Did you know that if visitors encounter just a second of delay in loading your website, then it is estimated that there will be a 7% reduction in the conversion of the traffic? Today, a web presence is an absolute necessity for any enterprise that wishes to connect and conduct business with internet-savvy consumers; be it on a B2C or B2B level. For businesses that sell their products or services through the internet- like e-commerce websites- it calls for even better-informed decisions while choosing a web hosting service. Gone are the days when price-based storage and bandwidth were the only considerations that businesses had while taking their website or services online. There is a comprehensive amount of analysis and study that you need to carry out today before selecting a web hosting partner.

Related Read: Major Web Hosting Challenges and Solutions

Here are 5 tips you can follow to make better decisions while choosing a hosting partner for your website or web application:

Go for scale on-demand services

In the case of small businesses, they often fall for the catch of unlimited storage or unlimited bandwidth from web hosting providers. These hosting packages will have hidden usage clauses most of the time that restricts the functioning of your hosted site or app beyond a specific usage pattern. If by chance, your business website or application gets a viral boost in social media, resulting in a flood of traffic, chances are that your hosting provider will ask you to subscribe to a more premium package for meeting the increased demand. Considering the risk of losing customers or good deals, your small business will be forced to pay for premium options for an entire year, even if your usage surge was just for a couple of days or weeks. This will hurt your long term growth plans significantly.

Modern cloud service providers offer easy scalability for your web application or website needs and require you to pay for only what you use. This can greatly improve your website’s capability to handle peak traffic volumes resulting in better conversions.

Ensure data security and integrity

Across the globe, government regulatory bodies are turning more vigilant about how businesses collect and use data of citizens of their monetary benefits. As such, security becomes a key parameter while launching any web-based application or site that interacts and collects user data online. Since this data is likely to reside where your application is hosted, it is important to ensure that the provider can guarantee a safe and secure data management and storage facility. Any lapse in security may result in personal and confidential customer data falling into the wrong hands. This can lead to potential lawsuits and penalties that may affect your entire business finances. Recent regulatory provisions like GDPR in Europe are a testimony to the rising need for a secure web hosting space for your website.

Look for domain flexibility

Your internet presence might be small initially. However, as time lapses, there will be a constant demand to add more features or business offerings via internet-enabled services. This will trigger the need to add subdomains or maintain multiple websites under a single business account. While choosing a hosting provider, ensure that they have enough flexibility to high levels of expansion technically while confirming that prices are nominal for such services. This will allow you to scale your web presence effortlessly over time.

Evaluate support options

While selecting a web hosting provider with the best technical infrastructure, you should also check whether the provider guarantees a solid and reliable customer service 24 X 7. Your service provider must be able to offer reliable and easily accessible customer service experts who can keep your technology up and running all the time to ensure business continuity. A reliable web hosting partner will have dedicated support staff round the clock to help you mitigate challenges in your e-business infrastructure.

Try Flexible Managed Services

As business owners, you need to focus on various operational requirements on a daily basis. You may not have enough time or a highly skilled team to manage your enterprise’s IT infrastructure. Platforms like InfinCE allow you to take your business services to the internet without having to worry about managing technical infrastructure, storage and operational efficiency of your IT systems. You just need to take care of your core business areas. Being cloud-based and supported by world-class teams, such platforms allow you to expand your web presence risk-free and you only need to develop the physical inventory and logistics of your business operations to cope with the rising demand from customers. In short, opting for a flexible enterprise cloud platform will help you run your business on the internet with peace of mind.

Related Read: 5 Advantages of Adopting a Cloud-Native Technology Infrastructure

Getting your business on the internet requires an intense evaluative procedure to select the right partner for website hosting. For the most cost-effective and worry-free experience, it is always advisable to utilize a cloud-based service provider to meet your e-business needs on a continuous basis. Get in touch with us to explore how InfinCE can be your perfect partner in setting up a viable business presence through the internet across the world.

Are you trying to renew your SSL Certificate? Here is everything you need to know!

An SSL Certificate is required by a website to ensure secure server connections. In today’s world, an SSL certificate for a website is as important as a seat belt for a driver. All online businesses must take web security seriously. More than 43 percent of cyber-attacks target small businesses because of their ignorance of such basic security considerations. So how does an SSL certificate protect a website and why is it essential to renew it? Before we dig deep into these questions, let’s take a look at what SSL actually means.

