Round Tale

With the advent of Web 2.0, the online marketplace has become a highly competitive advanced industry. Gone are the days of simple websites that bring money in with very little effort. Instead, with the various types of web applications available, the online business world has been transformed into a  massive collection of visually aesthetic ecommerce websites that lure the customer into making purchases with feature-packed, user-friendly interfaces. Out of all of the features included on a successful ecommerce website, one seems to demand the most consideration; the shopping cart.

The shopping cart is perhaps the most important feature on your ecommerce website, as it will be the last thing your customers interact with before making a purchase. Your profits solely depend on a reliable and convenient shopping cart. Many people do not realize that all shopping carts are not the same, and there are certain attributes that one should look for when selecting the perfect shopping cart for their online store.

Convenience

The most important attribute your shopping cart can have is convenience. If the shopping cart is not easy to use, then you’ll undoubtedly lose a large portion of your customer base to frustration and disappointment. The ultimate shopping cart will accommodate the customers needs without asking too much of them. The main reason why your customers shop online is to avoid the hassle of going to the store. Therefore the entire online shopping experience relies upon convenience. Since the item obviously takes longer to get to the customer, the only thing that s keeping them form going to the store is either price or convenient. Even if you have the lowest price, an inconvenient shopping experience will almost always drive the customer to the nearest competitor. To ensure your shopping cart is convenient try using it a couple of times yourself. Make sure the shopping cart does not require too much info before checkout. You want the process to be as seamless and simple as possible.

Reliability

Your customers must be able to rely upon your shopping cart, therefore it is important that you give each shopping cart a test run before activating it on your website. A single glitch could result in the loss of a sale, or even worse, the loss of a long term customer. One way to ensure the reliability of your shopping cart, is to make sure it does not rest itself automatically. There is nothing more frustrating than filling your shopping cart with goods only to have it all erased before checkout.

Customer Communication

Customer communication is perhaps one of the most important aspects of successfully running an online business. You’ll need to know what your customers are thinking to accommodate their needs properly. This means you’ll need a shopping cart that gives users the option to leave detailed feedback, product reviews, and even contact customer support. Communicating with your customers in return is just as important as receiving the message, so you’ll also want to have a shopping cart with an autoresponder and integrated support email client.

Conclusion

A good shopping cart solution will contain the above three key attributes while also being easy to use for both the end user and the online store owner. Although there are many clear benefits to certain shopping carts, choosing the right shopping cart solution is an individual process, that is entirely reliant on the needs and preferences of the business owner.

Security is by far one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a web host. With so  many possible threats online, it is not as hard as on might think for a security lapse to occur. Security is not something that should be taken lightly by the consumer or the web host, as there are several threats that could result in serious financial turmoil. The following are three threats in particular that are becoming increasingly common, and that are responsible for a large portion of the security issues involved with web hosting.

Credit Card Fraud

The internet is a massive virtual marketplace, swarming with merchants, customers, and people who would like to take advantage of both the merchant and the consumer. The people looking to exploit any security fault they can are commonly referred to as “hackers.” Hackers see the web as an opportunity to  prey on the weaknesses of other individuals and companies. A vulnerable website makes an ideal target for these hackers, especially if the website is engaged in daily e-commerce. Many of them have access to highly advanced applications that are capable of telling them if there any “loopholes” they can exploit. Any online store they can find with a single security lapse will become a feeding ground for them, resulting in thousands of dollars stolen form your customer’s credit cards. Once the hacker has the credit card details of your customer’s, the situation becomes progressively worse. Of course, the customer is going to be inclined to believe that you are the thief, and they will not want to accept the fact that you are actually the victim. This kind of situation can result in lawsuits, and even the loss of your online business!

