Why High Availability Is Important for Your Business
Today’s businesses are addicted to IT. Every part of the business now needs Internet connectivity to function, and not just for cat videos during breaks; from communication via email, instant messaging, and VoIP, to back office ERP and CRM – not to mention the importance of digital marketing channels and ecommerce.
Applications, and even consumer-facing services, are now shifting to cloud and hybrid models as companies realise that in-house IT, once tasked with running an Exchange server and maintaining desktops, lack the tools and specialist expertise to keep these systems running.
Our heavy dependence on the Internet to get business done exposes a threat with the potential to transform the competitive advantages of this new world of doing business in the cloud into a business killer.
Block malicious traffic with fail2ban
There are many ways in which you can protect your VPS – from strict password policies, through to aggressive spam filtering, basic firewall configurations and antivirus. However, no matter how fancy and elaborate your security precautions are, there will always be someone ready to launch dictionary attacks and probe for vulnerable scripts on your poor server.
Even though we preconfigure strict firewall policies on our fully managed Cloud VPS, there are some services – like the web server itself – that have to remain wide open to the world. Without those gates, there would be no mail flow or web browsing.
Consequently your Cloud VPS can be kept quite busy just fighting off failed FTP/S password probes along with the load of “404 not found” reports in your apache error logs from bots searching for common software exploits. Not to mention the wealth of failed IMAP, SMTP and POP3 connections from spammers and identity thieves trying to compromise your mailbox.
If you weren’t really careful about keeping your website software 100% up to date you have, probably, at some point, received a support ticket from our abuse department notifying you that your VPS has unfortunately become a spam crib due to malware injections or a simple password breach.
A few months ago Parallels (now Odin) introduced new security enhancements to Plesk 12. Such features as WordPress Toolkit, mobile manager application, antispam and antivirus capabilities; the platform is a great choice for any web administrator. One little gem, in terms of security, was the addition of Fail2Ban. Let’s take a look at how it works and how it can save your server from compromise.
Officially the best in Western Europe!
"Here is a simple but powerful rule: always give people more than what they expect to get." – N. Boswell
There’s one thing central to everything we do at Layershift: keeping our customers happy. Nothing is more important than delivering the very best customer service in our power.
That mantra has seen Layershift grow from strength to strength over the years, and we’re extremely proud and grateful for all the customer referrals we receive from our happy customers.
One of the most fundamental pillars to that success is customer feedback. In fact it’s the very fuel that keeps our business going and growing so strongly.
As a managed hosting provider we work exceptionally closely with our customers, so we like to think that we have a good handle on their needs, wants, desires, and challenges. But how do we know if we’re really doing a good job with that? Are we really solving problems in the most effective way? Was our assistance at the right level of detail and clarity to help the customer meet their goals?
Thank you for visiting us at Cloud Expo Europe
On the 11th and 12th of March, cloud experts and enthusiasts gathered from all over the world in London, UK for the biggest and best attended cloud event in the world – Cloud Expo Europe.
The event attracted over 15,000 visitors including IT industry experts, decision makers, managers, developers, consultants from all walks and sizes of business.
We couldn’t miss this amazing opportunity to showcase our exciting range of services, so 4 of our brightest and best gleefully headed off to London for 2 eventful days of exhibiting.
Visitors to our stand learnt about our SSD-powered fully managed Cloud VPS with the Parallels Plesk 12 control panel, our new Traffic Guard service – an Inline Content Delivery Network, Web Application Firewall, & DDoS mitigation solution – and our award-winning auto-scaling PaaS, Jelastic, which is now also available as a Managed Private Cloud option.
Layershift on Size
Our stand proved to be massively popular, as we explained to visitors why ‘size doesn’t matter’! Which we found is always a great conversation starter…
Supercharge WordPress in Plesk
Web management tools, such as one-click installs, are a convenient way to install an application. However, after the installation you are on your own. If you are not that familiar with command line or coding, you have to rely on others to configure your application properly. After the installation, you might find yourself unable to secure and configure the application properly.
If you don’t have a web developer who would take care of your application, the management may become even more tedious. The solution usually involves the mentioned third-party services to manage your websites. Wouldn’t it be nice though, to manage your webpage on your own, without additional costs, from your web hosting control panel? Thanks to the latest Parallels Plesk WordPress Toolkit, now you can!
Overview of features:
- Security
- Update Management
- Plugin Management
- Theme Management