A data center is an outside location that houses equipment and information that is used for your business. This information or equipment can be accessed from a remote location. Many businesses use a data center, especially when customer information must be retrieved. This is especially true with customer service centers. When you call with a question or problem, you may get a different call center each time. However, they are able to pull up the same information every single time. This is because they are pulling that information from a data center. This allows for retrieval of information from all authorized parties at any time, which also results in consistency.

With such access, this may make one wonder how secure a data center really is. All of this information is being transferred to and from using a computer can seem somewhat dangerous, especially since much of the information is very sensitive.

That is why it is important that each data center be equipped with top-of-the-line security features that protect that information:

1. Encryption: Encryption is a code that cannot be cracked. The information is transferred in this encrypted form that only the computer it is going to can decipher. The information that leaves the computer is once again encrypted to be stored in the data center. This is what prevents a lot of the information that is going back and from being stolen by hackers.

2. Password protection: It is important for the password to remain protected. If the password is entered incorrectly, then it is important to have a security feature that locks someone out after three attempts. This prevents someone from intruding and in order to unlock it, they must answer a security question.

3. Individual security: This is when each individual receives their own username and password to access the data center. This means the encryption key for each user is unique.

4. Redundant power: A data center that runs on redundant power is one that is going to survive such incidents as blackouts. This means they are running from separate sources of electricity and they also have backup generators. That way, if the power goes out there and not at your facility, youre still in business.

5. Verification at each end: Every single time a file is written to disk at the data center, their integrity is verified. They are verified each time they are written to the disk. If verification fails, it is transmitted to an identical server.

6. Protocol security: Protocols such as HTTP are vulnerable to hackers, so a secure data security system uses one that hackers do not target.

7. Firewalls: The firewall that is used should be similar to those used on home computers so that the business can connect with backup software and not be locked out.

8. Restricting remote access: This only limits access to certain IP addresses. This is so someone cannot access the data center from another location when they arent supposed to.

9. Virus protection: Viruses come in all shapes and sizes and the data center must be protected as well. Virus protection keeps the data center virus free.

10. 128-bit Secure Socket Layer (SSL): This is what you want to see to make sure information is not retrieved or corrupted in any way.

So if youre looking for a data center that can make your business as successful as you want it to be, these are ten security features that you can look for that will make a large difference in how securely you do business. You can also confidently ensure your customers that their information is safe.

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Being PCI DSS compliant is extremely important when a business or organization accepts credit cards for their products or services. In fact, being able to accept credit cards makes an organization more profitable in a world where credit cards and debit cards are the way to pay. Credit cards allow an organization to accept payments in many different ways. A consumer can make a payment via credit card over the internet and even over the phone. This gives organizations more ways to bring in money and PCI DSS makes accepting payments even more secure.

Being PCI DSS compliant helps organizations by:

Protecting the customers personal information in order to avoid disputes that could be costly to an organization.

- Increases customer confidence in your payment methods allowing clients to feel secure when purchasing items from you.

Protecting the organization from remediation costs and other financial losses.
The organization is provided a check on their system every so often to make sure that the system they use to store and transmit their customers data is not compromised in any way.

Increases payment security which in turn makes sharing personal information such as credit card numbers less strenuous for customers.

Another thing to point out is the fact that PCI DSS continues to evolve as credit card fraud becomes more sophisticated. It is fair to say that any business that must store or transmit credit card data is a target of those wishing to access the personal information of customers for their own benefit. Thieves then use the customer information in order to use their credit and commit fraud. However, PCI DSS stays up-to-date on the latest threats in order to keep the consumer information secure. This minimizes the risk involved with the organization accepting credit card payments and minimizes the risk to customers.

Business regulation

As stated before, PCI DSS keeps businesses up-to-date with the latest security updates and threats in order to prevent security breaches from occurring. However, different organizations may have different requirements when it comes to PCI DSS. Lets take a grocery store, for instance. A grocery store is a point-of-sale transaction where credit card information does not have to be stored. The protection that PCI DSS offers is in the transmission of the data and not in data being stored since a grocery store has no reason to store credit card data.