Bot Rings

Then there is the possibility of a horrid “DDoS attack.” A DDoS attack is a security exploit that is normally employed by criminals that are members of or have control of  “botnets.”  DDos stands for “Distributed Denial of Service.” A bot ring is a group of hackers, or programmed computer’s that are set up to carry out a specific task. A DDoS attack is executed by a botnet that continually floods the network with DDoS requests. As the network is flooded with requests, it slows down until ultimately traffic screeches to a halt. Even though the DDoS attack is one of the oldest online security exploits, it is still extremely difficult to prevent because of it’s organic and seemingly genuine nature. Once the server’s traffic has been affected the hacker then takes control of the server, using it as a puppet to find   other vulnerable servers. Once the hacker has gained control over several servers, they then begin their attack on the target of their choice.  To prevent your business from being a victim of one of these attacks, make sure you discuss this threat with any prospective web hosts, to be sure they are aware of this threat.

Malicious Software

Then there are the threats that pose a virtual risk to the web hosting providers. Hackers may attempt to attack a web hosts server or network with a malicious application designed to retrieve crucial information.  This malicious software is called “malware” ( a combination of the two words).  While server’s generally have more stringent security measures in place, they are still susceptible to the same threats that a personal computer may be faced with.  You can avoid these kind of security lapses by  ensuring that your prospective host takes the proper precautions to defend against all forms of malware. Do not be afraid to ask questions about the security measures they have in place, before hand.  It is important to remember that once the web host’s server is compromised to malware, every bit of information on the server can be accessed, including your web site’s financial data.

(The Hosting News) – DALLAS, TX – Texas based managed web hosting provider, PerformanceHosting (www.performancehosting.net) has announced release of their new “Server Command” center. This allows their clients who take advantage of their dedicated web hosting services to provide them with easy access 24/7 to be able to instantly manage their dedicated servers from anywhere in the world. Such features include: Instant Reboot, monitor services such as CPU temperature and CPU Fan statistics, Network statistics and also current bandwidth in and out of the server.

PerformanceHosting CEO, Robert Abbate explains, “providing our clients with better access to these services improves their ability to ensure high availability of their server as well as making them feel more in control.” Further he adds, “we are constantly looking for ways to improve customer satisfaction in this ever-evolving world of web hosting”

About PerformanceHosting
PerformanceHosting has been an active player in the web hosting industry since 2000. The company has focused on delivering a high
quality and knowledgeable technical support team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They serve customers in over 80 countries around the world. Performancehosting has grown substantially during these years with a very high customer retention rate of over 90% and a large portion of business from current client referrals .

PerformanceHosting Announces New Server Command Interface is a post from: Web Hosting News

Quebec, Canada – (The Hosting News) – September 1, 2009 – Provider of Internet hosting services and IT infrastructure, iWeb, has released its financial results for the quarter ending June 30, 2009.

The complete interim financial statements and management report of the Company are available on its websites, www.sedar.com and http://investors.iweb.com.

Eric Chouinard, iWeb President and Chairman added, ”Growth remains our priority, especially in the current economic climate. Having said that, our shareholders will be happy to see signs of profitability on both EBITDA and operating income.”

Martin Leclair, President, Products and Technologies offered, ”Clients are adopting new technologies at the same rate as they were twelve months ago. However, we are noticing a much more controlled approach to expense management from our clients, who are discontinuing certain services which they were not using extensively. Experimental projects are a little smaller, which is normal in the current economic context. We are working closely with our clients to optimize their infrastructure so that they can continue innovating.”

Philip Tousignant, Chief Financial Officer noted, ”Two important points to highlight are that revenues continue to grow and EBITDA is kept above 25% of revenue. Granted, this is the first time that iWeb’s net profit has passed the 1 M$ mark, but that figure is theoretical, just like the losses reported in the past two quarters were. Foreign exchange fluctuations affect the accounting value of a large portion of our long-term debt. Operating income, however, remains positive at over 230,000 $, providing a much better idea of the company’s performance, regardless of market conditions.”

Revenues for the third quarter ended June 30, 2009 increased by $3.1 million or 75%, compared to the same period of 2008, to reach almost $7.2 million.

Revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 originated from iWeb’s three main service offerings as follows: Dedicated servers accounted for 85%, followed by 9% for co-location services and 6% for the shared web hosting. 78% of iWeb revenues for the quarter were generated in U.S. dollars, a significant advantage for the Company during the last quarter and since the beginning of the year. Compared with the same period 12 months ago, currency fluctuations between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar have had a positive impact of $950 000 on revenues. Without taking into account this impact, revenues still would have increased by 52% compared to the quarter ended on June 30, 2008.

Gross profit was 47% of revenues for the third quarter of 2009, compared to 49% for the same period of the previous year. During the past quarter, the favourable impact of the variation of Canada/U.S. exchange rates on the gross profit margin was more than compensated by higher payroll expenses in order to support the sustained and rapid growth of the Company’s operations.

Operating expenses for the quarter went from 48.6% of revenues in 2008 to 43.3% in 2009. This improvement is explained by lower costs for selling and administrative expenses compared to the revenues they generate, though compensated by a rise in interest expenses. Selling expenses decreased, from 16.5% in Q3 2008 to 15.5% of revenues for Q3 2009. Administrative expenses decreased from 24.2% to 17.7% of revenues for the quarter. Interest expenses increased significantly, from 7.1% to 9.6% of revenues for the third quarter. This is caused by the increase in long-term debt in order to support the important increase in the Company’s infrastructures, the greater part of which carry interests in U.S. currency.

iWeb’s operating income for the third quarter was $231,000, compared to $21,000 for the third quarter of 2008.

The other financial expenses represent elements which are the consequence of external market conditions. These expenses exceeded $1M for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. The most important element of these expenses is the unrealized exchange loss on the long-term debt of $10 million US. At the end of quarter ended June 30, 2009, the Canada/U.S. exchange rate was 1.16, compared to 1.26 for the beginning of quarter, which explains the unrealized gain of $977,000.

Taking into account the impact of the other financial expenses, the Company recorded a net profit of $1,023,000 for the third quarter of 2009, compared to a net income of $13,000 twelve months earlier, for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.

iWeb is a worldwide provider of Internet hosting services and IT Infrastructure, with three secure data centers in Montreal. Since 2004, the company’s compounded annual growth rate has been above 75%, making it one of Canada’s 100 fastest growing companies according to PROFIT Magazine.

Founded in 1996 in Montreal, iWeb now generates more than 60% of its revenues from abroad; and employs over 170 full-time employees providing Dedicated Server Hosting, Co-location and Web Hosting services to more than 21,000 customers in 150 countries. iWeb’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V : IWB).

To learn more, please visit: http://about.iweb.com.

Quebec, Canada – (The Hosting News) – September 1, 2009 – Provider of Internet hosting services and IT infrastructure, iWeb, has released its financial results for the quarter ending June 30, 2009.

The complete interim financial statements and management report of the Company are available on its websites, www.sedar.com and http://investors.iweb.com.

Eric Chouinard, iWeb President and Chairman added, ”Growth remains our priority, especially in the current economic climate. Having said that, our shareholders will be happy to see signs of profitability on both EBITDA and operating income.”

Martin Leclair, President, Products and Technologies offered, ”Clients are adopting new technologies at the same rate as they were twelve months ago. However, we are noticing a much more controlled approach to expense management from our clients, who are discontinuing certain services which they were not using extensively. Experimental projects are a little smaller, which is normal in the current economic context. We are working closely with our clients to optimize their infrastructure so that they can continue innovating.”

Philip Tousignant, Chief Financial Officer noted, ”Two important points to highlight are that revenues continue to grow and EBITDA is kept above 25% of revenue. Granted, this is the first time that iWeb’s net profit has passed the 1 M$ mark, but that figure is theoretical, just like the losses reported in the past two quarters were. Foreign exchange fluctuations affect the accounting value of a large portion of our long-term debt. Operating income, however, remains positive at over 230,000 $, providing a much better idea of the company’s performance, regardless of market conditions.”

