You could only encrypt the default page, but users could still manually navigate to other pages if they know the file names (for example tacking services.html to the end of your URL).  In order to fully password protect the whole website using this tool, you would need to encrypt all of the pages which would cause the navigation to suffer (forcing you to enter a password each time you navigate).  

Source:

Blowfish

Choosing to implement an open source database solution may seem like an intimidating initiative in some industries and situations.  With so many proprietary options available to the average relational database consumer, MySQL may not appear an obvious choice during this decision process.   However, increased popularity of open source software solutions is paving the way into enterprise systems all over the world (see previous open source software post).  Some of the common questions which have to be addressed while assessing MySQL could be:

1.      Is MySQL robust enough for enterprise solutions?

2.      Is support available for MySQL projects and/or operational initiatives?

3.      What are the cost saving advantages of implementing and maintaining MySQL compared to commercial products?

MySQL Robustness

In order to analyze the robustness of a MySQL database system, one could look at some of the organizations that already use MySQL.  Facebook, for example, uses an array of open source software to support its web structure.  Facebook uses the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack to deliver its services to over 500 million users<>[1]<>.  The user data storage system is comprised of many MySQL database instances.  

Telenor, a Norwegian telecom company and the sixth largest mobile phone operator<!>[2]<>, uses “MySQL for fixed IP management … and is extremely satisfied with its speed, availability and flexibility“<>[3]<>.

For a complete list of MySQL customers refer to this link.

This comprehensive list of large enterprise MySQL customers, which among others includes the technology, health care, government sectors, will illustrate the robustness of the MySQL database.

MySQL Support

Support for the MySQL database system varies depending on the type of licensing.  The focus of this article is centered on the “Community Edition” which is the open source edition of MySQL.  Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January of 2010<>[4]<> spawned the commercial editions of MySQL (Standard, Enterpsie, and Cluster Carrier Grade).  These commercial licenses range start from $2,000 USD and include 24x7 support from Oracle.

The community edition of MySQL is open source and support is provided through online forums and resources on “best effort” basis by the MySQL community.  For a majority of savvy database programmers and DBA’s, this would meet the support needs.  However, additional support could be purchased or acquired in one of two ways.  IT service companies, such as Clio Data Solutions, provide support on an hourly basis.  Think of this support model as an a la carte service.  The customer would only pay when support is actually required versus paying for ongoing costs and maintenance whether or not support services are used. 

Another way of enabling a proper support model for your MySQL database environment is by hiring a full time MySQL DBA / programmer.  Although this may seem like overkill for small organizations, large enterprises could cut costs significantly by employing this method of support.  Database licensing can cost an organizations millions of dollars per year, versus a virtually no cost solution such as MySQL.  This would enable organizations to hire several DBA’s to support the environment.     

In summary, MySQL support is available in various forms.  Choosing an appropriate support model for your company may prove to be slightly more challenging.

MySQL Cost Saving Advantages

Commercial database systems are typically licensed per core, although other options exist as well.  Microsoft formulated the following graph illustrating the costs of 3 of the leading enterprise database systems available to database consumers (Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle DB, and IBM DB2)<>[5]<>:

<>

Although Microsoft SQL Server seems the most competitively priced system (it includes all of the features in their base offering), this cost should be multiplied by the number of cores the server may have.  Older “end of life” servers will have a minimum of 2 – 4 processing cores, which would significantly bump up this price estimate.

The MySQL community edition is free of charge, and these licensing costs illustrated above will not apply.  These cost savings could easily justify hiring a full time MySQL programmer or DBA which could easily support a number of MySQL server instances.  Compared to the licensing costs identified above, this would equate to hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual cost savings even with the inclusion of full time support staff.  Additional cost savings could be accomplished by outsourcing the support activities to IT support companies. 

Summary

By addressing some of these common open source system concerns, we can see that MySQL provides a viable option for deploying database management systems.  While the cost savings and robustness is quite evident, support may present as the biggest deterrent of employing this solution.  This concern can be addressed by properly planning support model requirements, and mitigating this risk by hiring or outsourcing this task.

