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Server

Role Of Support Admin For Server Management In 2020

Role Of Support Admin For Server Management In 2020

Many IT companies are seen to be investing more on improving the surrounding. In order to achieve this process, various important activities are missed out. As per reports almost 66% of annual IT expenditures go into operating and maintaining the surroundings.

The server is one of the most vital elements of a company. It comprises all the hardware and software. Its blend hosts a large amount of data that is critical for the company.

It is through the server that various other services like that of hosting, messaging, chat etc., can also be performed. For all these services to run well server monitoring is thus required.

Every company must ensure the full stack up monitoring of its servers. Some of the essentials and data backs can even be outsourced. The monitoring regimes can be done constantly as well as periodically.

The servers are the backbone for all the data. In today’s times when there are huge exchanges of data which have transnational spreads, the server is the ultimate. Recover, backups, storages and all sorts also need to be done to ensure the complete well being of the server monitoring process.

To enable servers to deliver the optimum results, apart from the usual monitoring what is required is a support administration.

The operations can be looked after but to keep a vigilance of all the works related to the servers, support admin comes into picture. This can also mean outsourcing essential IT tasks to build a stronger support to the admin.

The reasons why a support admin is required at times like this are-

  • Ensure storage operations are carried out effectively. Also, improvement in the management is evaluated to estimate the growth of the business and its operations.
  • Full proof the backup set. With the complete management with remote tools, one can produce reports, watch and put up right alerts. This will help the organisation to identify problems and deal with them in the right way.
  • Improving presentation and effectiveness of virtual servers and their environment. All possible resource alerts and problems will come into the fore to be dealt with.

A system administrator is a crucial back end personnel who looks into the overall IT solutions in a company. But there is no problem that he/she can solve alone.

The support admin looks into the grievances birthing out of the IT ethos. Now, there may be a multitude of tech problems that persist in the surrounding of a company. None of it can be achieved all by one person. Clusters or teams work in that favour.

system administrator

A support admin basically is a helping hand or a watchkeeper on all operations and maintenance of a company. Mainly their work front requires them to deal with technology. Businesses and their potential today are measured worth the technological advances it had at its disposal.

So, when a company has the provision to great technological provisions, it only means better safeguard. The workforce thus revolving around it needs to be stronger as well.

Many companies today falter in this idea. Support admin personnel require a major influx in IT companies. Unfortunately, there aren’t many openings that are noted in the market.

The companies that understand the importance of this unit of people are the ones to stay ahead. While one understands the importance of the support admin, the responsibilities of them should be learnt in order to understand their significance completely.

  1. Server management round the clock

Just how businesses don’t wait. So do servers. The server always experiences a bulk of information load and unload. There is no relaxation time. A huge deal of information exchanges and processes keep happening from time to time.

It implies that the server is extremely vital to remain active at all times. The longer a server is down or remains crashed, it actually means that business gets lost. Most often there is 24 hours support that is levied.

2. Focused operation

Many data server service agencies can also be part of support admins that focus their time and effort into looking after the functionalities of your server.

All the problems can be looked after and sorted out by these agencies. When the services are directed towards the well being and maintenance of one particular aspect it means a better and smoother operation.

3. Custom server setup

This is the operation that leads to the uniqueness of a particular server with respect to the businesses. The server’s configuration is according to the business’s needs.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The server managers review the server configuration and business needs to match the best setup of the server that compliments one’s business. The main job here is to collate all the necessities into one and prevent the server from potential vulnerabilities and threats.

4. Providing uptime assurance

The servers need to be intact at all times. Even if there is any fault or situations where the servers are not able to deliver to their full potential it indicates a red flag.

Support admins provide all the necessary alternative hosting services or backups. This makes for a full proof way of dealing with all the times the servers have been a pain.

At no cost a shortcoming by the system can induce a loss in the business. This is the one mantra that the entire admin of the system management abides by.

5. Server Stability

This is part of the maintenance of the server. A small configuration error or code conflict can derail the whole server. Timely code updates can rule out this issue.

Another aspect that can be a probable problem is that of the page load time and the information lag. They are from time to time re-jigged and evaluated to fix the same. The speed and performance are of utmost need and the support admin ensures that the needful is done.

The support admin has a significant job role which may be overlooked otherwise. They are the real cape men for the overall well being of server management.

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Server

A Guide To An Ideal System Administrator’s Role And Ethics In The Concurrent World

A Guide To An Ideal System Administrator's Role And Ethics In The Concurrent World

The world is constantly evolving. With this constant evolution, human civilization is also subjected to constant changes.

From food to fashion to technological changes, we are transforming and putting one step further to many more advancements.

Similarly, in this article, we will closely study the evolving role and ethics of a system administrator today.

To diversely study the role and ethics maintained or are expected to be maintained by a system administrator in today’s world, we need to know what the term actually means.

A system administrator is a professional who maintains the mechanisms or the operations of an electronic system especially a computer system.

This job demands for a skilled personnel with resourcefulness. An aspirant must be able to troubleshoot and resolve any sort of technical problems quickly.

He or She should be efficient. A system administrator candidate must have patience with impeccable communication skills. You have to tutor and update its teams and users on various models and technologies released today.

Why is it constantly evolving?

constantly evolving

The reason behind the constant evolution of the role of a  system administrator is listed below:

  • Evolutionary technological changes
  • Changes in IT investment
  • The rise in the demand for tools and other accessories
  • IT decentralization.

The role of an ideal system administrator

The responsibilities of a system administrator is diverse and wide-ranging and varies from companies to companies. Apart from just maintaining servers and computer systems, they also have to cater to duties like programming, scripting and so on.

