Teamleader, creator of a software solution that helps streamline sales processes, has been organising Work Smarter for several years. This event presents digital tools to work more efficiently, as well as concrete tips and best practices for the digitalisation of entrepreneurs.

The fifth edition of the Work Smarter event, which took place on 16 May at Flanders Expo in Ghent, featured an exclusive premiere: in the Pro-Corner, participating entrepreneurs had the opportunity to have their questions answered by experts. This was a perfect time for Combell to show that digitalisation is possible for companies of all sizes.

Trust is essential for a hosting provider. As a user, you should be able to trust your hosting provider blindly. Every day, we at Combell put a lot of effort into the 8 pillars on which our customers' trust is built.

1. The strength of the corporation, the determination of the new kid on the block

Many of the people who are now involved in Combell's management were already on board at the beginning, almost twenty years ago. They now boast a great deal of experience. You can name any problem; we have most probably experienced it before.

If you receive an e-mail that at first sight appears to come from your own e-mail address, do not panic! It does not necessarily mean that your e-mail account has been hacked. Here is what you need to do if you receive such an e-mail.

Anyone can send e-mails in your name

Current e-mail protocols do not verify the mail sender’s identity. Put simply: anyone can create an account in their e-mail program and send e-mails from this account. You could even enter bill.gates@microsoft.com or president@whitehouse.org. The e-mail protocol does not check that the address exists or even whether you are entitled to use that e-mail address.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” A good old IT adage that still holds true today. Organisations indeed often reach the limits of their IT infrastructure first before they are willing to change. Nonetheless, the risks of a transfer are predictable and, given proper preparation, also completely avoidable. Each year, Combell Migration Teams carry out a couple of thousand technical migrations. They have extensive experience and follow proven procedures. Your transfer to Combell is therefore a memorable but not actually a particularly tense moment. What exactly can you expect of the traject to our tailor made hosting?

Over the past 20 years, the baby’s corner has grown into a comprehensive concept for mums, babies and children. Today, young parents and their friends are spending more time online than ever before. The step towards an attractive, diverse and extensive online range is therefore self-evident and ambitious at the same time. Since 2015, Combell has been helping to achieve the digital transformation of a classic retail concept.

For the perfect baby registry, you can stop by the baby’s corner. After all, everything that babies and their parents (or grandparents) need and personal advice go hand in hand.

Insites Consulting carried out a survey on behalf of DNS Belgium into domain name extensions to gain an understanding of the domain name market. Part of the survey was to establish how extensive the knowledge about domain names is: what they are, what you do with them, why it is important, and which extensions are known about. Which factors influence a user’s trust, or otherwise, in a website?

The survey focused on four different groups: the average Belgian, the TLD users (those who have already registered one or more domains), enterprising persons (those who are interested in running a business but have not yet registered a domain name), and potential TLD users (enterprising persons and average Belgians who intend to register a domain name in the future).

The ICT news site Computable chose “our” Jonas, CEO of Combell, as IT Person of the Year. The jury praised him for his commitment, including to his staff. Congratulations, Jonas!

Strong competition

This is the fourth time that the editors of Computable, the news site for ICT professionals with a focus on Belgium, have presented their IT Person of the Year award. In the past, serial entrepreneur Peter Hinssen, Dominique Leroy (CEO of Proximus) and Danielle Jacobs (General Manager of Beltug) already won this title. But this year, the jury chose Jonas Dhaenens, founder and CEO of Combell.

It was originally announced that the transition from Comodo to Sectigo SSL certificates would only involve a change of name and logo. However, it now turns out that there has also been a change in the root structure, which is causing problems for some customers. So, here is a news update...

A change in the root structure

In our article entitled “The brand of your SSL certificate undergoes a name change: Comodo is now Sectigo”, we announced that this process would involve a purely external change in the name and logo to be used for the SSL certificate.

We are proud to present our new website! Our well-known offering and services now come in a new, contemporary style. A new corporate identity, cleverly designed to reflect Combell's values and to highlight our extensive professional range. But there is more to it than just picking a colour. Let us take you behind the scenes to discover months of preparatory work.

Combell celebrates its 20th anniversary

It is quite a big step, from the small one-man business that 16-year-old Jonas Dhaenens founded back in 1999, to nowadays' Combell, which hosts two thirds of Belgian websites.

Containers, Docker, Kubernetes… All these concepts are currently very trendy, and everyone is using them, or wants to use them. And this is no different at Combell. The technology has been on the radar for over five years and we have been using it in-house for quite a while now. Is it time to make an offer to our customers? Let us discuss this with Wesley, Thijs, Jachim and Maarten.

The evolution from virtualisation to containers has changed technology. But has it also changed the way of thinking about ICT?

From dedicated servers came virtualisation, and from there came the Cloud.

In 2018, Antwerp-based accounting firm VDV consultants decided to play it safe by having Combell handle their internal servers for them, which provides a higher level of protection and more flexibility. Employees can now work for customers remotely or on premises, and ICT is no longer an obstacle to the further growth of the office. “Above all, it brings us peace of mind”, says director Marc Van Gysel.

Good advice is definitely worth paying for. With advice on business, tax, accounting, bookkeeping and legal matters, the ‘Van der Steen, Diels, Van Gysel’ firm focuses primarily on companies and liberal professions.

.eu domains are reserved for companies, organisations and private individuals based in the EU. With Brexit, British companies and residents lose the right to use their .eu domain. And that may happen as early as 30 March 2019. So, what is going on? And what concrete steps can you take?

European Commission regulation on .eu domains

In March 2018, the European Commission already ruled on the consequences that Brexit would have on .eu domain holders. “As of the withdrawal date, undertakings and organisations that are established in the United Kingdom but not in the EU and natural persons who reside in the United Kingdom will no longer be eligible to register .eu domain names or, if they are .eu registrants, to renew .eu domain names registered before the withdrawal date.” (EURid: Brexit Notice)

This measure applies to all domain holders (registrants) with a GB (Great Britain) or GI (Gibraltar) country code.