On his LinkedIn profile, our colleague Tim wrote an article about the most frequently asked questions about the cloud. In this article, he explores all the 'as a service' models:

People who work in the IT sector usually have this unfortunate habit that, to be honest, I myself sometimes have too: in a professional conversation, we like to use tons of IT terms that are commonplace to techies, but many end users often get very confused by this profusion of computers, servers, etc.

In this digital era, how on earth can they find out which choice in the IT area will be beneficial to their business, when all the terms they come across in this context are nothing but a jumbled mess of acronyms, which even when written in full are still mumbo jumbo to them?

Google really wants to make sure that users keep trusting secure HTTPS sites. Since Google believes that Symantec was not strict enough when issuing SSL certificates, the world’s most popular search engine has now decided to take drastic sanctions. Over time, the Chrome browser will no longer support certificates issued by Symantec. But what does this mean in practical terms?

What is the role of an SSL certificate?

In order to be able to establish a secure connection with a website, this website must use an SSL certificate. In addition to the free Let's Encrypt certificate, which is included for free with each Combell hosting package, you can also choose a paying certificate, which provides better guarantees and is issued by Certificate Authorities such as Symantec, Comodo, Verisign, etc.

Developing a new project in the ideal technical environment, putting it on hold for a while and restarting it at a later stage under the same conditions, even from another place: OpenStack makes this possible. It is even one of its major strengths. Jan Serraris explains why he chose Combell OpenStack.

A thesis by students at the Artevelde University College

The Sportslink project was born as a thesis by a group of students from the Artevelde University College in Ghent. Their concept was to create an online platform where people could find the sports club that best suits them.

Flexmail recently interviewed marketers about their use of e-mail marketing and used the collected information to produce the E-mail Barometer for 2017.

How can they measure the success of their e-mail marketing campaigns? What obstacles do they face? And, most importantly, is there still room for improvement?

One thing is certain: e-mail is not dead – quite the contrary!

Marketers know best

Flexmail Email Marketing Solutions from Genk is an e-mail marketing company that was awarded with gold in the category “Best performing Belgian tool” at the Digital Marketing Awards 2016.

There is nothing more upsetting than a slow website. Sadly, there is no magic trick to getting a fast website. However, some minor interventions can have a very positive effect on the speed of your site, which actually depends on various factors, such as the structure, the content, or the hosting of your website. And as if that were not complicated enough, you will probably come across tons of contradictory information on the Internet. It is therefore high time to make things clearer!

For this article, our colleagues from Byte have thoroughly examined a few claims, which we are happy to share with you here.

Using artificial intelligence to predict whether or not a certain script is worth making a movie out of it – and, better yet, a movie that generates big bucks. That is what ScriptBook does. And its creators knocked at Combell’s door for specialised hosting, whereby processing power and confidentiality are of utmost importance.

ScriptBook wants to lend Hollywood a helping hand

Did you know that, every year, at least 50,000 new screenplays are registered with American labour union Writer's Guild of America? And that Hollywood studios release only 150 films a year – an increasing number of which are sequels to existing franchises?

In today’s fast-moving environment, existing applications must constantly be updated at an ever increasing pace. In addition, complications often arise between developers and operational teams. Fortunately, the DevOps approach can fix this problem. But what exactly is DevOps? And how important is it for your company?

How did the DevOps approach come into being?

More than a methodology for software development, DevOps is a culture, which is necessary to meet the current needs of companies developing software, websites, applications, etc.

With the traditional waterfall model, the requirements for software were clear and well-defined in advance.

If the wait is too long in your store, your customers will just run away. And that also applies to your Magento web store. But there are other reasons why a fast web store is important, and we will list them for you. In addition, we will give you 10 tips that will help your Magento web store run much faster in no time!

A faster Magento web store is more important than you think!

You hate it when you have to wait for hours. This is why you should not let your customers wait too long when they shop on your web store.

DNS Belgium has published new figures on .be domain names, as well as on .vlaanderen and .brussels domain names. The time has therefore come to spot a few trends. Did you know that the longest .be domain name is 63 characters long? And that Combell is still Belgium’s main registrar for .be domains? Here are the answers to some interesting questions…

How many .be domain names are there?

Let’s start with some bare figures: in 2016, 246,597 new .be domain names have been registered. On 12/31/2016, the total number was 1,554,475.

The jury was especially impressed with the international expansion on which Combell has been focusing for a few years now, which is why they decided to give Combell a Smart Business Award for the third year in a row.

Smart Business Awards reward best digital technologies

Zij zijn een jaarlijkse traditie geworden: de Smart Business Awards, uitgereikt door Minoc Media Services,The Smart Business Awards, offered by Minoc Media Services, the publisher of titles including SmartBiz.be, ZDNet.be, PC Magazine and Clickx.be, have become an annual tradition. Over the past years, these prestigious awards have even become a real reference for those who want to equip their business with the best professional digital technologies made available by local and international players.

Last year, Combell had already embarked on this great Danish adventure by taking over DanDomain. And today, the company has gone one step further in its expansion strategy in Denmark by taking over Zitcom Group. The group operates across the country via several brands, including Wannafind, UnoEuro, Danhost, Web10, Curanet, Zitcom, ScanNet and Cloud.dk.

In order to take synergy to the next level all over the country, the activities of DanDomain will be integrated as a brand in Zitcom Group, led by CEO Stefan Rosenlund.

Zitcom Group serves more than 175,000 private and corporate customers and has been growing for over 17 years, driven by a genuine passion for hosting.

Soon, both Chrome and Firefox browsers will warn users even more strongly when they visit a page that is not secured via the HTTPS protocol. What is going to change?

HTTPS is important

In a nutshell: the HTTPS protocol (HTTP secure) allows to establish a secure connection between the browser of your visitor and your website.

• Encryption offers protection against eavesdropping: the information entered by your visitors is unreadable.
• Moreover, authentication confirms that your website belongs to the person who claims to be the owner. It is thus not a fake.