An online store or organization, on the other hand, may store consumer data so that the consumer does not have to enter their payment information every single time they do a transaction. What this does is allow the customer to complete the transaction with a few clicks of the mouse instead of getting in their wallet and having to enter all of the information all over again. This is where PCI DSS can become especially important. If the system were to be breached, which is very rare, there could be millions of credit card numbers accessed. However, PCI DSS stays up on the most sophisticated methods that thieves use to access these credit card numbers in order to protect both the business and the consumer.

PCI DSS for better business

When a person knows that their information is secure with your organization, they are more likely to spend their money with you. PCI DSS compliance is mandatory for any business or organization that record credit card data, however, not all consumers know this. It is especially important for those consumers who give online organizations their personal information and permission to store their credit card data for future transactions. It is very important that they know their information will not be accessed or mishandled in any way.

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A dedicated server is a powerful server that is just for your website or business and no one else. This means that your server is not shared with others like shared hosting is. It is ideal for those who need reliability, high performance, better security, and the websites that are being operated are at an enterprise-level. In other words, a dedicated server is for those who need a lot of power and have the money to spend.

There are several advantages to operating a dedicated server. These advantages are:

The website performs better
You dont have to purchase equipment
If other websites that share the same server have problems, your website is unaffected because you are not sharing.

The server is also owned by the web host, so you are more or less renting it from them. You do have the ability to customize your server based on whatever your needs are, but what it comes down to is the fact that the host owns it. This can be a good thing, though, especially if your business does not have the administration capabilities to take care of various tasks that you need performed.

Experience

Some companies may have the experience and others may not. If a business has the experience in-house, then that individual or individuals can take care of any changes that need to be made to the website. Some go to college to be able to do this and have no problem at all managing the server. Depending on the type of changes that must be implemented depends on what type of experience and individual should have.

Then again, there are some who just know how to manage servers without any schooling in the area and can do it. It is important to gage what type of tasks must be performed on the website, especially if it is a high performance website that requires a lot of maintenance and manipulations.

On the other hand, there may be no experience required at all. This is where you can choose managed web hosting through your provider. This is where they can maintain and monitor your operating system, dedicated servers, and applications. This way you can still have everything that you need without the experience to go along with it. Unmanaged dedicated hosting may be a cheaper solution for some businesses, but if the experience and knowledge is not there, then managed dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Is it the right decision?

Whether or not your business has the experience to manage a dedicated server, it is important to make sure the business needs it. If you are prepared to take on the cost that is associated with using the hosts equipment and you know that they can provide you with the necessary technical support, then it may be the right decision. It is just important to make sure that your website or potential website is large and powerful enough to require such a server. However, many business websites are and using a dedicated server allows them to make their website even more powerful. If that is you, then dedicated hosting could be the right decision whether you have the right experience or not. Dont let the lack of experience deter you because there are solutions to that problem.

In the day and age where the website defines the company, choosing a dedicated server and using unmanaged or managed hosting can be a large decision. If you dont know where to start, simply ask the various companies offering dedicated hosting and see who is more willing to help you understand. That can be a good indicator that you may be starting a nice business relationship.

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Managed hosting offers many benefits to a business wishing to expand their operations or make themselves accessible to their customers online. By having an online presence, a business can increase their exposure to a local, national, or worldwide audience.

Nevertheless, a business that has a website is a business that can accomplish a lot more because they are allowing customers to learn more about them and gain wider access to what it is they have to offer.

There are several definitions that describe what managed hosting is. The service that is provided really depends on the needs of the business and how they handle their managed hosting. These definitions are:
A single website hosted on a web server that is supported by a managed hosting provider.

A service in which the dedicated server is managed for the business by a managed service provider.

Managed hosting manages and maintains the dedicated server.

Managed hosting is performed by a web host in addition to providing many services for the dedicated servers that they provide.

The business doesn’t have their own dedicated server, but they are using the servers that belong to the host, which means the host is maintaining shared-servers. However, the business still maintains the privacy of its website although the servers are shared and receives all of the benefits they would have and possibly more than if they had their own dedicated server.

