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December 30, 2013

Migrating To A New Cloud: Tips For Minimizing Your Downtime

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At some point in the current era of technology, it will become inevitable for your company to migrate its cloud system from one server to another, or to adopt a cloud strategy for the first time. That may entail moving completely to an external cloud, migrating from old to new hardware, or anywhere in between. Cloud migration is an essential part of keeping a business or company competitive, since migrating to better and more efficient systems can lead to faster and more convenient processes, among many other benefits. However, migrating a cloud system may still prove problematic, as an incorrect installation could lead to lengthy downtime and less reliability.

Knowing when a Migration is Needed

It’s important to recognize when it’s time to migrate to a new server, as migrating too early will not yield enough benefits to make the move worthwhile. One of the biggest reasons for migration is to replace legacy or otherwise old hardware with a state-of-the-art infrastructure. You’ll know it’s time for you to migrate to newer software if one of these situations occurs:

  • Your cloud has progressively gotten slower as a result of increased load due to newer, more resource-intensive software
  • Your cloud is struggling to keep up to date as a result of a lack of new features
  • It’s become too expensive to maintain legacy hardware
  • Security has improved and your business needs to ensure that only authorized agents can access the cloud

Migrating To A New Cloud: Tips For Minimizing Your Downtime

Being Aware of the Tasks Ahead and Possible Pitfalls

With the knowledge of why you would migrate a server, it’s important to balance the potential gains with the amount of work that will be required. As mentioned earlier, a server migration will usually involve a move to better-equipped or more suitable hardware, which would cut costs, help with scalability or both. Additionally, newer servers usually have stronger security features that are important for keeping your company’s information secure and private.

However, migrating your cloud involves a possibly long period of downtime while data and services are transferred to new hardware or a new location. During this time, your company won’t be able to access information, which would critically hamper company activity. In the current IT era, it’s critical for your company to be working at maximum efficiency for as long as possible, and a migration, despite the benefits, may ultimately be too detrimental for your business.

Beginning the Migration Process

To start a cloud migration, the first thing to take do is to keep backups and double-check processes. Nothing is more frustrating than realizing data was lost or deleted in a transfer. Taking some time to make backups and prepare the system thoroughly will save much more time and money in the long run as you maintain the new system, such as a hosted Windows cloud service. After the files are migrated to the new server, don’t immediately cancel or shut down the previous server until the new server is up and running. This will ensure that if problems occur, you’ll still be able to revert back to the working model.

Keeping these tips in mind, you’ll be well equipped to migrate your server to new and better hardware. In this day and age, it’s more important than ever to stay current on technology, and migrating your cloud will likely help your company maintain standards of efficiency.

December 10, 2013

The When and Why Of Cloud Database Migration

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Your business is filled with server racks hosting everything from your email to your website, so you may be looking into cloud strategies to cut down on costs and improve your servers’ performance. A cloud database migration allows you to shift all or part of your servers off-site into a distributed hardware configuration that prevents you from being held hostage to a single point of hardware failure. The practical, day-to-day administration of a cloud database doesn’t differ greatly from an on-site setup, so your network administrators won’t be dealing with extensive retraining or a large learning curve.

Why Migrate to the Cloud?

When you use public cloud providers for your databases, you receive direct and indirect cost savings. The direct cost savings come from only paying for the database resources you need, when you need it. It also cuts down on the amount of software licenses you need to purchase, as the cloud database provider has bulk pricing on this. The indirect costs come from outsourcing the responsibility of maintenance, a majority of monitoring and troubleshooting, so you don’t have to put network resources to these tasks. The scalability of the cloud database servers is especially good if you have varying needs throughout the year or if you’re a business in the middle of a rapid expansion.

The When and Why Of Cloud Database Migration

Risks of Migration

One of the primary risks of cloud database migration is losing data during the migration process. This risk is mitigated by locking down the database or taking it down entirely during the process, so new data is not written to the server while the migration process occurs. It’s also essential to deduplicate as much of the database as possible so you aren’t copying over redundant records. The smaller the database, the easier it is to get it transferred over. In addition, clearing out the log files and caches of the databases also helps to reduce the size. Before making the cloud databases live to the public or your business at large, test it out for problems.

