Select Currency:
 
Support

Switchlink Virtual Servers

Packet Loss to a small segment of the UK Network

We are experiencing Packet Loss due to a large and sustained DoS attack to a customer within the uk cloud.

We are currently filtering the traffic and locating the customer in question to ensure normal service is resumed.

We would like to apologise for any issues this is causing some UK customers.

Where to Catch Up On the Latest Virtual Hosting News

Virtual hosting has become a popular subject in the technology world and with so much cloud talk about, you can get up to date on the very latest news.

So where do you look if you need to find out the very latest cloud hosting gossip? Virtual hosting hasn’t exactly got its own paper circulation yet, but it probably doesn’t need to. The grapevine carries it perfectly. We’re all talking about virtualisation, and we’re all desperate to hear more. Like the latest Hollywood gossip or the newest cellulite miracle cure, it’s all a big buzz, and just like bees to honey, we all need to know the hottest news.

The subject of cloud computing probably only appealed to tech geeks and computer professionals a few years ago. But today, there’s nothing hotter than virtual hosting and anyone who’s anyone is jumping onboard the cloud.

Virtual Hosting in Magazines, Papers and On the Internet

Technology magazines are teeming with the latest cloud computing news articles. The concept of virtual hosting has attracted so many people, and it’s caught the eye of every tech critic around. Technology experts from all corners of the globe are waiting, with pen at the ready, to add their comments to every single magazine circulation there ever was. Expert IT professionals, writers and technology fans alike are all waiting to have their say. Everyone seems to have an opinion on the shaping of virtual hosting and its related services. You can soak up the latest virtual hosting news/reviews from magazines – here are a few UK publications that can help you get the information you need.

  • PC World Magazine
  • T3 Mag
  • Stuff Magazine
  • PC Answers
  • PC Plus
  • PC Pro
  • Personal Computer World
  • Mac User
  • Web User Magazine
  • Revolution
  • Computer Shopper
  • Computeractive Mag

If you’re not interested in marketing-driven glossy write-ups, you can probably enjoy something a bit more organic from your newspaper inserts. The Guardian Technology insert for example features superb writers such as Rhodri Marsden who likes to put a humorously dry spin on his views on current issues. When it comes to issues such as virtual hosting, Rhodri’s views are also available on his internet blog – which brings us neatly to the internet. There is no bigger resource than the World Wide Web, the exact place birthplace of where virtual hosting derives from. The internet is abundant in both organic and marketing material that can promote or review the use of virtual hosting services and their vendors. Online publications include:

  • CNET.com
  • Tech News World
  • Wired Technology News
  • T3 Mag Online
  • ZDNet.co.uk
  • V3.co.uk

Virtual Hosting with SwitchLink

If you would like more information about what virtual hosting packages are best for you and your needs, get in touch with SwitchLink today. They can offer cloud hosting starting from just £5.99 per month.

Virtual Hosting Boosting Business Capabilities for E-Commerce Sites

Virtual hosting can benefit anyone who seeks the service, reducing bills, eliminating downtime and maximising daily output, but no-one has been able to reap the rewards like the e-commerce sector.

E-commerce is without a doubt the fastest growing phenomenon of our time. When you think about the most influential obsession of the ‘Noughties‘, there is no denying that the way we shop could quite easily define our entire generation. We are generation of mouse-clicking, credit card swiping, web browsing fiends. This is our forte. This is our comfort zone.  Virtual hosting and e-commerce now merge to create retail perfection. Internet shopping addict? You will find that the virtualisation shop floors and the virtualisation of servers form the perfect marriage, to bring you closer to your idea of shopping heaven.

If you don’t buy it online, you’ll read about it online. If you don’t read about it online, you’ll write about it online. The internet has changed everything. Google, Facebook, ASOS, eBay, LinkedIn, Yahoo, MSN…..the list goes on with all the cornerstones of the 21st Century, and particularly, of the most recent decade. As we enter 2010, we expect virtual hosting to expand dramatically. Will everyone move onto the cloud this year? All you need to know is that all your retail needs will be answered with a simple pooling of cloud servers. And if it’s good for you, it’s good for them. No business can say that they don’t want to make you happy.

What Does Virtual Hosting Mean for the E-Commerce Business?

During 2008, when the recession was at its most tumultuous, internet shopping as a consumer activity ballooned, and online profits doubled in comparison to the previous year. The high street Vs. internet battle was over before it even began. As high street shops spiralled into administration, online retailers celebrated. But how does the virtual service compare to a nice friendly smile? There are many pitfalls for a web business, and virtual hosting can help to eliminate most of these. How much revenue is lost when the shopping cart doesn’t work? How much time is unsalvageable when the CRM doesn’t respond?

Virtual hosting can completely eradicate the damaging occurrence of downtime once and for all. Always have a working website, always have a responsive customer relationship management system, always ensure flawless communications internally and externally, and never experience planned downtime ever again.

