This month sees the launch of our new TurnKeySSL, a robust SSL solution you can activate with one click! In today’s marketplace, SSL certificates are a necessity. Customers have come to recognize that SSL certificates equal privacy and security and an increasing number of them won’t shop online without the seal.  TurnKeySSL takes this one step further, now bundling our brand new web site malware scaning tool for your web site with our professional SSL certificates!

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with SSL, SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer,” a protocol designed to enable applications to transmit information securely back and forth over the internet. Many applications you likely use every day (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, SFTP and hundreds more) are equipped to automatically receive SSL connections. However, if you run your own website and have tried to setup an SSL certificate in the past, you know how complicated and confusing the process can be to get your web applications to establish a secure SSL connection.    Enter: TurnKeySSL the easiest to install SSL certificate available today, with 1-click technology to install on any web site!

Signing up for TurnKeySSL is fast: we don’t require any paperwork to issue your SSL certificate. We issue TurnKeySSL certificates in minutes via our secure website. We have several plans to suit your needs, from our instant 1-click issuance SSL to our Extended Validation plan that comes with the green bar–the same secure seal used by Verisign, Paypal, and all the major shopping sites on the Internet today.  In the potentially perilous online marketplace, visible security means increased sales!

TurnKeySSL certificates come with a clickable secure site seal, malware scanning and multi-year savings. We even offer the brand new one-click SSL creating a simple and  easy way to deploy an SSL certificate on your web site today.

Check out our TurnKeySSL website to learn more:
http://turnkeyssl.com

The suspense is killing us! We just welcomed our brand new 16,000 lb generator that will provide the 100% uptime we guarantee alongside superior performance! The installation was really something to see, with cranes and people scuttling about, and we can barely contain our excitement. Ok, so we’re not trying that hard, so sue us. We are thrilled to report that the generator installation went without a hitch and it is now snugly nestled in its new home.

Beyond the obvious benefits of the new data center (increased capacity by 12,000 servers, green-friendly efficiency, multiple high-speed fiber optic connections and fancy biometric security) we are also very excited about the user-friendliness of the space. The building, formerly a US Postal building, offers great office space, a loading dock, a beautiful (and quite large) server-room floor, and, perhaps coolest of all, a vault! The vault offers literal iron-clad security! We’ll be offering fully-managed colocation suites for those looking for true physical and virtual security.

More updates are coming soon as we put the finishing touches on the space. We can’t wait to get settled and to give you a virtual tour! Stay tuned .

Often in the web hosting industry the terms advertising and marketing are used interchangeably. While this might not seem like the end of the world, the truth is, the two things are not the same. In order to achieve optimal exposure for your business, it is important to have a solid understanding of both.

Advertising and marketing are like squares and rectangles. All squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. In other words, all advertising is marketing but not all marketing is advertising. Confused yet? How about a few straight-forward definitions:

Advertising refers to ads. These ads may be online, in a newsletter, in a magazine, or really anywhere ads appear. Typically these ads cost money and they are designed to attract customers to your business. Ads are incredibly important and they are critical for the success of your business but ads alone aren’t enough. It’s the ad campaign that really creates a business identity. That’s where the marketing comes in.

Marketing is the overarching public image strategy for your business. It involves the designing of ads, from the single run to the multi-ad campaign. It also involves the crafting of a company image. Marketing is the process through which you craft your company message. What image do you want your company to project? What look and feel do you want your logo to communicate? What tagline best represents the products, services and goals of your company? Without a strong marketing mission, your ads won’t have a leg to stand on.

It may also be difficult to create momentum without a solid marketing strategy. While a single ad may work well, if you don’t have a strategy, how will you follow up? Marketing should be rooted in your business. It should recognize the core values inherent in your original vision, and the changes your business has gone through as it has evolved. Sometimes it is necessary to change your business’ image. Without a marketing strategy in place, changing an image suddenly can alienate customers and corrupt a recognizable brand. A solid marketing strategy will help you incorporate your old image into your new image. This provides continuity and enhances brand-awareness so you build on what you’ve got rather than poking holes in your foundation.

The best way to begin developing a marketing strategy is to sit down and think hard about your business. What do you offer? What type of customers do you have? How are you different from your competition? Often a solid mission statement will help you to articulate your business’ goals, and from there seeing how you stand out will be much easier. If you don’t have a mission statement, write one now. It will prove invaluable for all future brand efforts and will always provide a reference point for anyone you may hire.

So advertising and marketing go hand-in-hand, but advertising is the tip of the iceberg while marketing is the core. The key idea here is representation and consistency. If you are true to your company’s vision and consistent with your message, you will continue to grow and your business will continue to solidify. So invest in some top-notch marketing! Your business will thank you.

Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. chairman and co-founder who pioneered the personal-computer and technology industry changed the way people think about technology, died Wednesday October 5, 2011, at the age of 56.  His innovation in the personal-computer space, lead to what would become the concept of the Cloud.  Steve didn’t invent the cloud, or the Internet, or even the first smart phone – but his concepts and innovations helped pioneer and push forward a merging of technology and ease of use that lead to the Cloud.  His forward thinking methods of universal access to information and the products he brought to market to accomplish this are what started and lead to mainstream access to the masses to what today is termed the Cloud.  I’m not referring to the iCloud – apple’s service platform to make sharing and storing data easy on an Apple device, but rather I’m talking about Steve Jobs’ impact on making the concept of the Cloud a reality.

Steve Jobs was talking cloud back in 1997, shortly after (or before depending where you were on the tech evolution chart) we all had our first email address and dialup modems – take a look at this video:

There was a time before iPhones and iPads, where the Cloud was still called ‘just the Internet’ – which basically meant to be ‘in the cloud’ you were using a blackberry phone to send email on the go and you maybe would sync up your calendars and appointments.  What Apple did that really pioneered the Cloud however was to make it accessible to everyone, with the iPhone and now the iPad.  Apple didn’t create the first smart phone, but the certainly revolutioned it to spawn dozens of clones and competitors such as Droid which lead to 100’s of millions if not billions of people being connected at all times.  Once the masses were connected – the applications that now drive the Cloud started to take form  on those platforms. The Cloud evolved from just sending email or checking your appointments to full blown access to all your information any where any time.  Now people are using their phones, tablets and even their TV’s to login into remote networks, office desktops, virtual desktops, and accessing information any where at any time.  Steve didn’t invent the Cloud, or even the first smart phone – but he dominated and innovated the space that let that innovation flourish to what we see today as hand held access to all your information at anytime, the Cloud.

Steve Jobs had many innovations, from making personal computers easier to use, to communicating easier, to un-tethered any-where any-time access to your data.  His mark on the origins of the Cloud can be seen so eliquently today as you sit on a park bench and watch passers by with iPads and iPhones in hand – some working, some having fun but demonstrating one of the many contribution’s Steve made. 

At the risk of  this post being another article on the passing of Steve Jobs, I will mention the impact Steve and Apple had on my life.  From the first computer I ever owned (an Apple IIe) and learned to program and use a computer modem with, to the device that doesn’t leave my side today with the iPad that keeps me connected to my TurnKey Desk virtual desktop at the office.  It was that first computer Steve created and Apple sold me with which I learned from that got me started down this career path. Steve Jobs will be missed by many, but the innovations and mark he left on the world will always be visible. 

– Adam Wills, CEO
-TurnKey Internet, Inc