Once upon a time, cloud hosting technology was reserved for large companies and corporations. Only they could afford to put together complex cloud environments.

With the evolution of technology, those days are over. Cloud hosting is now affordable and available to companies large and small. Countless businesses are making the switch into the cloud, and for good reason.

Uptime that can’t be beat

One major difference between cloud hosting and shared hosting is the ability of cloud environments to offer 100% uptime. Regular shared hosting can only offer 99% uptime, at best.

How is this possible? Well, with cloud hosting your website is on hundreds of servers. If one of them happens to go down, another server will step in automatically. A server is always at the ready.

In contrast, shared hosting puts your website on one server. If it crashes, so does your site. There are no automatic backups in place to deal with potential problems or traffic surges.

Full scalability

In shared hosting, it’s common for another customer’s major traffic spike to affect the performance of your site.

With the cloud, this is not an issue. Big increases in web activity are dealt with dynamically and seamlessly. The cloud takes everything in stride. If more power is needed, the cloud automatically delivers, and then gears down when the rush is over.

Killer performance

Within a cloud hosting environment, you always know that your performance will be top-notch, even if you are running demanding applications and sophisticated programs. The cloud deploys quickly and accurately.

Shared hosting is notorious for its unreliability. It all depends on what else is going on and what other customers are doing. You can never be sure that your website will be performing as you want it to.

The way of the future

The cloud is the latest advancement in web hosting technology. If you’ve ever lost revenue because of your site going down, you know how detrimental a server crash can be. Cloud hosting makes this business nightmare thing of the past. Using enterprise level hardware from the biggest names in the business (Dell, Cisco etc…) and offering uptime, scalability and performance that shared hosting quite simply never could, more and more businesses are opting for cloud hosting solutions. It just makes good business sense.

Who we recommend

An Approved Host provider providing the most efficient Windows Cloud Hosting solution is GearHost.com.  Getting your website on the cloud environment is the right choice and you’ll have the reliability and dynamic scalability of this industry leading technology working for your website.  For more information on GearHost CloudSites Technology and the FindMyHost consumer guarantee included with your purchase visit:  www.findmyhost.com/gearhost.

Are you the type of user looking to launch a comprehensive website, but lack the technical jargon or knowledge as to how to go about it yourself?  If you fall into this category, your are in luck.  Today we take a closer look at the QuickSite Hosting Service to see how Lunarpages.com created the simplest of solutions to make this happen.  The QuickSite service provides you with 3 easy steps to launch a website…..no technical knowledge required, you don’t even have to hire a designer/programmer.

To get started visit Lunarpages QuickSite, enter your e-mail and phone number and you’ll be on your way to launching your website.

One of the first steps in the process is to select a template for your website.  There are more than 400 templates to choose from and you can also personalize the templates by changing the color themes. There are literary no limitations as far as designing your website is concerned. You can juggle with all the options to ensure your website is exactly how you would like it laid out.  You are also provided with additional options to edit content within the site, this proves to be critical element prior to the design phase and even once the website is live (and you want to update your content).

Once you have chosen the design of your website, it is time to decide on the pages you would like on the website. There are a number of options available under the Quicksite Hosting Plan. You can also choose the page design and various additional services, such as shopping cart and blog pages.  Want to take advantage of today’s social networking options?  With the Quicksite Hosting Plan you can include images and videos in your website, so it becomes interesting as well as attractive.  The Quicksite Hosting Plan also provides you with around the clock back-ups…..so the important information is always saved and available for retrieval at anytime.

The QuickSite hosted service is a clear winner for individuals looking to launch a cost effective website.  You can now launch a professionally designed and integrated website with little to no outsourced help.  An ideal fit for small to medium sized businesses!

All QuickSite Hosting Plans include professional domain related email accounts, no longer do you have to rely on yahoo or hotmail to run your business.  After creating your desiered e-mail accounts, you are all set to select your payment options.  As a complimentary offer to viewers of this article, Lunarpages is offering the first 100 subscribers $50 off the 12/24 QuickSite Hosting Plans.  Simply use the coupon Quick50 when ordering to receive your discount.