Revenues for the third quarter ended June 30, 2009 increased by $3.1 million or 75%, compared to the same period of 2008, to reach almost $7.2 million.

Revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 originated from iWeb’s three main service offerings as follows: Dedicated servers accounted for 85%, followed by 9% for co-location services and 6% for the shared web hosting. 78% of iWeb revenues for the quarter were generated in U.S. dollars, a significant advantage for the Company during the last quarter and since the beginning of the year. Compared with the same period 12 months ago, currency fluctuations between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar have had a positive impact of $950 000 on revenues. Without taking into account this impact, revenues still would have increased by 52% compared to the quarter ended on June 30, 2008.

Gross profit was 47% of revenues for the third quarter of 2009, compared to 49% for the same period of the previous year. During the past quarter, the favourable impact of the variation of Canada/U.S. exchange rates on the gross profit margin was more than compensated by higher payroll expenses in order to support the sustained and rapid growth of the Company’s operations.

Operating expenses for the quarter went from 48.6% of revenues in 2008 to 43.3% in 2009. This improvement is explained by lower costs for selling and administrative expenses compared to the revenues they generate, though compensated by a rise in interest expenses. Selling expenses decreased, from 16.5% in Q3 2008 to 15.5% of revenues for Q3 2009. Administrative expenses decreased from 24.2% to 17.7% of revenues for the quarter. Interest expenses increased significantly, from 7.1% to 9.6% of revenues for the third quarter. This is caused by the increase in long-term debt in order to support the important increase in the Company’s infrastructures, the greater part of which carry interests in U.S. currency.

iWeb’s operating income for the third quarter was $231,000, compared to $21,000 for the third quarter of 2008.

The other financial expenses represent elements which are the consequence of external market conditions. These expenses exceeded $1M for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. The most important element of these expenses is the unrealized exchange loss on the long-term debt of $10 million US. At the end of quarter ended June 30, 2009, the Canada/U.S. exchange rate was 1.16, compared to 1.26 for the beginning of quarter, which explains the unrealized gain of $977,000.

Taking into account the impact of the other financial expenses, the Company recorded a net profit of $1,023,000 for the third quarter of 2009, compared to a net income of $13,000 twelve months earlier, for the quarter ended June 30, 2008.

iWeb is a worldwide provider of Internet hosting services and IT Infrastructure, with three secure data centers in Montreal. Since 2004, the company’s compounded annual growth rate has been above 75%, making it one of Canada’s 100 fastest growing companies according to PROFIT Magazine.

Founded in 1996 in Montreal, iWeb now generates more than 60% of its revenues from abroad; and employs over 170 full-time employees providing Dedicated Server Hosting, Co-location and Web Hosting services to more than 21,000 customers in 150 countries. iWeb’s shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V : IWB).

To learn more, please visit: http://about.iweb.com.

New York, New York – (The Hosting News) – May 12, 2009 – Email, collaboration and productivity SaaS solutions firm, Intermedia.Net, has unveiled new solutions designed to provide on-premise Exchange deployments with higher security and availability.

Serguei Sofinski, CEO of Intermedia explained, ”Email is a critical part of doing business and for SMBs who are running in-house mail servers, there is a high risk of downtime The time during which a computer is not functioning due to hardware, operating system or application program failure. Intermedia’s new offerings are designed to address some of the biggest pain points that small businesses face today. Our goal is to provide solutions that enable users to continue their business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets without risking lost productivity.”

Also called ‘RAS’ (reliability, availability, serviceability) or ‘fault resilient,’ it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue.

The rapid adoption of hosted Microsoft Exchange is primarily driven by SMBs’ need for secure and reliable email at a lower cost. However, a large portion of SMBs are unwilling or unable to migrate to hosted Exchange at this time and continue to use their in-house Exchange servers. Intermedia’s new Business Continuity and SpamStopper solutions address the needs of this segment.

