The Power of Change

Jonathan Bowers, November 17th 2008, 5:04PM

So in the end the US Presidential contest was less of a battle than the preceding Democratic nomination process. But Why? Well it seems as though the message of change resonated powerfully with the US people.

Either Obama or Clinton would have represented change and as a result the Democratic nomination was a very close run thing. However, after 8 years of Bush’s brand of Republicanism, the American people were ready to embrace a fresh approach and so Obama v McCain virtually became a non-contest.

In fact, never before in US political history has the handing over of the Presidential baton represented such a launching pad for change. Political analysts are already hotly speculating the impact of Obama’s new direction.

For example, stem cell research, such a promising branch of medical science, is expected to be freed from its religious shackles. The US is also expected to front up to its environmental responsibilities and to work on improving its international standing.

If Obama does succeed with these policies, the US electorate will have used their power to invoke change to benefit all of us.

Scaled down a bit, the message of looking to change for a better deal can be equally applied to the business world. We are now familiar with the idea of ‘shopping around’ for our car insurance or phone provider but the same can be true for our hosting provider.

Not every ISP offers the same hardware and they certainly do not offer the same level of support. To get your hosting right you need the best of both. So don’t feel as though you have to stick with a bad choice. If you need dedicated, 100% reliable server hosting and your current supplier cannot deliver this, make the change.

Changing to the right hosting company can be the catalyst to success. Just like changing to a visionary new leader.

Tags: motivational speakers, business_policy, internet, politics, websites
# Comment (0 comments)

It pays to be at the centre of attention

Jonathan Bowers, October 20th 2008, 5:13PM

Rural communities in the UK have come to the end of their tether with broadband providers and their deceptive claims, reports this week say. Broadband firms overstating the ‘speed’ of their packages is not new and the fact the rural communities always seem to feel the most disgruntled is also not new. However the critical mass of calls for the authorities to do something is novel.

Countryside dwellers, such as those in Huntingdon, Cambridge, are hitting back with concerted pressure on the Government and Ofcom to bring the misleading broadband providers to heel.

The classic problem is the ‘up to’ capacity advertised by broadband companies. Most, not surprisingly, state the maximum speed available on their network prominently. Meanwhile, talk of possible geographical limitations is relegated to the small print. The result is disappointed customers in areas that are a long way from the main local exchange, such as any rural community.

Residents in Huntingdonshire believe that instead of the 8MB broadband that is promoted, they are in reality only getting 512KB, one sixteenth of the headline speed.

All this grief and disappointing performance is because Huntington is not located on a broadband superhighway and that got me thinking about the parallels to the ecommerce industry. Quick and reliable service is essential for any Web business. Customers will not wait for slow loading sites.
Furthermore, Google rankings partly rely on speed ratings, so again slow websites will lose out due to poor Google listings.

So the lessons for ebusinesses are to ensure that their server power is up to the job and that their hosting company is located on a major hub of the broadband network. ISPs, such as UKFast, who occupy a position right on the broadband superhighway can offer more.

So to be in the ecommerce fast lane make sure your hosting provider is right in the middle of the action.

Tags: broadband, e-commerce, google, hosting, internet, websites
# Comment (0 comments)

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Jonathan Bowers, September 15th 2008, 5:42PM

Statistical surveys are interesting not just for the results they show but also for why they show those results. It is often said that stats can be made to support just about any contention depending on the timing, question wording, sample group etc. And I certainly give a lot of credence to such a view.

The UK Government holds to the laughable position of trying to convince us that a crime survey of a cross section of society is a more accurate reflection of crime in the UK than official police figures. No doubt this is because the perceptions of most of those surveyed are favourable to Brown and co. Then there is the SNP holding off on a vote for Scottish independence because they know that right now they would lose. For them timing is everything.

So why am I on about surveys? Well this week a survey from security firm Finjan http://www.safedns.co.uk/news/businesses-now-most-worried-by-cybercrime.html states that online businesses are now more worried about cybercrime leading to data loss than downtime. Don’t get me wrong, cybercrime is a very important issue that we at UKFast take extremely seriously. We use state-of-the-art security and firewall applications to ensure that our clients are totally protected. However, I am surprised that cybercrime would concern online businesses more than downtime.

The potential threat of downtime is at least as serious as cyber attack if online businesses use cheap and unreliable hosting. And downtime can be just as devastating to an internet business as a serious cyber attack. An online business needs to have a reliable online presence. If potential customers cannot access a website they can, and will, go to a rival at the click of their mouse. Then, once they have sampled the online services of the rival, they may never come back.

So we have considered the results, what about why the reasons for them. Firstly, businesses are rightly very concerned about cybercrime and data loss and so many would vote for it as the major concern at any time. However, other crucial factors probably included the spate of recent high profile news stories about UK Government data losses and the fact that the company carrying out the research is an online security specialist.

