7 Ways to Secure Your E-Commerce Website and Keep Hackers at Bay

You must be gearing up for handling the traffic at your e-commerce website this holiday season but have you secured your website from cyber criminals? Hackers would definitely seek opportunities to steal sensitive information from your e-store during this festive rush. Therefore, check out these proven strategies to protect your e-commerce website from cyberattacks.

Test your e-commerce site for vulnerabilities

You need to test your e-commerce site to combat hacking and protecting your site from any damage. Conduct regular scanning to ensure that hackers have not introduced malware into graphics, advertisements or any other content provided by third parties. Also consider penetration testing by hiring cybersecurity consultants in order to identify vulnerabilities in the code. By implementing security applications or web app scanning tools try to identify vulnerabilities inside debug code and leftover source code which may put your confidential data at risk.

Do not store sensitive data

According to PCI Standards, it is strictly forbidden to store credit card numbers, expiration dates and CVV2 (Card Verification Value) codes of your customers through your e-commerce solution. Purge old records of customers’ personal data from your database because you won’t be robbed if you have nothing one can steal. E-commerce Development Experts, conversant with security best practices, recommend using an encrypted checkout tunnel so that even your own servers are unable to see your customer’s credit card data. Although it would cause slight inconvenience on the part of your customers but they would be happy with it rather than compromising their credit card information.

Ensure PCI compliance and use a secure connection for checkout

Authenticate the identity of your business by integrating the stronger EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer), green address/URL bar and SSL security seal. This would imbibe a greater sense of trust in your customers and they would feel safe to carry out online transactions on your e-commerce website. You can go an extra mile by using a payment gateway that uses live address verification service right at the checkout. By comparing address entered online to that which your customers have registered with their credit card company, you can prevent fraudulent purchases.

Have a DDoS mitigation service in place

As Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are getting more frequent and sophisticated these days, you should opt for a cloud-based DDoS protection and managed DNS services. Being cloud-based, it will trim operational costs and at the same time thwart even the most complex attacks. Furthermore, cloud-based and managed DNS hosting service would deliver a complete DNS solution and improve the internet-based systems that facilitate online communications and transactions.

Patch your systems regularly

Whichever e-commerce platforms you are using, just get in touch with your E-commerce Development Consultancy to patch everything as soon as a new version is released. This is because it has been constantly found that breached sites were using older version of the software. Therefore, it is quite crucial that you install patches on all the softwares you are using in your e-commerce website, including third-party add-ons.

Add extra layers of security

Layering your security is one of the best ways to keep your e-commerce website safe from cyber attackers. Consider incorporating firewalls to stop cyber criminals from gaining access to critical information from your site by network breach. To ensure that your e-store is protected from application-level attacks like Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and Structured Query Language (SQL) consider adding extra layers of security to your website such as login boxes, search queries, contact forms, etc.

Implement data back-up plan

Make sure your web hosting service provider has a disaster recovery plan or they are regularly backing up your data. Otherwise you would need to back it up regularly to ensure proper protection of your e-commerce site. E-commerce specialists suggest that having gaps in your data backup will put you in risk of losing valuable business information in case of virus attacks, even power outage or hard drive failure.

Now that you know about the vulnerabilities an e-commerce website can have, get Enhanced E-commerce Development Solutions from a renowned E-commerce Development Company to protect your e-store from hacking and other cyber crimes.

4 Cloud Computing Tools for Cloud Based Web Application Development

The enterprise IT solutions are looking for an IT infrastructure that account web applications. The IT development is witnessing a rise in demand of web applications. Yes, we have entered the era of web application development.

Along with the increase in the demand of web application, there is a considerable rise in the demand for cloud based web apps and mobile apps. Cloud based solutions are indeed providing great convenience to businesses and organizations allowing them to function from anywhere anytime and providing them with greater control.

This is the reason that cloud based tools are immensely popular among software development and app developers. Here are a few of the recommended cloud computing tools for robust and rich development by our team of softwaredevelopment experts.