Below listed are some of the responsibilities which are mandatory for a system administrator to perform:

  • The role of a system administrator includes installation and configuration of software and hardware.
  • The role of a system administrator also includes managing technological servers and technological tools required.
  • This job requires to set up accounts and workstations.
system accounts and work stations
  • A system administrator has to keep the performance of the servers or the machines in check and maintain them accordingly.
  • Also, this job demands for the skills to troubleshoot technical faults and power outages.
  • A system administrator also has to ensure security over the network of servers or the machines by using access controls, backups and firewalls.
  • A system administrator predominantly has to upgrade the systems timely with new and upgraded software or models.
  • A system administrator also has to be a patient teacher. An ideal system administrator should have the expertise and skills to train staff and keep them updated on new  technologies.
  • A system administrator also has to maintain and write technological documentation, manuals and IT policies.

The Code of Ethics for a System Administrator

For any job that you can think of requires sheer dedication and sincerity. Apart from this, any job that you opt for requires the 2 P’s — Passion and Patience.

And in case of a system administrator, there are so many areas of ethics and responsibilities that he or she has to keep in mind. This designation demands of a personnel who has a sense of duty and is professional.

Here are some mandatory code of ethics listed below:

  • Professional Conduct: Professionalism is a must as system administrators are hired by high-end multinational companies as they greatly rely on technology.
  • A system administrator must have a high sense of professional moral conduct. He or she should not allow their personal feelings or beliefs to cause a dispute or treat people poorly or unprofessionally.
  • Integrity: Personal integrity is a must. A candidate must be honest and humble in professional dealings and interactions and seek guidance whenever required.

He or she must keep away from biasness or moral or professional conflict of opinions. But, he or she must be smart and competent enough to voice his/her opinion whenever necessary.

  • Privacy: Privacy is the most pivotal factor for this position. A system administrator candidate must be of clear intent. He or she must realize that they will be handling private company information which if leaked or lost, might cause tremendous loss to the company.

As a system administrator, he or she must commit to protect the confidentiality of private information which he or she will or might have access to.

  • Ethical Duties: Apart from promises concerned or focused about the job role, there are a lot of areas to fulfill. As an employee, one must aim to build a healthy, secure and a productive work environment.
  • Also, he or she must be open about any work related appropriate criticism and also offer the same and contribute to the workplace.
Ethical Duties

He or she, as an employee must be supportive, helpful and caring towards others in his or her workplace.

Maintaining discipline is pivotal in the workplace. One must abstain from using inappropriate  or obscene languages and maintain the decorum of the said environment.

  • Building Knowledge: Knowledge is limitless. Everyday there are millions of new things to learn and discover.
  • With that attitude, a candidate must promise and aim to update his or her knowledge and skills. He must be willingly and enthusiastically share new knowledge updates among his or her colleagues and users.
  • Be Patient and Approachable: As a system administrator, you might have more on your shoulders than you imagine. Patience is a must. You must be communicable. Communication is a must. One must always remember that you will have to be a teacher as well.

 You have to teach and make your colleagues and users understand the mechanisms or cater to any technical help they seek.

You should be an avid listener and try to understand and communicate politely with the management, customers and all the other colleagues in your workplace.

  • Obedience: As a candidate, one must thoroughly educate themselves on the laws, policiesand the  rules and regulations of the establishment.
  • He or she should abide by the laws and follow all the rules and maintain discipline in the workplace.

He or she must be obedient and must be competent enough to follow orders and directions given by their superiors and ask questions and seek help from their seniors whenever in doubt.

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Support

Role And Responsibilities Of Ideal System Administrator In 2020

Role And Responsibilities Of Ideal System Administrator In 2020

Anything that is remotely related to tech we think of engineers. Especially software engineers. The first phone call we make every time our laptops hang is to that one software engineer friend. We consider them to be fully aware of all tech related problems.

While we cannot take away from the credibility and hands on experience that they have with tech. It is also notable that not all that is technology is a software engineer alone.

In 2020 we have a plethora of goods and services at disposal. Businesses have boosted and become more personalized thanks to the boon of the development of apps in short technology. While there is a pack of best of the minds working round curating them, there is also a sect of people who compliment them.

We talk of the big daddy which is the system. Sometimes praise and sometimes criticise. The system is however the driving factor in any business. The system determines the process and outcome. The value propositions also ride on the same.

The set up and maintenance of it therefore is one of the most crucial jobs. It is this surveillance that guarantees a hassle-free functioning of the system. The system which is the lord of the majority.

There are very specific people who are in-charge of all the operations dealing with looking after the system and they are called system administrators.

System Administrator

ALSO READ : DATA CENTER MANAGEMENT AND SERVER TECHNOLOGY

The system administrators can be interchangeably called as sysadmins. In 2020, what we observe is that their role is of utmost importance for a company. What is their job description but? They are in full charge of installing, maintaining and supporting servers, responding to and planning for services blackout and other errors.

Whereas, additional duties can include light programming or scripting, as well for systems related projects with project management.

The accounts of the system administrator are considered to be the most crucial. It is the only account that has unrestricted access so anything can be done with the system.

In that lieu, the highly essential skill that is required is problem solving. When the workstation servers go down, it is the sole job of a sysadmin to analyse and restore the functionalities. Even though people might confuse them with the roles of a software engineer, they are not.

2020 has a wide range of tech levied enterprises pitted against each other for greater and better businesses. In such a cut throat environment that dominates the market, it only makes sense that the systems are up to date. The only way this can be ensured is by system administrators.

