Round Tale

You would be amazed at the amount of social networking and community software tools that are on the market today.  The immense popularity of MySpace, Facebook and YouTube has encouraged many people to create their own online community.  Community sites are expansive in topics, ranging from sites such as dating and video sharing to pets and video games.   Below are just a few of the many options that exist for online communities:

Social networking sites

Social media sites

News publishing sites

Dating sites

Blog sites

Video sharing sites

Photo sharing sites

What Type of Hosting Do You Need?

Web hosting plays a huge role in the creation of these types of community sites.  Such a website requires an added dose of power in comparison to the typical website.  However, what it requires the most is a scalable environment that supports the growth of the community.  As your site increases in popularity, it will attract more users, which means it will be populated with more pictures, videos and possibly other interactive features.   This tremendous growth means that the average shared hosting package may not suitable for the needs of your community.  You have to consider critical resources such as disk space, bandwidth, RAM and CPU, all of which impact the overall performance of your website.  While you might be able to pull this off on a shared hosting platform from a technical aspect, your community could be the one to suffer from slow loading pages and sluggish performance.

A dedicated server makes for one of the most reliable ways to host an online community.  This type of hosting will give you the scalability you need and dramatically reduce the occurrence of performance issues you would endure on a shared server.  The problem is that maintaining a dedicated server can be very complex and expensive.  Leasing the server can run you upwards of $100 per month – and this is just for an unmanaged service.  If you choose to run your community on a dedicated server, keep in mind that you will be responsible for updating the operating system and web server software in addition to managing all the applications and security mechanisms it requires.   This is something many people simply are not equipped to deal with.  For this reason, you should strongly consider looking into a service provider that specializes in community hosting as they are more likely to have the unqiue environment you require.

Conclusion

A community site can be very beneficial, but only when choosing the right web hosting solution.  Before heading out to look for a service, take both the present and future growth into account when factoring in your requirements.   Think about the features you need, the type of content and media you plan to host, and the volume of traffic you anticipate.  If you truly want your community site to be a success, don’t hesitate to ask prospective web hosts questions and find out exactly how they can suit your needs.  This will make it much easier to find the ideal solution for your online community.

Control panels are certainly a vital element in today’s web hosting operation, helping to transform complex tasks into simple processes that can be handled by users of varying skill levels.  The vendors that distribute these products and the hosting industry in general have no trouble pushing the software on the market, but critics are now questioning whether control panels are truly necessary in the VPS environment and what value they actually provide.

Potential Issues

In terms of performance and security, industry leading control panels such as cPanel and Plesk are not always what they are cracked up to be.  These powerful applications consume a great deal of resources and often force customers to upgrade their packages to continuously thrive in a VPS hosting environment.  This consumption is due to HTTPD processes ran by web servers like Apache that make a VPS more susceptible to performance issues and less able to handle exploits such as DOS (Denial of Service) attacks.  Though very useful, cPanel and Plesk are both resource hogs that are more likely to reduce the overall responsiveness and performance of web applications, leading customers to upgrade to more costly packages they do not necessarily need.  In addition to this, even simple tasks such as creating email account and managing databases are slow and lagging processes that generally take too long to complete.

Alternative VPS Control Panels

cPanel and Plesk are ideal for shared and dedicated hosting arrangements but could result in more problems then you bargained for when using them with a virtual private server.  Two more efficient control panels you may want to consider for your VPS hosting solution are DirectAdmin and LxAdmin as both are incredibly lightweight and consume notably less system resources than cPanel and Plesk.  This essentially means they are far more responsive, faster and likely to give you a better performance than the leading products.  A number of tests are increasingly showing that they are also more stable and secure than the competition.

Many observers are stepping out to the make the claim that cPanel’s days as a VPS control panel are numbered, attributing this to the fact that is the most resource leeching solution.  Due to its mass popularity and widespread use, it is also among the highly targeted by hackers, which presents numerous potential security risks to your hosting environment and sensitive data.  For this reason, you may want to carefully consider utilizing this control panel with your virtual private server.  Unless you have a robust VPS plan with a lot of RAM or absolutely require automation, it might be worth the risk to install a glamorous commercial product.

Conclusion

We are not telling you to refrain from using cPanel or Plesk as both are on top of the control panel market for obvious reasons.  However, in many situations, going with a lighter product or performing command line administration will allow you to get the job done in a faster, more efficient and secure manner.  Fortunately, there are several control panel applications specifically designed for the VPS environment, better assuring the optimal performance and adequate security you need to thrive with your web presence.

This past Monday, managed web application service provider Gomez, announced that it would be making significant platform-wide upgrades and enhancements to a number of its products.  These improvements will directly impact the company’s performance management, web load and cross-browser testing solutions for the benefit of clients using both web and mobile applications.

According the announcement, Gomez’s platform-wide upgrade includes the unveiling of the Gomez Recorder, an advanced management tool.  The Gomez Recorder greatly simplifies the creation and management of test scripts and complex web transactions by analyzing the many individual elements within a single web page.  Gomez’s new tool has the ability to automatically detect and capture the performance metrics of each step in asynchronous RIA transactions, thus allowing businesses to effectively analyze and optimize the performance of their applications.

The firm has also incorporated various solutions for the testing and monitoring of applications, mobile sites and services into the Gomez platform.  These additions give companies a unified view of traditional and mobile applications, permitting them to identify, diagnose, prioritize and resolve performance issues.  Businesses have the option to analyze the performance of traditional and mobile sites individually or collectively.

Other enhancements include Gomez’s automated cross-browser and web load testing solutions.  The former has been expanded to support 5,000 mobile devices and well over 500 combinations of browsers, devices and screen sizes, helping developers save more time and money by automating the process of mobile and web application testing.  The company’s on-demand web load testing solution has also been enhanced, the most notable being the addition of a high volume, cloud generated load combined with the real-world load from its recently expanded Last Mile network.  Gomez’s Last Mile network consists of more than 100,000 consumer-grade desktop machines running real-world performance tests.  Generating extra capacity and reach, the cloud enables Gomez to deliver solutions that more accurately determine the impact of peak loads on response times for end-users in various locations with varying connection speeds.  This ultimately helps businesses make the necessary adjustments and launch new web applications with confidence.

Also added to the list of enhancements is a new integrated diagnostics dashboard.  This tool provides an interface that aggregates test data across Gomez’s global testing network and customer base, aiding clients with diagnosis that alerts them of performance issues.  Customers can effectively troubleshoot issues whether they are related to them, associates, vendors or the internet in general.

Jaime Ellertson, Chief Executive Officer at Gomez, stated that today’s end-users expect both web and mobile applications to be richer and faster than every before, not knowing that this creates twice the complexity for the developers who build them, the IT teams that maintain them, and the online business executives that rely on them for brand creation and revenues.  He states that the enhancements to the Gomez platform will provide businesses with a powerful and cost effective package of integrated solutions, helping them optimize their most essential web pages and applications, all while meeting the end-user’s expectations in terms of speed and quality.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.