosting automation software is not just an expensive and time consuming preposition, but it also involves a learning curve for customers. For most hosting companies using generic hardware and software solutions, it makes much more sense to choose an out of the box control panel software for customer convenience.
Choosing generic hosting automation software will not only eliminate the software development costs, but also reduces the amount of customer support the company may have to provide, since a lot of customers are familiar with popular out-of-box automation software like Plesk. In addition, most software manufacturers allow companies to co-brand the control panels.
Popular Out of Box Hosting Automation Software
There are quite a few popular hosting automation solutions available on the market today. One of the more popular applications is Parallels Plesk:
Parallels Plesk, originally known as just Plesk, includes full support for Linux, Windows and BSD operating systems. Plesk was acquired by SWsoft in July 2003 and has been rebranded as Parallels Plesk Control Panel since January 2008.
The software allows the administrator to create new sites, email accounts and mange DNS zone-files using a web-based interface. Parallels Plesk also allows management of MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, Tomcat Java Server and ColdFusion server among other software. Below are some of the more advantageous features of Plesk:
Ease of Use: Parallels Plesk Panel has a redesigned cleaner and easier to navigate interface. More commonly used tasks will be available immediately and all menu options have been streamlined which allows for more efficient task handling.
Customizable: Parallels Plesk Panel comes with many additional skins and gives users the ability to design custom skins and manage them in the browser-based interface. The custom desktop feature may be used to design and brand panels to particular specifications.
Fully Automated: With 100+ new enhancements, the control panel delivers a new ease of management through features like the key auto-update mechanism, auto-component updater, migration manager and a web-based installation for quick deployment and dedicated need for support.
Conclusion
Web hosting automation software allows hosting companies to reduce overhead costs and be competitive in pricing by automating routine tasks of server administration and allowing even technically challenged customers to be able to accomplish these server management tasks without knowing the technical details.
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 800 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.
To learn more, please visit: www.parallels.com.
The Power of Windows Hosting
November 21, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
By Hosting News
The Windows Server environment will give you far more freedom and flexibility to run a wide range of web applications and allow you to get a dynamic web site up and running fast.
Back in 1997 when the majority of web sites were being served from UNIX servers I chose to use Windows servers. I chose Windows servers because they gave the fastest server side development environment with ASP and Access databases. I could cut my teeth on server side programming without killing my brain trying to learn Perl and CGI.
I am an entrepreneur. I don’t care much for technology for technologies sake. I care about technology for what it can do for us as humans. Business is where we can bring about products and services that we can all gain value from and improve our lives.
Windows servers allowed me to focus less on the technical aspects and focus more on the business rules, functions and features of the products and services I wanted to deliver. At that time my sites were simple directories for real estate, motor cars and local sites. Over the following 2 years I got more excited about the Windows platform as a means for more and more people like me to bring about innovations to the internet – fast.
Windows continues to be a great platform to develop dynamic, interactive, database driven sites with ASP, ASP.Net with Access or SQL Server database back ends. This is a wonderful platform to learn the basics of what it takes to develop such a site. ASP and Access provide a solid environment for anyone to learn the basics of coding and databases. The work produced with ASP and Access can be easily converted to ASP.Net and SQL Server to be far more scalable (handle more people using the site at one time).
ASP is a server side programming language based on Basic. Basic is a beginners programming language. Access is a simple desktop database application available with Microsoft Office that provides many wizards and tools to quickly develop a functional database. You will find many learning resources, tutorials and free code and samples for both ASP and Access across the internet.
Once you have developed or copied and pasted some code and server side databases together you will gain an incredible amount of confidence. You will naturally move on to more advanced projects. You will also be open to a whole new world of freely downloadable web applications (open source and generally free) to modify and try on your sites. In doing this you will come across sites written in PHP and ASP.net requiring MySQL or SQL server databases. If you are running your sites on a Windows server you can play around with the whole world of server side scripting languages: from ASP to PHP, ASP.Net and even Perl!
The Windows Server hosting environment will help a beginner gain confidence and skills in the basics of developing a dynamic web application. Then it will allow you to progress to more advanced web applications using a mix of ASP, ASP.Net, PHP with MySQL and SQL server back-end. A good Windows host will allow you to run ASP, ASP.net and PHP with MySQL or SQL server all on the one site. You will find a Windows hosting account will give you far more freedom and flexibility to run a wide range of web applications and allow you to get a dynamic web site up and running fast.
Today I still prefer to prototype a site with ASP and then once proven move it to ASP.Net or PHP so it is scalable. ASP allows me to quickly get my ideas up and running fast. With feedback and if it is successful I can invest more time in a more appropriate language for the application with ASP.Net or PHP. A Windows hosting environment provides me this flexibility.