It is easy to see that there are many different forms of managed hosting. Depending on the needs of the business the MSP provides services to, different services can be provided. Not every business has the money to hire IT professionals and train them or train existing employees to take care of their web hosting. That is why it is feasible to outsource the jobs to managed hosting. It is actually cheaper to outsource because there is a fixed monthly rate in which the company pays that usually does not add up to the monthly salary of a single employee.

What this does is maximize profit and allows the business to focus on their customers satisfaction rather than having to spend time managing the website. If a business only had time to manage their website, they would not have time to serve their customers. In the end, there would be little impact on person-to-person sales. The idea is for the website to enhance both person-to-person sales and Internet sales, if applicable.

Other benefits

There are many more benefits of managed hosting such as security and up-time. It is very important that the website stay secure so that people with malicious intentions are unable to disrupt business on your website. Malicious activity can result in many hours of trying to bring the website back up and this also results in down-time. There is nothing more aggravating than going to a website with poor up-time either because of security breaches or issues with the server.

Managed hosting performs continuous security scans and also continually checks for issues that may interfere with the sites up-time. That is why many websites that are managed by managed hosting have 100% up-time.

So if you are not sure whether or not you need managed hosting, ask yourself these 5 questions:

How would my business benefit from a website?
Does my business have the money to operate and maintain a website?
Do I have the manpower to continually monitor a website?
Do I have the money to hire and train additional employees?
How much would managed hosting cost me compared to doing it on our own?

Asking yourself these questions will put you on the road to finding the best solution for your business.

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The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI DSS levies requirements on credit card merchants to safeguard consumers’ credit information from malicious behaviour from identity thieves.

The payment card industry providers such as VISA, MasterCard and American Express are now enforcing PCI compliance. Non-compliance can result in fines, restrictions or possibly permanent expulsion from card acceptance programs. If your business depends on accepting credit cards, then you have no choice than to become PCI compliant.

The new Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards are network security and business practice guidelines developed by Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Card. They were developed to establish a ‘minimum security standard’ with regards to the protection of cardholders’ account and transaction information.

What are PCI DSS requirements?

The PCI Data Security Standard represents a common set of industry tools and measurements to help merchants and credit card processors that store, process or transmit cardholder data ensure the safe handling of sensitive cardholder information. The standard provides an actionable framework for developing a robust account data security process that includes preventing, detecting and reacting to security incidents.

What are the benefits of working with a PCI Compliant Service Provider?

By working with a PCI compliant service provider you can ensure that cardholder account data being processed across your technical environment is protected. PCI DSS protects cardholders and minimizes the risk to your business.

The main benefits of implementing the PCI CSS for your organization and working with a provider that is compliant are:

- Protecting customer personal data
- Increasing customer trust by demonstrating your commitment to the security of their personal information
- Protecting your business from financial penalties
- Leveraging a hosting provider’s existing PCI DSS compliancy investment i.e. your technical infrastructure resides in a data centre that has already been audited
- Potential savings starting at $100,000 in capital expenditures by outsourcing to a managed service provider that is PCI compliant

Who has to comply?

The credit card companies have made it clear that ANY entity that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data regardless of their transaction volume, are required to comply with the PCI requirements. Failure to comply with the PCI security standard may result in substantial fines or permanent expulsion from card acceptance programs.

Recent studies on financial fraud have indicated that hackers are increasingly targeting small, commercial Web sites, increasing the need for all merchants and service providers to become fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).

What do I need to do to meet the PCI standards?

The PCI standard comprises two basic steps:
1. Pass quarterly remote vulnerability scans conducted by a Visa and MasterCard “Qualified Independent Scan Vendor”. Scans are required for all Internet connection points whether they are office networks or home/office connections (dial-up, DSL, cable or wireless) or permanent Internet servers such as your web site and email server, etc.

2. Successful completion of a security self-assessment questionnaire. The self assessment questionnaire asks specific questions about your internal security practices, both on your web site and in your office.

For e-commerce sites that involve online credit card payments, this PCI DSS certification will provide greater security features for business and customers. PCI compliance service providers assure that your confidential data is totally protected.http://www.fusepoint.com/english/html/pci.html