What Is An SSL Certificate?

SSL (Secure Socket Layer), is a global security technology that encrypts communication between web browsers and web servers, reducing the threat of sensitive information on a website being intercepted or hacked. To enable this secure connection, an SSL Certificate, also referred to as a digital certificate, is installed on the webserver. The certificate is issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) that confirms the website identity to a web visitor’s browser. That, in turn, ensures that the communications between the browser and the website are based on website-specific data that is valid, accurate and up-to-date.

There are 3 common certificate options. The certificate that requires the lowest (minimum) level of validation is the DV or Domain Validated certificate. This is the most common type of SSL certificate. It is confirmed against the email address listed in the domain’s WHOIS record.

The OV or Organization Validated certificate requires that the CA check that the business making the request has a verifiable physical (street) address. The organization’s name is included in the certificate.

The highest level of security that can be employed is the EV SSL and is available only for businesses, corporations and other entities. The validation and verification process to install an EV SSL certificate is more comprehensive and rigorous, requiring that multiple verifications be provided. Visitors to a website holding an EV certificate are alerted by leading browsers to this higher level of certification by displaying the website’s URL with a green background.

The SSL Certificate authenticates the identity of the website ensuring the visitors, safe surfing through the website. The security technology encrypts the data that is being transmitted and ensures safe connection at both ends. Apart from the primary benefits of authentication and encryption, installing an SSL certificate can give your website additional advantages:

• Improved search engine ranking: According to a study by Brian Dean, the founder of Backlinko.com, HTTPS websites have higher Google ranking. Not surprisingly, because in 2014 Google announced it had changed its algorithm to give better ranking to HTTPS-enabled sites, in part to encourage firms to improve their security.
• Improved customer trust: An SSL certificate, easily enables visitors to identify the legitimacy of a website. Enabling an OV or EV SSL, allows site visitors to view organization details, which guarantees the website is genuine and helps in building customer trust – particularly important for eCommerce websites – and an increased chance for long-term customer relationships. Browsers automatically detect websites that employ SSL and indicate to the web browser that fact by displaying a padlock icon in the address line of the browser.
• Comply with the PCI/DSS Requirements: To enable online payments, the Payment Card Industry(PCI) requires the installment of SSL certificate on your site, which is one of the 12 primary requirements of the PCI/DSS.

Why Is It Necessary To Renew The SSL Certificate?

An SSL Certificate has an expiry date hardcoded in it so that the encryptions are kept up-to-date. Renewing the SSL Certificate every two years will help you maintain the latest SSL versions and ciphers. When an SSL certificate expires, the users get a warning from the web browsers indicating the renewal. The security technology can be renewed 90 days prior to the expiry, which is ample time to get a new certificate issued and installed. 

When the SSL certificate expires and no action is taken to renew it, the website loses its padlock and site seal. The visitors to the site will notice no SSL product on the site and this could affect their trust and security towards engaging with the website, which can directly affect the website traffic and ranking.

To learn when the certificate for a website is going to expire use one of the many online SSL checker sites, such as https://www.sslshopper.com.

How Can I renew the SSL Certificate?

Now, since it’s clear why an SSL certificate cannot be allowed to expire, let’s see how can it be renewed.

When an SSL certificate expires, a scary-looking warning message is displayed to the website visitor.

Since the renewal procedure can be time-consuming, authorities allow the certificate to be renewed in a 90-day window from 60 days before to 30 days after the expiration date.

The renewal procedure is conducted with the original provider of the certificate. Usually, it involves three simple steps:

• Log in to your account, select your respective certificate, and purchase a renewal credit.
• Generate the renewal certificate (that is, a replacement certificate) 
• Upload it to the server hosting your website.

However, before you generate your renewed certificate, ensure you fulfill the following best practices:

• Conduct a basic check on the server, such as a health check or log monitoring, to identify any known issues.
• Generate a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) to apply for the SSL renewal certificate. A CSR can be generated by logging in to the server’s terminal and applying the following command. (Provided OpenSSL has been provided on the server. A Windows server will require some additional configuration to be able to run this command.) After entering the required information, you will be able to open the CSR in a text editor which can be copied directly to the SSL renewal form.