Boost Your Capabilities with SwitchLink

Not only can SwitchLink hosting help businesses of all sizes, but it can help companies/individuals achieve smaller energy bills and help to reduce outgoings.

Tangible Savings with Virtual Hosting: A breakdown

It’s no secret that virtual hosting can save you money and give you a much more efficient way to deliver IT, but where exactly can these cost savings be calculated?

Many companies have already endorsed virtual hosting and its lucrative benefits by providing tangible figures of their measurable cost savings over recent years. Concrete numbers can help us get a better understanding of just how virtual hosting can save our business pennies.

The cloud is a very  cost-effective alternative to conventional IT – though some have criticised the virtual hosting concept, stating that it’s trying to blind us fancy terms while piggybacking on old fashioned ideas. Said by some technology experts to be very similar to grid computing and utility computation, there are a few reservations. However, the cosy savings are undeniably staggering. With underutilisation being as high as 95% in some cases, businesses can be transformed by energy consumption alone.

How Virtual Hosting Can Save You Money

Critics have suggested that problems may arise because ultimately the vendor has full control over the pricing of virtual hosting services. But if we want cloud computing to be available as a product (Computing-as-a-Service), isn’t this something that we should just accept? If we can fork out a crisp ten pound note for the latest shampoo and conditioner, then surely we can understand if we pay £8.99 for a virtual hosting service. The savings that we can make through virtual hosting make this service utterly priceless. In just about every aspect of IT, you can expect significant cost reductions. This is a breakdown of where the money can be saved:

  • Energy consumption
  • Human Resources
  • Space, storage and facilities
  • Costs of external services such as outsourcing
  • Increased productivity and efficiency

Despite previous reservations, the money savings from virtual hosting are tangible now that vendors and products have had enough time to perform. This level of computing at such low costs has triggered a number of different expert views. Could entrepreneurship escalate through the roof? Could virtual hosting contribute to increased capitalism? Could we see an improvement in living standards even in the most impoverished areas of the world?

Virtual hosting gives small-to-medium businesses the opportunity to excel and grow, and provides businesses of all sizes with the chance to make a significant cost saving of anything up to an 80% reduction in outgoing bills.

Cheap Virtual Hosting Packages from SwitchLink

Get in touch with SwitchLink today to find out how they can help you.

Strengthen Your Brand Values with Virtual Hosting

Any business that wants to build a good reputation should enhance its company image with a core set of brand values, and virtual hosting can you adhere to them.

Puma does it. Heinz does it. Even HSBC does it. All the big fish are, and if anyone wants a successful business, they should too.  Brand values, mission statements and recognizing your brand positioning is all part-and-parcel with creating a successful marketing strategy. It’s all about organization and planning. Once you’ve planned, you’re good to go for years to come. So how can virtual hosting help you do something that most would believe to be a completely different element?

Virtual hosting is the pooling and sharing of computer servers, a new-age way to deliver and use IT in homes and businesses. It is a cost effective way to computer and can save money in energy bills through effective energy consumption. So how does a virtualised cloud help with your branding?

Branding: How Virtual Hosting Can Boost Your Reputation

It’s no myth that a happy customer tell one person about your service, and an unhappy customer will ten 10. Today, the internet has opened up a channel where content users can become content producers, so that 10 could easily convert to 100, 1000, 10,000 depending on who reads it. So your reputation is everything. You can’t cut corners with your marketing. Just because you plan to offer speed, value for money and innovation in your brand values, doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to deliver.

So what exactly is it that stops you? Is it laziness? Is it a lack of funds backing you? Are you short for time yet you can’t afford more staff? Do you need up-to-date technology and a website that doesn’t break down at least once every two weeks? There are many things that stop you from offering the very best service you can – the two key factors being time and money. Virtual hosting and cloud computing services can help you save both. Not only does it free you from the hassles of physical server care and maintenance, but it helps you reduce you energy bills by increasing utilisation and boosting your energy efficiency.

Virtual hosting eliminates the problem of server downtime, so your website will always be up and running, your CRM will always be available to you and your staff, and you have more time to focus on the important things in your business. You can spend less time fixing IT issues and improving your branding, reviewing and adhering to your company values and building on your reputation and customer service.

Sign up With SwitchLink Today

If you need to save time and money, choose a virtual hosting package from SwitchLink.

Design Agencies: An Industry that Calls for Virtual Hosting

Britains advertising, marketing and design companies took a hit during difficult financial times – creative industries should climb aboard the cloud and seek virtual hosting services to keep their heads above water.

It was sink or swim during the downturn. Now we’re all left to recover as we find a way to pay back Britain’s unspeakable public deficit. How can a small advertising agency keep its head above water? If you’ve ever worked in advertising or marketing, you’ll understand just how important it is to be innovative and progressive Your clients don’t want any old agency to manage their campaigns They want a bit of “blue sky thinking”. This where virtual hosting comes in.

