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.

Now that an increasing number of retailers have turned to e-commerce, all aspects of the digital infrastructure have become essential. These aspects range from hosting to domain names, including SSL certificates and protection against DDoS attacks. It is therefore time for an evaluation!

Round table meeting with 5 players from the world of hosting and domain names

Five major players, who had the opportunity to observe first-hand recent progress in the world of hosting and domain names, got together in order to share their experiences. How have customer expectations changed, especially when web stores are concerned?

Artificial Intelligence on a chip is what the IMEC research institute just achieved. A revolutionary innovation that was demonstrated with a chip that has the ability to… make music by itself. It may seem trivial, but this chip will find many useful applications in the future. Let us examine this technology through a magnifying glass – both literally and figuratively!

Artificial Intelligence on a chip

Chips only perform tasks for which they have been programmed. But what if you could make chips really “smart”, so that they can learn from what they do?

A sitemap tells your visitors as well as search engines how your website is structured. But why is that so important? And what does a good sitemap look like? Here are a few tips…

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap provides an overview of the structure of your website, which includes the pages where visitors can find important content. The traditional sitemap is a static HTML file that shows the first and second level of the structure of your site. This way, your visitor will immediately see where he can find a certain type of content.

A severe vulnerability has been found in the current core of the Joomla CMS. Fortunately, the update to fix this issue has been released on Wednesday 17 May. So, make sure you install it, because you absolutely cannot miss this Joomla update!

A Joomla update for severe security issues

The Joomla Security Strike Team (JSST) has been informed of a critical security issue in the Joomla core. The problem is so acute that Joomla does not want to provide any further information before users get the chance to install an update.

With the rise of the Internet of Things, almost every device is connected to the Internet and can be managed via an app. This makes our daily lives much easier, as long as these applications are available 24/7. The many users of Quality Guard’s IoT app, be they butchers or restaurant owners, also rely on the app of the same name to guarantee the food safety of their products. A chain in which the hosting of the app on Combell’s servers plays an important role. But what exactly does the app do?

Although citizens are increasingly concerned about their security online, some website owners still fail to properly secure their site. Why?

Websites are not secure enough

A recent survey conducted by CBS revealed that, in 2015, more than half the Dutch population was concerned about online security.

And as a consequence

• they have put less content online
• shared personal information more carefully
• and sometimes even cancelled online purchases.

One would normally expect website owners and webmasters to take this (reasonably) cautious approach too. Oddly enough, that is not the case at all.