Drupal’s Massive Appeal to Companies
The list of entities using Drupal includes large companies, like Sony and Warner Brothers. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the federal government’s Recovery.gov use Drupal too. The reasons for Drupal’s widespread appeal are many. Aside from being completely free to use, Drupal’s open source nature encourages active enhancement by thousands of developers around the world. The bottom line is simple, Drupal is constantly becoming better and better, without costing a dime.

The vibrant Drupal developer community includes dozens of “Drupal Camps” throughout the world, each with hundreds of attendees. Hosted by experienced Drupal users and developers who volunteer their time and knowledge, these camps are designed to foster innovation of the Drupal platform, educate new users, and spread the use of Drupal among web developers.

The Downside of Open Source Platforms
As beneficial as Drupal is when developing and managing your website, it is vulnerable to web application exploitation by malicious hackers. Since the Drupal source code is freely available to anyone, hackers have scoured the code for ways to exploit websites that use Drupal. The result can be devastating, including theft of private company and customer information.

FireHost Helps Secure Open Source Solutions
FireHost specializes in protecting websites and open source applications like Drupal from exploitation by malicious hackers. We use advanced web application firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion sniffing protocols to prevent attacks and exploitation before it starts. Our industry leading security measures allow you to confidently embrace all the wonderful aspects of Drupal, without the constant worry that accompanies the threat of malicious attacks.

FireHost is firmly dedicated to the idea every business and individual deserves the opportunity to conduct business and express themselves online without the risk of an attack by a hacker. Using Drupal to develop and manage complex website applications, with the security promise of FireHost, provides dynamic content for your website. To get started, contact a FireHost Agent today.

Extensibility through plugins is an important feature in WordPress. This tool allows users to build upon the original application and customize it according to their own needs, similar to add-ons in the popular Firefox web browser. Currently, there are thousands of WordPress plugins, but there’s one in particular enabling your blog to easily serve millions of visitors at once: The WordPress Super Cache.

The Super Cache plugin automatically generates static HTML pages directly from your dynamic WordPress blog, transforming resource-heavy WordPress PHP scripts into much lighter HTML pages. This allows your website’s blog to operate faster and serve more visitors.

There isn’t a visible difference for your visitors, but this plugin is very important when your traffic spikes upwards of millions of visitors per hour. As long as you have a professional web hosting plan, The WordPress Super Cache will enable you to easily serve millions of visitors from sources like Digg, Facebook, or Twitter.

Because WordPress is an open source platform however, it is highly susceptible to exploitative attacks. This is where FireHost steps in, providing an industry-leading secure hosting environment, safeguarding your website and protecting your data. Without this protection in place, your website will be prepped to weather an onslaught of visitors by using Super Cache, but could be easily compromised and taken offline by a single hacker.

With professional hosting solutions from FireHost, your company can embrace success, rather than worry about it. To realize your company’s full potential with FireHost and WordPress, contact a FireHost professional today.

If you’re not familiar, a content management system (CMS) is software that tracks, manages and displays every piece of content on your website. Content can include simple text, photos, music, videos, documents, or anything else you want on your website.

Joomla is one of the most popular website building and management software platforms due in large part to it’s ease-of-use and deep extensibility. Joomla is suitable for a wide variety of applications like powering corporate websites, online magazines, e-commerce portals, and small business websites around the world. This is just a handful of the popular websites powered by Joomla.

• IHOP (Restaurants) – http://www.ihop.com
• Harvard University – http://gsas.harvard.edu
• MTV Networks Quizilla  – http://www.quizilla.com
• L.A. Weekly – http://www.laweekly.com

The major advantage of an open source CMS like Joomla is that it’s free and it requires almost zero technical skill or knowledge to manage. Security can be a key disadvantage for open source solutions however because open source applications are often targets for exploitation by hackers or virus deployments.

FireHost’s secure web hosting environment helps Joomla users sleep peacefully at night by delivering advanced web application firewall (WAF) protection. Additionally, installing Joomla on a FireHost-managed hosting solution is a simple one-click process that empowers your company to start building a dynamic website immediately.

It couldn’t be easier to get started. With Joomla, nearly anyone can build and manage a site. With FireHost’s secure web hosting environment, Joomla users can have a secure, worry-free site built on a great open-source platform. More information on secure Joomla hosting is available on our website, or you can contact a FireHost consultant now.

Drupal is a powerful and popular open source CMS (content management system) which enables users to build and showcase dynamic website applications. Becoming a favored tool in website development, Drupal is utilized by thousands of companies, such as Yahoo, Warner Bros, and The New York Observer. Equipped with a powerful blend of features, Drupal supports a variety of websites ranging from personal weblogs to large community-driven websites.

By using Drupal plug-ins, your website can provide beneficial features such as an internet forum, blogging platform, customizable layouts, individual user accounts, RSS feeds, and many more exciting possibilities. Since Drupal is an open source application, it is completely free to use, making it essentially a “priceless” CMS.

As with all open source applications however, security can be a drawback. Since Drupal’s code is readily available to anyone, hackers have an easy opportunity for exploitation and malicious attacks. If your hosting provider doesn’t provide adequate protection and prevention, your website will be at risk. Traditional firewalls only provide network-layer protection, leaving website applications vulnerable to exploitation. FireHost addresses this security risk by providing three layers of application security.

For our clients, this means an easily managed and content-rich website thanks to Drupal, and the “sleep at night” confidence which comes with FireHost secure hosting. More information on secure Drupal hosting is available on our website.

Modern hackers have highly advanced tools at their disposal which can cripple your website, or worse, steal your data. Hackers have started exploiting vulnerabilities in open source platforms, and if your CMS is not properly secured, hackers can ruin your web reputation, or worse your business.

Having a security-focused web hosting provider can help prevent attacks. Before you trust any hosting provider with your website, ask them how they handle security for your website. Most hosting providers have an intrusion detection system (IDS), which simply notifies you after an attack. By that time, the damage has been done. This reactive approach does not provide real security, putting your website, your data, and your business at risk.

At FireHost, we use three layers of application protection to catch, stop, and prevent attacks. Our first priority is providing security to our clients, which we deliver through dynamic intrusion prevention. This is proactive security you can trust and rely on.