Official Blog- cloudsafe365.com

Amazon Web Services Cloud Computing pricing explained

Posted on Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at 9:23 am.

If you are new to Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services the choice of options can be very confusing & overwhelming. Once you get used to it you won’t look back but it does take some time. We suggest you work with an AWS consultant or use some great applications to make your life easier. This will be covered future posts.

Image representing Amazon Web Services as depi... — Image via CrunchBase

In this 3 part series we will cover the the types of Compute services you can purchase and provide some recommendations on how best to deploy and manage your services. Amazon call their Cloud Servers EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Important Concepts

Let’s start with some concepts, just to make sure that we are all on the same page.

An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a template that defines your operating environment, including the operating system. A single AMI can be used to launch one or thousands of instances.

Instances provide compute power and are the fundamental building blocks. Instances are created by launching an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) on a particular instance type. You can scale the number of instances you are running up or down on demand, either manually or automatically, using Auto Scaling.

Instance Types comprise various combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity and give you the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for your applications. Each instance type has one or more size options that address different workload sizes. For the best experience, you should launch on instance types that are the best fit for your applications.

Instance Families are collections of instance types designed to meet a common goal. To make it easier for you to select the best option for your applications, Amazon EC2 instance types are grouped together into families based on target application profiles.

In part 2 will will discuss Instance Types & the advantages of each. It will cover “On Demand”, “Reserved” and “Spot” instances.

On Cloud Nine or in the Cloud Washing Machine

Posted on Monday, May 13th, 2013 at 1:17 pm.

Written by craig deveson

English: Cloud Computing Image
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To cloud, or not to cloud? That is the question many customers are asking, after the confusion created by vendors jumping on the “cloud washing” bandwagon.

For those who are relatively new to the world of cloud computing, the “Cloud” is a remote service offering hardware and software access via the internet. It’s a great way for companies to store and access data from a secure and remote location without the issues associated with having all that infrastructure on site.

The confusion really begins when potential Cloud customers become unsure as to what is and what isn’t a real Cloud product and how it could be useful to them.

To help give things a little perspective, Amazon is the world’s number one Cloud services vendor. Its basic storage or Simple Storage Service – S3 and volume, Elastic Block Storage service, are market leaders and are the benchmark for newer players entering the cloud hosted competition for Cloud space. With a large and growing number of organisations using public cloud storage services, the potential for the industry to grow is big business.

There are a lot of other big players in the market that offer a range of similar storage, computing and content delivery networks. They make it possible for organisations and individuals to host multiple sites in the one location, without spending a lot of time and money building and managing servers. It’s probably a good time to note here however; that the Cloud is not a purely magical place that will let individual customers simply achieve nirvana like leaps and bounds in computing. It is a complicated technology though, that will help IT professionals better manage an organisations computing needs, more cost effectively.

Not all is lost and out of reach for mere mortals however. Cloudsafe365 created a WordPress plugin for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in order to provide backup, and scan for any vulnerabilities. Later we identified a need for Startups, which were having difficulties accessing and setting up effective cloud hosting. We then developed CloudManager to specifically make it easier for those looking for effective and manageable AWS cloud setup.

As the Cloud grows not only in popularity but in real and effective hosting services outcomes, so do the support solutions, making it possible for more people to benefit from it. The more potential customers are able to understand what cloud computing is and what it can do for them, the more inclined they will be to seek out user friendly ways of making it work to grow their business.

Amazon AWS for WordPress – New Plugin by cloudsafe365

Posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at 1:53 am.

Written by craig deveson

There has been a number of security issues in the WordPress community in recent weeks. To address this we have a released a simple plugin and service that will stop the Botnets dead.

We provide Extra security to stop Botnets & Hackers with our Amazon AWS for WordPress plugin.

Our approach to providing a secure experience for WordPress users has changed!

We believe websites should be super fast, this is why we use Amazon Web Services. Our plugin AWS for WordPress is a useful Amazon tool providing easy connection to Amazons’ content delivery network and it has performance enhancement technology built in.

We believe that extra logon security is needed for users, this is why we have incorporated the Google Authenticator into our plugin. Google Authenticator provides a 2 factor authentication ? Basically if you load an iphone or Android app it provides a unique number in addition to your username and password – Simple !