Blue Skies, Fluffy Clouds – That’s Virtual Hosting

So why would your clients care about how you deliver you IT? Who cares what technology you’re using, as long as you follow through with deliverables on time and on budget, right? Virtual hosting can greatly benefit your agency, and this can be easily permeated down into your processes, your service and client satisfaction.

Virtual hosting is your permit to stating that you are socially responsible. Taking care of the environment and implementing sustainability into your company has never been more important. As one of the most influential and central issues of our time, it’s crucial to take a long look at how your company is run, starting with your IT. Virtual hosting is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to deliver computing in your agency. Not only will the cost savings help you stay afloat financially, but you’ll be sailing safely ahead with Corporate Social Responsibility.

Win Tenders, Win Pitches, Help Your Business Grow

Virtual hosting is all about making businesses grow. Cloud computing guarantees 99.9% server uptime – no maintenance, no repairs, no software upgrades. Staff efficiency and productivity can be maximised. Efficient application of time and organisation is something that most of us take for granted, but the difference is incredible. While other industries face judgement on the final product or service, marketing and design services need to offer an aesthetic preamble. This includes tender applications, art work, foam board after foam board, sketches, ideas. With virtual hosting, companies can get the best software applications for in-house creatives at minimum cost and minimum effort.

Call SwitchLink Today

If you’re interested in a virtual hosting package, SwitchLink can help you today.

How to Choose the Right Provider for Virtual Hosting

As considerable and calculable savings are being credited to more and more businesses through efficient IT deliver, virtual hosting has become all the more attractive to Britain’s struggling SMEs.

The savings are clear now. Numbers don’t lie and neither does your energy bill. We all want to save the environment, but we’re not going to pay to do it. So how about we save and do it? That would make more sense. More and more companies are coming out of the woodwork with remarkable figures and recommendations that make virtual hosting a very interesting avenue to go down. But how do you choose the right provider?

Although the very first virtualisation platforms launched in the 1990s, the concept of cloud computing has really taken off over the last few years, as more people start to understand what was once only digestible for technology experts and computation professionals. Today, virtual hosting can be easily comprehended at a basic level by most business owners and managing directors. Since spreading the ‘cloud’ analogy, we seem to have realised that it’s not rocket science. Just very good thinking.

Virtual Hosting Offerings in 2010

This year will be a big year for virtual hosting and as demand grows, offerings will increase in numbers and increase in aptness. With more consumer research gathered, it will become possible to meet all the different needs of businesses and individuals everywhere. With so many providers, how do you choose the virtual hosting that you need? Here are a few things you may want to keep in mind when choosing a service provider:

1. Your needs - do you wanted managed server hosting, virtual private servers, colocation for your own servers, or shared web hosting? You need to consider what is suitable for the nature of your business and the value of your data? If you have mission-critical equipment, you may want to store your servers in a safe and secure environment.

2. Budget – are you moving over to cloud computing because you can’t afford to continue with your current set-up, or are you looking to make significant savings so you have the freedom to invest elsewhere? Whatever the case may be, you need to find the right pricing structure for you.

3. Company size – how big is your organisation and how do you anticipate its growth? Will you be doubling your staff count in 6 months, 12 months or 2 years? Virtual hosting is scalable to handle growing needs.

Get in Touch with SwitchLink

SwitchLink is able to offer you scalable solutions for your IT.

Read Up on Virtual Hosting

It’s time for us all to wise up about the latest virtual hosting trends, because one day in the near future, virtualisation could grow to become as widespread as the internet itself.

It’s all about the cloud. If you don’t know what the cloud is, you could be missing out on lucrative opportunities to make your business grow.  Virtual hosting has been helping companies make reductions in energy consumption which leads to dramatic savings. Reduced outgoings gives a company space to breath, space to think and the freedom to explore other areas of the business.

Many SMEs have already discovered the gainful benefits of virtual hosting services in the UK, but there are still many business owners who have not yet grasped an understanding of the cloud computing concept.

Learn About Virtual Hosting – You Can’t Afford Not To

During the recession, businesses and small enterprises turned to virtual hosting as a money saving solution. The results were measurably jaw-dropping. When it comes to IT, physical servers are utilized between 5% and 15% of the time that they are powered on. This is a common, and sadly, accepted disadvantage of conventional computation. Virtual hosting is here to change this, saving energy, saving the planet and saving your business as much money as possible. Can you afford not to know about it?