Want to take the QuickSite solution for a test run?  CLICK HERE to see the demo for yourself.

Lunarpages.com is a successful graduate of the Approved Host program.  Details on how FindMyHost, Inc. tested their services and the guarantee we provide consumers who take advantage of the Quick50 coupon visit www.findmyhost.com/how_we_test.aspx

Dedicated server shopping can be overwhelming, since there are lots of things to consider- platform, plan features, and pricing, just to name a few.  There are also less obvious considerations that can have a major impact on how successful your choice will be, and one of the biggest is also one of the easiest to answer i.e. is the company privately held or publically traded?

Looking beyond buying shares in a hosting company, (although a successful dedicated server host might look good in your portfolio), it should be a factor in your decision making process. Knowing that a company is public means that a lot of your due diligence has already been done, and done well.  Public companies are audited from top to bottom.  Not only must the company be financially sound, but everything from personnel to equipment to the overall business plan must undergo a complete evaluation.  Public companies have business practices that are fully documented, which might not seem like a big thing, but anyone who has worked in an environment where people make things up as they go along can attest to the benefit of quality documentation.

Public scrutiny is a good thing – that many secretive hosting providers do not understand.  Where a privately held company may be accountable to the customers and the business owner, a publically held dedicated server hosting company has another level of accountability to deal with- shareholders and a board of directors.  As a customer, your visibility is into what goes on at your managed dedicated hosting provider ends at the website and customer support number.  Shareholders and the board of directors on the other hand have much greater visibility into the operations of the company, questionable decisions, performance issues, and anything else that impacts the bottom line is subject to scrutiny by the stockholders.

Other benefits include the fact that a public managed dedicated hosting company is likely to be much larger than privately held competitors, which means as a customer, you enjoy the benefits of an enterprise class infrastructure, in terms of hardware and software, as well as better network peering.  A public company is required to make regular financial disclosures, and must comply with a host of government regulations designed to protect shareholders (and which also work in favor of customers).  The company history is a matter of verifiable public record- fly by night doesn’t cut it in this arena.

Like most things it comes down to trust.  No matter how much research you are able to do on your own, it generally can’t match the ongoing evaluation that a publically held managed dedicated host must pass.  Why not put those watchdogs to work for you?

A public hosting provider like NaviSite, Inc., has a long history of providing excellent service, reliable infrastructure, all backed by strong processes.  NaviSite is an Approved Host and details on their review are available at: www.FindMyHost.com/NaviSite.

In the early days of the Internet a business site was a simple brochure of products and services. More likely than not, it included a contact form and a phone number if the site visitor wanted to request more information. As time went by, Web sites evolved to include online ordering and full e-commerce capabilities.

While most Web sites evolved to include a lot of information for the visitor as well as easy e-commerce ordering they were impersonal. There was a certain anonimity to all Web sites. For all you knew, you could be buying your widget from a guy in his underwear living in his moms basement or from a huge multi-million dollar corporation.

Say Hello To The Blog.

I don’t remember the first time I heard the word ‘Blog’, but I am guessing it was around 2004. Regular people used the blog as a personal diary of sorts and shared knowledge and memories with friends and family. As blogging caught on, the SEO value began to resonate in marketing minds.

High search engine rankings fueled by a new style of web design often drive the masses towards adoption of concepts the average business owner would not ordinarily consider. The blog is a prime example of  adopting a concept one would not necessarily pair with a business Web site.

How Can A Blog Help Make Me Money?

Most business owners will ask how can a blog help increase our sales? The answer is simple – transparency. Letting potential customers get to know you and your staff personally creates a special bond that’s very hard to create on the anonymous Internet.

Imagine creating an open and friendly environment. Imagine telling customers what your plans are. Imagine asking customers for feedback on new idea’s and engaging them to participate. Most business owners cringe at the idea of exposing company secrets or how they maintain a competitive advantage. In reality, it seems that Web sites who feature an open and informational Blog see increased sales. Some Blogs like Google’s Apps even have a following and new feature requests from readers.

Most Blogging software also offer the ability for readers to obtain RSS feeds through their email clients such as Outlook. This is very important for one simple reason: People read email every day, all day. Customers who subscribe to RSS feeds from your blog don’t even have to visit your site to be informed of a new product launch or service upgrade.