To those of who say what if I lose my phone – well we have that covered also. If you create a free CloudManager from cloudsafe365 then we store a backup copy of the key for you!

Goodbye to those nasty botnets and hackers ! We believe that application security should be provided with each hosting service, this is why a web application firewall is built in and a basic malware scanner is provided.

Download from WordPress Repo or cloudsafe365 website

http://www.cloudsafe365.com/wp-plugin/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/aws-for-wp/

Secure Cloud Hosting for Website Owners & Managers

Posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at 12:30 pm.

Written by craig deveson

Introduction

Your website is one of your most important business assets. Because doing business online increases revenues by 40 to 75 percent, it is essential for your website to be accessible at all times. When a website crashes, income is lost and losses continue as long as the site is down. Crashed websites also irritate customers and cause businesses to lose credibility.

One of the main reasons websites crash is the inability of the hosting server to handle the increased demand caused by a sudden spike in traffic. For example: Coke, Calvin Klein, Axe and 10 other corporate websites crashed because of the sudden increase in traffic sparked by 2013 Super Bowl advertisements. Denial of service attacks (DDoS) launched by hackers, primary server failure caused by theft, natural disasters or mechanical failures, can also cause sites to crash.

Traditionally, websites are hosted on a single server, either on-site or remotely. Single-server hosting makes websites vulnerable, because any significant server malfunction can cause the site to go down. Spreading website hosting functions among a cluster of remotely located servers helps to make them less vulnerable. If one server goes down, then other servers can immediately kick-in to supply the needed hosting power. Multi-tenancy architecture that uses a cluster of remotely located servers to cost-effectively deliver secure IT functions is the basis of cloud-hosting services. This paper discusses the cloud and cloud – hosting as a time and money saving strategy that allows businesses to have cost-effective, scalable, and crash-resistant web hosting.

What Is the Cloud?

Contrary to popular sentiment, “the cloud” is not an amorphous, mysterious entity. The technology behind the cloud is actually quite knowable. That knowledge begins with a definition of what the cloud is. Basically, “the cloud” is a description applied to Internet services that are delivered from a network of servers that are located outside of your business. E-mail, which can be accessed from any Internet capable device, is an example of a cloud service that millions of people use everyday. The cloud can be used to store data, applications, or an entire IT infrastructure.

Where Is the Cloud?

By definition, the activities of the cloud take place on servers that are remotely located from your business. This has multiple advantages, such as being accessible from any Internet capable device. Workers can tap into cloud based software and other cloud-based services from home, or from public computers. This gives workers more flexibility. The flexibility of telecommuting can save time and money – a benefit that is favored by many workers who desire work/life balance. Using cloud based services also offers increased information security. If a business suffers physical damage due to natural disasters or acts of war, remotely-stored cloud-based information would be safe.

Cloud Services Save Money

Cloud services cost less than purchasing proprietary software or paying to have your own software developed. Here are several ways cloud services save money:

Eliminates cost of outright purchase.
Eliminates need for extra onsite computer storage space.
Reduces cost of upgrades.
Provides ease of scalability and reduced adjustment costs for increased or decreased demand by your business.
Eliminates need and cost for onsite support staff.
Reduced demand for dedicated staff (saving human and capital resources).

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is a service that allows you to host your website on more than one cloud based server. Each server has a particular function. If something goes wrong with one server, another server immediately kicks in so that your site does not experience any down-time. Cloud hosting services can be cheap or enterprise-class. Cheap cloud hosting services have servers that are suboptimal, which makes them vulnerable to hacking and equipment failures. Support services can also be weak. Enterprise-level cloud hosting services have top-of-the-line servers that are secure and durable, and support is more comprehensive.

What to Look for in a Cloud Hosting Service

Because cloud hosting services can vary in quality, it is important to be familiar with the most desirable qualities, which are:

Scalability: Scalability is the ability of the cloud hosting servers to provide more or less power or bandwidth in response to the demands of a website’s traffic. Web traffic varies by time of day, seasons, and market demand. One of the major advantages of cloud hosting services is the ability to scale dynamically with your business as it grows. When traffic is heavy, the cloud hosting service should be able to automatically detect the demand and provide additional bandwidth so that the site doesn’t crash. If a company is targeted by hackers who have deployed a denial-of-service attack (DDoS), other servers will kick in so that the website can continue to function without difficulty. Companies like Google and Amazon.com depend upon scalability in their cloud hosting servers to deliver safe, reliable service.