Knack

This tool is for building database online for very simple web applications. It provides software development specialists with tools that can transform data into powerful online database. It emphasizes on app development that works in tandem with the development data. The platform offers functions like search, data display and customized forms for cloud computing. Moreover, it gives structure to the data with data types, connects with data by linking the related records and extends the data with formulas and equations. This tool is brilliant because there is no requirement of coding. Knack gives the developers the opportunity to sort, find, explore and share data among other developers.

Visit the website: https://www.knack.com/

Conduit

This tools offer the most simple features to build web applications. Again, even with this tool, you don’t have to write any code. Creating designs is fast and convenient with this tool. You can create a loyalty app, send push notification or create your online mCommerce with this amazing tool. The platform offers you with features that will let your brand owners connect with the end users with engaging experiences. Apps can be developed for both iOS and Android. It offer features and components like social feed, events, RSS, notifications, eCommerce for web development experts to build robust web applications. They have specific feature designed to help businesses grow sales.

Visit the website: http://diy.como.com/features/

Appery.io

This tool is a platform well known as a Cloud Based HTML5 hybrid mobile and jQuery mobile app builder. Appery, formerly known as Tiggzi, offers a fast drag and drop with JavaScript codebase for iOS, Android, WindowsPhone and Responsive Web Apps integrated MBaaS. The builder runs on the cloud, thus the software developers can easily install and download to build the app. It is powerful drag and drop tool as a visual builder.  

Visit the website: https://appery.io/

Codiqa

Codiqa is known for the most intuitive mobile interface builder that has enabled over 10,000 businesses globally. It is a brilliant tool to build mobile app and web apps where prototyping is extremely smooth. As a developer, you can easily edit, export HTML/CSS/JS  files. It is best suited for Front End Developers and UI designers. It offers features like drag and drop interface, HTML5 components as cloud based platform. All you have to do is build is once and then you can use it anywhere. Web developers need not code again to create another prototype.

Checklist – Selection of Mobile Architecture

Decisions on mobile app development can be crucial, especially for someone the whole idea is new. Mobile apps have now become a very important for many businesses. But the whole debate about having a native mobile app or a hybrid app is still going on!

Honestly, enough of the top 5 reasons to choose native app or hybrid app because it does not really help you decide anything. For these decisions, you need to talk to a mobile development expert and IT professionals who know what will suit your business type and its target audience.

Coming to the point, mobile development usually comprises of a development architecture where finding the right technology stack and other aspects are under consideration.

Choice of Operating System

The masses use the Android or iPhones while iPhones enjoy the largest market share in China. Android dominates the smartphone usage in the US, Asia, Europe and Germany. But the use of iOS and Android keep changing and thus it is always good to have developed a mobile app for both. At Helios, there have been times when a client went for only iOS development and then eventually had to develop the mobile app for Android.

Cross Platform or Hybrid

The difference between cross platform and hybrid development is the flexibility of development with technologies for each. The cross platform development takes non web technologies like .NET framework. Whereas, developing with web technologies takes HTML5 and JavaScript. We think this also depend on many factors like the business type, location and target audience. So we suggest talking to our mobile development specialists.

Technology Stack Selection

This is not much of the juggle as there are only three technologies to choose from. When you choose the technology, then you choose the platform for development. It is in fact the simplest decision in the entire process of mobile development.

Paid App or Free

This is one of the business decision that again depends on the investments you make. But for the record, today most of the apps are available for free. Also, mobile app development specialist at Helios Solutions recommend going free initially and once there are enough people using the app, you can go for the paid version.

WordPress – The Ultimate Choice for Ecommerce

WordPress is best known as a content management system, but we should not be surprised when businesses and website owners are choosing WordPress as an open source technology for a eCommerce platform too. Today, more than 25% of the web world is powered by WordPress websites where many big names are using WordPress for eCommerce platforms.

Turns out, WordPress is equally effective in creating a user friendly eCommerce platform. Many online businesses are selecting WordPress technology for starting an online business. Let us understand what are the features and advantages that WordPress can offer for eCommerce development.