Start Blogging Today.

I encourage you to add a blog to your existing Web site if you have not done so already. If you have one and have not updated it in awhile, aim for once a week or month. WordPress templates make it incredibly easy to not only start a Blog, but also manage a Web site. WordPress is a good low cost alternative to hiring a web designer. In fact, you can find a lot of cheap WordPress templates that look fantastic.

For Blog Web Hosting with an easy one click blog software install – We Recommend: WordPress Hosting from HostGator.com

Everyone knows that SAN and NAS storage solutions are at a premium in terms of price and are limited. Thanks to today’s new cloud technologies, those costs can be reduced and more functionality brought than traditional storage platforms. Cloud storage in its simplest form provides complimentary space for your existing dedicated server, VPS, or cloud processing systems. Imagine adding a scalable and potentially unlimited hard drive to your existing system.

What can be stored on the Cloud?
Images, HTML, Flash files, MPEG, MP4, PDF’s, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and more can be stored. Many providers allow you to mount the Cloud as an external drive and also provide FTP capabilities for adding content to the Cloud.

How is data delivered from Cloud Storage to my existing hardware or end clients?
Delivering your stored items works in the same way as Content Delivery Networks (CDN). Providers offer you the ability to use a URL to pull files, images, and data from the cloud.

Top 3 Reasons You Should Be Using Cloud Storage

1. Low cost. Traditional SAN and NAS are limited and more expensive.
2. Reduce processor load. Data is delivered directly from the cloud, eliminating processor usage on your existing system.
3. Easy to administrate. Easily upload data to the Cloud via FTP, Browser, or Mount.

Alternate uses for cloud storage include:

• Home User backup storage. Affordable backup for pictures, important documents and files.
• Server backup. Run backups using Rsync or R1Soft to mounted Cloud storage.

Things To Be Aware Of:

• Bandwidth Charges. Many Cloud providers measure bandwidth in terms of in and out. Many allow free ‘in’ or uploading of content and charge for ‘out’ or downloading of content.

Choose Your Cloud Storage Partner Wisely

Only a very few state-of-the-art Data Centers are currently offering Cloud Storage to their end-customers. If Web Site speed is important to your online business, you should only consider hosting in one of these facilities.

Recommended Cloud Storage provider: The Planet

We’ve implemented the following guarantee’s on our main network in an effort to better assist consumers with their web host search and buying decision.

WE STAND BEHIND ALL WEB HOSTS WHO ADVERTISE ON OUR NETWORK:

1. We will not accept advertising in our marketplaces or on any of our network sites from a Web Host who has not passed our Approved Host program.

2. Web Hosts found to violate the Approved Host bylaws will be removed from the site.

3. Guaranteed Hosting complaints are forwarded to inside representatives at the web host in question. Should you ever need help in resolving an issue, simply fill out our easy to use form. Once verified, your request is sent directly to our inside contact.

Regards,
Richard Guzzo
FindMyHost, Inc.

We are often asked by consumers, what should I look for when selecting a web host? They are often in luck, because FindMyHost, Inc. and its network launched back in January 2000 with its revolutionary web host ‘Approved Host’ testing program. You ask, what is this testing program? Well, in simple terms we take the leg work out of consumers search and worries if the web host is going to meet their expectations. That’s right, we play consumer and sign up for an account, go through all the normal steps you would and ensure what they promote meet a high standard within our industry. If a web host promotes 24×7 support, were on the phone at 3am.

The number one concern when testing a web hosting company is are they a viable business that can sustain the ups and downs of our industry and provide you with a quality product and service for years to come. You may ask, what does that mean? Well we’ve tested thousands of companies over the past eight years and seen our fair share of fly by companies (up one day down the next). As a consumer, this can be difficult to spot but our testing program is design to avoid these pitfalls.

With that in mind, be sure to search our network when selecting a web host and feel free to contact us at anytime if you have any questions.

For a full list of testing features we cover visit: http://www.findmyhost.com/how_we_test.asp.

Regards,
Richard Guzzo
FindMyHost, Inc.