Reliability: A cloud hosting service should be reliable. Their servers should be high quality and well maintained. The company should have a reputation for having no down time for their sites.

Support: A reliable cloud hosting service should offer support 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Support parameters should be clearly stated in writing and actively practiced. You should feel comfortable with response times, the method of contact, and the quality of written and verbal communications.

Cost: Costs should be affordable for your company’s budget.

Perceptions of Cloud vs Reality

Cloud hosting is a relatively new business service. This means that people may not be familiar with the concept. People tend to fear what they do not know. Many business people feel that the cloud is amorphous, inaccessible, unsafe and overly expensive. The reality is that reliable cloud hosting and other cloud based services are very well defined, highly accessible, secure and less expensive than purchasing software outright or developing software and housing an IT infrastructure in-house.

The Cloudsafe365 Solution

Cloudsafe365 has partnered with Amazon.com to provide safe, reliable and affordable cloud hosting services. Our proprietary cloudsafe365 software works with a secure dropbox cloud hosting panel provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). As specialists in Internet security, our web hosting service provides:

A very secure environment: Constant security tools protect your site, and guard against DDOS attacks. All applications are security hardened (protected against computer viruses and malware).
Privacy: Your company gets its own cloud server that is “fenced off.” We even offer encryption, so that no one can read your company’s files.
Choice of location around the world (based on political and technical factors).
Improved performance: All applications (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc.) are optimized.
Managed services will be available in the future.

The degree to which your company leverages technology will determine the extent of your success. Computers and software services make it possible for companies to use their capital and human resources more efficiently. Doing business on the Internet can increase revenue by 40 to 75 percent, so it is important for businesses to have websites that are always available and safe for customers to use. Cloud hosting services allow companies of all sizes to have websites that are secure, easy to manage, and protected from disruptions caused by natural disasters, acts of war, or hackers. Our affordable cloud hosting solution enables businesses of all sized to decrease costs and enhance the security of their businesses’ websites.

References

Microsoft Office 365; What Is Cloud Services?; http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/what-is-the-cloud.aspx

Om Thoke; Understanding What Cloud Hosting Really Is!; http://webhosting.about.com/od/Clouding-Hosting/a/What-Is-Cloud-Hosting-And-Should-You-Consider-It.htm

Rivercity Labs goes cloud with CloudManager

Posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at 12:31 am.

Written by craig deveson

Rivercity Labs is a vibrant co-working space in Brisbane. Following the celebration of its 1 year birthday the website was updated and built on a new platform called Cloudmanager powered by Amazon Web Services.

We thought we would take the site for a spin and see how it performs and how secure it is.

Mick Real a local web designer discusses what the new site does and provides some feedback on the results of the tests.

Q. Mick what is the site built in :

The site was built in WordPress using Roots theme as a base to build out the new design.

Q. What were you trying to achieve with the new site ?

A cleaner, better organised and less corporate looking site. Something that fits with the startup feel and also makes it easier for people looking to join to access the information they’re after and apply online.

Q. What has the feedback been like ?

From what I was hearing about the existing site while working on the new site, it was time for a change. The feedback received since launching the new site has been positive and the new look and feel is much prefered.

Q. How did you find using Cloudmanager ?

It was quite simple and easy to get things setup. There were a couple things along the way that needed some tweaking, but the Cloudsafe365 team were there to help and we got everything running nicely in the end.

We got Adam Martin a Cloud Consult to do some performance & security tests on the site and here are the results.

Q Adam what security tests did you do ?

I checked for the most frequent security threats from the infrastructure to the application level firstly testing the old site.

The outcome was disappointing but typical to a shared hosting environment. The websites speed was continuously underperforming related to another tenant on the same server, leading to bad google ranking, and loss of visitors. Test revealed that the host had no firewall or protection of any kind installed. Allowing bots an easy way to crack admin passwords. A simple port scan revealed that the FTP access was open all the time inviting bots and spammers to the site. Mike tried to manage these flaws, implementing wordpress hardening but every time he hit a wall. He had come to realize that the restrictions on a shared hosting make security hardening impossible. Malware and application level tests showed that lack of a WAF(web application firewall) allows automated bots and hackers to modify and compromise WordPress data and possibly the whole server.

