Firehost, one of the managed hosting providers focussing more on security, today announced enhanced visibility and control for their customers on their servers. Yes, this is a cloud blog and Firehost is not a cloud provider per se. However, there are certain use cases for which Cloud is not 100% ready yet. One such scenario is protecting your assets from determined attacks. Yes, part of the server security is the customer problem and not a cloud provider problem but not every customer is keen on protecting their virtual assets by themselves. Some of them lack the necessary knowledge to protect their assets and many of them, including some hackers, lack the time needed to ensure security. For such people, hosts like Firehost is very handy.
What Is Firehost, BTW?
Firehost is a secure hosting company offering virtual servers based on VMware virtualization platform. Unlike the traditional web hosting companies, Firehost is built from ground up with security in mind. They bring enterprise grade security to businesses of all sizes including many individuals who want to protect their brand.
Many of the geeky Cloud Ave readers will know about the problems faced by Kevin Mitnick, America’s most wanted computer outlaw at a time and now well respected security consultant, with hack attacks on his site, mobile phones, etc.. Firehost claims that they are hosting him now after many other hosts refused to host his site due to potential threats from crackers and have successfully protected his site and information. They showcase Kevin Mitnick’s case as an indication of the highest levels of security on Firehost servers. Their clients include some of the big universities to media companies to many retail businesses.
Some of the security features of their server offerings include
- Enterprise Grade Firewall
- Web Application Protection
- Dos/DDos Mitigation
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention
- Server Port Lockdown
etc.. Yes, these are some of the features we can have on any dedicated server but the advantage with Firehost is they manage these features and more. The security is in their server DNA.
Transparency Over Security
Yesterday, Firehost announced new features that allowed their customers to have complete visibility and control over their servers. They claim it is a result of Firehost’s philosophy over giving their customers complete transparency over the security and performance of their servers. From the customer portal, users can access key server metrics like availability of storage, usage of memory and processor, power usage, etc.. Well, in my opinion, these features are standard set of features that should be made available to customers of traditional hosting and cloud based hosting providers. Or, in other words, it is my belief that customers should demand visibility to such metrics in any hosting scenario. Now, Firehost is doing what is expected from the industry.
My big attraction towards Firehost is the security they offer to customers’ assets and that too at a very affordable cost. Their servers start at $200 per month and one can easily scale up to 32 GB RAM and 4 processors. Even though they are not a cloud infrastructure provider, they are an interesting company to watch due to their claims about security at all levels.
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