Friday, November 25, 2011

How Secure Is Your Virtual Servers Infrastructure - Could You Better It?

By Dirik Hameed


Any business that fails to realize the importance of cultivating a web presence may miss out on substantial revenue; people have adopted the internet on a vast scale, and when looking for a product or service, searching the web is one of the first things many people do. To host their website, larger businesses often rely on their own data centers or renting dedicated servers from hosting companies. For smaller companies, however, shared hosting and VPS solutions are the most widely utilized services.

When first venturing into the online marketplace, many smaller businesses opt for shared hosting. This is where a virtual server hosting company allows customers to rent space on one of their servers, to host one or more websites.

Despite their low costs, many shared packages from reputable hosting companies offer a good level of service. However, their drawback is that they generally only offer a standard suite of software. If the website is static, coded solely in HTML and CSS, this will cause no problem. However, if a website needs a complex back-end (which is often the case in eCommerce sites, for example), a different type of hosting is needed.

This is why VPS has become so popular. It is a way of virtually emulating a full server; it provides full root access (that's the Unix/Linux equivalent of an administrator account) and allows any piece of software or scripting language to be installed.

It allows the user to treat the "virtual" server exactly as they would a real server, and these types of services are generally offered at a much lower cost. However, some users raise concerns over the security of such systems.

As with any computerized system, there can be security issues. However, there are two concerns that users raise most often. The first is over the idea of sharing a physical server with other users; the second is over traditional internet threats, such as malicious software and hackers.

VPS systems overwhelmingly run on open source software. This means that they have a wide-spanning network of developers continuously improving the software, removing security vulnerabilities and generally checking to ensure the software continues to perform as designed. Due to the segregated manner in which VPS is configured, there is very little risk associated with cross-over of user's data.

With any internet-based system the concern over hacking and malware is genuine. If there is a way for people to exploit a system, then eventually somebody will try to do so. The way to handle this issue depends on your budget. If you have an extensive number of websites, or have some bespoke software running on your virtual servers, you may choose to hire a professional system admin. Somebody who is trained to administer servers will be able to ensure that the system is made as secure as possible.

If this is not an option, then you might consider choosing a fully managed service. Managed services include everything that standard hosting services include. However, they also come with some form of maintenance contract, whereby the hosting company's own network engineers will keep your server secure and well maintained.

Whether you own a large company, with a full compliment of dedicated servers, or you are a newly incorporated business with just one VPS, the importance of good security on the web should not be discounted.




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