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COMLINK Employs Blue Planet for Datacenter
( The Hosting News ) – Cyan today announced that COMLINK, a Michigan-based hosting and cloud services provider, has selected Cyan’s Blue Planet software-defined network (SDN) system and Z Series family of packet-optical transport platforms to expand its core network and facilitate the opening of a new datacenter in Grand Rapids. COMLINK operates a 9,000-mile upper Midwest fiber network providing wholesale and business transport services at speeds up to 100Gbps. With the opening of the new datacenter, COMLINK will be in a position to offer a broad array of transport and geographically diverse and redundant hosting services. According to John Summersett, COMLINK chief operating officer, “We view COMLINK as a software company that happens to operate a large fiber network. As a result, software-defined networking and Blue Planet are critically important for COMLINK and its customers. In addition to reducing our operating costs and facilitating more rapid service turn-up, Blue Planet actually puts us in a position to develop our own apps, thereby giving us a powerful competitive differentiator and a way to add future value to the services we offer to customers.” COMLINK employs Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN system in order to better orchestrate services over its complex multi-layer network. COMLINK can also use Blue Planet apps, such as Planet View, to afford its customers real-time and historical views into the operation of their services. Adds Michael Hatfield, Cyan President, “COMLINK is setting the benchmark in terms of what advanced network and data center operators can accomplish by utilizing software as a means to differentiate. The bottom line is that they now can deliver a superior customer experience at lower costs, more rapidly, and with flexibility to evolve into the future.” COMLINK’s fiber network is centered in Michigan and extends into Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. COMLINK’s newest datacenter houses the company’s Datasphere business hosting service and Medisphere medical services division. Anchored by Cyan’s 2.8Tbps Z77 platform, the COMLINK network can deliver wavelength and Ethernet services at speeds up to 100Gbps. Join us at the Open Network Summit 2013: Cyan will be exhibiting at the Open Networking Summit in Santa Clara, California, April 15-17. Visit us at booth number 407 and learn more about Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN system. About Cyan Cyan is a global supplier of software-defined networks (SDNs) for service providers, data center operators, and private networks. Cyan solutions include Blue Planet SDN software, Z-Series multi-layer packet-optical transport platforms, and Cyan PRO comprehensive professional services. With hundreds of deployments around the globe, including some of the largest telecommunication companies in the world, Cyan allows its customers to scale their networks, reduce costs, simplify operations, and accelerate service delivery. For more information, please visit http://www.cyaninc.com or follow Cyan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CyanNews . For Cyan inquiries, please contact: Joe Cumello +1 410.227.7487 | joe.cumello(at)cyaninc(dot)com | Twitter: @CyanNews Merritt Group for Cyan Melissa Chadwick +1 571.382.8513 | chadwick(at)merrittgrp(dot)com About COMLINK With datacenters that host clients residing in over 100 countries, COMLINK is a leading provider of cloud services, dedicated and virtual private servers, storage, colocation, all connected over a private, protected Ethernet backbone with bandwidth up to 100Gbps. Using our private fiber network and multiple certified datacenters (HIPAA, SAE 16, PCI) strategically located, COMLINK can provide your business with redundant (hot) servers, granular backup and restore capabilities, a true disaster recovery and business continuity plan. COMLINK’s rapidly expanding fiber optic network is headquartered in Michigan and extends through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. With over 9,000 miles of fiber and metro rings extending throughout the areas major markets. COMLINK’s Network Management Center is manned 24X7 to ensure the security of our network, the reliability of our services, and satisfaction for our clients. COMLINK provides leading edge services such as optical wave, Ethernet, DS1, DS3, and OCx, DSL. COMLINK offers the premier neutral access and local tandem in Michigan. In addition COMLINK offers an array of voice services; PRI, SIP, long distance, conferencing and hosted VoIP. For more information, please visit http://www.comlink.net or follow COMLINK on Twitter: @TeamComlink Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TeamComlink LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/2702894?trk=NUS_CMPY_TWIT Google+: https://plus.google.com/117115639945176142009 For COMLINK inquiries, please contact: Rebecca Girard | 517.742.4115 | rgirard(at)comlink(dot)net or 517.664.1900 | info(at)comlink(dot)net COMLINK Employs Blue Planet for Datacenter Continue reading
Mobile Web Usage Trends: What You Need to Know