This excellent article summarizes the cloud computing concept quite well:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2320619,00.asp

Ultimately, the cloud computing platform will enable small and large organizations to capitalize on the internet platform for efficient and inexpensive solutions. This can mean many things to different organizations, but good examples include email delivery and document management applications. For example, companies have typically relied on Microsoft Office products for their document management needs. Using Office Live or Google Docs enables almost all of the traditional application functionality of Microsoft Office through the browser. These online (cloud) applications allow for flexibility of saving and accessing documents online from any computer or internet enabled device. The biggest advantage for smaller organizations is that these solutions are mostly free (Office Live and Google Docs are both free solutions) and require virtually no training to get started.  

If you are looking to migrate your existing services and applications to the cloud, feel free to contact Clio Data Solutions.  

Source: PCMAG.COM

Open source software can be a powerful addition or an alternative solution for your business needs.  In fact, large organizations leverage open source software in a variety of ways, ranging from web application hosting, to entire database and enterprise content management systems.  Most of the applications we use to conduct business on a daily basis are available on the open source market.  This presents opportunities for cost savings with little or no sacrifice in functionality and performance.

Here are a few examples of open source applications which could be utilized in your organization:

·         Open Office is a leading open source application for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases.  This software has the functionality to view and modify existing Microsoft Office files, and it would enable a seamless transition from any office software product.

·         Email use is trending toward the web browsers (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) as a medium opposed to proprietary email clients, but open source email clients present another viable option.  Mozilla Thunderbird is one example of an open source email and news client software product distributed by the Mozilla Foundation (the makers of Firefox).

·         Powerful alternatives to transactional databases also exist in the open source world.  MySQL is a good example of a product that can easily be substituted for small to medium solutions which require a fast and reliable database management system. 

·         Operating system alternatives are also gaining popularity.  Companies which in the past relied on Microsoft products for their operating system needs are now finding Linux based systems, such as Ubuntu, a very viable alternative.  For more examples of Linux usage, click here.

·         Apache is a powerful HTTP open source server software which is used to host over 100 million websites on the world wide web.  Some of the most powerful content management systems are open source based and available for free (see WordPress and Joomla). 

These solutions present opportunities for companies to save money without sacrificing functionality or reliability.  However, as a cautionary note, we should mention that support for these products is sometimes (but not always) limited.  Vendor bought products are usually supported by the vendor with the purchase of the product or with an additional fee.  The open source applications are usually supported by the open source community.  This support is typically offered on the product website through online documentation, FAQs, wikis, and user forums. 

Transitioning to these open source solutions can still shave thousands of dollars off your IT budget.  If your company is worried about support availability for these products, an IT consulting firm could be contracted for support and maintenance needs.  Clio Data Solutions currently offers implementation, as well as support services for open source environments.  This option would reduce the cost of paying annual support costs to a vendor that you may or may not use.  Consulting firms would offer these services when required and charge only when services are actually performed. 

Overall, open source applications offer a great opportunity for small and large organizations.  The identified drawbacks could be easily mitigated with a little bit of research or capital.

Do you have more examples?  We would like to hear your comments.

According to comScore, 36% of mobile subscribers in the US have used browsing capabilities of their mobile device, in October 2010.  This is a 2.6% increase from July (2010) and the trend will continue to grow.  The mobile (phone and tablet) revolution has truly arrived! 

The world wide smart phone sales statistics, compiled by a Gartner survey, indicate that Symbian is the most popular (36.6%) OS on mobile devices followed closely by Google’s Android operating system (25.5%), and Apple’s iOS (16.7%). 

What can you do to ensure your company is ready for the mobile revolution?  One of the first steps is figuring out how many mobile device users are accessing your website or online application (using Google Analytics for example).  Making sure your website is compatible and mobile friendly is a good way to ensure user adoption and retention.  Most importantly, figuring out how many people are using the mobile platform to access your services is critical, so you can effectively cater to that market.  For more ideas, contact Clio Data Solutions.

Source(s): comScore, Gartner