No matter what business you’re in, data security is important to you and to your current and potential clients. For many small business owners, the fear of poor security is enough to inspire them to invest huge amounts of money in in-house data infrastructures to run their businesses. In many (if not most) cases, this level of infrastructure far exceeds what the company needs, or even what it can handle. Hiring the IT staff necessary to keep in-house technology running and up-to-date, alone, can put you out of business. And with the constant evolution of technology today, the costs are not likely to go down any time soon. On top of all that, your data security probably isn’t as solid as you think it is.

Downsize

The first step towards financial independence from your IT infrastructure is downsizing. I don’t just mean buying cheaper or less robust equipment, I mean getting rid of your equipment all together. It might seem like a bold step, but the number of world-class, secure, affordable web hosting and data storage providers out there make this step a no-brainer. Not only will you enjoy improved data security and performance, your out-of-pocket costs will plummet. Good web hosting companies can afford to have the most robust, powerful security measures available. Why not trust the experts?

Going Remote

While it will probably feel strange at first–like you’re arriving at high school without your pants–you will quickly realize how liberating it is to trust your data to a company that specializes in security. If you do your homework and sign up with a reputable company that offers guarantees (guaranteed backups, guaranteed bandwidth, etc.) you will have someone to hold accountable when things go wrong, and you will be protected by their terms of service and their public reputation. No good web hosting company is going to let your business fail because that means their business fails. In an online climate where word of mouth makes and breaks businesses every day, the small business consumer is protected like never before. Also, when your data is accessible remotely, your office suddenly becomes mobile. You can access your business website, client records, everything, via a secure remote connection. This can be a real boon for a small business, especially when that business only has a few very busy employees.

Save The Green

By outsourcing all of your IT costs, you won’t have to worry about electricity, IT staff, hardware replacements or the potential for catastrophic data loss due to fire, flood or any other natural or man-made disaster. Your business won’t be tied to one physical location. If you sign up with a company that has multiple data centers, you can opt to have your data backed-up to multiple geographic sites. This redundancy protects you, your clients and your business future.

Upgrades

One of the most compelling reasons to get your infrastructure out of your office is the possibility for on-the-fly technology upgrades. What if your business suddenly takes off? Do you want to be held back by your aging infrastructure? With a good web host, you can add server space quickly and easily. Often all you will need to do is submit an online order!

Support

If you are not particularly tech-oriented, or don’t feel entirely comfortable letting go of your hardware, find a package that includes fully managed support. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to call when things go wrong? Someone who knows the technology backwards and forwards, and who’s fee is already included in your monthly bill? Yes. Yes it would.

Provider Competence

Of course, what goes without saying here, is that you need to find a solid, reputable provider (that’s right, I said it anyway). In addition to solid guarantees and a good TOS, look for a company with a proven track record with small businesses like yours. If other business owners are happy with the service, chances are you will be too. Funnily enough, one such business pops to mind: TurnKey Internet. We specialize in small businesses! We also offer a huge collection of additional automation services to streamline every aspect of your business. Hop on live chat if you’ve got questions. We’d love to make you an offer you can’t refuse

Keeping your website fresh and up-to-date may not be on the top of your list of priorities at the moment, but it should be. While it may not be fair, an out-of-date website speaks volumes about your business. It portrays a lack of technical savvy, imparts to clients that you may not be the most reliable company out there and may send new business to your competition. Of course, you know you have a strong company with good customer service, excellent products and a proven track record. The thing is, it’s not enough to know that, you also have to communicate it to potential clients. In the world today, your company website may be the first, last and only impression your clients have of your business. That and that alone should make it a priority.

Credibility

In our fast-paced marketplace, we don’t have a lot of time to investigate a company before we give it our business (or, alternately, take our business elsewhere). We make snap decisions, often not even realizing why we’re making them. Think about it: if you visit a website for a clothing store and find broken links, an outdated template, a sloppy design and an unpleasant color-scheme, are you likely to trust that business with yours? This is especially true if you sell products online! I am not putting my credit card information into a form from 1998. With all the identity fraud out there, consumers are wise to the dangers, and they’re much more careful than they used to be. This is a good thing for consumer safety but it makes your job harder. The look and feel of your website goes a long way towards building client trust.

Marketplace Perception

Your website doesn’t just speak to your potential clients, it also speaks to your competition. If your competitors visit your site and see a sub-par presentation, they will probably do their best to upstage you, and it won’t be difficult. if you’re competing in a niche and you know your competition, check out their sites. Does yours measure up? Thinking objectively, would you shop at your site or would you trust the competition? So much of business is about subtle perceptual hints. Take advantage of that.

