Introduction
You want to host a website for your business and looking for different options. However, when you are all set for hosting, there are certain things to consider. What type of plan will be good for your business and the one that aligns with all your hosting needs.
While considering different hosting plans, you might have come across VPS hosting but didn’t know if it will be the right fit for your business or not. Worry not. In this article, we’ll discuss VPS hosting, its advantages, and all the ways it can benefit your business.
What is a VPS?
Before diving more into its advantages, let’s have a look at what VPS hosting is?
VPS is a Virtual Private Server that uses virtualization technology to provide hosting solutions. It is the best solution for people who have outgrown their shared hosting. VPS combines the features of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
In VPS hosting, you will still have multiple neighbors, but it allows you to have a separate dedicated server for your website with a reserved amount of resources and memory. In short, VPS divides a single physical server into multiple virtual private servers.
Advantages of VPS as compared to the physical server
- Better performance
- Easy to scale services
- Cheaper as compared to dedicated hosting
- Guaranteed access to resources
- Affordable web solutions are available
- Other sites’ traffic cannot affect it
- Enhanced security
- Root Access
- Scalable
6 benefits of VPS hosting for your business
1. More Flexibility & easier Scalability
As your website grows, you will need to scale up your resources. Unlike shared hosting, VPS hosting allows you to easily scale up your resources when needed. Plus, it is easier to scale up and scale down your resources with the click of a button.
So, you can scale up when site traffic increases during a promotion or a sale, and you can scale down when it is over. Additionally, VPS hosting provides guaranteed server resources, resulting in zero to minimal fluctuations in the available resources.
2. Lowered cost as compared to the dedicated server
VPS hosting is cheaper than dedicated server hosting but provides more features than shared hosting. Also, dedicated hosting is one of the most expensive hosting solutions in the market. And if you want features of dedicated hosting in a cost-efficient way, then VPS hosting is the right choice for you. It provides greater control over the resources of the server at an affordable price.
3. Better privacy & security
VPS hosting provides you with a higher level of security when compared with shared hosting. It gives multiple dedicated servers on top of a physical server. This means each user has a complete isolated space from other users, thus making the system more secure.
Furthermore, Virtual Private Server hosting allows you to install custom security software, firewalls, and many other security features. It ensures to make your enterprise independent of other users. This provides better privacy and security to your server.
4. Greater storage & bandwidth
VPS hosting provides you access to higher levels of storage and bandwidth. Which in turn, results in better performance and more reliability. It allows you to have a greater disk space and more IOPS when compared to the shared hosting.
The resources increase as per the needs of your website. Higher bandwidth can even support websites with very high traffic. More space and higher bandwidth mean more control over the resources.
5. Faster & Reliable hosting
As your website grows, you will receive a massive amount of traffic on your website. You will need a hosting plan that has a greater loading speed no matter how much traffic your site receives. With this in mind, Virtual Private Server hosting can be the right choice for you.
As VPS hosting provides dedicated resources to each server, this can lead to the reliable and speedy loading time of your website. VPS hosting beats shared hosting in reliability, security, and overall performance. Moreover, it is not affected by other sites’ traffic.
6. OS & Software Freedom
Many shared servers are not compatible with different OS & software. They will not allow certain software to run, such as streaming software, gaming servers, etc.
However, this is not the case with Virtual Private Servers. With VPS hosting, you can run any software you want. It allows you to choose from the best OS options. Plus, with VPS hosting, you can have full control of your server with root access.
Get a field-proven VPS from GDMS today!
You have gone through the benefits of the virtual private server. So now, if you want to host your website using VPS services — try an industry-leading VPS from GDMS today.
Find out more about our VPS Service in Myanmar
Find out more about our VPS Service in Laos
GDMS (Global Digital Management Solutions) provides VPS hosting services, consulting, and digital solutions for various sectors, including government and the finance industry. Moreover, GDMS is one of the leading cloud service providers and VMware Cloud Service Provider partner. Its services are available in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. Reach out to our team today and find the best VPS hosting solutions for your business.
The Importance of Data Backup: How Cloud Solutions and the 3-2-1 Rule Can Keep Your Business Safe
Introduction
Data loss can be a major problem for businesses of all sizes. That’s why it’s crucial to have a reliable data backup plan in place to ensure that your company’s critical information is always protected. In this post, we’ll discuss some best practices for data backup, as well as the advantages of using cloud-based backups. We’ll also explain the 3-2-1 rule, a widely recognized best practice for data backup.
Best Practices for Data Backup
Regular backups are crucial to keeping your data safe and sound. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind when creating your backup plan:
Advantages of Cloud-based Backups
Cloud-based backups offer a number of advantages over traditional on-premises backups, including:
The 3-2-1 Rule
The 3-2-1 rule is a widely recognized best practice for data backup. It states that you should have:
3 copies of your data. This can include the original data and 2 backups. 2 different storage types. This can include a primary storage location, such as a hard drive, and a secondary location, such as a cloud-based service. 1 offsite copy. This could be a physical copy kept in a separate location or a cloud-based backup.
The idea behind the 3-2-1 rule is to ensure that you always have multiple copies of your data, stored in different locations so that you can quickly and easily restore your data in the event of a failure.
