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To a lot of people who aren’t familiar with the details of web design and IT, web hosting is essentially the technology version of milk and eggs – something that’s on the shopping list with a new website, but to be purchased wherever it’s cheapest or most convenient.

All web hosting isn’t the same, though, and in fact even the packages offered by different providers (like Kinetik IT) can vary quite a bit. What’s more, getting the right web hosting for your business can save you time, money, and stress.

To help you understand why, let’s look at four things you get from upgraded hosting plans:

#1 Faster Web Performance

A lot of business owners and managers don’t realize this, but better web hosting often leads to faster website loading times. That means your customers can get to your content quicker, and that your website could benefit from a higher search engine ranking. Why? Because Google and the other search engines look at page loading times (along with hosting reliability and other related factors) and factor them into search algorithms. There are no downsides to having your website work more quickly and efficiently for visitors.

#2 Tighter Online Security

One of the biggest “hidden” features of an upgraded web hosting package is that you get dedicated on a server, or even your own server altogether. That means you don’t have to share space with a virtual “neighbor” who might not use the same kind of online security protocols as you do, or may not be as reputable. Sometimes, having a wall between yourself and other businesses makes good sense, especially when it comes to servers and web hosting.

#3 More Back-End Power

Because standard web servers are configured to work a certain way, and with certain kinds of software, you may be constrained as to which types of apps and tools you can use. That’s rarely the case with upgraded hosting and dedicated servers. Once you have a better package in place, you and your IT team are free to utilize any tool or technology that can help your company grow. In some businesses and industries, this can be a huge benefit, and one that can make your company safer and more profitable at the same time.

#4 Cost-Effective E-commerce and Programming Power

Along with the flexibility we just mentioned, it’s important to note that upgraded hosting allows for custom programming and e-commerce solutions to be installed. That means you can get more control over your online store, put tighter web security in place, and take full advantage of things like databases that help you track and contact buyers. Each of these becomes possible, or at least easier, with the right hosting platform.

You probably don’t think about web hosting all that often, which is understandable. But, considering all the benefits you can get from an upgraded hosting package – and the very slight differences in costs between the different levels of service – doesn’t it make sense to at least explore your options and see if you could get a better deal?

Click here now to contact a member of the Kinetik IT team and see if you could improve your web performance for just a few dollars a day with upgraded web hosting.

Remote backups have become the most popular (and cost-effective) way for companies to keep their data safe in the last few years. And yet, a lot of businesses are fighting this trend. Some are doing so out of the sheer reluctance to embrace change, while others mistakenly believe that they are better protected with tape backup drives and other in-office solutions.

If you fall into either of those categories, we want to tell you that now is the time to start thinking differently. Switching to a remote backup system makes your business and its data much, much more secure. Here are just a few of the most important reasons why:

You’re Safer From Accidents 

When you rely on backup drives within your own office, you’re essentially betting that anything that destroys your saved files is going to somehow leave your backup drive unaffected. That’s just not realistic. Every year, millions of businesses lose data to floods, fires, tornadoes, break-ins, and other issues. Having your data stored safely at a remote location gives you an extra layer of redundancy you might need some day.

Our Cloud Facility Is More Secure Than Your Office

Most business offices have only a minimal amount of security, and even less protection for sensitive computer equipment. A remote backup cloud facility, on the other hand, has the proper ventilation, climate control, automated fire response, on-site security personnel, 24/7 monitoring by trained IT professionals, and enormous backup power reserves. That means your files are far more protected in our cloud facility than they would ever be sitting on a drive in your office or facility.

It’s Much Harder to Steal Data From a Cloud Facility

A lot of business people worry that their data is going to be stolen when it’s transmitted back and forth through the cloud. However, because your stored files are sent to our facility using bank-level encryption, they are highly unlikely to be compromised. Chances are, our security is several times stronger than anything you use in your business communications or data storage.

Remote Backups Get You Working Again Faster

It’s not unusual to find that, after an incident in which data is lost, a company is unable to retrieve or use their own backups. In contrast, our remote backup systems are tested and validated regularly. We have set procedures designed to get you back up and running as quickly as possible, so you can be online at full strength and back to profitability much faster than you would otherwise.

In a recent TED Talk, Educational researcher Dr. Sugata Mitra shared the idea behind his "Hole in the Wall" experiments which have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other.

The investigation began simply enough, by installing a computer in a wall, three feet off the ground, in a slum in India. With nothing but a computer screen and mouse to assist them, and with no prior experience, a handful of local children—whose native language was not English, the only language available for use on the PC—learned to use the computer on their own, all within a few months. Based on this initial trial, Dr. Mitra hypothesized that: 


The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can be achieved through incidental learning provided the learners are given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance. 