It’s Something You Can Control

There are many things in the marketplace that you can’t do anything about. You can’t change the economy. You can’t force clients to visit your store. You can’t predict the future. However, one thing you can do, today, is change your website. You may find that a simple re-design is all you need to bring your site up-to-date. Maybe all you need is a new background, some new fonts, some fixed links and a better photograph! Small changes really can make a big difference.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Expensive!

One of the greatest things about technology today is the large amount of automation available to people with relatively little technical experience. In fact, right here at TurnKey we have a great product called TurnKey Website. It’s an all-in-one website builder with an easy-to-use interface, lots of pre-made professional templates and total customization. In under an hour, starting with no experience whatsoever, you can build an entirely new website for your company. While it may feel intimidating, the learning curve really is very shallow! And with everything you have riding on the quality of your website, it’ll be an hour well spent.

Learn more here:
http://turnkeywebsite.com

We would like to extend a hearty welcome to all the new folks who took advantage of our Black Friday extravaganza. Welcome! It’s been a bit crazy around here, but that’s just how we like it. We are really looking forward to providing whatever support you all need as you get up and running with your new web hosting packages. Let us know if you need any help, have any questions, or just want to say hello to our friendly staff.

Welcome to the TurnKey family and happy holidays!

We are finally starting to move in to our new data center home! We’ve powered up and started the process of migrating our servers and decorating our offices. After so much anticipation, it hardly feels real! We’re all in high spirits and the move is going smoothly without any disruptions in service.

Once we’re all settled in, I’ll take you on a virtual tour of the space. Highlights will include the ironclad vault, the fishbowl conference room and the data center floor where the magic happens!

We’re really looking forward to meeting our neighbors in the bustling town of Latham. We’re also looking forward to all the delicious lunch options, just a hop away from our front door! Speaking of which, it might be time to dust off the treadmill

The suspense is killing us! We just welcomed our brand new 16,000 lb generator that will provide the 100% uptime we guarantee alongside superior performance! The installation was really something to see, with cranes and people scuttling about, and we can barely contain our excitement. Ok, so we’re not trying that hard, so sue us. We are thrilled to report that the generator installation went without a hitch and it is now snugly nestled in its new home.

Beyond the obvious benefits of the new data center (increased capacity by 12,000 servers, green-friendly efficiency, multiple high-speed fiber optic connections and fancy biometric security) we are also very excited about the user-friendliness of the space. The building, formerly a US Postal building, offers great office space, a loading dock, a beautiful (and quite large) server-room floor, and, perhaps coolest of all, a vault! The vault offers literal iron-clad security! We’ll be offering fully-managed colocation suites for those looking for true physical and virtual security.

More updates are coming soon as we put the finishing touches on the space. We can’t wait to get settled and to give you a virtual tour! Stay tuned .

We are very excited to announce the near completion of our new data center in Latham, New York! The new building is undergoing a few finishing touches as we get ready to move on in. We’ve got our new 16,000 lb generator and we’re just waiting on our racks and the decorators!

What does this mean for you? Well, it means we will be able expand in New York’s Tech Valley as demand continues to grow for affordable, web-enabled applications and IT services. It means we will be a stronger, larger company, expanding our capacity by 12,000 servers. It means we will be able to continue to deliver green-friendly service with multiple high-speed fiber optic connections all protected by state-of-the-art video surveillance systems and biometric security protocols. In short: it means we will be able to serve you better, and to bring you new technologies alongside the service and reliability you’ve come to expect.

The new data center is housed in a former federal government building which will protect our infrastructure behind 1-foot-thick concrete walls, built to federal government specifications. We will make the most of this secure space by offering fully-managed colocation suites for businesses looking for secure, reliable connectivity for their own servers and equipment.

We will also be bringing additional staff to the new building, helping bring jobs to the region. The tier-1 data center will be consistent with our industry-leading standards for power availability, environmental control, high-performance web application hosting and 100% network uptime.

Watch this space for updates! More coming soon.

If you are in the market for business web hosting, you probably already know how many options are out there. While large, established businesses may need a dedicated server to meet their needs, most small to medium-sized businesses find that a VPS or virtual private server is the best match. A VPS is a sub-section of a dedicated server. It’s a guaranteed amount of space that is completely isolated from the rest of the server. This means you get a private, guaranteed portion of a server without the risks of shared hosting (in which potentially hundreds of people are using the same machine) and without the expense of a dedicated server. At the risk of sounding slightly self-serving, TurnKey Internet’s new VPS platform is the best deal you’re going to find with some of the coolest new technology available! (including an iPhone app for mobile access!) But let’s put that aside for a minute and discuss the various reasons why VPS technology is a good choice for your business.

