Monthly Archives: August 2018

17 Aug

What Major Hosting Options To Consider When Launching Your Web Store?

Last Updated on August 17, 2018 by Ruchir Shastri

After doing months of planning & research, lots of code work & testing, you’re finally ready to launch your online store. At this stage, you might have a question in your mind – is standard shared hosting plan sufficient to host eCommerce website, or do I need something special?

Web hosting is probably the foundation brick of every web store, so it’s better to invest time and money you need upfront to ensure that you’ve got a solution that’s going to work with you for now and also in future.

You really don’t have to worry much when you’re planning to use hosted solutions like BigCommerce, 3dcart and Shopify. It’s because these hosted solutions use their own Cloud and therefore most of the heavy lifting are being taken care of by themselves.

Web Store Hosting

But if you’re planning to host your own online store, then assessment and selection of web hosting options is critical. Redundant web hosting is a vital factor to ensure your customers would have a super smooth and responsive online shopping experience. What hosting options are you going to choose for your online store? Here are some factors to take into consideration.

Select A Hosting Plan With Sufficient Disk Space And Bandwidth Limits

As we know that, web hosting services store files that build your online store and serve those files for viewing by those who visit website. Needless to mention that your eCommerce site will have hundreds of products, images, videos and a customer database.

Therefore, you’ll need a hosting plan with enough disk space to store all of this, and enough bandwidth for your customers to access your products, including copy, images and other resources.

Hosting Online Store On Shared Hosting

No one wants to spend more money than necessary, and hence shared hosting is the prime choice for most of the websites. Though, shared hosting isn‘t always the best option for an eCommerce store. Mostly, it’s suitable only if you are likely to have limited products, limited traffic and are looking for area specific audience without any plans of expansion. Secondly, if you’re just a startup, then shared hosting would make a lot more sense.

If you happen to choose a shared plan, choose a reliable shared hosting provider that can offer you a good response and round-the-clock customer support. It would be a plus if your web host offers PCI compliant shared plans because many online banks and payment processors require that your hosting is PCI compliant. The PCI compliant shared plans offer a safe and stable environment for your online venture.

Online Store And VPS Hosting

If you’re planning to add a number of products and soon you expect a huge traffic boost then it’s recommended that you opt for a VPS upfront. It is an ideal and more affordable alternative to more expensive dedicated servers while more secure and robust compared to the cheap shared hosting option.

With VPS hosting, you can scale up your hosting resources in no time, at the same time your store will have an isolated and secure hosting environment eliminating the risk of being affected by a bad neighbor as you experience in shared hosting.

The benefits of VPS over shared hosting arise from the fact that the resources are isolated and pre-allocated. For example, other users on same node are misbehaving: this will have little to no impact on your VPS. It does not matter what anyone else is doing on another VPS hosted on the same node – you are guaranteed that your speed and performance won’t be affected.

If you’re alloted with 2 CPUs, then you’ll always have those two CPU’s available to your operations. Similarly, the amount of RAM and disk space you’ve purchased will always be available for your operations, regardless of what else is happening on the physical machine. In a nutshell, your resources are dedicated exclusively to your web store.

Furthermore, if you possess server management skills, you might need root access to install some programs which is impossible with shared hosting. VPS has always been our suggestion for a serious ecommerce startup. Shared hosting is an adequate environment for testing not for production.

Choose the VPS provider that is in business for more than 5 years and capable to offer you longer billing cycles, so you don’t have to switch to a new provider midstream. The good news is that VPS comes in as a happy compromise. VPS initial costs can be as low as $15-$20 per month and you can upgrade it later when your requirements grow.

Ecommerce Store

Dedicated Server Hosting For Online Store

While VPS is an upfront step in the correct direction, and perhaps sufficient solution for relatively smaller storefronts that are just starting out, it’s really a dedicated server that’s probably the best option when it comes to ecommerce sites specifically. If you expect exponential growth in near future (as every business owner hopes) you might as well skip straight to the hosting solution you’re going to eventually need anyway.

