Blogs

Netcraft has released its survey of the most reliable hosting companies for May 2009. Netcraft is an Internet services company based in Bath, England. The company provides Internet security services, including anti-fraud and anti-phishing services, application testing, code reviews, and automated penetration testing. Additionally, Netcraft provides research data and analysis on many aspects of the Internet - particularly hosting servers and domain name activity.

The situation involving the American automakers in Detriot, Michigan is astounding, disappointing, and yet predictable. The companies (specifically General Motors and Chrysler) built poor products for too long, and now must live with the consequences. I've spoken to many people who assume their businesses are immune from the issues which brought down GM and Chrysler. But they're wrong - these issues can affect any business in any sector (even the Internet!).

In my last entry http://www.hostreview.com/icontent/the-blog/anti-virus-approach-not-enou... I wrote about how we need to inoculate ourselves, our data, and our identities against the poisons of the online world. It makes no sense to use 20th century technology to protect our networks against 21st century threats.

Here's how 21st-century protection works:

Surviving a downturn is difficult and there are no silver bullets to increase or maintain your current level of revenues. However, there are ways to alleviate the pain of declining sales.

1. Communicate with your customers large and small on the phone or better yet, face to face. This also means listening and learning about their business as much, or more so than talking to them about yours.

2. In a slow economy, everyone on staff must increase their sales effort relative to their function in the organization.

I come from the traditional advertising world where packaged-goods titans like P&G would buy millions in mass advertising which would stimulate billions in sales. A predictable, reliable engine.

But then the Internet happened.

It opened up virtually all heretofore closed systems: distribution, marketing, promotion. It held the promise of creating a level playing field for all types of merchants – large and small. This was the promise that drove the explosive growth of e-commerce for the past 5 years.

US Senate Bill S.773

President Obama has, on multiple occasions, promised to take the government’s initiatives against cybercrime to the next level. With US Senate Bill S.773, the Obama administration has shown, at the very least, that it’s willing to put its money where its mouth is and push cybersecurity to the next level.

Which web hosting companies and related businesses operate the largest number of servers? Rackspace announced they had hit the 50,000 mark recently, and DatacenterKnowledge took the opportunity to determine who is in the same league. Three web hosting companies lead the pack: 1&1 Internet (55,000), Rackspace (50,038), and The Planet (48,500). They are followed by Akamai Technologies, OVH, SBC Communications, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and SoftLayer.

Once upon a time, all you needed to start your web-based business was to put up a website, create an online store, buy some Google ads and then sit back and watch the money come in. But E-Commerce has been evolving. Current E-Commerce tools like SEO and Pay-Per-Click advertising are no longer delivering the bang they once did, so online merchants have been looking at alternatives for building their businesses.

Google's News Timeline
Somewhat quietly (at least for Google) Google Labs has relaunched two new products. You can read the details regarding the relaunch here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/hard-at-play-in-google-labs-with.html.

For my first trick as a blogger, I will follow my other bloggers over the intellectual cliff and prognosticate about the future of our industry! On second thought let ‘s just focus on how Resellers can survive the Recession of 2009 and then try to tackle items higher up on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs some other day. I plan to explore each of the following topics in detail, in future blogs but for our first time together; here are what I believe to be five keys to surviving the Recession of 2009:

1. Take care of those that brought you to the dance.