But the operations that were relevant a few years back are not anymore with technological and infrastructural up gradation. The system administrators in 2020 have a very different role to play altogether –

  • User administration

For every new user to have access to a particular system and its resources, their accounts are required to be set up. Once the accounts are set up, the maintenance of the account and the activities done through it. All of it is handled by the system administrator. Frauds can easily creep in at the digital space in recent times. The sysadmins need to be extra vigilant as a result.

  • Verifying the proper functioning of peripherals

Apart from the software, what comprises the system are the hardware as well. Any anomaly in the hardware can have major consequences as well.

A routine surveillance of the peripherals proves to be an important aspect in the checklist. It also means that in case of a fault, the repairs need to be arranged for and done.

  • Monitor system performance

The system for which sysadmins are a watchdog also needs to look into the performance of it. It is only when a detailed analysis on the performance of the system is conducted that we realise the shortcomings.

As per the system administrator’s analysis which will consider the latest trends and also what the competition is up to. This way the quality of the process will also be kept at. Any problems in the system can also be thus identified.

  • Install software

This is a very vital role of the system administrator. The software can be a newly developed one or an upgrade. It can also be an update of the existing operating system. In an enterprise, there may be some aspects that require staying within the four walls of the company.

Thus, the software is built in such a manner that ensures that confidential matters remain that way. While the development is not in the hands of the system administrator, the role of updating all existing accounts with it is crucial. All the more it adds up to the role of user administration.

  • Backup and recovery

Data today is very liquid. The loss of it is easier than generating it. With such an impending challenge, it becomes a priority that the recovery methods are revisited.

Data is paramount for any existing or emerging enterprises. The loss of which is no less than asset loss. What system administrators have levied up is the provision for data recovery backed by cloud storage’s.

  • Identity Management

Cases of imposters looting company data and hacking into systems have become so common that it is beyond alarming. Password protection and other modes of identity verification have become pertinent for the full proof security of data and assets of any business.

All identification interfaces are curated by the system administrator so that there is no scope of any false entrances in the vicinity of the business.

  • Research
Research

Whether it was a decade ago or now. One thing that remains common is that system administrators need to keep their research intact. The technological space is booming and how.

In order to be able to provide the optimum kind of service to the business, it is imperative that thorough research on trends is done. One of the distinctive qualities of a system administrator is how well are they aware of the industry’s changes and progress.

Like every other profession, skills are a given for a system administrator as well. But one thing that sets the game apart is that of the tech. Many appreciate the artists but few, the captain of the ship.

Categories
Server Security

OnApp for VMware Technical Overview in 2020

OnApp-for-VMware

OnApp has launched their latest version of cloud management: a provisioning and billing portal for VMware cloud providers.

OnApp is a UK-based software company. Their products enable service providers and enterprises to build and operate IaaS public cloud, private cloud, Disaster Recovery and Content Delivery Network environments.

OnApp v6.0 now supports VMware vCenter, along with vCloud Director that enables cloud providers to use OnApp’s self-service portal to offer multi-tenant public cloud and at the same time offers the benefit of OnApp’s flexible pricing, packaging and access controls.

It also simplifies cloud management and provisioning for companies with multiple VMware vCloud Director environments; simultaneously simplifying cloud integration with Business and Operational Support Systems (B/OSS); and introducing a new billing and access control system.

Their new billing system, Buckets, makes it easier for cloud providers to package and price new types of cloud services. The new release also adds Veeam support for backing up VMware cloud workloads.

The latest version of OnApp replaces the complexity of native UIs with a single pane of glass for cloud management, provisioning and billing. It also extends OnApp’s automation, monetization and integration capabilities for vCloud Director; also now, it brings the same benefits to vCenter as well.

The VMware cloud is now easier for providers to manage, and for customers to buy. This is made possible by bringing multiple vCloud Director and vCenter instances into one UI.

The new billing and backup options help VMware cloud providers to have more ways of tailoring their services to specific types of customer.

They introduced new export tools for billing data. This helps VMware cloud providers accelerate “lead-to-cash” by simplifying integration of cloud services with their existing Business and Operational Support Systems.

It makes detailed metering and billing data available through its intuitive user interface, as flat file exports, and via its full API. It also adds easy migration of workloads to KVM, allowing cloud providers to offer services with different price/performance characteristics alongside their VMware-based clouds.

Now turn your vCenter environment into a secure self-service cloud OnApp’s latest version helps improve vCenter automation and billing, simplifies multi-cloud management, and enables secure self-service through a fully customizable Graphical User Interface.

Secure Self-Service

With OnApp, you can give departments and end users the ability to deploy, manage and destroy virtual machines without giving them the access to your vCenter environment. They can manage their own cloud resources, just as in a public cloud.

By offering users (developers) the ability to spin up their machines as needed for testing, Self-service significantly improves the agility of your IT department within the constraints set by your business.

Easy multi-cloud management

  • Easy-multi-cloud-management

OnApp gives you the opportunity of managing multiple vCenter environments, multiple private clouds, or a mix of private and public clouds.

You can easily manage clouds built on KVM and VMware, and provide access to AWS and OnApp public cloud resources through one UI.

Automation

OnApp enables widespread automation of virtual server deployment and management.

It contains a built-in workflow automation system that makes it easy to deploy applications during or even after provisioning, add tools and framework technologies to a virtual server, upgrade software automatically, and much more.

Centralized template management

You get a central location for template storage, from which templates can be deployed in any of your vCenter environments.

You no longer have to waste time in setting up separate libraries in multiple locations, or waste storage space through duplication. Any and every new vCenter you add to OnApp has instant access to the same template library.