Highly Secure Passwords

When it comes to WordPress technology, there is a need to understand that it may be content management system but offers extreme ease at the backend. With so many security plugins, WordPress acts in the interest of eCommerce development. Be it an eCommerce platform or a simple CMS website, it does not matter; the passwords need to be secured. Because not secured passwords mean that your website is not secure to use. Password Credentials needs to complex, long or and strong enough. This needs to be considered for the users too.

Secure Checkout

The checkout features on an eCommerce platform is the most crucial one. Any mishap or vulnerability can cause a fraudulent experience. This is why SSL certificates or HTTPS are compulsory. You need to ensure that the data transferred is secured and encrypted. The data needs to obtain the certificate that the data users enter on the eCommerce site is encrypted and secure.  WordPress offers very convenient checkout process.

Payment Gateway

With so many options, a payment gateway needs to be very streamlined. Most of the eCommerce website includes third party payment gateways like PayPal and many more. Using third party payment gateway ensures that the confidential information passes through the high end security panel to the payment gateway. For credit card transactions, it is important to have PCI Certificate.

As wordpress development experts, eCommerce development is really interesting with WordPress where it also offers a good CMS along with features and thousands of plugins for eCommerce development. For more information on eCommerce development, get in touch with eCommerce development specialist.

The Three Models of Software Development Process

Software development processes are approached differently by different IT Solutions companies across the world. But, what matter the systematic approach and also the understanding of the trends of the market. These two aspects need to go in tandem with each other.

A Model for Software Development Process is not new to Software Engineers. But the resources i.e. the tools and techniques for these processes have definitely added to the efficiency of following these models of software development.

The Three Models of Software Development Process

The Waterfall Method

It originates in the manufacturing and construction companies for very structured physical environments which can indirectly affect the hardware oriented model which was adapted for software development. Software Developmentexperts prefer using this methodology for medium or large sized software development projects.

The waterfall method is sequential design process used for software development processes. It goes in progressive fashion but only downwards like a waterfall through the different phases of requirements, design, implementation, test and delivery. Waterfall method offers a model that is comparatively lower in risk and it runs in linear flow. The very initial phase is about eliciting and collecting the requirements to be able to conceptualize the solution. In this process, the users and stakeholders document, validate and approve of a set of functional performance and other such requirements. There are many phases in the waterfall model which are formally documented. This model is application to businesses that are static.

But while before selecting this model, you need to ensure that the end user’s environment is stable, the risk and cost are associated along with aspects like schedule, security which many may be the small but important requirement in the requirements document. This model offers a practical approach for dealing with clients and acts in interest of faster approvals.

The Spiral Method

Known as the risk driven process model for software development projects, it is based on unique risk patterns. The spiral model helps the software engineers to adopt the elements of one or more development process and thus makes software development much more comprehensive and prepared for evolutionary prototyping.

The spiral model will be able to reduce the project risk initially and also request capability faster. In many projects, the requirements may be partially known and then rest will be known while the project evolves. In this case, the project can begin with this model as the remaining requirements will be known as the project proceeds. The cycle in the model follow the similar process as the waterfall model but it can also generate a usable prototype. The work starts with CONOPS and life cycle planning where the successive loops include high level requirements, software requirements, design and development, testing etc.  

The model signifies a cycle a progressive model where the software works outwards. The software development specialist can collect the data of the requirements at the beginning and update the model after completion of every cycle. Also, the stakeholders can analyze the risks and accordingly create strategies for reducing the factor of risk. With this model, the project can be ended anytime as and when the client suggests that the requirements are met with and can be solution can be made operational without any hurdles.

The Agile Model

Among the most popular methods for software development is Agile Model. This model is used to develop a system for iterations that rance 2-4 weeks. The model uses stories as the planned inputs to sprints. Basically, Agile requirements can be written down in non technical stories. This model avails better comprehension of the solution for the technical and the non technical personals.  