Dedicated server hosting is undoubtedly more expensive option compared to sharing and VPS. But when your website is the main driver of your business, dedicated server’s additional

resources are critical for your success. If you’ve ever experienced a slow running ecommerce website hosted on shared or VPS, you’ll see that switching is like getting a supercharge when it comes to loading time, bandwidth, and handling high traffic loads.

In the eCommerce world, shopping cart abandonment is a real issue that can be fixed with more advanced hosting option. Because, approximately 18% of carts abandonment are due to slow loading times, which might cost you thousands of dollars in lost sales.

07 Aug

How Can Microsoft Office 365 Help Your Business?

Last Updated on September 4, 2018 by Ruchir Shastri

No matter the size of your business, you need professional, affordable productivity technology to aid in growth and organizational agency.  Accessible from anywhere on almost any device, Microsoft Office 365’s turn-key, modernized products like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint software give small and large businesses the edge of on-the-go, collaborative freedom.

Updated features like Editor and Researcher in Word and Designer in PowerPoint enhance creativity and tighten performance, and extra services like Exchange emails, SharePoint and Skype for business are instrumental for increasing workplace demands.

Microsoft Office 365 has endless features to strengthen business practices.  Here are 6 reasons how Office 365 can help your business, and read below to find out how to get Microsoft Office 365 at a discounted rate.

Office For Your Business

Multi-Dimensional Elements

The ability to switch between devices makes Office 365 an invaluable asset for on-the-go employees and entrepreneurs.  Microsoft Office 365 integrates across almost any device, including PC’s, Androids, Macs, tablets, and smartphones.  Each user’s individual license is tethered to them through their accounts instead of stuck to one device.  And the best part?  You’ll be able to log into Microsoft Office and access your data whether you’re online or offline.

Exchange Emails

Businesses that turn to Microsoft Exchange Emails are exceptionally pleased with offerings of stringent email security, diligent anti-spam filters that eliminate threats before they hit inboxes, email encryption with advanced email protection, and much more.  Exchange is praised among employers of all sizes for protecting sensitive data and keeping employees connected with dependable access to emails, calendars, and contacts.  Exchange is now fully customizable, integrating web-based apps through a user-friendly plugin.

Data Control and Cloud Storage

With Office 365, your data is protected by tight security measures.  Data is encrypted when stored locally or while traveling between devices, and files are never scanned or accessed.  Because you have the freedom to choose whether files are stored locally or in the Cloud, you can limit sensitive data to one personal device.  OneDrive Cloud-based storage keeps your files safe in the event of an emergency, so no matter what happens, your valuable business files are still handy.

Flexible Payment Plans

Cloud computing prevents high up-front costs of software and equipment, instead utilizing a scalable, streamlined system free of surprises or hidden charges.  The flexible monthly payment structure offers personal and business users a no-contract plan that doesn’t penalize for continually adding or removing users.  You can alter plans at any time to suit your individual business needs.

Collaborative Technology

With one-click screen sharing and the ability for many users to access a single document, spreadsheet, or presentation, Microsoft Office 365’s collaborative technology makes it easier than ever for team-based performance.  Create online documents with a shareable link and control each user’s accessibility level for each document, picking and choosing who gets to see what. Join online meetings and see any user’s availability using Microsoft Lync through almost any device, and utilize HD video conferencing for your most formal web meetings.

Build A Website

Making a website has never been easier with Microsoft Office 365’s ready-to-go templates.  No hosting fees and personalized domain names, along with business-class, professional emails attached to that domain are a perfect way to strengthen and professionalize your online presence.  No web design or coding experience is needed—Office 365 makes it smooth and seamless to construct your own website from the ground up.

Want Microsoft Office 365 at A Discounted Rate?

Softsys Hosting partners with Microsoft to offer small businesses and individual users Microsoft Office 365 services at flat, low rates.  Enjoy all the benefits of MS Office 365, starting at $3.77 per user per month.

