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Three common web design mistakes designers still make

Even in 2019, a lot of web designers still make the same mistakes, driving visitors away and losing revenue in the process. Web design is an art, but it is something where a technical decision can have unintended consequences. Here are some tips from Rack Alley on some common mistakes:

Mobile text size

Some sites disable zoom and then present tiny text on mobile devices. If you are going to disable zoom on text, then ensure that you set your font sizes correctly to match the screen size you need. In a world where a lot of web traffic is from mobile devices, you cannot afford to make this mistake.

Popups

Many designers forget that popups and popovers are now synonymous with the shady and sketchy sites that want to sell you some snake oil. The problem with popups is that a lot of visitors get a big popup even before they spent time going through the site. If the visitor is still on your site minutes after the initial visit, then this is a good time to show them an offer.

Auto Play

Sites that have video auto play (with sound) are so annoying that users are installing browser addons just to avoid them. Do not be like one of the many news sites that just want to increase video impressions because it looks better.

We have three examples here, of many, so take the time to think about your actions as a designer and how it might or might not affect your visitors. Don’t let your investment in Los Angeles colocation go to waste.

Why you would choose colocation

Summary: When choosing between in-house, managed hosting, cloud and colocation there are several scenarios where only colocation makes sense. We look at four such scenarios.

There are several considerations when it comes to deciding which route to take regarding IT infrastructure. You could retain an in-house server room, move to the cloud, or take the colocation path. There are several cases in which colocation makes the most sense. Here are some of the scenarios where you should go with colocation:

Custom hardware

One of the limitations of cloud and managed hosting is that there are limited options to the configurations set by the provider, for both hardware and software. While there are some customization options, those are limited in scope. With colocation, you are in control of the entire stack.

Complex set up

Another reason to colocate is the ability to use any hardware and software that you require. For example, in a managed environment, you will not be able to use your firewalls, load balancers, and other hardware equipment.

Content and services

Another issue with cloud and managed service providers is that there will be limitations to the content and the services you can provide. Colocation providers, on the other hand, allow anything to run as long as it is legal. It is important to look at the fine print in the contract.

Dedicated line

Running a VPN server, VOIP service, or even needing a custom dedicated link from an ISP can go against the terms of service of managed providers, not to mention that it would be impossible on the cloud.

These are just a few of the instances where colocation is the only viable way forward.

Written by Rack Alley, a premium provider of affordable LA colocation services ranging from 1U to multiple cabinets.

Costs to factor when deciding on colocation

Written by Rack Alley

There are several options when it comes to server hosting now. There is the in-house system, colocation, server hosting and cloud hosting. Many organizations still prefer colocation at an LA data center to cloud hosting due to predictable costs and existing infrastructure. Here are several cost factors to take into account when making the decision:

Floor space

Rack space at a colocation facility is much cheaper than renting floor space. A proper in-house data center requires floor space for the actual equipment plus the support gear like UPS, batteries and cooling/heating.

Network access requirement

Point to point links are cheaper than ever, making it more cost effective to channel all connectivity through a data center, where internet bandwidth is much cheaper. Road warriors and home office workers can connect using a VPN.

Hardware under warranty

One of the reasons that it makes financial sense for companies to choose colocation over server hosting Los Angeles or a cloud implementation is the amount of hardware that is still under warranty. The more hardware that is within the warranty and support lifetime the more it makes sense to co-locate. Cloud hosting will not use any existing equipment.

Physical security

From an audit perspective, firms require several levels of security for data centers. Achieving this level of security in-house can be expensive. This security is not required for services like server hosting Los Angeles, but only for services that involve a physical asset of that organization.

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Rack Alley is an LA colocation and hosting services provider.

What is cloud computing and cloud hosting

Written by Rack Alley

The latest buzz word in hosting and LA data center circles is cloud computing. The initial misconception was that any service that was stored or hosted on the cloud was considered cloud computing. When in reality, it is far more than that. For example, services like Google Drive and Dropbox are all online services, but can hardly be considered cloud computing or cloud services. They are just online services.

Cloud computing is more than just about the service that is provided. In fact, it is more about how the service is delivered. The main difference between online service and cloud services is that cloud services are scalable.

It is also what makes it so important. The ability to start with a server that has a certain amount computing resource (like processor and memory) and be able to increase and decrease in real-time is what sets it apart. In addition, the billing is by the hour which makes a short burst of usage possible.

This applies to all aspects of cloud services. Granular, scalable services are available for storage, databases business intelligence, AI and so much more. Without the advent of cloud computing, most of the today’s startups would not exist. It gives very small companies the ability to buy the resources they need when they need it.

It should be noted that larger organizations still run in-house and hybrid deployments but focus on LA colocation and private cloud implementations as opposed to using public clouds.

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Rack Alley provides premium colocation services and server hosting Los Angeles at their data center.

The advantages of colocation

Written by Rack Alley

When it comes to the different options for hosting your servers, colocation has many benefits. Here are five of them to help device which path to take:

Scalability

There are times when services like los angeles web hosting cannot handle sudden surges in traffic. Rather than having to predict or provision services like this in advance, with colocation a request to the provider to can result in additional bandwidth very quickly. Once the peak period is over the same services can be reduced again.

Connectivity

Los Angeles colocation services come with climate-controlled data centers, with high bandwidth speeds, and excellent redundancy. This type of infrastructure will be extremely expensive to maintain in house. The redundancy in network connectivity will mean that the sites and services will never be down due to internet downtime.

Security

These facilities also provide state of the art security for your servers. These include biometric scanners, closed circuit cameras, on-site security, coded access, alarm systems. Even for your company personnel to get in will require pre-registration and advance notice. This provides physical security that will prevent any type of theft or vandalism.

Stability

In times of a disaster, or if the office needs to relocate, there is no headache when it comes to worrying about these server systems. Everything will keep running while the office movies or the disaster is sorted out. During that time

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Rack Alley provides small and enterprise customers with premium la data center services.

Setting up a DR Server for Business Continuity

Written by Rack Alley

2Auditors are requiring more and more organizations to include business continuity planning in order to qualify for certain standards. Part of this is maintaining a disaster recovery site for IT services and operations. Rather than setup your own data center outside the geographical area of your existing premises, the preferred solution is to rent rack space for la colocation. Then use that to host your disaster recovery servers. Here are the basics of one approach:

Virtualisation

When the workload at any location is virtualized, it is much easier to transfer that workload anywhere. The first step for anyone with a completely non-virtual infrastructure is to work migrate all servers and services to a virtual machine platform.

Disaster Recovery Server

Using server hosting los angeles, we put identical servers to the ones running our virtual machines at the data center designated for disaster recovery. It is preferable if the specifications of the servers are identical, however, in the interests of costs, even barebones servers could suffice. It will depend on how quickly and how critical your services are.

Replication

Now that the workloads have been virtualized. The data can be replicated from the main data center to the off site server farm. The first synchronization can take some time but all subsequent cycles will be faster. The bandwidth you will need between the two locations will depend on how much data needs to be replicated and how often.

Rack Alley provides small and enterprise customers with premium la data center services.