Intermedia’s Business Continuity solution is designed to provide the high availability of Intermedia’s hosted Exchange solution to on-premise Exchange servers by allowing SMBs to use Intermedia’s servers to access their email when their Exchange server goes down. Unlike other basic ‘dial-tone’ solutions, Intermedia’s offering is Exchange-based and allows for full access to user mailboxes – including 14 days of email history, calendar appointments, contacts and more. In the event of a server outage.

ContentSync, a proprietary tool built by Intermedia, synchronizes Intermedia’s Business Continuity Exchange servers with its customers’ on-premise Exchange servers, providing customers with always up-to-date access to their data in the event of an outage. The solution requires no hardware or software to install, configure or manage, making it possible for SMBs to have a normally cost-prohibitive high-availability solution at a much more affordable price.

The second part of Intermedia’s new solution set is SpamStopper, a hosted service that provides email filtering, antivirus, antispam and anti-phishing for small businesses that have their own on-premise mail server. SpamStopper detects ‘bad’ emails with a greater than 99 percent rate of accuracy, offers near-perfect spam E-mail that is not requested. Also known as ‘unsolicited commercial e-mail’ (UCE), ‘unsolicited bulk e-mail’ (UBE), ‘gray mail’ and just plain ‘junk mail,’ the term is both a noun (the e-mail message) and a verb (to send it). SpamStopper also includes Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Detection to shield networks from new malware Software designed to destroy, aggravate and otherwise make life unhappy. See crimeware, virus, worm, logic bomb, macro virus and Trojan.

Most anti-spam software requires administrators to access flagged emails in an external folder to determine if it they are spam messages. Intermedia lets administrators avoid this time-consuming process by managing the entire process on the back-end from its world-class secure datacenter facilities. All flagged messages are sent to the users’ trash folders where they can choose to sort through them or ignore them on their own time.

Sara Radicati, CEO of the Radicati Group offered, ”Downtime, spam, viruses and phishing, is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Also known as brand spoofing, an official-looking e-mail is sent to potential victims pretending to be from their ISP, bank or retail establishment. Emails all take a toll on small businesses with huge cost implications. Comprehensive hosted solutions like Intermedia’s Business Continuity and SpamStopper offer a no upfront investment option for small businesses looking to protect their email infrastructure.”

Both of Intermedia’s new solutions are available immediately and are able to quickly and easily integrate with customers’ on-premise Exchange servers. Business continuity is available for $5 per user per month and SpamStopper is available for $50, a one-time fee for the first 50 users, plus 50 cents per user per month for each additional user.

In January, Intermedia released its Business Productivity Suite (BPS). BPS is the first hosted solution to include hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) and Microsoft Outlook 2007 as a bundled offering. The new solution helps businesses increase productivity and efficiency while allowing greater flexibility and lower risk, all for a lower price point than on-premise software or a la carte hosted services.

Intermedia.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, providing a comprehensive package of the highest uptime, 24×7 support, and technical knowledge. In the hosting business since 1995 and hosting Microsoft Exchange since 2000, Intermedia.NET, offered the first Exchange hosting solution specifically for small and medium businesses with enterprise-strength technology for low monthly fees, with no up-front investment. Intermedia.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, with 24×7 support. The company offers a variety of Exchange hosting and web hosting plans, from the smallest businesses with three users and upwards, to substantial mid-sized organizations.

For more information about Intermedia.NET, please visit: www.intermedia.net.

New York, New York – (The Hosting News) – May 12, 2009 – Email, collaboration and productivity SaaS solutions firm, Intermedia.Net, has unveiled new solutions designed to provide on-premise Exchange deployments with higher security and availability.

Serguei Sofinski, CEO of Intermedia explained, ”Email is a critical part of doing business and for SMBs who are running in-house mail servers, there is a high risk of downtime The time during which a computer is not functioning due to hardware, operating system or application program failure. Intermedia’s new offerings are designed to address some of the biggest pain points that small businesses face today. Our goal is to provide solutions that enable users to continue their business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets without risking lost productivity.”