Q What did you recommend ?

I suggested Michael to give Cloudmanger from cloudsafe365, a secure hosting environment/manager a try.

After the migration from the shared hosting company to cloudsafe365 completed we performed the same tests again.

The wordpress site was running on his own security hardened server; no other tenants, no bandwidth limitation. The network promises a 10Gps integrated DDOS protection which will withstand most of the DDOS attacks and a constantly running WAF and firewall will keep the site secure from XSS and remote executions.

The management portal allows port management and schedule. No more unused ports open, making hackers life hard. The rivercitylabs site is using a hardened database as well, blocking any remote requests. It hides the wordpress version number and makes plugin guessing difficult.

To eliminate brute force attacks I turned on the 2 factor authentication login method provided by Cloudsafe365. With this function a token is generated on your android or iphone and is required to log in to your admin panel; no way for bots or hackers to guess or hack your credentials. They even store the secret key for you in case the device gets lost.

Multiple test showed the lowest score of risk rating after the migration.

I personally like the backup and one click restore function provided.

Q DDos (Distributed Denial of Service) has been in the news recently – did you test for this ?

The site performed very well against Denial of Service attacks after the migration. The site and its database was stable and accessible even under high stress. It was a pleasant surprise that cloudsafe365 already fixed the vulnerability related to the pingback function in wordpress.

Q What was the performance of the new site like ?

The site was performing very poor in the past, because its resources was hijacked by other tenants on the shared hosting environment. You can’t control your tenants on shared hosting; its like living in home where you can’t pick your housemates. The website got google slapped multiple times, making SEO optimization difficult.

cloudmanager’s one click CDN(content delivery network) deployment allowed us to store a copy of the blog at 40 different geo locations, serving each and every visitor from the closest and fastest server. PageSpeed insight ranking instantly increased from 76 to 95 out of 100.

Summary of the Website

Built in WordPress
Cloud Management by Cloudmanager from cloudsafe365
Powered by Amazon Web Services

State of the Cloud 2013

Posted on Monday, May 6th, 2013 at 11:46 pm.

Written by craig deveson

We firmly believe that cloud is reaching the mainstream. This is backed up by a great survey from the folks at Rightscale, they surveyed technical professionals across a broad cross-section of organizations about their adoption of cloud computing. The 625 respondents range from technical executives to practitioners, and represent organizations of varying sizes across many industries. Their answers to our survey questions provide a comprehensive perspective on the state of the cloud today.

For the purpose of reporting the survey results, we created a Cloud Maturity Model to segment and analyze organizations based on their levels of cloud adoption. The Cloud Maturity Model identifies four distinct stages of cloud maturity, from least to greatest experience:

Cloud Watchers are organizations that are developing cloud strategies and plans but have not yet deployed applications into the cloud. Cloud Watchers want to evaluate available cloud options, and determine which applications to implement in the cloud.
Cloud Beginners are new to cloud computing and are working on proof-of-concepts or initial cloud projects. These organizations want to gain experience with cloud in order to determine future projects.
Cloud Explorers have multiple projects or applications already deployed in the cloud. They are focused on improving and expanding their use of cloud resources.
Cloud Focused organizations are heavily using cloud infrastructure. They are looking to optimize cloud operations as well as cloud costs.
The survey includes organizations across all the stages of cloud maturity.

Cloud Is a Given

One of the primary findings of the survey is that cloud computing is no longer on the bleeding edge of technology adoption. Three-quarters of our respondents say that they are adopting cloud. The rate of adoption is slightly higher in enterprises than it is among small and midsize organizations (SMB) – 77 percent vs. 73 percent.

But although enterprises are moving into the cloud, they are moving more slowly through the maturity levels. Thirty-two percent are just at the experimentation stage, and only 17 percent report heavy use. The proportions are reversed for SMBs: 19 percent are just experimenting, while 41 percent report heavy use.

Clearly enterprises have moved beyond the question of whether cloud is appropriate for their organizations, and are progressing down the path to cloud adoption. The slower pace of adoption is in line with the typical behavior of large organizations, which are dealing with added organizational scale and complexity and thus tend to take longer to fully consume new technologies.

The survey goes on to say that from this survey “mixed clouds” will be prevalent. This may depend on the size and type of organisation. Time will tell on this one.

Survey Details : Rightscale