05 Aug

How To Choose The Right Web Hosting Platform From The Very First Attempt

Last Updated on August 5, 2018 by Ruchir Shastri

Web hosting market is flooded with the thousands of companies, each offering crazy deals you cannot resist. Therefore, choosing the right hosting solution from the very first attempt is a bit tricky. Regardless of whether you’ll run a basic site for your small business, or you’re going to build an enterprise-class portal with a number of pages, the first and foremost step is to decide which web hosting platform will work best for you.

Once you caught up in a wrong hand, it is very difficult to move your business elsewhere. Therefore, it is vital to “get it right the first time” with the perfect hosting platform. In this blog post, we’ll go through a checklist that will help you determine the right web hosting option.

Understanding Your Hosting Needs

Before choosing any web hosting service, you should know what you really need to run your site optimally. To determine the hosting requirements, ask yourself some basic questions like:

  • What technologies have you used to develop a website?
  • What is the estimated traffic on your website?
  • What are your resource requirements like, disk storage, memory, CPU, etc.?
  • Does your website need special software?

Based on these questions, you can create a basic outline in your mind what your hosting requirement would be like. If you’re a hosting newbie, then you can always start small with a good shared hosting account.

A shared hosting account is cheap, easy to maintain, and sufficient for most new sites. With a shared account, you can focus on building your website without having to worry about other server-side tasks such as database maintenance and server security. A typical shared account is sufficient to support a WordPress blog with 30,000 to 40,000 monthly unique visitors.

However, if you expect your website to expand really big within a few months/years then you should consider selecting a web host that allows you to upgrade your existing hosting package to the next bigger option whenever required.

So you need to be able to easily upgrade from shared hosting to a virtual private server or dedicated server account for greater processing power, memory capacity, disk storage, and perhaps even enhanced security features.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

If anything goes wrong with your new hosting, you should be able to cancel your hosting plan within the trial period and get your money back in full. It’s important to know how your web hosting provider manages refund requests so that you don’t lose too much money if you have to cancel it.

Some hosting providers charge very high cancellation fees when customers cancel their accounts during trial periods. You should completely avoid these web hosts so you don’t get trapped.

On the other hand, some hosts offer anytime money-back guarantees where you can ask for a pro-rated refund. Before signing up you should check company’s refund/money-back and cancellation policy. What’s the money-back guarantee period, Is there any cancellation charges under the money-back guarantee period? These are some basic questions you should get the answers to before signing up.

Uptime And Reliability

You’ll require a web host which is stable and reliable, both in terms of their servers as well as network connections. Check how much uptime your web host offers. 99.5% and above is the recommended uptime score, but anything below 99% is unacceptable. You should also check the hosting provider’s past uptime records, reviews on various forums, blogs, and third­ party trustworthy review websites.

There are a number of different ways to obtain web host uptime information yourself. The simplest way to do so is by asking their sales representative or else you can simply track web host’s demo IP address with server monitoring tools.

Check Account Limitations

You won’t find this information explicit on any web hosting provider’s site, and none of the review sites will tell you. If you are using too much server resources (even under unlimited hosting) or violating the rules your web host will simply suspend your account.

You will be told somewhere in the terms and conditions that your account may be suspended or terminated for over-utilization of resources. Therefore, before you sign up on a web host, it is important that you read their terms of service.

Additionally, most of the web hosts won’t allow you to run illegal files and/or services on their servers. In case you intend to run a website with pornographic content or site allowing people to download pirated files, you’ll need probably offshore hosting.

24/7 Tech Support

With a web hosting account, you cannot get everything right by yourself. A web hosting service is pointless if it’s not coming with 24/7 technical support. Your web hosting service must have 24/7 support over live chat and phone along with a most comprehensive knowledgebase so that when you face difficulties with your services in the odd hours, your web host’s technical team will help you fix them.