There’s no fighting the fact that mobile internet usage is a trend that’s here to stay. As such, offering your website’s information in a format that’s easily digestible by mobile consumers is no longer a luxury – it’s a “must have” for any company that’s serious about courting the growing number of smartphone and tablet users who rely on their mobile devices for internet access. With this in mind, the following are a few specific mobile web usage trends your business needs to be aware of, as well as the recommended actions you’ll want to take in order to maximize your own company’s mobile presence: TREND: “Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014” ( Smart Insights Marketing ) If you’ve ever set foot into a coffee shop or restaurant and seen more than half the establishment’s patrons bent over their smartphones, it isn’t difficult to imagine mobile internet usage overtaking desktop access in the near future. However, as a website owner, this statistic shouldn’t just surprise you – it should spur you to action. If 50% or more of all internet activity is occurring on digital devices, then your website needs to be accessible to these users. Mobile marketing research suggests that website without mobile-optimized versions frustrate users, which it’s why important for all businesses to make mobile website versions a priority in their upcoming marketing plans. Fortunately, you have several different options for creating a mobile website version that don’t involve hiring an expensive developer or custom-coding your own new site. If your website runs on WordPress, you can install free plugins like WPTouch or you can work with a responsive theme that automatically adjusts to fit your viewers’ mobile browsers. Alternatively, you can take a look at GoMobi – a mobile site creation tool offered to HostGator customers. With GoMobi, developing a mobile-optimized website version is as simple as clicking a few mouse clicks and selecting the aesthetic elements that’ll best complement your existing brand. It’s an easy-to-use solution to the issue of mobile website development and even offers advanced features such as click-to-call and ecommerce integration. TREND: “4 out of 5 consumers use their smartphones to shop” ( comScore ) Since our mobile phones and tablets appear to be glued to our hips, it’s only natural to imagine that these tools would play a role in the buying process – whether in terms of product research or the actual completion of mobile-based sales. In fact, the data is quite clear on this point. Consumers are using their smartphones to shop, and they’re doing so in greater numbers than ever before. As a result, your business needs to be prepared. In an ideal world, every website that sells products would offer a fully-functional, mobile-optimized site version that allowed consumers to browse, research and purchase products – all from the comfort of their digital devices. This type of setup is possible using tools like GoMobi, but the ability to buy via smartphone isn’t the only thing you should be concerned with as a business owner. As you develop your own mobile shopping environment, pay particular attention to your website’s usability. Even though you’re working with a much smaller amount of screen real estate, it’s still imperative that mobile visitors be able to easily access a product’s features, images and past reviews in order to facilitate these device-based purchases. TREND: “60% of mobile users prefer to read news via mobile browser vs. app” ( Pew Research Center ) One final question most website owners have when it comes to mobile development is whether to release their content via mobile-optimized website version or standalone app. Here again, the data is compelling. The majority of readers prefer to read and digest content from their mobile browsers – rather than in company-released apps. Now, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t offer your readers an app, as there are certainly situations in which offering both of these tools will benefit your company’s bottom line. What it does mean, though, is that mobile website version development should be your first priority when it comes to courting this generation of internet users. First, make your website easy to access via mobile device browsers – whether through the use of platforms like GoMobi or other types of responsive design. Only after this crucial first step is completed should you look into standalone app development. The bottom line is this: you can’t hide your head in the sand when it comes to mobile website optimization. Research conducted on mobile internet usage trends make it clear that this type of internet access is here to stay and will only continue to grow in the future. By taking the time to implement these recommendations now, you’ll prevent your business from losing online traffic and sales, both from those consumers who are already using their smartphones to access the web and those who will be coming in the future. Continue reading
Free Professional Mailbox Upgrade
To show our commitment to helping your business grow, we’re always looking for ways to evolve our products and services. We recognise that businesses need significant amounts of mailbox space so we’ve made a change to accommodate today’s growing e-mail traffic. At absolutely no extra cost, we’ve boosted all Professional Mailbox storage limits from 5GB to 25GB. There’s nothing that you need to do to benefit from this free upgrade, simply enjoy the extra storage space. If you have other mailboxes that could benefit from this added feature then it’s a great time to upgrade them to a Professional mailbox. If you’ve already purchased additional storage space for your Professional mailbox, you’ll still be included in the upgrade and will no longer incur any extra charge for the additional space that is now included as standard. To discuss any aspect of this update further or to upgrade mailboxes to Professional level, call sales on 0808 1686 777 or visit www.fasthosts.co.uk/email-hosting/ Continue reading