The documenting in this process focuses on what has been already done and give a foresight on what can be done. The documentation needs to the meet the three pointers of the criteria:

·         Essential (minimalism)

·         Valuable (needs)

·         Timely (stipulated time)

The development efforts are required on the small and very specific capabilities. The good practices of agile projects are short cycles, collaboration with partners, tight team work and streamlined communication among the software development experts. Agile environment provides support whenever required. You can expect your solution requirements to evolve with the help of functional specifications, meeting minutes, test cases, calculating metrics and also the progress reports. For cost effective software solutions build with Agile Methodology, Outsourcing Software Development India is a great option.

Top Six Essential Strategies to Revive a Dying App

We have seen they way how the world of telecommunication has really flourished like never before. It has certainly become the bread and butter earner for simply millions across the world, who work really hard to design and develop mobile apps for the gadgets like the smartphones and tablets. App development isn’t really an easy task to accomplish; it takes lot of hard work and patience of the developers. App developers usually stand a chance to face real struggle in making their apps run successfully in the market. Mobile App Development Experts often face hindrances and difficulties because they fail to make their app popular among the global buyers.

Well, this article will provide you with some useful tips and tricks which help you justify the hard work you put into making an app.

This is one such strategy that many developers are following nowadays. The trick here is to convert your paid application into a free app time being. Well, you will be quite amazed to see the how the traffic will rise as many app users tend to go for free stuff in the play store or App store. You might think that there might be a downright to this and you might face a huge loss but this would surely give you a huge boost in the near future. Important to note that, “free” thing will not be there for many days and it is also necessary to add in-app purchases. Just wait and watch and see how the free things do well to your app.

The most crucial element while designing and developing an app is proper optimization of it. You should be very clear and well aware about the keywords that users use in the app store. It is quite essential to put relevant words in your app name. When users seek for a desired app, you app should be listed on the first page itself. It necessary to manage your keywords and changing them over the course of time is also important, if you are willing to boost downloads your app gets.

 

There will be times when all your hard work would simply go in vain; your app just won’t get the desired download ratio. You’ll also fail to increase the traffic. Well, this shouldn’t be the case, right? There are few tricks left in the hat that can your app a certain boost by collaborating them with an external source. It is important to get in touch with some game developers and ask them if they could backlink your app with their games. When users would download the apps, the ad of your app will be featured somewhere in between the game and that would simply raise some high chances of people would show an interest in downloading your game.

We all are aware of the fact that, popularity of any given app depends on the way it looks and feel. Make sure you always come up with a catchy design of the app and that get the attention of the potential users, who would eventually have a second look at it and check out what is it really about. Well this certainly shouldn’t mean that you are supposed to put false promises to draw users towards your app.

It is quite fair to say that the modern rules are seriously run by the social media sites. If you want your app to boost the number downloads, social media is the right place to market it. Paid advertisements would give your app a fair amount of boost as well.

This is the ultimatum. If trying out new and innovative things won’t work for you, the last thing you need to do is sell your app. This is basically the final mobile app development move which you should take under no matter what circumstances.

To conclude, these are some of the very useful or you can say essential strategies that really help your app to have one more chance before it moves out of the App store or Play store. Implementing these strategies will do good to your app.

Easy Ways to Make Your WordPress Blogs Great

WordPress is without a doubt the best CMS (Content Management System) out there. With numerous of Themes and Plugins to offer, it certainly has every right ingredient within it to be successful. For the Website builders, it is nothing short of a Pandora’s Box, with excellent performance and  flexible in nature, it has everything that can help website builders make beautiful website.

You can always try and make the blog best of the best, but sometimes it just might be like one of the generic blogs, like everyone else’s. You need to put hours and hours into your website and build it with a proper guidance and knowledge provided by experts.

Nevertheless, if you are using WordPress for website creation, follow these easy tips that might just give you the things you need to understand, the most about designing WordPress.

Make Sure You Choose the Right Theme

WordPress has a vast library of themes to offer, for any website builders.The best part about it is, there is no need to write a line of code to build themes and that becomes quite convenient for the website builders. You can make your website shine with beautiful design or simply give it a professional look without any hassles.