Centralized service management

OnApp v6.0 maintains a central catalogue of services that can be provisioned by users from a single login, even if the services may exist in multiple locations.

Services can be deployed automatically; they can even generate a request for manual fulfilment by your teams.

It is very easy to add your own services to the catalogue – from virtual server instances and applications, to managed or professional services.

Metering for chargeback

It has a comprehensive resource metering system that supports a wide range of different chargeback, show-back and billing strategies.

Whether you need to assign cost to internal users or departments, or invoice end user clients, it has become much easier with the latest OnApp version.

Governance

The latest OnApp version provides users with a range of access control and auditing features to improve governance across cloud environments.

  • Resource Access: locks down user access to only the resources they need, for any number of different user roles.
  • Template Access: ensures users can access only a specific set of applications or OS templates.
  • Change Tracking: get clear visibility of changes made across your environment easily.
  • Central Change Logging: you can track changes made to machines in multiple cloud environments all from a single location.
  • Approvals: approve changes that were requested before they are made.

Extend beyond IaaS

Extend Beyond IaaS

You can now enhance your vCenter environment with private or public CDN, bare metal servers, smart servers and the huge range of other capabilities enabled by the newest version of OnApp cloud platform.

OnApp v6.0 for VMware cloud providers is now available to everyone through the VMware Cloud Provider Program, and direct from OnApp.

Categories
Server

Top 10 Server Technology Trends for the New Decade

Top-10-Server-Technology-Trends-for-the-New-Decade

Mobility and Agility: These are the two key concepts for the new decade of computing innovation and at the epic center of this new trend lies cloud computing. Virtualization and cloud computing has changed our technology-centered lives forever.

These technologies enable us to do more communicating, learning, and more global business with less money, hardware, data loss and of course less hassle.

During this decade, everything we do in the way of technology will move to the data center, whether it is an on-premises data center or a remote cloud-architecture data center thousands of miles away.

Here are some of the top trends in the way of server technology to be considered for this new tech-driven decade.

1. Mobile Computing

These days more and more workers report to their virtual offices from remote locations, and as such, computer manufacturers must supply these on-the-go workers, with sturdier products that has the capability to connect to, and use, any available type of Internet connectivity.

Mobile users look for lightweight, sturdy and easy-to-use devices that “just work,” with no complex configuration and setup.

The agility that will come from these smart devices will be able to pull data from cloud-based applications, i.e. all your applications, data and even the operating environment (OS) will be stored safely and securely in the cloud to allow for maximum mobility.

2. Virtualization:

With the rapid growth of virtualization technology, many are predicting that by the end of this decade this trend will touch every data center in the world.

Companies like big and small, will either convert their physical infrastructures to virtual hosts or they will move to an entirely hosted virtual infrastructure. The money savings promises that this trend provides, has brought hopes to stressed budgets and will continue to do so.

3. Cloud Computing

  • Cloud-Computing

Being closely tied to virtualization and mobile computing, this is the technology that industry observers view as “marketing hype” or old technology repackaged for present-day consumption.

Technology savvy companies will try to leverage cloud computing to present their products and services to a global audience at a fraction of the cost of current offerings.

Cloud computing also protects online ventures with a guarantee that their services will never suffer an outage. Entire business infrastructures will migrate to the cloud by the end of this new decade, making every company a globally accessible one.

4. Web-based applications

The future of client/server computing is server-based applications and client and locally installed applications will become obsolete by the end of the decade. Everything will remain on a remote server. This includes client data and software as well.

5. Libraries

Digitization of printed material will be the parade song for libraries, as all but the most valuable printed manuscripts will be digitized by the end of the decade.

According to some, libraries will cease to exist, whereas others predict a digital library where, schoolchildren will see how books were physically used in the old days while using ebooks themselves.

6. Open Source Migration

A move to open source software can retrieve all your lost dollars on license fees. This is the best option for those companies that cannot afford to lose capital on licensing.

Some such open source softwares include, Linux, Apache, Tomcat, etc. This decade will prove that the open source model works much better than a proprietary software model.

7. Virtual Desktops

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or VDI is the talk of the town nowadays as more and more businesses move away from local desktop operating systems to virtual ones housed in data centers.

This concept integrates into mobile computing, virtualization and cloud computing. Desktops will likely reside in all three locations (PC, data center, cloud) for a few more years, but the transition will become complete by the end of the decade.

This will result in lowering maintenance bills and reducing much of the user error associated with desktop operating systems.

8. Internet Everywhere

  • Internet-Everywhere

There used to be a time when the Internet was known as The Information Superhighway and predictions about how it would change our lives forever.

Well the future is here and the predictions have come true. The next step in its evolution is to have the Internet available everywhere: supermarket, service station, restaurant, bar, mall and automobile. Every piece of electronic gadgetry will have some sort of Internet connectivity.

9. Online Storage

Currently, online storage limited appeal. Many of us have portable USB hard drives, flash drives and DVD burners that act as storage devices as online storage is still not accessible to everyone.

However, the approaching mobile computing storm will require you to have access to your data on any device with which you are working. Even the most portable storage device will prove ungainly for the users who need their data without fumbling with an external hard drive and USB cable.

New devices will come bundled with an allotment of online storage space, like mobile plans these days.

10. Cloud Balancing

The various cloud models will continue to grow and smear the lines between compute consumption models. Companies will realize that these styles of compute are not based on location.

Companies will refine their TCO models finding a need for all three (public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud) consumption models across different needs with the ease of use.

