Month: April 2022

SaaS

Software Support: 9 Compelling Reasons Your Business Needs it

Miley on April 22, 2022

If you think that software support is only for big businesses, think again. There are many benefits of having on-site professional support, no matter how big or small your business is.

Software support makes your business competitive. It also lets you save money over time and streamline your goals. Also, clients want to work with businesses that can keep up with the latest technological trends. In the same way, as getting information becomes faster, you need to work on the tiniest detail that allows you to achieve a faultless performance in real-time.

In this post, we’ll walk you through the seven compelling reasons why your business needs software support and why it is essential in the first place:

1. Address software issues proactively

A lot of software needs to be regularly patched and updated. The nature of software is that new features are constantly added. The user interface keeps getting updated to enhance usability. Security vulnerabilities are always a risk, and issues need to be fixed.

But the most common reason that operating systems and software should be updated is that if the applications that run on or in conjunction with them aren’t updated in a specific timeframe, issues may start to resurface.

2. Get quick and reliable support

Living in this day and age, any issues with your computer systems leads to unnecessary stress.

One of the most frustrating things that can happen to you when running a business is when a computer or network fails or doesn’t work. Any downtime in your network systems can translate to lost productivity, boost overhead costs, unhappy customers, and even revenue loss.

One of the things that you need to consider when it comes to picking technology software providers is support. Whether this is web hosting, cloud services, network services, email hosting, or web design, you must get quick and reliable support.

3. Be prepared for possible outbreaks

With technology-related issues being taken care of by software support, you can then have more time to focus on the most critical parts of your business.

Rather than being tied up with issues that can be otherwise avoidable, you can then devote the time to managing your customers, vendors, and other business processes.

4. Get in compliance with mobility

A lot is happening in the world of technology today. That’s why software vendors try their best to create the most cutting-edge technology solutions.

You don’t want your business not to take advantage of the latest tech trends. To stay on top of the trends, you might want to keep on renewing software maintenance contracts.

5. Uninterrupted access to timely upgrades

What if there has been a bug or an issue with a spectacular feature that can benefit your business? If you didn’t have software support, you couldn’t access these apparent benefits. Interruption and downtime can put you at an obvious disadvantage to your competitors who have this service and keep on updating their system if needed,

If you want to gain uninterrupted access to the latest notifications regarding the software, you need to get support. You gain access to the latest updates, free patches, and bug fixes. Many software vendors release regular patches when they encounter issues and bugs and will quickly distribute this to all of their clients.

6. Enhance productivity to meet end-user delight

If you avail of software support and maintenance, you could reap all the benefits of the latest tech advancements. Thus, you can boost your staff’s productivity. This, in turn, helps your business stay ahead of the competition.

7. 24/7 Maintenance

With ongoing software support, you’ll gain more peace of mind knowing that your systems are being looked after.

Slow Wi-Fi connection, lack of storage, server problems, and failure should also be monitored and resolved efficiently. In the long run, this will keep your business running smoothly and efficiently.

8. Better risk assessment and decision making

Excellent software apps will also give you access to such information that will allow you to make smarter decisions in the long run and take your business to greater heights.

With intelligent data reporting and predictive analysis, you can easily predict whether it’s wise that you go with a particular option that will benefit your business or not.

By doing so, you can avoid any prospective minefields that can disrupt day-to-day business operations.

9. Malware attacks are getting more notorious

Hackers are constantly out there, ready to look for any software weaknesses that they can use for their own gain. Therefore, if your software isn’t updated with the latest version, it can be highly vulnerable to hacks. Once these hackers break into your system, they will get important information about your company and clients.

In the same way, they can also hold your system to ransom. You might need to shell out money to get it up and running again. Therefore, what you need is to get software support and maintenance.

This will protect your system from potential hackers, trojans, viruses, and other malicious software programs. Similarly, your software vendor will constantly be updating, which, in turn, will keep your system secure.

When you commit time and necessary resources to improve your IT systems and your tech support team, this will help you save time and money, which will, in turn, provide you with long-term protection.

Over to You

So there you have it. Software in your business is like the oil that will keep your business running smoothly. When doing its job correctly, it can often be taken for granted. However, as soon as things go wrong, things can go to a screeching halt.

That’s why it makes perfect sense for you to pick software support and maintenance, even if there’s serious cash involved. That’s because the benefits can be difficult to ignore. Not opting for it can also lead to severe repercussions for your business in the long run. It also allows you to save time to focus on the more essential things. Good luck!