Application Checking

When you transfer your databases, you need to make sure that all of your applications work in the cloud environment. If you’ve been running on older hardware, the applications may not work well or at all in the cloud environment. It’s possible that you may need to use a combination of older servers with cloud-based servers in order to avoid switching over applications along with databases or look into Software as a Service (SaaS) to fill in the gaps.

The types of databases that really benefit from a transfer to the cloud are those that are hardware intensive. Instead of purchasing servers every time you have a new influx of traffic or users, you can scale up the amount of cloud resources you’re using. This also helps to avoid downtime due to the configuration, giving you a high availability option that keeps things going strong for you.

December 5, 2013

The Hosting Question: Cloud Server or Dedicated Server?

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Cloud servers are great, but dedicated servers are still hanging on. If you’re considering which would be the best choice for your company’s needs, it’s tough to find information on cloud servers that isn’t glowing, but that’s for good reason. Virtual storage and virtual computing power are a huge step forward. In the last few years, companies of all sizes have been able to realize new efficiencies while saving money, and team members can now collaborate and share data on projects, regardless of where individuals are located.

If you do a comparison of cloud services versus dedicated servers, you could reach the conclusion that taking the cloud route can offer many more options, such as more choices for operating systems and faster provisioning speeds. So is the dedicated server on the way out? Is our future going only “to the cloud!” as the Microsoft commercials shout at us? Not necessarily, or at least not necessarily right now.

Dedicated servers definitely have appropriate uses, especially for newer, smaller companies that may not want everything that public or private clouds have to offer. Also, clouds aren’t perfect, and concerns still exist when it comes to access, security, and the challenges of downtime. Here we’ll examine a couple of snapshots of each option and discuss what works and what concerns exist.

The Hosting Question: Cloud Server or Dedicated Server?

Dedicated Server Breakdown

If you love control and don’t have traffic concerns, then a managed dedicated server will be best for you. All the hardware is right where you need it to be. You don’t have to worry about your system resources slowing because of other people’s traffic. You’re also the only one to access your server, a big plus for security fans. Plus, it’s also easy to upgrade physical hardware, such as memory and disk space, and to customize software to work exactly for your company’s needs, rather than a uniform upgrade through the cloud that needs to be tinkered with later.

Cloud Server Breakdown

Security is definitely a big reason why we can’t conclude that the cloud is the end-all, be-all. No matter how much encryption exists for your data, it may still have some vulnerabilities when it leaves your possession. Hackers also could try to access your system, actively steal or alter your customer’s data as well or just monitor your process.

On the other hand, companies going the cloud route can find it to be a definite cost-effective IT solution. You have a lot of redundancy, and you don’t have to pay for a lot of hardware and maintenance, although you will have to pay for extra bandwidth and hosting costs. For special projects, you may even find ways to access a virtual system and pay by the month.

Overall, do the advantages of the cloud outweigh the concerns, especially if you have active security protocols in place? As long as they match up with your business requirements. Clouds of any kind can connect with physical servers, and there isn’t a single point of failure as there might be with a dedicated server. Yet if your business wants to avoid any security uncertainties and ensure that your server is being monitored around the clock, a dedicated server may be the best choice to make.

November 6, 2013

What Plugins Are Helpful For Business?

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WordPress is a valuable tool that businesses can use to create a blog or even a website. However, the most basic version of WordPress doesn’t provide all of the features a business needs to create a fully functional website. In order to create a more advanced website, businesses can install some of the many plugins WordPress offers to increase functionality.

What Plugins Are Helpful For Business?

Beneficial WordPress Plugins

Some of the WordPress plugins that are most helpful for businesses include:

· Broken Link Checker: Checks the website for broken links and images.

· WordPress Live Chat: Adds a live chat box to the site that the business can use to communicate with users.

· WPtouch: Transforms a desktop website into a mobile version in a matter of minutes.