• Comply with the necessary information demanded or additional verification required by the Certificate Authority.

When your SSL certificate is issued, you will be informed by email. Once you receive your certificate and the private key provided with it:

• Verify the certificate and key before applying it to the server.
• Apply the certificate to the server.
• Conduct a basic vulnerability test related to SSL and apply patches if required.
• Conduct a basic test on the website after the installation.

In case of an OV/EV SSL certificate, ensure the legal company information you submit is identical to the public listing. If these steps aren’t clear, get assistance from your hosting provider. 

Although implementing and renewing an SSL certificate might seem a bit complicated and time-consuming, it is becoming more important than ever to have one. Websites that do not use an HTTPS encrypted SSL certificate are essentially advertising that they are unprofessional. 

Leading browsers like Chrome and Safari alert the user when an SSL certificate expires, generating a scary-looking warning message similar to this one:

Customers of INFINCE, a full service IT offering by Fingent, don’t need to worry about the SSL certification process. Along with empowering their organization with cloud integration and enhanced business collaboration and productivity tools, INFINCE also completely automates the SSL certificate renewal procedure, eliminating the entire hassle.

Top 5 Possibilities You Must Explore to Build The Office of the Future

While most leaders look at ways to keep their business competitive with upcoming market trends, they often fail to look at areas that may seem less important. But in reality, these few areas can make a huge difference in improving the competitiveness of your workforce. This will ultimately impact your business’s bottom line as well. One such area is re-imagining your office to empower your workforce to work better in an increasingly innovation led landscape. The office of the future is beyond the four walls of a building and focuses more or deriving value from resources rather than enforce policies to keep them engaged at work. From communication to collaboration, the digital transformation wave has created new possibilities in every aspect of an office environment. It’s never too late to re-imagine your office to suit the needs of tomorrow, but the longer it takes for you to note the trends that shape the future, further down will be your innovation index in a competitive market. To solve this dilemma and empower you with the right decision, we have compiled a list of the top 5 trends, every future office will witness in the coming years. Make sure you explore each in detail and invest wisely.

Remote Work

Studies show that at least 70%of the global workforce works remotely at least once a week. In fact, the millennial generation rarely opts for a company that forces them to relocate from their hometown and be at the office physically all through the year. By offering a flexible work environment, it has been proven that employees are happier and feel more engaged at doing their work which will reflect positively on their output and productivity. The question now is “How can a remotely located workforce work together with in-house staff to drive value for the company?”

The answer lies in technology solutions like INFINCE, that help organizations manage their employees irrespective of where they are located. INFINCE enhances collaboration and work quality by creating a virtual unity for the entire workforce irrespective of their location. Besides, such a cloud-based platform can save cost considerably by allowing employees to work remotely and save on infrastructure.

Diverse Communication Platforms

When we say office communication, the common items that run into our minds are email and VOIP calls. But today the horizon of office communication has evolved considerably from just these two options. There are social media styled intranet tools available to help employees engage better with their peers and these intranets also serve as announcement boards for various purposes. Open positions, important event announcements, new policy or process announcements, are just some of the key elements that can be communicated through such platforms to your organization as a whole.

Besides, such platforms also offer multiple levels of access controls and permission-based roles for different teams to communicate with other internal employees as well as with external vendors and partners. The office of tomorrow definitely needs a big boost in terms of offering flexible communication platforms and very often scenarios demand multiple communication tools be integrated to work together efficiently and offer the best experience for employees in all your office locations both in-house and remotely. Having the right technology infrastructure to promote open communication is a key factor in keeping your office communication standards competitive with the best in your industry.

Digitally Empowered Workforce

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will seek its entry into mainstream office culture in the near future. Smart office assistants will be guiding employees through business processes just like how virtual assistants like Google Now and Siri guides consumers. Intelligent notifications, schedules, alerts, and information discovery assistants will help employees work better and faster to deliver better value to the enterprise.

Additionally, organizations can keep a check on their employees’ health through smart wearable tech devices like bands and watches. These can double up as digital access cards to help employee’s access office infrastructure without having to carry an ID card and similar items. The stage is set for large scale digital transformation of employee productivity and a combination of intelligent data processing as well as connected hardware will form the basis of this transformation. Your workforce will be more empowered in the office of the future and will require less time to adapt to new work requirements and office spaces.