Development Insights

Student’s Guide: How to Start Learning Coding

Miley on April 14, 2022

The technology industry is one of the most important industries in the world. We use technology daily to keep us better connected, yet we know little about how it’s all created. As much as it may seem like magic, it was actually made by coders, programmers, and other computer science geniuses.

In this fast-growing industry, you might be wondering how you can get started and become part of it? It may seem difficult to find your initial bearings, but once you make that leap, it will be life-changing.

Why Learn to Code?

There are many benefits to learning to code, here are a few that we think should spark up an interest;

It is a booming industry so a lot of related jobs are in demand. Whether you are looking to work for a company or freelance, there are lots of opportunities.

When coding you’ll find new challenges and be continuously learning. This really boosts your problem-solving and logic skills, giving your left side of the brain a proper workout.

It’s fun! Nothing is more rewarding than seeing your technological creations come to life before your eyes. After you’ve passed the initial stages of getting started you can delve into specific parts you are more passionate about and be more creative.

What Languages are Best for Beginners?

Coding is a vast subject, where there are hundreds of different coding languages, each with a different purpose to what they can do. It’s not always easy to figure out what’s the best one to start with and that’s really because there is not just one answer. There are multiple different languages that work well in the beginning, but it’s best to start with the one that fits in with your coding goals. Below are some coding languages that beginners often start with and a little summary of how they can be helpful.

HTML – used as a foundation of the internet, and can set up content for web pages. HTML is a great starting block for beginners and often you’ll find even when you are more advanced you’ll be referring back to HTML.

CCS – HTML and CSS go as a nice pairing, so often you can learn them together. However, CCS handles the colors, sizing, fonts, and layouts of web pages. If you want to sparkle up a page, this is the one for you.

JavaScript – JavaScript helps make web pages more interactive. You can learn how to add videos, maps, and animated graphics.

Python – Python is another good option to start with as a lot of its code reads more like English so it’s easier for beginners to get a good grasp of. It isn’t built for a specific task, it instead helps build websites and software, automate tasks, and conduct data analysis.

Don’t feel that you have to keep to just one of these, you can switch between a few, and in the next section, you’ll learn more about how best to learn these.

Coding Tutors

The best way to learn to code thoroughly and quickly is with your very own coding tutor. In a one-to-one environment, your tutor can focus on key areas specific to your needs, track your progress, and you will be able to learn at your own pace. Tutor House, a top online tutoring platform, provides online coding lessons for students. Their tutors are highly experienced in many coding languages, and you can opt-in for a free trial call to find out how they will help achieve your goals. Learn at a time convenient to you and get personalized feedback to see a positive improvement.

Online Tutorials

If you prefer to go the longer route and be self-taught, there are numerous online coding tutorials and resources out there for you to pick up on. Tutorialspoint is a coding channel that carefully explains concepts to you and provides beginner tutorials for many different languages such as HTML, CCS, and Javascript. Self-teaching can be tricky, so make sure you go through these tutorials and resources at your own pace and practice each point thoroughly before moving on to the next. This will move you in a positive direction where you can track your own progress.

Books and Podcasts

There are many books and podcasts that can help educate you on topics on coding. Books are a great way of learning more about coding history and how people have developed in the tech industry. Podcasts can inform you on current and specific topics on coding; such as cyberwarfare, and the socio-economic impact of artificial intelligence. This will help you have a deeper understanding of your discipline and find interests in particular areas in your free time. It’s especially useful to read about topics that are difficult and it helps you see things from a different perspective.

Mini Projects

Most importantly, learn coding by doing. Start yourself up on a mini project and challenge and see how well you can adapt. Whether that is through your lessons with a tutor, an online course, or learning with friends. Sometimes it’s easier to learn when you have a particular motivation to create. The more action, the better the results, and it builds up your problem-solving skills along the way.

Have You Learned The Secret Language Yet?

Like with traditional language learning, to learn a coding language, you need to be passionate, you need to be patient, and you need to practice. There is so much you can do and learn in the coding world, you’ll never get bored. That’s why often coders, new and old, can learn from each other as each person learns with a whole new perspective. Coding is worthwhile to learn – don’t miss out!