· 404 Redirected: Eliminates 404 pages from the website by redirecting users elsewhere when a page isn’t functioning properly or doesn’t exist.

· ShareBar: Incorporates a toolbar on the page that allows users to share content via social media websites.

· Contact Form 7: Allows users to contact the business using a simple online form.

· Ninja Pop-Ups: Allows a business to create its own pop-ups that will appear to users at times the business designates.

· Google Analytics: Keeps track of search traffic, page views and other valuable information the business can use to gauge the effectiveness of its website.

· Related Posts by Zementa: Places a footer on the webpage that directs users to related articles or pages on the site.

Are these Plugins Necessary?

The plugins listed above may not be appropriate for every business website. However, by incorporating a selection of these plugins, a business can transform a basic WordPress blog into a full-service website with a professional appeal. For example, the incorporation of WordPress Live Chat and Contact Form 7 make the site more engaging to users by encouraging them to connect directly with the company. Likewise, social plugins like ShareBar encourage users to share website content with friends, which increases their level of involvement and invites other users to visit the site. Furthermore, adding other plugins like Google Analytics allows the business to evaluate and increase its website traffic, while plugins like 404 Redirect and the Broken Link Checker can be used to prevent malfunctions and keep the site running smoothly.

The importance of a Good Foundation

Although adding these plugins to a website can increase its appeal to users, the site won’t be a success unless it’s built on a solid foundation. Websites that malfunction frequently become inaccessible on a regular basis or load slowly will drive users away before they have a chance to enjoy the benefits of any installed plugins. For this reason, it’s essential for businesses to choose a reputable Web hosting company capable of managing all of the site’s traffic with minimal downtime.

To thrive in today’s world, businesses need a high quality, professional website capable of answering users’ questions and encouraging them to connect with the company. By building a WordPress site on a solid foundation and adding the right plugins, businesses can enjoy all of the advantages of a full-service website.

July 31, 2013

Why You Should Develop With Joomla

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Why You Should Develop With JoomlaJoomla! is an award-winning content management system (CMS) with more than 35 million downloads, thousands of extensions and designs built on an open source platform. With advantages like that, it’s easy to see why the software is so popular.

A major advantage to using a CMS is the ease-of-use. There’s almost no technical skill required to build Web sites and powerful online applications. The software is incredibly user-friendly and mobile ready, and since it’s open source, makes a great solution for almost any business, from the largest corporate enterprise to the smallest personal web page.

Joomla can be used for almost any type of web site: corporate Web sites or portals, corporate intranets and extranets, online magazines, newspapers, and publications, e-commerce and online reservation systems, government applications, small business web sites, non-profit and organizational web sites, community-based portals, school and church web sites or personal or family homepages.

As Rackspace’s Joshua Hatfield says, “You can customize Joomla into anything that you need it to be. There are thousands of templates, components, plugins and modules that help you make your site unique. Whatever you need to do, you have the ability to do it.”

Who uses Joomla in the real world? Joomla is behind businesses of every size, shape and kind, from MTV Networks to IKEA, eBay, General Electric and Citibank to McDonald’s restaurants to Outdoor Photographer magazine.

Joomla is designed to be easy to install and configure, even for novice users. Many Web hosting and cloud services providers offer a single-click Joomla installation option, which can help get your site up and running in no time.

“Whether you run a Windows or Linux environment, you are able to deploy Joomla. Within a matter of minutes you can get your Joomla site up and running, ready to serve up your content to your users,” Hatfield said.

And since Joomla is so easy to use, it can significantly shorten the sales and delivery cycle for Web designers or developers whose clients need a site fast.

Joomla also offers a wide variety of specialized functionality, most of which are free under the GPL License. You can check out the list of available extensions here, in the Joomla Extensions Directory.

Since Joomla is based on PHP and MySQL, you can use it to build almost any kind of applications, from inventory control systems, data reporting tools, application bridges, e-commerce systems, reservations systems, powerful communication tools and more. And since the framework is open, anyone can use, share, and support the software. To find out more information on leveraging the Joomla framework, visit the Joomla Developer Network.