Maybe it’s time to get up to date with the latest available publications. Available in most popular high street book stores or websites, the following titles can help you understand exactly what virtual hosting is, what it can do for you, and how it could progress in the near future. Useful reading:

  1. Cloud Computing for Dummies 2009 (Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor, Marcia Kaufman, Fern Halper) – For anyone who struggles with technology, this book is ideal. This is the easy way to understand virtual hosting technology and is written by a team of experts. This is a very up to date publication that finds a straight forward way of explaining everything you need to know.
  2. Cloud Computing, A Practical Approach 2009 (Toby Velte, Anthony Velte, Robert Elsenpeter) – This is a very down to earth publication that talks about how cloud computing relates to your business.  The authors also discuss how the available solutions can save you money. If you are thinking of moving your company IT over to virtualisation, this strategic guide will come in handy.

Talk to SwitchLink about Virtual Hosting

If you would like to find out more about virtual hosting packages, visit the SwitchLink website.

Virtual Hosting – For Design and Development

As cloud computing soaks information technology like a new-fangled wave of excitement, design and development have to get to grips with the new server pool that virtual hosting has brought to their shores…

As cloud computing inculcates itself into our daily lives, the thought of virtual hosting is not so far fetched anymore. Without even knowing it, we dabble with a bit cloud play every time we use internet based social media. Whether you are uploading your latest holiday snaps onto Facebook, or sharing your ideas through the art of blogging, you are advocating the concept of virtual hosting by committing what is known as ‘cloud storage’.

Developing on the Cloud with Virtual Hosting

Cloud hosting is the developer’s dream, as it enables them to get their hands on as many servers as they possibly can, at any one time. They can do this without increasing power usage, time, or expenditure. In fact, in the virtual hosting scenario, thousands of servers as opposed to just three physical servers are much more efficient in delivering an IT network for a business.  Thousands of virtualised servers pooled together can offer so many things that physical servers can’t – and this includes the incredible cost savings – but most importantly, it can offer resilience.

Simplistically, virtual hosting is no different than a conventional IT system. You can move things around, install new software, so to the technically challenged, what’s the difference?  For design and development, there are many advantages to virtual hosting. With an increased level of agility, website maintenance is much easier than before, and there are always spare servers if you should ever need them. Thousands of servers are pooled and shared amongst users, providing a resilient IT service that can offer just 99.9% uptime, guaranteed.

Spare Servers – Just In Case

With thousands of servers looking after your infrastructure, you will never have to experience planned downtime. Planned downtime accounts for 90% of all downtime – and this is for maintenance, repairs, upgrades, replacements, with almost 50% of this time being accountable for data backup. For design and development, a data centre that is available 24 hours a day is crucial to increased output and performance. Virtual hosting can provide resilience and scalability – two things that are extremely important to a web developer or designer.  For web design agencies, the benefits of a virtual hosting service are priceless.

Switch Off Your Physical Servers with SwitchLink

Move over to the cloud with SwitchLink – for cost effective and resilient virtual hosting packages, get in touch today.

Virtual Hosting and Collocation

The progression of cloud computing has stemmed into different commodities to meet the different levels of demand of its users – collocation is the virtual hosting alternative that gives a business complete control.

Choosing managed servers means that you or your technician needn’t lift a finger. As though you were staying in a hotel, you could have all the computer software and applications that you need without the dirty work. The maid (your provider) will make your bed (server) and you just use it when you need. Virtual hosting gives you complete freedom. But some of us would rather have complete control.

Not everyone wants freedom. This is why virtual hosting can be provided with collocation, otherwise known as colocation. Some business owners are very hands-on, otherwise known as very controlling, so the option to benefit from all the advantages of virtual hosting, yet preserve all control over operations is a very desirable proposition.

Virtual Hosting and Colocation: How it Works

Colocation will allow a virtual hosting service user to place their own servers and network within a third party data centre.  So a business will be provided with IP addresses, power, cooling, security. But the management and organisation of IT delivery within the business is entirely up to the owner or IT technician.

A colocation (English) or collocation (American English) centre is also known as “colo” to the more technically modish. Some may even call it a “carrier hotel” and it is here that several companies can store their servers safely. Like most virtual hosting products, the “colo” can offer minimum cost, and minimum complexity

What are the Benefits for Your Company?

Virtual hosting has already changed the face of business models everywhere, and now more and more organisations are realising the advantages of colocating within a shared data centre. Colocating means that your IT and communications facilities are in a secure location, appropriately cooled by the third party provider. This form of virtual hosting allows you to gain better website access speeds from outsourcing network traffic to a provider with greater a bandwidth. The main organisations who find this beneficial are:

  • E-commerce businesses that require a secure environment and a cost effective way to run their site and CRM.
  • Large enterprises who want data backup and offsite storage.
  • Telecommunication companies who need to inter-exchange traffic with other companies in order to access potential clients.

Colocation with SwithLink

SwitchLink opened a new facility in March 2009, so you can benefit from the latest technology on site. Visit the website to find out more on virtual hosting and server-colocation.