As WordPress has numerous themes to offer, make sure you choose only those that would suit your website. Try not to choose a theme that would cost your website in speed and reliability. Make it as simple as possible. There are plenty of third party themes available for you to choose from to improve your website designs.  

The Right Plugins

The purpose your website should serve is of delivering a satisfactory user experience .Your WordPress website should be good enough to value the users and enhance their overall experience. Users prefer any website having  added functionality on a website, and this is where WordPress Plugins come in. They add the missing ingredient onto your website by adding more functionality it. Social Media Plugins or any interactive images are few of the plugins that help enhance the user experience.

Most of the plugins are free of cost or at least provide you with a trial version, and that really make things interesting enough for you as website builder. You can always try different plugins or even blend it with another plugins, until your website feels responsive enough.

End of the day it is about your  needs and preferences. Try not adding everything on your website that drop its performance margin. Adding Plugins like W3 Total Cache can help you improve load times on your website.

Effective Marketing

Here comes the most difficult part that any WordPress users faces, Effective Marketing. You need to have a clear picture or a clear idea on how to do proper marketing of your website. There will be times when you’ll find yourself to be clueless on how to market your website in the most effective way that is when Automation becomes the best strategy that you could put into practise. You only need to use one platform and it will simplify the crucial marketing processes for you. WordPress Development Experts provide you with effective strategies, which you can always look for.

Digital marketers also prefer using platforms such as MARKETO and MARINE SOFTWARE.

Going Online

You can always make your WordPress website into an Online Store. It also gives you a chance for monetization.

The important thing over here is to make a product that should be well accepted and appreciated by the audience.  It can be something related to providing services or any factual products.

With the right strategies and even apt planning, achieving a perfect blog is impossible. You need to keep a constant watch on your website, to keep the performance smooth and take actions on improving things that are necessary.

Using Analytics tools like JETPACK or CHARTBEAT can improve your WordPress Website's optimisation. These tools will help you understand the user traffic and also help you understand how the audiences are engaging with your website. By this, you can bring in the necessary changes that your blog needs with a constant improvements which will result in satisfactory user experience.

Have you Considered Rewriting Your Website?

Change is the only thing constant. Changing the look and feel of your website is more than important and if you are someone not thinking about doing it, you are making a huge mistake.

You change your design when it grows old but you fail to change the Copy that also demands a change. Your website wordings are crucial; they shape your brand amongst your current and potential consumer.

When you bring overhaul changes onto your website, it is important for you to change every aspect of it. Of course you want your site to look good but that shouldn’t be the only aspect you should think about.

Consumers are going to read what is written on your website and more importantly it should read really well. You need to update your Copy at least once in a year.

Choose your Words Wisely

If your Copy is poor you can’t expect it to have a decent perception. Words are the best median for you to connect with your audiences. You need to make your copy more related to your audiences for them to build an emotional connection with your brand. This can only be done with really well crafted words.

Make sure that your brand has a personality of its own, so that it gets easy for the audiences to relate to it. It also needs to be best across all the platforms. Only say things that are needed the most and discard the unnecessary things that might damage your brand.

Short Sweet & Punchy

Simple the better, remember that. Every word inched should have a purpose. Keep things informative and you are good to go. Website Development Experts have various guidelines that can be studied an put to use.

Web Copy for the Consumers

Making things complicated for the consumers won’t land you in paradise. Your purpose is to serve them well and also inform them well. You don’t want to confuse them by your content.

Your Web Copy needs to be simple and also cleaner, Make sure your copy has a fair amount of white spaces, that makes it look cleaner and also the consumer will have less distractions. Don’t forget that you are writing for the web, your web copy should be written only for web content and nothing else.

Reports suggest that 55% of the web page views get very less attention say around 15%.

To conclude, small changes can make a bigger difference and a good web copy gives your audience a reason to stick to your brand.

Bad copy is often misleading and might damage the reputation of your brand.

If you have a working website, no need to change things from the scratch. Only update what you have and see the effective difference that happens to your brand. You can Outsourcing website development in India to make the best use of your website.

Avoid These Common Cloud ROI Failures

A project is usually considered a failure if it can’t deliver on the promised ROI. A project has to live up to the projected ROI or downright it is a failure.