Potential for Growth

When you’re shopping for a hosting solution for your business, it is essential that you consider your business’ potential for growth. You don’t want to buy server space, get your website up and running and start selling only to exceed your server’s capacity. If that happens your site goes down. If your site goes down, you lose money! A VPS offers a large amount of space and allocated resources so your business can grow unfettered.

Support

Good VPS hosting comes with robust support. This means you always have a resource if you run into problems. If your site goes down, you have a real person to call. Make sure your VPS host has online chat support, a phone number and a ticketing system (TurnKey has all three). There are many hosts out there that do not offer 24x7x365 support. Often these hosts don’t own their hardware and are not reliable (if they can’t pay their bills, your business suffers). Do some research before choosing a host to make sure you will get the kind of customer service your business deserves.

Security

VPS hosting offers unique IP addresses alongside password protection, firewalls and security software managed by your hosting company (if you choose the right host). This means your data is secure, regularly backed-up and protected from potential attacks. A VPS is an excellent choice if you are concerned about data security.

Low Cost

If you are concerned about controlling business expenses (and who isn’t!?) a VPS is an extremely economical choice. You get nearly all of the benefits of a dedicated machine without the large monthly bill. Of course, if your business grows quickly and you find you need more resources, you can easily upgrade from a VPS at that time.

Cool Features!

If we’re talking about a TurnKey VPS, we’re talking about awesome features! One of the ways we set ourselves apart from our competition (alongside owning our own hardware, our track record of excellent service and heroic customer support) is that we bundle so many extras with our hosting plans. With our new Xen HVM technology, our VPS “paravirtualization” offers unprecedented performance (we also offer you the ability to compile and load your own kernel modules, for those of you who are interested.) We offer great control panels and support for many types of operating systems. Perhaps the coolest feature of all though is our new iPhone app for managing your VPS from your mobile phone! You can reboot your server, monitor usage, bandwidth, RAM and much more, from wherever you are! Come check out our VPS offerings and feel free to jump on Live Chat to speak to a representative if you have any questions.

http://turnkeyinternet.net/webhosting/turnkey_virtual_private_server.php

You may have seen this happen before. I know I have. A perfectly good web hosting company– reliable, good reviews, decent services– suddenly disappears in a puff of smoke, overnight! As all of us increasingly rely on web hosting services for our businesses, personal websites and data storage, it becomes ever more important to find providers that will be there tomorrow, and the next day, ad infinitum. Of course, few companies will admit when they’re having problems, and that makes finding a reliable host difficult. Fortunately there are several warning signs to look out for when deciding who to trust with your valuable data.

But It’s Here Today!

Sure, nothing lasts forever. That’s a fact of life. But when you purchase a service from a legitimate business, you expect it to last a good long time. You expect to be able to get your site up and running and move on to bigger and better things, like running your business. Unfortunately, over the past few years a disturbing trend has emerged. Many companies, good solid-seeming companies, have simply vanished, taking the hard work, blood, sweat and tears of their customers along with them.

Who Are They?

There are more disappearing web hosts than I can list here but one prime example is Yahoo’s Geocities, Geocities was around for years and there was no effort to protect customer data when Yahoo decided to abandon that particular pet project. Some customers managed to retrieve data via third-party services, but the majority of customers were just out of luck.

Where Did They Go?

In many cases, like Geocities, the parent company decides to pull the plug. When this happens, it is the parent company’s responsibility to inform their customers. If they don’t, well, there’s not much we can do about it. In the case of many other smaller web hosts, often the company owners simply can’t afford their overhead costs. They don’t own their infrastructure to begin with (they are resellers, “re-selling” the hosting resources of another, larger company) and they can no longer keep up with the bandwidth needs of their customers (regardless of the fact that they may have promised to do so.)

Warning Signs

There are many warning signs to look out for. If the host owns other online properties that aren’t doing so well, beware. Review the company’s profit numbers. If those numbers look bad, there’s a good chance they won’t be around much longer. If financial information isn’t available, look for news coverage of the company that might hint at a growing problem. Often, when a company is going under, things will start to fray at the edges. If customer service isn’t what it used to be– tickets aren’t answered, waiting times are longer, services are sluggish–it may be time to get out while you can still retrieve your data. If there is a sudden change in their terms-of-service, this may indicate an attempt to protect themselves from potential litigation. They surely know they’re going under long before anyone else does, and they will try to mitigate the damage to themselves in any way they can.