Keeping a keen eye on these above-mentioned trends can boost your businesses in this new decade of computation technology.

Categories
Server

Data Center Management and Server Technology in 2020

Data Center Management and Server Technology in 2020

Trends and Observations serve two main purposes.

  1. A view into a possible state and
  2. A indication of things around us that can lead to disruptions.

As the year turned, many enterprises were looking forward to see what trends would affect the data center industry in 2020. Here are some of the trends that are worth looking into:

The customer is the King

The customer is indeed always right. Something often forgotten in the technology world although we have all heard it many times. 

It is very important to truly listen and respond to your customers with products, solutions, and services that actually solve customer problems and result in a better business outcome.

On-Premise Workloads Migrate into Cloud

Migration of enterprise IT workloads into third-party data centers that long-predicted has finally arrived. According to some, during this transition, there is a lot of opportunity for colo providers to take on a lot of workloads.

This shift was predicted with the arrival of a succession of hosting offerings. Enterprises are thinking about moving workloads off-premises.

This trend started back in 2017 and has continued into 2020, creating sustained business for IT infrastructure providers.

The cloud and co-location industries have reached a level of maturity, where it can offer compelling value, breaking down the historic resistance to moving data offsite.

The notion that in-house data centers are more secure than the cloud has become almost non-existent by a series of corporate data compromises.

On-premises facilities are aging at an accelerated rate. The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in a drastic fall in construction of these capital-intensive projects, and a growing number of companies are now facing decisions about their infrastructure.

Some workloads will head to the cloud. Others that are not cloud-ready – and may never be – will move to co-location facilities.

Memory-Centric Computing

  • Memory Centric

In 2020, we must embrace memory centric computing.  This will open up innovation on a variety of fronts on hardware and software. Devices like, FPGAs, Storage Class Memory, ASICs, GPUs, etc. are moving into the microsecond to sub-microsecond domain.

Thus we can no longer treat these devices as secondary, nor can we software define them without losing their intrinsic value. Today’s architecture is processor centric computation whereas tomorrow’s architecture will become memory centric.

Servers are not a Commodity

Commodity by definition is –

→A raw material or primary agricultural product that can be sold, such as copper coffee, a useful and/or valuable thing, such as water.

Let us think about water for example – surely we all agree that water is a basic resource and widely available in modern industrialized countries – but is it really a commodity?  Checking the shelves at any supermarket or gas station stores, would seem to indicate that is NOT the case.

There are various types; different bottles, purification differences, additives, and so on. Thus, how the commodity (water) is bottled, sold, distributed, and filtered is vastly different. Therefore, water is a commodity, but bottled water is NOT.

Now apply that thinking to servers and you will see that compute cycles are the commodity (the water) and the server is the bottling of those compute cycles.

Now that computing is ever-present in every toy, IoT device, mobile device, etc. that makes compute cycles more or less a raw material of our digital lives. 

How servers bottle up the compute; by adding Dram, IO, slots, drives, systems management, high availability, density, redundancy, efficiency, serviced, delivered, and warranted in a wrapper is how they are not a commodity.

Security Must be End-to-End

Security

2020 has seen a definite shift in terms of Security.  For example, the Dell PowerEdge 14G server family has a new cryptographic security architecture where, part of a key pair is unalterable, unique, and set in the hardware during the system fabrication process.

This method provides an indisputable root of trust embedded in the hardware that eliminates the middle-man all the way from manufacture of server to delivery to customer.

Considering today’s need, the term security seems incomplete. 2020 will see security expand to system-wide protection, integrity verification and automated remediation.

Impenetrability is always the objective; however, with the increasing complexity and sophistication of attackers, it is very likely that additional vulnerabilities will emerge.

One of the 2020 objectives will be to make sure that if someone can get into the platform, making sure they cannot obtain meaningful information or do damage.

This will lead to a more intense trust strategy between the buyer and seller based on more identity management. Identity at all level (user, device, and platform) will be a great focus and as such require a complete end-to-end trust chain.

This will likely include options based on block chain. Emerging standards where keys are embedded in the transaction layer will also be required.

Two big gains for artificial intelligence

One of Artificial Intelligence major uses will be in intrusion detection; areas where it can respond faster. It is no longer enough for a firewall to send an alert to an admin of suspicious behavior.

This is where AI comes into action; it will detect the malware and act before an admin can come back from a bathroom break.

ALSO READ : WHY TO USE WHITE LABEL SUPPORT

The other major use of AI will be to fix or correct things that might otherwise be caused by human error. Even the most cautious eyes can fail but unless programmed badly (by a human) AI cannot.

Categories
Support

5 Ways How White Label Tech Support Can Help Your Hosting Business Gain Its Momentum

white-label-tech-support

The term ‘White label’ was first coined from the image of a white label that appears on the packaging of products. You fill in the details of your product on a white label. Outsourced phone services do the same thing.

A top-notch white label tech support service can help you accomplish expert technical skill and excellent customer service customized to your needs, at affordable pricing.

Customers are without a doubt the biggest assets of an organization. Ensuring customer delight is the ultimate goal that can lead to business success.But, what exactly does it mean ?

Customer delight is not just about making them say a “Thanks”; rather creating a “wow” factor to the customer, with your services.

An excellent white label tech support can make it a part of your company culture. An exceptional customer service experience that exceeds your customers’ expectations, can affect them in the most positive way.

Challenges that agencies face while offering support

Offering support services to clients may not be the primary or even secondary capability of a web agency (or business) but they need to do it none the less.

Setting up a support team can definitely drive business costs to go up-considerably, and would require some shifting of focus from the core business areas as well.