Innovative Meeting Spaces

Workplace interactions are pivotal in fostering a healthy work culture irrespective of the industry your business operates. Very often, there are requirements where multiple folks have to brainstorm and discuss to arrive at a solution for a business or operational challenge. The traditional meeting rooms where such solutions get their starting are evolving rapidly. In the future, we will witness the rise of virtual meeting rooms that combine multiple telecommunication mediums with technology innovations like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR).

Presentations will never be the same as in the future, you can expect human presenters to remotely take sessions through VR or AR guided imaging. While teleporting and other similar sci-fi movie stuff is not a guaranteed innovation, virtual meeting rooms where teams across the world can communicate through an immersive video conferencing platform is sure to take off in the coming years. This will transform meetings from their boring themes of today and make the audience and participants more engaged with facts and interactive presentations. This also interleaves with our first prediction of flexible remote work as employees who are away from the office can also take part in interactive sessions through such innovative conferencing solutions.

Greener & Smarter Buildings

Across the globe, entrepreneurs are becoming more aware of their role in creating a better working world by contributing not just social wealth but also by creating an environment-friendly workspace. In the US alone, the number of construction projects that have LEED certification has risen from just around 296 in 2006 to over 65,000 in 2017. While remote work options will be in plenty in the future, the demand for a solid physical office space for corporate affairs will always be there. This need will be transformed into a need for greener buildings that consume less of our energy resources to keep the building ventilated, illuminated and visually appealing.

From conserving water to harvesting solar energy to power electrical systems, companies will continue to invest in making their businesses as environmentally friendly as possible. For such aspirations to reap value at the earliest, future office spaces will make use of the Internet of Things (IoT) powered sensors and hardware to ensure that their efficiency levels are high. Automatic lighting and cooling systems based on occupancy, smart cleaning and maintenance infrastructure, intelligent water and waste management systems, etc., will be crucial in creating a higher green print for office buildings of the future.

The office of the future will have a large number of revolutionary innovations to help employees deliver better work outputs. We have captured the 5 most important possibilities that will become a reality soon at future offices. The digital wave will continue to disrupt the traditional workspace culture and employees will witness a new era of connected and secure workplace that help them work from anywhere and anytime without glitches.

Businesses need to invest in making their technology infrastructure secure and more flexible to adapt to innovations such as the ones we explored in this blog. The best way to begin will be to onboard next-generation enterprise technology platforms like INFINCE to seamlessly transit into a digital-first business. Talk to our experts to see how your business can compete with the best in the industry through digital excellence.

INFINCE Presented with the 2018 Great User Experience Title for Business Process Management Software by a Reputable Directory for Business Software

The highly reputable website for B2B and SaaS reviews FinancesOnline has certified INFINCE Cloud Servers with the 2018 Great User Experience award for delivering a well-designed IT solution with a consistent quality user experience. FinancesOnline conferred this award after they conducted a thorough evaluation of all our platform’s elements and features, from the “economical” INFINCE pricing to its core capabilities that simplify one’s technology needs.

To be eligible of FinancesOnline’s 2018 Great User Experience award, a solution must have an intuitive design, clutter-free interface, and user-friendly features. Comparing us against the top business process management tool in the market, FinancesOnline highlights INFINCE as a comprehensive solution that provides users with “total control” overall activities while simplifying repetitive processes through automation.

Other highlights for the FinancesOnline team include INFINCE’s “top class” administrative control, frictionless interdepartmental communication and collaboration, accessibility on any device, and customizable packages to perfectly suit specific requirements and specifications. All of these allow businesses to start achieving more with less time and effort, within a secure environment.

Aside from the comprehensive review, FinancesOnline also praised the platform as an efficient business process management system, with INFINCE earning a spot in its esteemed top 10 list. The cherry on top is FinancesOnline’s 2018 Rising Star award presented to INFINCE. This award is given to software solutions that have quickly increased in popularity and have established itself as a reliable brand despite being newcomers in the SaaS market.

Simply your business technology today on a smart and modern workspace with INFINCE!