Also called ‘RAS’ (reliability, availability, serviceability) or ‘fault resilient,’ it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue.

The rapid adoption of hosted Microsoft Exchange is primarily driven by SMBs’ need for secure and reliable email at a lower cost. However, a large portion of SMBs are unwilling or unable to migrate to hosted Exchange at this time and continue to use their in-house Exchange servers. Intermedia’s new Business Continuity and SpamStopper solutions address the needs of this segment.

Intermedia’s Business Continuity solution is designed to provide the high availability of Intermedia’s hosted Exchange solution to on-premise Exchange servers by allowing SMBs to use Intermedia’s servers to access their email when their Exchange server goes down. Unlike other basic ‘dial-tone’ solutions, Intermedia’s offering is Exchange-based and allows for full access to user mailboxes – including 14 days of email history, calendar appointments, contacts and more. In the event of a server outage.

ContentSync, a proprietary tool built by Intermedia, synchronizes Intermedia’s Business Continuity Exchange servers with its customers’ on-premise Exchange servers, providing customers with always up-to-date access to their data in the event of an outage. The solution requires no hardware or software to install, configure or manage, making it possible for SMBs to have a normally cost-prohibitive high-availability solution at a much more affordable price.

The second part of Intermedia’s new solution set is SpamStopper, a hosted service that provides email filtering, antivirus, antispam and anti-phishing for small businesses that have their own on-premise mail server. SpamStopper detects ‘bad’ emails with a greater than 99 percent rate of accuracy, offers near-perfect spam E-mail that is not requested. Also known as ‘unsolicited commercial e-mail’ (UCE), ‘unsolicited bulk e-mail’ (UBE), ‘gray mail’ and just plain ‘junk mail,’ the term is both a noun (the e-mail message) and a verb (to send it). SpamStopper also includes Zero-Hour Virus Outbreak Detection to shield networks from new malware Software designed to destroy, aggravate and otherwise make life unhappy. See crimeware, virus, worm, logic bomb, macro virus and Trojan.

Most anti-spam software requires administrators to access flagged emails in an external folder to determine if it they are spam messages. Intermedia lets administrators avoid this time-consuming process by managing the entire process on the back-end from its world-class secure datacenter facilities. All flagged messages are sent to the users’ trash folders where they can choose to sort through them or ignore them on their own time.

Sara Radicati, CEO of the Radicati Group offered, ”Downtime, spam, viruses and phishing, is a scam to steal valuable information such as credit card and social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Also known as brand spoofing, an official-looking e-mail is sent to potential victims pretending to be from their ISP, bank or retail establishment. Emails all take a toll on small businesses with huge cost implications. Comprehensive hosted solutions like Intermedia’s Business Continuity and SpamStopper offer a no upfront investment option for small businesses looking to protect their email infrastructure.”

Both of Intermedia’s new solutions are available immediately and are able to quickly and easily integrate with customers’ on-premise Exchange servers. Business continuity is available for $5 per user per month and SpamStopper is available for $50, a one-time fee for the first 50 users, plus 50 cents per user per month for each additional user.

In January, Intermedia released its Business Productivity Suite (BPS). BPS is the first hosted solution to include hosted Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) and Microsoft Outlook 2007 as a bundled offering. The new solution helps businesses increase productivity and efficiency while allowing greater flexibility and lower risk, all for a lower price point than on-premise software or a la carte hosted services.

Intermedia.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, providing a comprehensive package of the highest uptime, 24×7 support, and technical knowledge. In the hosting business since 1995 and hosting Microsoft Exchange since 2000, Intermedia.NET, offered the first Exchange hosting solution specifically for small and medium businesses with enterprise-strength technology for low monthly fees, with no up-front investment. Intermedia.NET is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner, with 24×7 support. The company offers a variety of Exchange hosting and web hosting plans, from the smallest businesses with three users and upwards, to substantial mid-sized organizations.

For more information about Intermedia.NET, please visit: www.intermedia.net.