Joomla also has a proven history. It branched off from the Mambo project in 2007 and has been steadily growing and attracting its own devoted following ever since. “In that time it has evolved into a very advanced and stable CMS that is used in schools, corporate intranets and small businesses, among others,” Hatfield said. “If you need a website, Joomla will be there for you.

And if you’re worried about support, consider this: Joomla has a dedicated, passionate community of users and developers who are constantly working to improve the software, offer support, and add new and improved functionality. Should the free support not meet your business’s needs, there are paid support services available from third-party consultants, developers, and designers.

Joomla is the most popular open source CMS currently available as evidenced by a vibrant and growing community of friendly users and talented developers. Joomla’s roots go back years and, with over 200,000 community users and contributors, the future looks bright.

Sharon Florentine is a freelance writer who covers everything from holistic veterinary care to data center technology and occasionally blogs for cloud provider Rackspace Hosting.

July 10, 2013

Cloud Block Storage: How Can It Benefit Your Business?

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As a business’s data requirements become more extensive, its storage demands increase as well. Cloud block storage maximizes the efficiency of a server for maximum data storage and scalability. Although the concept may seem abstract, it has concrete implications for data management and file storage.

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An Overview of Cloud Block Storage

Blocks are the lowest level of data storage, residing on a server beneath the level of file storage. Because they’re relatively simple, blocks offer an independent storage method that can be scaled as needed in a number of ways to keep costs low. Blocks accommodate a wide range of data types, including databases, files and virtual machine file system volumes. Compare this to a file-level storage system, which only accommodates files. Although you might be able to store spreadsheets, marketing PDFs and images on a file-based storage system, you can’t store other types of data.

As you fill the block with data, you can expand to an additional block without disturbing other data on the server. The data is stored independently from the hardware, so you can move the block storage from one server to another without disturbing the hardware. Think of it like a separate hard drive on a server: You can remove the hard drive from one server and take it to another without disturbing the files.

Block storage is more challenging to administer than file-level storage, since administrators need to manage storage per server, track device performance and set security and protection levels. With cloud block storage, the cloud vendor takes on all the maintenance and administration of the storage server, so you don’t have to worry. You can connect to the cloud storage through an easy-to-use graphical user interface. Many common applications use block-level storage, including Microsoft Exchange and VMware, so you may already be taking advantage of block storage in your business life without even realizing it.

Block Storage’s Benefits

If all you need is a place to put files, TechRepublic recommends file-level storage, but if you’re looking for extensible storage options, cloud block storage can’t be beat. It offers faster speeds, greater reliability and faster performance than a file-based storage system. Block storage can also be formatted differently to accommodate a range of file systems that might be required by an application.

Consider these applications of block-level storage:

  • Move stored data to your block storage and then delete the contents of your server. Since everything is on the block storage, costs are kept down by paying only for the capacity you’re using.
  • Lend more storage to applications and databases that demand a high level of space, freeing up room on your solid state drive (SSD) for other applications.
  • Enhance the storage space of a cloud server without paying additional costs for cloud space.
  • Use the extra space to increase system speed and performance.
  • Keep computing costs low by paying only for the resources you need at any given time.
  • Use block storage for databases, applications, files or a combination.

A reputable cloud company can help you get started with block storage, monitor your block storage and perform all the necessary system maintenance and upgrades. See for yourself why businesses have taken to block storage to increase capacity and lower costs.

April 23, 2013

Cloud Opportunities

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To say that cloud computing has transformed how we produce, process and distribute business information would be the understatement of the century. While full-scale cloud adoption has had its fair share of challenges making traction with larger scale and smaller companies alike, it’s undeniable that cloud platforms as diverse as DropBox, SalesForce and Skype have made life easier. In company meetings and official business documentation we call this “efficiency,” but that’s exactly what the cloud is about. It takes computing-heavy processes and helps businesses transform them into easily-managed and delivered services.