Mitra’s website touts an old adage, but one which is eternally true: Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The research and work that ensued won Mitra’s organization the first-ever $1M TED Prize at TED2013, giving them the resources to develop their dream: to build a school in the cloud. More importantly, the organization hopes to break the traditional confines of a school, by making learning more like play, employing a unique collaborative learning approach and encouraging children to explore, learn and simply enjoy themselves. 

Similarly, at Kinetik I.T., we’ve developed a system of collaboration, using creativity and fun to reach excellence in all that we do. We make great things happen, and we know how to help you when your idea’s time has come. Whether it’s custom website design, web application development, custom software development, or mobile app development you’re looking for, we can help make your dream a reality. 

To learn more about our Kinetik I.T.’s Digital Superheroes, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Oftentimes, the rule of thumb for managed web hosting is the higher the price tag, the better the technical support. The monthly cost of managed hosting packages can vary from less than $50 to several hundred dollars.

At Kinetik I.T., we don’t think it should cost a fortune to host your website. We offer managed hosting solutions that are secure, affordable and easy to maintain.  Our web-hosting servers are co-located in a state-of-the-art data center with continuous monitoring and 24/7 toll-free technical support. Through redundancy and reliability, our server configurations allow us to guarantee 99.9% up-time.

Easily Manage Your Domain
Our web hosting service features

• 24/7 Toll-Free Technical Support – Talk to a live technician right away and get your questions answered now.

• Server-Side E-Mail SPAM Filter – With 3 levels of sensitivity and 3 different handling options, the filter will reduce SPAM delivery by over 90%.

• Server-Side E-Mail Virus Scanning – A virus can never make it into your inbox, because the server deletes the virus and notifies you of the attempted intrusion.

• Rotated Visitor Logs for Statistical Reporting – At the interval you desire, logs are automatically rotated and compressed into time-stamped files for quick identification.

Our goal is to empower you an simple to use and secure control panel so you can easily manage all aspects of your hosting account. Our web hosting allows you to create and manage e-mail boxes, FTP accounts within your domain, generate usage statistics, manage your files on the server, analyze your web site structure and integrity, secure sections of your web site and manage multiple user access, and configure and install common CGI scripts and more. 

To learn more about web hosting, and a wide array of other services and products, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik I.T. on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

With cloud technology becoming an increasingly viable choice for business, questions still remain as to whether it’s the right choice for your business. Kinetik IT’s President, Josette van Stiphout, weighs in on questions and considerations when contemplating sending your business into the cloud.

• Company Size: Usually, cloud technology is the most appropriate for small to midsize businesses that do not have the talent and funding to implement in-house solutions. It also depends on the cloud application’s capacity and functionality.
• Physical Location: Does it make sense for your company if all employees are office-based rather than working from a remote office?
• Security: "Do I want to have everything in the cloud including all my company data?"  The most important questions that people need to ask are really pertaining to data security.
• Space and Software Rental: A disadvantage for cloud computing is that you basically rent – it’s a lifetime rental situation. You don't own anything, and you will always pay a fee. This may be appropriate for some situations but not all.

The cloud has been available in some of fashion for 20 years or more, where it was called ASP (Application Service Providers) or SaaS (Software as a Service). Now in general terms, it's called cloud technologies. But keep in mind there are different categories of cloud computing: software, infrastructure, storage and platform hosting.

In addition to general-use questions, Josette offers considerations for the actual cloud provider. Here are some general suggestions:

• Choose a brand name cloud provider – e.g. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, NetSuite etc.
• Find out the physical location of the service provider’s data center, where the application and files are stored.  Is this data center owned by the cloud provider or is it outsourced?
• Understand what kind of security controls and processes the provider has in place. Who will  be administering your systems, can they see your data, and how do they avoid your data potentially being copied? Can other organizations who are using the same service potentially copy your data?
• Learn about their track record for up‑time.  Planned downtime is a given – for them to perform scheduled maintenance and upgrades – and you want to know what it is.
• Know the historical length of downtime or average outage time, especially if it’s unplanned downtime, or a specific outage.
• Learn about the type of redundancies and data protection policies they have in place, in the event of loss of data, data corruption, unscheduled downtime or security breach.
• If you want to cancel your service, how easy is it to get your data and migrate to another service provider?  Will they keep copies of your data after the service is cancelled?
• Get a copy of their SLA (Service Level Agreement) and support guarantees.

Located in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, Kinetik IT is a full-service information technology and internet services provider, offering a wide array of technology and internet strategy solutions, as well as sound advice.  To learn more about services and products, and to stay up to date with Kinetik IT, visit www.Kinetik-IT.com or follow Kinetik on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.