How To Avoid the Disappearing Web Host

There are a few common-sense ways to pick a solid web host that you can trust. Look for a host that has been in business for a number of years. Choose one that owns and operates its own infrastructure. Owning a datacenter is an expensive undertaking and only a company with significant resources can afford to buy the building (including heating, cooling, etc.) and the hardware. A company that owns that kind of an infrastructure is not going under overnight. You will have much more time to make other arrangements if things start to go south, and will likely see evidence of this happening long before you lose access to your data. Last, look for customer reviews. A company with a large amount of reviews has a large amount of customers. A good customer base is like a cushion for your and your data. It’s a community of people who are just as interested in seeing the web host thrive as you are, and they will all speak up if the service starts losing its luster.

Here is where I plug TurnKey Internet We’ve got the infrastructure, the customer base and the many years of solid service under our belts. Why not give us a try next time you find yourself shopping for a reliable web host.

On June 13th, TurnKey Internet donated an iPad II to the Southern Saratoga Chamber of Commerce’s Spring Classic Golf Tournament at the Saratoga Spa Golf Course. The tournament is an annual networking event that brings together area businesses for a day of golfing and prizes. This year the competition was fierce and we were there to watch as Jack Feyrer hit closest to the pin, winning the iPad II.

Jack Feyrer is Vice President of Trading for Holcim Trading, one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates. Feyrer plans on using his new iPad to connect to his TurnKey Virtual Desktop when he travels across the country to the many Holcim Trading ports. Holcim will also be trying out Voxwire Web Conferencing to hold online meetings with their internationally-based staff and customers. We’re excited to see how our products and services can help make Jack Feyrer’s life easier on the road.

Jack Feyrer with his new iPad II

This event was a great opportunity to get out on the green and have a whole lot of fun while making some new connections with the local business community. We’ve been working to make TurnKey a community company, something that we feel is often overlooked by web hosting and SaaS companies who focus on online efforts. We see the value in establishing and fostering local ties as well as a global ones, and events like these are a big part of how we build our local relationships to become involved in the happenings in our own backyard. We believe it is possible to be a community company even if your products are designed for the virtual world.

As the sponsor of the closest to the pin contest Turnkey manned the tee box with its own representative, online sales manager Nick Molik (check out our next blog post for his Staff Interview.) Nick greeted each foursome as they came to the tee box by telling them about the iPad contest for the closest to the pin winner. Nick, always the consummate sales person, used the opportunity to demonstrate how the iPad can access the Virtual Turnkey Desk even from the golf course. Nick explained afterwards that many people were extremely interested in the Virtual Desktop concept while others were strictly there for a day of fun and golf. Nick had a great time chatting with everyone and is looking forward to next year!

One of the most compelling and least talked about benefits of cloud computing is the potential it offers for a real positive impact on the environment. As computer usage continues to grow at an exponential rate, technology-related emissions grow right along with it. We hear all the time about how using less paper saves the environment, but the electricity it takes to access all that information digitally is rarely talked about or quantified. Office IT infrastructures are huge energy sinkholes. Businesses lose thousands of dollars each year paying to power their IT infrastructure when they could be saving a fortune by transitioning their business to the cloud.

Greenpeace predicts the global carbon emissions from computer use will double by 2020. That would be unsustainable and environmentally catastrophic. Greenpeace also states that datacenters that consolidate usage and power could conserve resources significantly. This may seem counterintuitive, since datacenters are huge energy consumers. But, when you consider the power saved by consolidating usage, it makes perfect sense.

In an office environment, servers typically stay online 24×7. This may be necessary for the business—if workers need access remotely or software needs to run constantly—but it is extremely wasteful. Those servers are running at full power even if they are only needed for a small amount of processing. In a datacenter, every piece of the computer’s processing power is used. Many offices can conduct their daily operations for the same amount of power one office was using in-house. It’s a basic consolidation equation but it’s one that business owners have yet to embrace.
Another aspect of the environmental friendliness of the datacenter is the power source. Most datacenters are equipped with extremely efficient energy infrastructures. For example, our new datacenter in Latham New York will be equipped with NYSERDA approved power. NYSERDA is the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. They conduct energy audits of commercial buildings and suggest best practices for equipping spaces with the most efficient technology possible. We can offer our clients a state-approved level of efficiency that we’re willing to bet their office parks probably don’t offer.

In addition to these green-friendly benefits of cloud computing, it is fairly easy to see how much cost savings there is here as well. Hosting and running applications from the cloud eliminates the cost of in-house hardware and IT staff while improving performance and reliability (more on that in the next article). Read more on Greenpeace’s take on cloud computing, renewable energy and the future here: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/make-it-green-cloud-computing/.