The Cloud Problem: Small Businesses vs. the Cloud

According to a recent report by IT research analyst firm Freeform Dynamics, roughly 70% of small businesses state they aren’t likely to migrate to the cloud in the near future, and some won’t bother with the cloud integration discussion at all. This is telling in a lot of ways. First and foremost though, it reveals a misunderstanding of how the cloud can be used to benefit their business and boost their bottom line. Let’s investigate some real-world ways the cloud makes life easier, or, “boosts efficiency”.

The Cloud Solution: Efficiency

· Cloud Backup – According to DataLossDB.org, there were upwards of 1500 incidences of major data loss in 2012. Only a few months into 2013, there has already been reported over 350 instances. The bottom line is that you’ll lose data at some point, and your robust security tools won’t make a difference. What matters is what you do in the event of lost data. For small businesses, cloud backups are a cheap and easy solution that allow for simple off-site backup procedures matched with seamless data recovery tools.

· Cloud Storage Solutions – Cloud backup storage is easily the most popular type of cloud-based service out there. It has transformed the way we view data storage. Instead of opting for bigger, better and faster on-premise storage components, we seek out robust cloud storage platforms similar to DropBox, Google Drive and Box.net. While SMBs aren’t eager to fully jump on the cloud bandwagon, they are likely using cloud storage store information to make it more accessible to certain team members.

· Affordability, Scalability, Flexibility, etc – Affordability, scalability and flexibility is at the core of the cloud, and is often overestimated or underestimated, but not rightly understood within the adoption conversations that many businesses are having. The truth is from a cost and scalability perspective, you really only pay for what you use. From there, as your business grows or scales back its needs, you can almost instantly scale up or back your cloud services to meet your needs. This allows you to focus your IT budget on business-specific tools that help grow your business.

SMB Growth through Cloud Services

Whether you’re renting access to applications, or you’re using a cloud-based platform to deliver a more meaningful user experience to your customer base, the cloud can and does make life easier for your business. It allows you to focus on what matters: growing your business.

 

November 25, 2012
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Share your Joy with Exclusive Social Video Apps

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Social video apps are introduced every day with newer versions that benefits people using the internet resources for various reasons. These video applications are designed exclusively to sync and allow the user to connect his or her social account such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. With the updated new versions you can easily convert your Twitter profile or the Facebook page into a YouTube channel directly. This is a technological innovations that has captured millions of hearts around the world. You will be given an opportunity to add various channels directly from the YouTube to your social profile.

After the grandeur of the previous versions such as photo sharing and instagram there has been a great revolution created by this amazing social video apps method of sharing solutions in the virtual world. The technological market is flooded with wide range of application tools such as in the http://www.keek.com/BeauB that has gained immence popularity and gathered momentum with its significance. In case you are a small business owner and want to introduce your product or service amongst the crowd then this is a fresh opening to deal with potential clients, brand advocates and other social media users exclusively.

However the new version of the Social video apps are awesome in performance they still originate from the instagram and Twitter tailored in a way to benefit the customers to the most. They are easy to be installed and used even by a normal internet user. There are ways to transit files and other important documents from your Smartphone or the web. Thus sharing is now made a simple easy procedure with just a click of the mouse button.

Small brand holders usually finds it difficult to add any video content to their social page because these grips are placed at high price rates. Therefore you can easily hire an equipment and members who transform your content in the form of videos and engulf the entire market within your budget as well. There are incredible updates provided by the servers especially for the clients to expand their horizon by personalizing their social web page with the popular and mostly recommended videos.

Searching for a particular friend or brand or a business is made easy and simple through the social video apps. Then you can allow the visitors to subscribe for a company or person’s Twitter or Facebook profile account. In this method when a person is searching for a specific person or company it easily tracks the videos that they had shared in their social web page. Thus these applications just not display the exact matching profiles but also related contents such as in the http://www.keek.com/BeauB.

