FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Hardware
- Servers — provide the compute capacity to run applications and services.
- Storage — SAN (storage area network) or NAS (network-attached storage) systems to hold data.
- Networking — switches, routers and firewalls to connect and protect the components of the estate.
Software
- Operating system — a server operating system such as Linux or Windows Server to manage the hardware.
- Virtualisation — a hypervisor such as VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V or KVM to create and manage virtual machines.
- Cloud management — OpenStack, VMware vCloud Suite or Microsoft System Center to manage and automate cloud resources.
Networking
- SDN (software-defined networking) — lets the network be managed and reconfigured flexibly and efficiently.
- VPN (virtual private network) — secures connectivity between private cloud components and remote users.
Security
- Firewall — protects the estate against unauthorised access.
- IDS/IPS — intrusion detection and prevention systems that identify and block threats.
- DLP — data loss prevention, guarding against data leaving the organisation or being accessed improperly.
Management and monitoring
- Management tooling to provision, track and report on resources across the platform.
- Monitoring and alerting so that performance and availability issues are caught early.
Assess requirements and resources
- Define your security, performance and regulatory compliance requirements.
- Review the resources and budget available to build and run private cloud infrastructure.
Choose a deployment model
- Based on those requirements, select the model that fits best: on-premises, hosted, managed or virtual.
Design the architecture
- Specify the hardware and software configuration required.
- Plan for networking, security and data management.
Deploy and configure
- Install hardware and software according to the architectural design.
- Configure cloud services and ensure they integrate with existing systems.
Manage and maintain
- Establish routine management and maintenance procedures.
- Keep the platform patched and upgraded as required.
- Monitor performance, security and regulatory compliance on an ongoing basis.
There are several ways to upload a website, but FTP is the most common.
- When your hosting account is created you are issued with FTP credentials alongside it. Using a client such as FileZilla, CuteFTP or WS_FTP, you can sign in to your server.
- From there the client works much like an ordinary file window: drag and drop your files onto the web server and they will be published online.
Yes. You can upgrade or expand an existing hosting plan without affecting your live website. Any unused balance from the previous plan is credited towards the new one.
