Servers Hard disk health check We've all been there, one day our computer is working normally, the next its hard disk drive gives out and you're left scratching your head at... read more
Cloud What is enterprise software? It’s a widely used term, but the full meaning of ‘enterprise software’ is hardly nailed-down. The obvious definition is software used by an enterprise, business or company. But this... read more
Websites Website builder vs web design vs … nothing? Anyone can create a website, but the end result depends on the tools you use. Since the earliest days of web design, website builder software has offered an affordable way... read more
Cloud What is thin provisioning? We previously wrote about the methods of data deduplication [https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/blog/data-deduplication/] and file compression [https://www.fasthosts.co.uk/blog/linux-compression-all-about-compromise/] for optimising storage space.... read more
Servers Data deduplication When it comes to computer, storage space is a hot commodity. More often than not, many of us tend to find that we need far more storage space than we... read more
Servers Phusion Passenger: a new web app server With its anime robot-inspired logo and feature rich design, Phusion Passenger is clearly keen to present itself as the newest sleek and innovative tool for web hosting and development. But... read more
Servers Config management: Puppet or Chef? For any organisation bigger than a bedroom start-up, the days of running a couple of servers in a cupboard are long gone. In the era of multi-server, decentralised cloud infrastructures,... read more
Websites React and the virtual DOM The most common architecture considered when implementing user interfaces is MVC (Model-View-Controller). MVC separates an application into three components: Model, View, and Controller. The Controller is what the user interacts... read more
Servers What is blockchain? The idea of cryptocurrency has been around for a while now but gone are the days of Bitcoin being your only crypto investment option. Since Bitcoin came on the scene,... read more
Websites What is GraphQL? We previously discussed the difference between REST and SOAP for building APIs and web services. But there is an alternative solution that is becoming increasingly popular. Better than all the... read more
Websites Moving to a microservices architecture Alongside containerisation, ‘microservices’ is very much a software development buzzword. But just like with containers, the innovative and far-reaching technology behind the buzzword makes the microservices concept far more than... read more
Cloud Why hybrid cloud? A growing number of organisations are moving their IT operations to the cloud, but there are still businesses that are hesitant and prefer to stick to on-premises cloud server solutions.... read more
Cloud Container orchestration with Kubernetes Hosting a small number of containers on a single server is no huge undertaking, especially with easy access to container images on the Docker platform. But hosting hundreds or thousands... read more