The social video apps also helps in focusing in providing their exclusive customers a great platform that can be used privately and share their intimate moments through their amazing video tools within their social circle of friends or relatives or colleagues exclusively. It is an easy procedure that involves simple steps by initially you point your mobile device or smartphone then shoot any happenings in your everyday life such as in the http://www.keek.com/Beau.Then edit the content according to your desires and then copy the secured URL or the particular video. Upload the video automatically to the social web page or YouTube and enjoy the results and followers.

February 29, 2012

Clear Your Search History And Keep Your Privacy!

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Each of us has a few skeletons in our closet that we sorely want to forget. The last thing that you want when at a life changing moment is your web search history exposed. Your religious inclinations, sexual fetishes, political views, and such like affairs are not issues that you want to share with all and sundry, right? Fret not.

There is a way to circumvent all this. All you need to do is simply master the art of deleting your web search history. Sounds quiet simple and it is, the paragraph below explains how.

Clear Your Search History And Keep Your Privacy!

How to Delete Browser History Quickly

Firsft and foremost, you need to understand that all searches that are performed when you are logged into your Google account are essentially logged into a folder. To erase your footprints this is how you proceed: Go to google.com/ history.

A request to sign into your account will be presented. The second step involves you clicking on to the ‘Remove Web History button’. When you click on to this option, your web history simply vanishes. The entire process takes under a minute to perform. This is how the situation stands up until March 1, this year.

Deleting Selected Pieces of Your Browsing History

If you want to be less dramatic then you can elect to go the way of deleting bits and pieces of your web history. This is the best option for those who do not want to raise suspicions (sic) as to reasons why they have deleted their entire web history. The process involves the following: Go your web history (google.com/history and sign into your account).

Your footprints in the world of the World Wide Web are presented to you, and you simply press the pause button on murky searches and no more details will be conducted on your account.

Upcoming Changes to Google Privacy Policy

The above two options are only possible up until the first day of March this year. Afterwards the search engine entity plans to have a unified privacy policy that will collect all personal details in their ever-increasing folders. The disadvantage of the presence of such a thick folder essentially means that you will need to go through a more rigorous process to delete your web history. This however is viewing the positive side of it. The negative could be that such an excursion could even be almost impossible in the security conscious world that we live in.

However things play out, one thing is certain: There are a few people who would want their search history shared with the world. The issues here touch on a raft of issues- the universal freedoms of access to information, the freedom of self expression, and a whole lot of legal jargon.

The search engine is walking a tightrope with regard to maintaining these freedoms and upholding its obligations as a corporate citizen. However things play out remember that your search for that dream job or even marrying into that blue blood family need not suffer on account of a colorful search history, nay. When in doubt, do the smart thing, press the delete button. It could make all the difference.

This guest post was brought to you by the Computer Too Slow, where you can find lots of free advice to speed up your computer.

February 29, 2012

Should A Website Designer Go For Improving Coding Abilities As Well?

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Businesses definitely need to promote themselves among their potential target markets, so that more and more people get to know how products/services of a particular business can add ease and convenience to their lives. Many experts believe that users are more concerned about high utility of a product/service in catering their need as compared to their concerns about high quality of the product or service.

It is for reasons like these that internet has emerged as one of the most effective mediums assisting millions of businesses all across the world to pursue their targets of growth and development successfully. Internet enables businesses to showcase their strengths (in their products as well as services) to a wider range of targeted audience, so that they are exposed to maximum number of people. For this purpose, critical role of web designers is unquestionable.

In fact, website design has become one of the most sought after web based careers. This also makes it a highly competitive field where web designers have to serve the industry with their best or they could simply perish at the hands of sheer competition. Now, many experts believe that a website designer can enjoy better rewards if they improve their coding (developing) skills as well. Though there are many who might not be very convinced with this opinion; so, this article sums up the major benefits of sprucing up coding ability of a web designer. This would definitely help readers better make up their mind in favor of or against the above mentioned statement.

Killing two birds with one stone – One certain benefit of being able to code for a designer is getting independent of outside assistance to seek betterment in their designs. For a designer who is not well with coding, resorting to a contractor is the only option, which might not be very much feasible for them in various aspects.