SEO

Significance of Search Engine Optimization in Small Businesses

Miley on April 4, 2022

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the process that helps in navigating web traffic to the websites, by adapting the website to search engine algorithms and subsequently assisting prospective customers in finding you. People will be much more inclined to visit a website that appears higher on the results page rather than other links, so small businesses should use this marketing tactic to appear on the first page of the search engine which means better traffic and traction on the site, as well as improved search engine rankings when compared to their competitors. Thus, there are quite a number of benefits of SEO for small business owners.

Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses

Building Brand Awareness

Now, as websites are an integral part of building brands, with better investments and an increase in digital marketing budgets, small businesses will be able to exponentially improve their accessibility, visibility, and brand recognition. If your website appears on the first page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), people will become more aware of your brand presence and hence proper SEO techniques will enable brands to surpass their competition.

Small businesses can build their brand awareness by publishing relevant content that contributes to the niche of their potential customers, furthermore, this content will serve as the voice of your community and establish your website as a credible source.

Convenient and Faster Website

By optimizing the website, small businesses need to establish an enhanced user experience simultaneously improving the rankings, as SEO help in ranking websites that are user-friendly, and higher in functionality than the others. Moreover, people tend to avail themselves of services and buy products when the business websites are convenient and user-friendly, which will directly help the small business to increase sales and build a customer base.

Increased Conversion Rates

Optimized websites which are user-friendly are quite easy to explore, load faster, and are compatible to use on various devices such as mobile phones or tablets thereby increasing the options for users to surf conveniently on different devices. This will also attract users and eventually convert them into organic traffic as they are more likely to revisit the website considering they are intrigued by what the small business has to offer.

Surpass the Competition

Optimization is the key to outperforming your strong competitors and attracting more visitors to your website, thus, investing in SEO not only helps you to improve your ranks but also enables your business to outrank your competitors, if done correctly. The appropriate SEO agency will propel small businesses to get higher in search results, making them a better choice for potential customers.

Finding New Customers

Small businesses adopt various marketing strategies to grow their businesses, be it offline or online. To expand their online presence, they try to invest in various digital marketing tools and try to tap audiences throughout the web which becomes easy on one’s own website. A better website leads to a good user experience which further creates a strong customer base and finally, it helps to increase sales. Thus, a good marketing strategy is pivotal to bringing new customers to the business, and SEO is similar in this aspect except it includes varied methods or strategies.

SEO Tips to Expand Small Business

So, it is apparent that SEO is quite useful for a business to expand its online presence; we present some SEO tips that will help small businesses to implement and grow.

Choose Best SEO Practices to Build your Website

A properly structured website generates more traffic than a website that doesn’t satisfy the needs of your target audience and most small businesses suffer because their website is not designed with keeping search into consideration.

If a website is properly structured, it enables search engines to correctly scan and index the web pages. To check this, begin with your website and navigate through all the main pages, moreover, ensure that any broken (404) sites that are no longer functional are removed from the websites because they squander “link equity” as these links lead nowhere and are considered a dead-end to the search engines.

Mobile-Responsive Site

Make sure that the website is reachable on various devices as many users use mobile phones instead of laptops or computers which makes a mobile responsive website a good user experience, thus generating leads and higher ranks on the search engine.

Prioritizing Keywords

One of the most critical factors in developing an efficient SEO content strategy is choosing the right keywords. Keyword research is optimal as it will enable your business to create content on parallel lines with the terms that people use to search which ultimately induces search engines to increase your ranks thus making it discoverable by the relevant audience.

Create Various Backlinks

When a website is linked to some other, a backlink is established and these backlinks play a key factor in SEO. Small businesses can connect their internal backlinks from local directories such as past articles or blogs too but the true value of backlinks originates from outside sources. Moreover, one effective technique to link back to your website can be through the events posted.

Creating a Calendar

Content marketing is a great way to build a better website; however, it needs to be consistent to ensure good rankings and finer SEO strategies. Posting once in a while would not show authority to the customers or even the search engines and will not generate organic traffic; therefore, consistent posting of content is of utmost significance for small businesses.

Conclusion

SEO Process Diagram — Man is touching the virtual screen with SEO process information represented.

SEO is the need of the hour for small businesses to grow and expand, as it not only builds organic results but also ensures long-lasting growth and strategies. A proper technique of SEO can be an enabler to capture a bigger chunk of the market and a prompt significant surge in sales. This article elaborates the importance of using appropriate techniques of SEO for small businesses and thereafter provides some tips to inculcate in their daily schedule to boost the existing results.

Insights

7 Best Practices to Prevent DDoS Attacks and Protect Your Business

Miley on April 1, 2022

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become rampant over the last couple of years, primarily because of the pandemic. Many people are working from home and accessing online services throughout the pandemic.