Here we shall learn about the 3 common cloud mistakes for you to avoid.

The Security

When you have managed to have proper security systems, most of you work is done. But if you are amongst the others, than it might just get tricky for you. Cloud designers are nothing but creators and for them it is important to have security measures at and each and every point, requirements, design, testing, migration and even operations.

Do not think that security comes only during operations- and that is certainly not a healthy way of thinking. You know why? The reason being, the security needs to be layered into the applications and platforms, and you aren’t supposed to add it in the end or as a last step.

It is advisable to opt for IAM (Identity and Access Management) as it is quite a popular approach and technology but it requires prompt planning and better understanding at each and every step.

Mapping the Target Clouds

It is important to know what and where to put your data and applications but for that you need to understand the target clouds in a better manner, to make the right decisions and how to use those services.

For these services to be launched, tracked and operated it is important to understand them well before. Do your research and put a proper planning into practice to really understand the mapping or Software Development Experts can always help you put the right strategy to use.

Analyze the Cost of Operations

It is better to spend more money on your workloads in the public cloud rather than in your own data centre. The point to be considered over here is that, you have no idea of what running specific workloads will cost you during the operations.

You need cost-monitoring and analytics system to understand what you will spend and when you will spend it during operations. Keep in mind the operational costs in the cloud after you deploy it. Software Development Specialists are also easy to approach for your better understandings.

Reference Link:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3075812/cloud-computing/3-common-cloud-roi-failures-you-must-avoid.html

Analyse The App Store To Get The Best Out Of Your App

App Store is at its Pinnacle right now. Currently there are 1.5 million Apps available in the App store and numbers of Apps downloaded are 100 Billion. More than 1,600 apps are being submitted to the App store on a daily basis.  With those big numbers existing, your app has to find its own way to be at the top. Smarter way is to analyse the App store in depth.  The list of top 100 Apps keeps on changing because of the swift nature of the store and there’s always room for the new apps to be up there. You need to see things in a different manner, analyzing the review score and which app offers what to be the very best should be your prime focus.

Design the Apple Way

One of the things that distinguish Apple from others is the way they design their products and apps. What Apple did with iOS 7 was redefining the entire OS and with their recent product in line, The Apple Watch, they crafted a beautiful piece of hardware with its groundbreaking OS on that tiny screen.

They have always preferred a smarter and a cleaner design and Apps that follow their blueprints have always been favored by Apple. So make sure your App has all the right ingredients that Apple prefers.

Exclusively For Apple

This is where it’s more about give and take. If you have built an App exclusively for Apple and exactly by their standards then you and your App are in for a treat. Apple always favors the loyal and why wouldn’t they?  With exclusivity, Apple gives you every muscle to flex with their support.

The Free Apps

Keep an eye out on those top free Apps in the store. See what makes them so much popular at the first place and what audience they are really targeting. It might help you bring the necessary changes in your app and its overall functionality. If you are a photographer and willing to build a photo editing app, analyse how top apps such as Instagram or VSCO have made its user interface simple with the best editing tools and custom filters.

Do not miss out on Trends

One smarter way to analyse the app store is by following the Trends. Trend gives you an insight of which apps are popular and what kind of apps users prefer the most. Search tab in the App store will give u the Trending Searches of the App store.

Apple Device for the Promo

As an iPhone Developer you need to show your love for Apple. When you cut a promo of your app and feature Apple devices like iPhones or iPads, Apple always appreciates that and it makes things a bit easy on your frontier. Keeping your App up to date with their Technology is always a smart tactic to get your app featured someday or the other.

See What Others Are Doing

You aren’t the only one to list an App as one of the best. There is a huge flock of competitors on whom you need to keep a tight watch. See how frequent they are updating their apps, what new features they are adding, how optimized their apps are, things like these will gradually help you to make your app perform better.

So the iPhone Apps Development Specialist and the iPhone Developers out there, these analyses about the App Store will help you understand the store in a better manner and which will eventually give users, the experience they  always ask for.