Furthermore, subject matter experts might be called upon, from time to time, to get involved with tasks and issues that would be totally unrelated to their areas of expertise and that may lead to a less than satisfactory result from the customers’ point of view.

On top of that, raising an entire support in-house comes with a significant learning curve attached to it.

White label tech support and its benefits

  • white-label-tech-support

Here, we will look at 5 ways how having an efficient white label tech support team can help your business to grow more.

Focus on your business

With an efficient tech support team to assist you, you will get more time to focus on your core business activities better.

Support calls take away your focus from the core business activities such as sales or marketing, product engineering, etc.

With a top-notch tech support team you need not worry about customer support, as tech support teams working as an extended arm of the agency, can address all the support requests from clients, site performance of the servers, and security issues while ensuring the desired outcomes are fulfilled.

Minimize cost

Offering a competitive 24/7 tech support is costly. It includes various costs such as salary, infrastructure costs, utility costs, accounting costs, and more.

Hiring services from a white label support provider can help you minimize the costs incurred in staff and infrastructure, because they generally do this by sharing the facilities with multiple companies.

Compete with market leaders

By providing pleasant customer experience, your support team can boost your company’s branding and client base.

This would send out more references from your client base and effectively widen it. Furthermore, large businesses can provide a wide range of costly tech support, which borders on the impossible for small businesses.

However, with a white label tech support that is at the same time cheap yet efficient, your business can easily compete with the forerunners of the field, although this would require time and dedication.

Round the clock support with increased uptime

A good and well-established customer service should be able to deliver round the clock support. Let’s say you are out of office or busy with other calls, or even if your power or phone is down, your customers cannot reach you.

This would definitely create a negative impression about your support services to the customer. With  white label tech support you can positively avoid this kind of a situation as these support teams are equipped with solutions to all of these problems and can thus provide a 24/7 customer support.

Web hosting expertise

webhosting

Web hosting comes with service disruptions ranging from PC and ISP issues to server and network issues. There is no avoiding these issues; it is a packaged deal.

Some of the common web server issues include, directory password protection issues, enabling cron tasks, etc. With an efficient tech support team, handling about hundreds of support calls per day, they can easily and quickly isolate the problems and fix them.

A tad bit more

I have discussed about the benefits you can get from having a white label tech support team and how it can help you gain business momentum.

However, i would like to add a titbit about how you can actually gain customer delight because that is the main thing that can boost your business momentum.

A steady quality support is what brings about real customer delight. Quality, more often than not, refers to a set of standards or measurements for the service. And meeting these quality standards can ensure customer delight.

Here are some steps to ensure that :

  • Primarily, the basic support functions need be executed properly. This means fulfilling customer expectations by providing timely and error-free solutions.

  • A vital aspect is to perform an in-depth analysis of the problem and coming up with an absolute solution to it, rather than providing a makeshift band-aid solution. Customers do not like to face the same problem again and again.

  • It is essential to prevent any issue from happening or to avoid repetition of the same problem and in order to do that performing proactive tasks is important.

  • Customers should be handled in a more compassionate manner and provided with a more personalized solution helps win them over.

A ‘delighted’ customer will feel the positive experience and remember it., talk about it to others and will definitely come back for more. All in all having a white label tech support will help you in all these manners.

Categories
Linux Operating System

Linux Server Architecture & its Features

Linux Features & Architecture

A Linux Server is a dynamic modification of the Linux open-source Operating System that was designed and established by Linus Torvalds in the year 1991. It is specifically designed to control the more demanding needs of business applications such as network and system administration, database management, Web services etc.

It has become very popular these days and is still growing. Some of the leading Linux Server OS include Debian, Ubuntu, Slackware, etc. it has some diverse features that differentiate it from other operating systems. Here, we are going to look into some of those features. But before we go into that, let us understand a bit about the Linux architecture.


The Linux OS Architecture

The architecture of a Linux OS has the following five components:

  • The Kernel: – It is the core part of any Linux operating system. It is actually, the computer program of the OS and as such, is responsible for all the major activities or actions of the OS. It consists of different memory modules that interact directly with the primary hardware. The kernel offers the required construct to hide application programs or low-level hardware details to the system. Various types of kernels are used such as monolithic kernels, exo-kernels, microkernels, etc.

  • System Library: – It is a set of predefined program or special functions, with the help of which, the application programs (or system utilities) access the features of the Kernel. They generally implement the functionality of the operating system and hence, do not require any access code from the Kernel module.

  • System Utilities: – These are the application programs that are responsible for specialized and/or individual tasks as directed by the Kernel and System Libraries.

  • Hardware: – Generally it consists of RAM, HDD, CPU, etc.

  • The Shell: – The Shell acts as an interface between the user and the Kernel; it takes commands from the user and relay it to the Kernel for it to execute those orders. Shells present in the different OS are classified into two categories: Command-line and Graphical Shells. As the names suggest, a command-line shell will provide a command-line interface, whereas a graphical shell gives a graphical interface to the user. The latter one is slower although both of them are capable of carrying out the same actions.


Features of the Linux OS

We are going to look into some of the features of the Linux OS:

Linux Features
  • Customized Keyboards:

Due to its availability in multiple languages, Linux has many users all over the globe. This feature allows for a customizable keyboard according to the language needs of people from different nations.

  • No need of installation:

Almost all of the distributed Linux services/systems come with an included Live CD or USB feature. This allows the customer to use and run the operating system without the need of installation.

  • Application Support:

A Linux OS or server has a software arsenal or storeroom, where a large number of software can be downloaded, via the terminal or shell of Linux. It can even run Windows software.