Better design solutions – A designer with better understanding of coding would be able to tweak his best website design solutions much better than a designer not expert in that region. This would definitely add to diversity and flexibility of design solution.

Added affordability – Web designers good at coding can also sometime cut any extra costs they might have to pay to any outside contractor for taking care of certain aspect of their design solutions. This means saving money for them.

Improved communication –Sharpening coding skill does not entail designers to switch trades with website developers; instead, it would help them better communicate with clients and other people while making business for themselves.

Better client response – Believe it or not, every single one of us wants to find multitalented people who are capable and skilled enough to take care of multiple aspects of our businesses and projects. Amid such potential clients, the probability of getting better client response for a web designer also equipped with coding abilities is much more as compared to one who does not hold such distinctions.

Conclusion

Perhaps, there would always be a division among people; some of them calling for designers to improve coding skills as well, while some of them advising website designers to stick to their primary expertise. However, the benefits stated above make this option seriously worth considering for a web designer.

 

February 19, 2012

5 Handy Softwares: Short Reviews

| Software | No Comments

Here’s the review of 5 very useful softwares.

Protect Your Data: NewSoftwares Folder Lock

Keeping your data secure has never been more important, and if you’re in business, you know that data is often your most valuable asset. With Folder Lock from NewSoftwares, you can protect and back up your private and personal documents located on PCs or portable devices. The suite consists of an encryption utility (256-bit), an online backup utility, portable encryption for USB drives and discs, a file locking utility, encrypted wallets utility, file shredder, built-in stealth mode for hiding the application’s very existence on the system, and more.

Build A Better Website: Intuit Homestead

Intuit’s Homestead is designed to help small businesses tap into the practically limitless opportunities of the Web by helping them create professional-looking and searchable websites. Homestead is free for 30 days and provides intuitive website-building software, inexpensive Web hosting services, and a toll-free customer support hotline. Once your website is up and running, you can also use Homestead to help you create an online store, get professional design help, and even increase the traffic to your site.

Fast Tax Filing: H&R Block

H&R Block’s take on taxes leverages the local brick-and-mortar offices as an additional resource for online tax filers. From the website, you can file using the Free, Basic ($19.95), Deluxe ($29.95), and Premium Editions ($49.95), which are suited to federal e-filing, simple tax situations, homeowners, and the self-employed, respectively. By the time you read this, you’ll have access to Block Live, which lets you connect to a real tax professional via face-to-face videoconference, starting at $39 each for federal and state returns.

From Idea To Startup: Palo Alto Business Plan Pro

The daunting task of putting your business plan on paper and wrapping your head around the complex calculations and financial terms shouldn’t slow you down. This software features more than 500 sample business plans, expert advice, and helpful examples designed to assist you in crafting a professional business plan all your own. Features include instructional videos, notification icons for collaborative business plans, an easily searchable Sample Plan Browser, and step-by-step guidance for editing and rewriting a plan to suit your needs.

Edit Photos Like A Pro: Serif PhotoPlus X5

Whether you use a digital SLR, point-and-shoot, or your cell phone to take photos, Serif’s PhotoPlus X5 will help you take them to the next level. This photo-editing suite lets you tweak and enhance your images to get professional-looking results, and it also helps you keep them organized. Features include red-eye removal and the ability to restore old photos and add impressive effects while editing your images.

Author Bio:

Guest Post written by Kashif Raza. Are you looking for android apps developer in Dubai to build your andorid app? webologyworld.com has 2 years of Industry experience in mobile and web.

 

February 15, 2012

How Website Designers Can Head Better With Website Headers?

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Website is your introduction to the virtual being of an entity alive online, and header of the website is your introduction to the being (website) itself. In fact, it is the header of a website that really captures attention of web audiences initially and the matter of scrolling down to contents of a web page comes later. This should serve more than enough to help readers realize the significance of an appropriate header (or header section, to be more generic) in convincing online audiences to stay engaged or leave a particular web page.