Measuring the ROI of Your Social Media Campaigns
Social media marketing can be a great tool for promoting your brand and engaging directly with customers and potential buyers. But at the end of the day, you should be getting more from your marketing efforts than simply being a part of “the conversation.” If you want your actions on popular social platforms to translate into increased sales and profits, you need to learn how to measure the ROI of your social media campaigns. So, without further ado, here’s a simple process that any business can implement, using the free Google Analytics program: Step #1 – Set your social media campaign goals The first step to measuring ROI in any situation is to determine the specific goals you’ll be tracking. In this case, let’s assume that your goal is to use social media marketing to drive additional buyers to your website. As a result, a sample goal might be to have 5% of the visitors your business receives from social media sites convert into paid product purchasers. Now that you know what goal you’re measuring – in this case, sales – you’ll need to set up goal tracking within Google Analytics. Begin by logging into the admin area of your account and clicking on the profile of the site for which you’ll be creating goals. From there, select the “Goals” tab and click the “+ Goal” link in one of your goal sets. This will pull up a screen that allows you to select between the four different types of goals that can be tracked within Google Analytics: If your website’s sales funnel results in visitors landing on a defined “thank you” page (for example, “http://www.yourdomain.com/thankyou.html”), select the “URL Destination” goal option and fill out the additional fields that this action triggers. If you use a more complicated ecommerce system, select the “Event” goal type and use the instructions found in Google Help’s “ Conversion Overview ” documentation to accurately set up your goals. Step #2 – Measure goal conversions from social media traffic Once your goal is set up and activated, it will immediately start generating data on the number of sales occurring on your website. However, setting up a conversion goal alone isn’t enough to provide meaningful information regarding the ROI of your social media campaigns, as this reporting feature will detail sales that occur from all sources – not just your social visitors. To filter out the goal conversions that have occurred from social visitors from those triggered by other referral sources, you’ll need to set up an Advanced Traffic Segment within your Google Analytics account. To do this, navigate to the “Traffic Sources Overview” screen within your reporting dashboard. Immediately under the page’s main header, you’ll see a button labeled “Advanced Segments.” Click this, and then click the “+ New Custom Segment” button that appears in the lower right-hand corner of the segmentation menu. From the new screen that appears, add “OR” statements utilizing the “Source” metric to specify visitors that come from particular social media sources. As an example below, the custom segment “Facebook Traffic” captures all site visitors that arrive via both desktop and mobile Facebook platforms: Create a custom segment for every social media website your site receives traffic from, being sure to include desktop and mobile domains, as well as any platform-specific URL shortening services (for example, “t.co” from Twitter). Don’t group all social domains into one “Social Media Traffic” custom segment, as this will diminish the value of the data you generate. Step #3 – Adjust your social media marketing strategy based on data Once your custom social segments have been created, return to the “Goals Overview” reporting dashboard within the “Conversions” menu and apply the custom filters you’ve created to your data by clicking on the “Advanced Segments” button. This will allow you to determine how many of your website’s conversions your social media visitors are responsible for. Finally, to fully capture your social media marketing ROI, compare the number of sales your social efforts have generated to the amount of time and money you’ve invested into these campaigns. Measure your ROI on a platform-specific basis, as it’s not uncommon for a site to see a positive ROI from one social site and a negative ROI from another. Use this information to adjust your social media marketing strategy. If you’re seeing a negative ROI across all the social properties you’ve invested in, you need to either improve your social media marketing techniques or cut back on the amount of resources you commit to this promotional strategy. But even if you’re seeing a positive ROI, use the platform-specific information you’ve generated to drill down further into your social media marketing strategies to see what’s working and what isn’t. By consistently evaluating the performance of your social media activities and adjusting your strategies accordingly, you’ll see an improvement in both your social network engagement levels and in your company’s bottom line. Continue reading