  • Graphical User Interface:

Although Linux has a command-line UI, it comes with the features of installing a user interface system graphically, based on Windows.

  • Portability and Open Source:

Linux OS can also be used on different types of hardware; moreover, the Linux kernel supports the installation of any kind of hardware platform.

Linux has an open-source operating system, which means that the source code for this operating system is freely available to all, for use and modification, which is being conducted by various teams, for enhancing its features and performances in the future.

  • Multiuser and Multiprogramming:

Multiple users can access the system resources of the Linux OS, like RAM, Applications etc, at the same time, making it a multi-user OS. Furthermore, multiple applications can also be run at the same time, thus making it a multi-programming OS. This is a very practical feature of the Linux operating system.

  • Hierarchical File System:

Linux OS not only consists of a standard file structure for arranging system files and/or user files, but also known as the File Hierarchy System or FHS.

Here, the locations of the files are shown to be in the root directory, irrespective of their storage devices; virtual or physical. Some of the directories are:

  1. /root: – root or main directory for the entire file system.
  2. /bin: – Essential user command binaries.
  3. /boot: – boot loader files like kernels etc.
  4. /dev: – essential device files.
  5. /etc: – host-specific, system-wide device files, containing configuration files required by all programs.
  6. /home: – the users’ home directory files containing personal settings, etc.
  7. /lib: – libraries essential for the binaries in /bin and /sbin.
  8. /media: – Mount points for removable media such as CD-ROMs, etc.
  9. /mnt: – temporarily mounted file systems.
  10. /opt: – optional application software packages.
  11. /sbin: – essential system binaries.
  12. /srv: – site-specific data; data and scripts for web servers, etc.
  13. /tmp: – temporary files, which may have severe size restrictions.
  14. /usr: – secondary hierarchy for read-only user data.
  15. /proc: – virtual file system, providing process and kernel info as files.

This feature is also very useful to arrange files in a standard way.

  • Good Security:
linux seurity

Linux prioritizes the protection of confidential information of the users from potential threats such as hackers or unauthorized access to entering the system. This feature is also a reason behind the global market of the Linux OS. Linux system uses Security features like Authentication, Authorization, and Encryption. Thus, it is evident that the Linux system is safe to use.

Thus, it can also be concluded that Linux OS is not only helpful and practical, easy-to-use with a very user-friendly UI, but also a safe and secure operating system with a number of servers across the globe.

Categories
Support

How white label tech support can help your business gain its momentum?

White Label Support

The term ‘White label’ was first coined from the image of a white label that appears on the packaging of products. You fill in the details of your product on a white label. Outsourced phone services do the same thing.

A top-notch white label tech support service can help you accomplish expert technical skills and excellent customer service customized to your needs, at affordable pricing.

Customers are without a doubt the biggest assets of an organization. Ensuring customer delight is the ultimate goal that can lead to business success. But, what exactly does it mean?

Customer delight is not just about making them say a “Thanks”; rather creating a “wow” factor to the customer, with your services. An excellent white label tech support can make it a part of your company culture. An exceptional customer service experience not only exceeds your customers’ expectations but also affect them in the most positive way.

Challenges that agencies face while offering support

Challenges with support

Offering support services to clients may not be the primary or even secondary capability of a web agency (or business) but they need to do it none the less. Setting up a support team can also definitely drive business costs to go up considerably, and would require some shifting of focus from the core business areas as well.

Furthermore, subject matter experts might be called upon, from time to time, to get involved with tasks and issues that would be totally unrelated to their areas of expertise and that may lead to a less than satisfactory result from the customers’ point of view. On top of that, raising an entire support in-house comes with a significant learning curve attached to it.

White label tech support and its benefits

Here, we will look at 5 ways how having an efficient white label tech support team can help your business to grow more:

  • Focus on your business

With an efficient tech support team to assist you, you are likely to get more time to focus on your core business activities better. Support calls take away your focus from the core business activities such as sales or marketing, product engineering, etc. With a top-notch tech support team, you need not worry about customer support, as tech support teams working as an extended arm of the agency, can address all the support requests from clients, site performance of the servers, and security issues while ensuring the desired outcomes are fulfilled.

  • Minimize cost

Offering competitive 24/7 tech support is costly. It includes various costs such as salary, infrastructure costs, utility costs, accounting costs, and more. Hiring services from a white label support provider can help you minimize the costs incurred in staff and infrastructure because they generally do this by sharing the facilities with multiple companies.

  • Compete with market leaders

By providing a pleasant customer experience, your support team can boost your company’s branding as well as client base. This would send out more references from your client base and effectively widen it. Furthermore, large businesses can provide a wide range of costly tech support, which borders on the impossible for small businesses. However, with a white label tech support that is at the same time cheap yet efficient, your business can easily compete with the forerunners of the field, although this would require time and dedication.

  • Round the clock support with increased uptime

A good and well-established customer service should be able to deliver round the clock support. Let’s say you are out of the office or busy with other calls, or even if your power or phone is down, your customers cannot reach you. This would definitely create a negative impression of your support services to the customer. With white label tech support, you can positively avoid this kind of a situation as these support teams are equipped with solutions to all of these problems and can thus provide 24/7 customer support.

  • Web hosting expertise

Web hosting comes with service disruptions ranging from PC and ISP issues to server and network issues as there is no avoiding these issues; it is a packaged deal. Some of the common web server issues include directory password protection issues, enabling cron tasks, etc. With an efficient tech support team, handling hundreds of support calls per day, they can also easily and quickly isolate the problems and fix them.