Online businesses should be serious about protection against cybercrime but they also should be serious about ensuring that downtime doesn’t happen. A dedicated server hosting solution will massively reduce the threat of either problem. For even greater reassurance, a total managed solution offers expert support and monitoring 24/7.

Tags: cybercrime, e-commerce, internet, security, websites
# Comment (0 comments)

Is video grinding the internet to a halt?

Jonathan Bowers, July 14th 2008, 2:04PM

It is a familiar scenario: we need more space, so we will add more space, then we expand our habits to fill it and once again we need more space. This is a problematic circle that can be attributed to a number of different areas of life, consider home buying or motorway construction, but for our purposes we are referring to the capacity of the internet super highway.

There was a time when telephone purpose cables and dial-up internet connections were all that were needed to get us speeding along the super highway. But then, when the internet’s popularity took off and its massive potential started to be fully realised, we needed more capacity.

Along came broadband (the cyberspace equivalent to expanding the M6 from 6 lanes to 66 lanes). We could once again speed along the highway but this time in huge trucks full of wonderful cargo such as music and film downloads, online games and other capacity greedy items. Now, however it seems as though our vast broadband super highways are once again clogging up, this time with juggernaut traffic jams.

The doomsday advocates say that our insatiable appetite for online video watching will break the internet by about 2010. However, don’t start panicking just yet. In reality the worst case scenario is that online video streaming use will just slow the internet down to snail speeds, so essentially taking us back to the dial-up era, the metaphorical stone-age of the internet epoch.

It seems that we cannot add capacity quickly enough to deal with increasing usage demand. According to Larry Irving, co-chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, (from The Observer April 6, 2008) “estimates show US internet traffic increasing at more than 50% a year, with capacity expanding at only about 40% a year.”

While online video surfing has been identified as the catalyst for increased internet capacity demand, experts seem to be divided into two groups with regard to the reason for the new capacity congestion problems.

Some feel that a lack of foresight is to blame. That is to say that the rapid increase in online video usage was not anticipated. The other camp blames market forces, arguing that infrastructure providers are not willing to make the necessary investments to keep up with demand.

If the first is true then the benefit of hindsight will ensure that capacity is geared up to cope with the internet video era soon. As for the second, well it seems to always take the industry time to realise the commercial potential of internet developments. But they will eventually and when they do, the necessary investment in infrastructure will follow.

So it might look as though video is grinding the internet to a halt, but in reality the internet will adapt as it has always done – until the next big thing that is!

Tags: accessibility, broadband, internet, video, websites
# Comment (0 comments)

Is the BBC website good value for money

Jonathan Bowers, June 11th 2008, 9:52AM

Here’s a thought – As the BBC website is available to the world and therefore can be read by non-licence fee payers, should it be funded by the license fee?

This is a pretty contentious point. With the validity of the licence fee as a whole already a hot issue, the idea of Jonny foreigner getting a service for free because we are already paying for it is likely to make some blow a gasket. Furthermore, the fact that new revelations have shown that the BBC overspent £36m on its website in the year to March 2008 certainly doesn’t make the sell any easier.

But should licence fee payers be unhappy? Or should we see the BBC website as an asset for putting UK plc in the global shop window and therefore great value for our money whatever the cost?

In reality the funding situation is not as black and white as suggested above. In fact, foreign IP addresses that bring up bbc.co.uk actually see adverts on the pages. This is because the BBC is allowed to generate revenue from foreign use of its website. So we don’t pay alone for overseas users’ benefit.

However, to be honest I wouldn’t mind if we did because the value to us in the UK is worth the expense.

First and foremost this is because the BBC website, and for that matter the BBC, is a great ambassador for the UK as a whole. Having the BBC website broadbanded into foreign homes spreads the word about UK productivity at its best. The BBC is still revered around the world as the best broadcasting network and it is therefore a shining beacon reminding the world of the fact that some things are still done best in the UK. The reflected glory can benefit us all.

Secondly, the BBC website provides a conduit to other companies in the UK. That is to say it can effectively operate as an indirect advertising medium for UK business. Consider a news story about a UK firm’s great new invention or a feature article on why the UK is becoming a hub of web hosting. Such articles that indirectly promote UK business will be read by overseas users. So the BBC can help to connect UK business to a wider customer base.

Finally, and most directly for our interests at UKFast , the spanking new BBC website shows that the UK internet industry is a world leader. It demonstrates that we as an industry are amongst the very best at designing, building, functioning, marketing and hosting the world’s fastest growing business and information medium.

But what about the overspend? Well at a total price of £110m the BBC website still only costs £5 per licence fee household and when you consider that Eastenders costs about £250,000 per episode, the BBC could easily afford its website if it cancelled the limp London soap!

So, I think to spend what is still a small portion of our licence fees on the BBC’s online presence is money very well spent.

Tags: advertising, internet, news, websites
# Comment (0 comments)