Conventional rectangular header images (almost in all cases) seem to have been there ever since infinity (in perspective of lifespan of internet!), and for the right purposes. However, today we see some genuine website designers redefining the approach (make sure to differentiate between approach and “purpose”) of employing headers in their design solutions, helping web design industry leap further towards innovation and creativity.

This article describes few aspects of website headers, knowing which will greatly help contemporary website designers in catching positive response from their targeted audience, making it convenient for businesses to seek better business opportunities.

Old is Gold!!! Is it Really?

It is not about defying this age old truth; but in case of website headers, one needs to redefine the authenticity of this particular statement. Experts suggest that things in web designing have gone much farther from times when conventional rectangular website headers could suffice for survival of a website in this ever evolving and ever competitive virtual world. Only exception in this case could be a scenario where a few years old website with huge fan following might not have to worry about immediately changing their conventional header. For businesses pursuing online presence in recent times, something newer, unique, and different is needed to be able to satisfy increasing demands of web audience. The problem concerns knowing some effective ways of actually doing so, and the points listed below are meant to address this issue:

I. Submerging

There is definitely no need to take it in literal sense. You might be surprised to know how sometimes simple things can work out great in challenging situations; submerging in this case, for example. Experts suggest that simply merging header image with rest of the site can be different, attractive, and yet effective to satisfy aesthetic qualms of present day web audience.

II. Inducing Dynamism in a Different Manner

Dynamism has a lot to say about current trends of website designs. Every website is looking to add dynamism, particularly in their headers, and almost all of them are going for typical jQuery codes for doing so. To many people’s surprise, dynamism can still be infused by being a bit different and (though still using jQuery if that pleases you) going for sleeker looking unconventional header images.

III. Ditching Rectangles

This can be yet another simple yet effective manner of differentiating your header images. Conventional rectangular headers have more than served their purpose and it is about time that web designers ditch them with due honor and respect, while moving towards exploring better alternatives. Instead of following a particular approach, it is much better to achieve the same objective with some versatility and effectiveness.

Conclusion

Being different is not some easy ball game; one has to face a lot of resistance and criticism doing so. However, if people stop thinking different, the world could be much less colorful, vibrant, and lively place to be. Make sure to be among website designers who herald the change by heeding to the information stated above.

 

February 8, 2012

Cloud Hosting: A Utility Service

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Businesses are being benefited immensely through cloud hosting. One can speedily build systems by using cloud hosting and add the memory keeping CPU free from the whole process. If you compare the efficiency of cloud hosting with that of dedicated hosting servers, used earlier, then you can find it much efficient than earlier one, in most of the cases. It can be experienced individually by using cloud servers if you are usual user of web hosting servers and assess the efficiency of this new technique through its performance. Cloud server also allows you to control your systems through your interface as well as supply, observe and control your virtual machines and resources from a central point. Thus cloud server allows you to provide a user friendly platform that can be managed efficiently.

Applications of cloud hosting

Cloud hosting can also download applications that can be used in enhancing business activities this function is known as ‘software as a service’ (SaaS). It enables you to download any application from the web browsers through cloud servers. You can approach to your applications, any type, from your server while you are not at your system, from anywhere else through any computer through the cloud server. You can download it, work on it and save the changes on cloud server and go away. This feature of cloud hosting empowers the employees to work for their organizations even not being present on the site. Such services of cloud servers can also be carried out through mobile phones of latest generation.

Security with cloud hosting

The cloud hosting can be used safely if you connect your cloud servers with your own network as it will separate it from the traffic of other resources and networks. You should also use encrypted secure connection to access your systems and application through cloud server so that you can be sure for your data not being overseen by others. You must also ensure the availability of backup on your system before using applications on cloud server so that it can be recovered in case you have lost it in transit.

Cost effectiveness

Cloud hosting is also a cost effective service for the companies whose business is based more on IT sector as it uses lesser amount of server power, electricity, server hardware, network equipment, security devices, IT support etc. used in the processing the websites.

Thus, cloud hosting is a useful device for the business sector as it can help in promoting them to a great extent.