A tad bit more

I have discussed the benefits you can get from having a white label tech support team and how it can help you gain business momentum. However, I would like to add a tidbit about how you can actually gain customer delight because that is the main thing that can boost your business momentum.

Steady quality support is what brings about real customer delight. Quality, more often than not, refers to a set of standards or measurements for the service. And meeting these quality standards can ensure customer delight.

Here are some steps to ensure that:

  • Primarily, the basic support functions need to be executed properly. This means fulfilling customer expectations by providing timely and error-free solutions.
  • A vital aspect is to perform an in-depth analysis of the problem and coming up with an absolute solution to it, rather than providing a makeshift band-aid solution. Customers do not like to face the same problem again and again.
  • It is essential to prevent any issue from happening or to avoid repetition of the same problem and in order to do that performing proactive tasks is important.
  • Customers should be handled in a more compassionate manner and provided with a more personalized solution helps win them over.

A ‘delighted’ customer will feel the positive experience and remember it., talk about it to others and will definitely come back for more. All in all, having a white label tech support will help you in all these manners.

Categories
Outsource Support

How to choose the right support provider for Tech support outsourcing?

Choose-the-right-support

These days more and more businesses are outsourcing their technical support processes to third-party support providers. It is important for any kind of business from start-ups to large enterprises, to know exactly why and when they should or should not outsource their technical support processes.

There are pros and cons to outsourcing and one must be familiar with them before making any decisions regarding the same. Here is a guide to what to consider before outsourcing your tech-support process.

  • Know your needs

Before you start looking for third-party service providers, determine your needs with the outsourcing program. Do you need around-the-clock service, or is it that you simply need to have emails answered, appointment scheduling, etc?

The benefits of outsourcing include freeing-up of management time to converge on core-competencies, adding both capacity and specialized skills to your business, increasing efficiency by managing fluctuations in the workflow, lowering costs, among other things. Thus, is very important to clearly define the scope of tasks to be outsourced and the benefits that come along with them.

  • Check experiences

Once you have a clearly defined set of tasks that you intend to outsource and its scope, the next thing you need to do is check the experiences of the vendors in accomplishing these tasks that you are outsourcing. What you should look for is the number of projects completed, types of clients handled, specialization skills in case of knowledge-intensive projects, etc. you can also look for the experience of the management team, project leaders and other team members. Also, if you are entering into a long-term contract it is advisable to interact with the proposed team members (a mini-interview if you will) before signing the contract. This helps to create a better understanding between you and the team.

  • Ask for reference and work sample
Ask for reference

You need to understand your vendor’s scope and quality of services, their client engagement practices, delivery and turnaround time, etc. in order to do that it best to seek client reference from them. Keep in mind to check any challenges that may appear in the course of work and find the best route to overcome those. Further, you can ask for samples of work done by the vendor previously in order to better understand their capabilities. It may be so that they cannot provide you with actual samples owing to customer confidentialities; in such cases respect that constraint and ask for prototypes made for marketing purposes.

  • Guarantee good communication and client management practices.

Ensuring good communication with your outsourced vendor is critical to either make or break the deal. Find out their working hours (does it overlap with your own and if it does then by how much) and the time zone in which they operate. Find out the best communication channel between you and the vendor team; whether or not they are available in an e-mail, phone, VOIP (Skype), etc. find out your point of contact in the team if you have any queries and their response time to this extent. Also, keep a clear idea about whether or not the vendor understands your organization and your visions beyond the scope of the immediate project. This is critical to building a long-term relationship with your vendors.

  • Measure financial stability

In the case of long-term contracts, it is important to make sure that your partners are financially stable and capable of handling such cases. In these cases, it is important to do an in-depth assessment of the vendor’s financial health in order to carry out the contract.

  • Check IT infrastructures and quality certifications

Check IT infrastructures and quality certifications

This is again, related to large outsourcing associations where state of the art IT infrastructure is essential. Let’s say for example you are involved in a partnership, which involves sharing of confidential client/customer data. It is important to make sure that this information remains safe and secure. Information security is crucial for these kinds of client-vendor relations.

Check if your vendors have authorizations that help set up processes to manage projects, maintain quality and deliver the work; namely CMMi, ISO certificates, Microsoft competency certificates, etc.

  • Discuss security and privacy issues

Once again, data security and privacy are very crucial. Dig into the security structure of your vendor’s infrastructure. Keep a clear record of their private security and privacy policies and methods. It is important to know where how safely your client/customer data is kept under their watch. Check if they have a recoverable disaster recovery plan.

  • Know how much you will be charged

Keep track of your costs. Ask your vendors about their method of charging; is it by rounding up to the next minute or to the next second, things like that. Also, make sure your vendors do not charge you for your customer’s time on hold.

Recruit specialists, start small and minimize risks. Big enterprises with standard outsourcing tasks generally opt for large outsourcing agencies, as they are more likely to meet all the above conditions. If your business is as such, then large outsourcing vendors are your best choice.

However, in the case of small businesses looking for a cost-effective and flexible work plan with small outsourcing budgets, small vendors are the best choice. This is because large outsourcing agencies will charge more and their attention may be somewhat dimmed with small clients.

Furthermore, if only an industry/domain specialist can meet your demands, then you must opt for small outsourcing providers, as they will have greater experience and innovative work-rate.

Overall, it is better to start small (maybe with a pilot project and a smaller team) irrespective of what type of vendors you chose. Scale-up with time and keep assessing your vendor needs and their quality of business.

I hope this guide helps you to choose the appropriate vendor for your future endeavors.