In a report from NETSCOUT, about 10 million DDoS attacks occurred in 2020. It primarily targets remote and other essential services that are often used to make it through the lockdown.

Industries hit hard by these attacks are healthcare, e-commerce, and streaming services.

What is a DDoS attack?

In a nutshell, a DDoS attack involves bombarding an IP address with substantial traffic volumes. So, if the IP address points to a web server, legit traffic can’t reach it, and your site becomes unavailable.

A flood attack is another type of DDoS attack. Groups of servers are flooded with requests which need processing by victim machines. It’s often generated in huge numbers by scripts that run on compromised machines that are part of a botnet. As a result, it exhausts the server resources of the victim, such as the memory or the CPU.

As networks become more and more diverse, now is the time for network observability. What is network observability? It’s the ability to answer questions about your network quickly and efficiently.

A DDoS works in the same principles except that malicious traffic comes from several sources but comes from one central point. Since traffic sources are distributed worldwide, DDoS attack prevention is more complicated than preventing DDoS attacks from a single IP address.

Fortunately, you can avoid these attacks. Here are some of the best practices for preventing them and protecting your business:

1. Make a DDoS response plan

Do you know what you’ll do in case of a DDoS attack? How do you respond? Having a definite plan right from the get-go will allow you to react quickly and efficiently whenever your network is being targeted.

Creating a response plan can take some planning. The more complicated your site infrastructure, the more detailed your response plan is. Regardless of the size of your company, your goal should include the following:

Systems checklist
A professional response team
Clearly defined notification and escalation procedures
List of internet and external contracts which should be informed about the attack.
Detailed communication plan for stakeholders.

2. Keep security infrastructure up to date

Your network is as strong as your weakest links. You need to know of legacy and outdated systems in your infrastructure since these can be entry points for attacks once compromised.

Your data center and systems should also be up to date. It will help if you patch your web application firewalls and network security programs that you might have. Also, when working with an ISP or hosting provider, a security and data center vendor for implementing advanced protection capabilities is an excellent idea.

Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. Your data centers should be placed on different networks to ensure that all your data centers aren’t in the exact physical location and on various data centers. You need to ensure that these aren’t places wherein traffic bottlenecks in your network.

3. Identifying your network’s traffic

Every organization’s infrastructure has internet traffic patterns, so you need to know yours. Once you know the typical traffic pattern of your organization, then you have a baseline.

Doing so ensures that you can quickly identify the symptoms of a DDoS attack if any unusual activity happens.

4. Always look out for the warning signs

Again, DDoS attacks come with classic symptoms. The most common symptoms are intermittent site shutdown, spotty internet connectivity, and disconnection.

But the problem is that these warning signs are pretty similar to other issues that you might be having in your system, like a slower internet connection and viruses.

If these problems become prolonged and severe, your network will likely suffer from a DDoS attack and utilize proper prevention actions.

5. Use a cloud-based service provider

Cloud providers are offering high levels of cybersecurity. It includes firewalls and monitoring software protecting your business assets and networks from cybercriminals. It also has much greater bandwidth than most private networks. Therefore, it’s unlikely going to fail with increasing DDoS attacks.

Similarly, reputable cloud providers have network redundancy, duplicating systems, data, and equipment. Therefore, if your services become unavailable and corrupted because of an attack, you can quickly switch to secure access on your backed-up versions.

6. Sufficient server capacity

Hosting — A word hosting is displayed as a central figure of the picture

Since many DDoS attacks work by overwhelming network bandwidth, overprovisioning bandwidth is one way to counter this attack.

Therefore, you need to ensure that your server capacity can handle several heavy traffic spikes by adding bandwidth.

Doing so ensures that you’re ready for any unexpected surges of traffic that are caused by these attacks. Although it won’t completely stop a DDoS attack, it will provide a couple of extra minutes to prepare your defense before all of your resources are used up.

7. Practice good cyber hygiene

You should also engage in the best security practices. It includes regularly changing passwords, securing authentication practices, knowing when to avoid phishing attacks, etc.

The more minor the errors you’ll be committing right from the get-go, the safer it will be for you if there’s an attack.

Over to You

Considering how complicated and devious attacks are, you’ll hopefully follow these best practices to prevent DDoS attacks effectively.

Doing so keeps your web property secure and that you’re more than ready to fight off any of these attacks. Good luck!