If you’re looking to start in the world of developing web sites or want to take your web design skills to the next level, the world of Windows hosting is a good place to start. It will allow you to develop your skills with a very simple coding language and database with ASP and MS-Access. The Windows hosting environment will feel familiar with concepts you are used to, from using the Windows operating system on your desktop or notebook. And when you’re ready to take your projects further with ASP.Net or PHP your Windows server will be able to handle that too.
In a world where time is money and both are in short supply, flexibility is key. A Windows hosting environment will provide you with the necessary flexibility to save both time and money and get your web projects up and running faster.
M6.Net provides Windows ASP, ASP.Net & PHP Reseller hosting with multiple sites in the one account. M6.Net is one of the oldest Windows Hosting companies, operating since 1997. M6.Net provides the most affordable, most flexible and most powerful Windows hosting accounts available. For Powerful Windows ASP.net hosting services visit: http://www.m6.net.
About the Author
Michael Guilfoyle is CEO of M6.Net one of the oldest Windows Hosting companies. M6.Net has been providing Windows hosting since 1997. Michael’s expertise is in leadership, management and marketing with a passion for web design and the Internet.
Collaboration and Web 2.0 vs. Microsoft Exchange
November 21, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
By Hosting News
One thing is certain nowadays: people expect absolutely everything for free and there are a lot of open-source applications which cater to their needs. But what about popular sayings such as ‘you get what you pay for’ and ‘if something seems too good to be true, it probably is,’ are these no longer valid?’
There’s definitely a fierce battle going on between people who think that open-source applications always get the job done (after all, Web 2.0 sites enable you to keep track of your bookmarks, images and files as well as make it possible to communicate with the world and make a statement through bog posts, profiles, chat rooms and so on) and people who are willing to pay for applications developed by well-known companies which have an established track record.
Pros V/S Cons: The Showdown
Let’s try to analyze open-source applications for a moment. These are generally developed by companies which are not well-known (although there are several notable exceptions) and usually come with the following benefits:
- they’re 100% free
- people are actually encouraged to form communities and support each other in order to improve the open-source application
- you can test features such as security yourself and not blindly trust one company or another (since the source is made available)
- you can modify these applications based on the specific needs you may have
These benefits may make Web 2.0 web sites and open-source applications seem like the best thing since sliced bread, but there are some cons which need to be kept in mind as well:
- there’s only so much you can ask for in terms of support (after all, you’re not paying anything)
- the companies behind them are usually new kids on the block and have a limited budget (although, as mentioned previously, we do have quite a few notable exceptions), so you never know how long they’re willing to keep providing updates and support
- some of these companies may have a hidden agenda and people who are not tech savvy enough in order to understand the code often end up not realizing that
- a lot of times, companies end up charging for these applications at a certain point or move on to a ‘free trial’ business model
Alright, now that you have a general overview when it comes to Web 2.0 web sites and open-source applications, let’s look into some of the benefits paid solutions come with:
- you have every right to demand quality support
- since people are paying, they are far more likely to criticize and, for that reason, the reviews you’ll find online will often be able to help you make an objective decision (most open-source applications out there have people who just blindly praise them, even when it’s not necessary, and that can be quite misleading)
- companies have every intention of selling the product today, next month, next year and so on; for that reason, you can expect them to always update the application accordingly and you, as the person who already paid, can take advantage of that
- positive reviews are great for business, so you are less likely to find annoying bugs
- assuming that the company in question has been around for a while, these applications are usually more reliable than open-source ones (reputation plays an extremely important role and these companies will do whatever it takes in order to maintain this edge)
As always though, there are some cons involved as well, even if far less problematic:
- yes, you actually have to pay and that’s the nightmare of any frugal person
- some products tend to be overpriced
Case Study: Google Apps V/S Microsoft Exchange
Now that you’re familiar with the generalities, let’s move on to something specific and analyze two of the biggest players out there: Google and Microsoft. As usual, their business model differs quite significantly.
While you can take advantage of the features Google Apps comes with without having to pay anything (that’s as far as The Standard Edition and The Education Edition are concerned – The Premier Edition is not free), Microsoft Exchange does come with a free trial option but you will have to pay at a certain point.
When it comes to search engines, Google wins hands-down. In this case, however, Microsoft clearly offers a better product, one which is worth every penny. Google Apps may be free (and as opposed to a lot of other companies which offer something for free, Google is as reputable as it gets), but most of their services are anything but reliable, and in the long run, your business would end up losing a lot of money.
As far as Microsoft Exchange is concerned, you really do get what you pay for. If you take your business seriously, you need to work with the best. And fortunately for Mr. Gates, Microsoft Exchange is clearly the solid product which can help you build a solid business in this case, so what are you waiting for?