Conclusion
In conclusion, data backup is an essential part of any enterprise’s IT strategy. By following best practices such as the 3-2-1 rule, and leveraging the benefits of cloud-based backups, businesses can ensure that their critical information is always protected and available. By choosing a cloud service provider that offers domestic cloud services and operates data centers within their own country, enterprises can comply with data residency laws while still enjoying the scalability, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of cloud-based backups.
Our company offers cloud data backup solutions in domestic data centers of Lao PDR and Myanmar, which means that your data will be stored and processed in-country, complying with data residency laws. Our domestic cloud services provide enterprise customers with a secure and reliable way to backup their data in the cloud. We understand the importance of data sovereignty, data security, and compliance, and we strive to provide the best service for our customers.
We invite enterprises in Laos and Myanmar to take advantage of our domestic cloud backup solutions and experience the benefits of a secure and compliant way to store and protect their valuable data. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business backup its data in the cloud.
The Top Benefits of Hosting Your Data in a Sovereign Cloud
A sovereign cloud is a type of cloud computing infrastructure that is owned and operated by a national government or sovereign entity, or by a private company under contract with the government. It is intended to provide government agencies and other organizations within the country with a secure and compliant platform for hosting sensitive data and applications. There are several potential benefits to using a sovereign cloud:
What type of organizations need to host their data in a sovereign cloud?
Sovereign clouds are often used by government agencies and other organizations that need to store and process sensitive data and applications in a secure and compliant manner. This may include data that is subject to specific regulatory requirements, such as data protection and privacy laws, or data that is considered critical to the security or interests of the country.
Examples of organizations that may need to host their data in a sovereign cloud include:
It’s worth noting that sovereign clouds are not the only option for hosting sensitive data and applications securely. There are other types of cloud environments, such as private clouds and hybrid clouds, that can provide similar levels of security and compliance. Organizations should carefully consider their specific needs and requirements when choosing a cloud environment for hosting sensitive data and applications.
What factors to consider when choosing a sovereign cloud provider?
When choosing a sovereign cloud provider, there are several factors that you should consider to ensure that you find a provider that meets your needs and requirements:
In conclusion, hosting data in a sovereign cloud can provide a number of benefits for organizations that need to store and process sensitive data and applications in a secure and compliant manner. These benefits include increased security, compliance with regulatory requirements, data sovereignty, and high levels of performance and reliability. When choosing a sovereign cloud provider, it’s important to consider factors such as security and compliance, performance and reliability, data sovereignty, pricing, scalability, support, and contract terms. By carefully evaluating your needs and selecting a provider that meets them, you can ensure that your organization is able to fully leverage the benefits of a sovereign cloud for data hosting.
As a sovereign cloud provider in Laos, GDMS specializes in providing powerful and secure cloud services for government agencies and the private sector, especially in the financial services industry. We have a proven track record of delivering high-quality cloud services that meet the specific needs of our clients. If you are interested in exploring the benefits of a sovereign cloud for your organization, we encourage you to contact us to learn more about how we can support your transition to a sovereign cloud infrastructure. With our expertise and experience, we can help you to fully leverage the benefits of a sovereign cloud for your data hosting needs.
GDMS & Department of Digital Technology to host the LESMIS platform
GDMS in partnership with the Department of Digital Technology (DDT) of the Lao Ministry of Technologies and Communications (MTC) have been selected by UNICEF to host the Lao PDR Education and Sports Management Information System (LESMIS) platform.
This GIS-based data visualization and aggregation platform aims to improve data quality, ensure easy access and increase the use of data for monitoring and planning by schools/institutions and communities, districts, provinces, MoES, and development partners.
The LESMIS platform will also support the monitoring of progress under the 9th Education and Sports Development Plan (ESSDP) 2021-25 by extracting key data from the different MoES MIS, using data collection applications (e.g. on the response to COVID-19) and browser-based tools.
GDMS will rely on its sovereign cloud infrastructure to deploy the LESMIS platform. GDMS’s role is to provide a high-performance cloud infrastructure as well as value-added services such as backup solutions, level 7 firewall solutions, and a managed service offering.
About LESMIS
GDMS selected by the Lao government for eCRVS platform hosting
GDMS has been selected by the Ministry of Home Affairs of Laos (MOHA) under a World Bank tender to host the national e-CRVS platform.
The e-CRVS is a comprehensive national civil registration platform equipped to accurately record and evaluate key life events.
Civil registration is the footing of legal identity and rights-based service delivery. A Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) system records the details of all major life events, such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces.
By providing relevant records and data about these life events, e-CRVS will support the effective delivery of essential services and help assess the goals of the government’s social and economic development plan.
Madam Kommaly Vilaphanh, Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs Lao PDR
The platform is developed by WCC Group, a leading provider of advanced solutions for government identification/security agencies.
GDMS will leverage two data centers of the Government of Laos to deploy the e-CRVS platform. GDMS’ role is to provide redundant cloud infrastructure as well as value-added services such as container orchestration (Kubernetes), object storage, backup, and disaster management solutions.
Sovereign Cloud – An Integral Component of Multi-cloud Strategies
Enterprises globally are resorting to multi-cloud strategy to reap the benefits of improved flexibility, scalability, and efficiency coupled with enhanced performance and increased cost-reduction.
Statista Research indicates around 90% of large enterprises have already adopted multi-cloud. Furthermore, a survey shows the multi-cloud usage across industries from 2020 to 2023, indicating the insurance and telecommunications industry at the highest level.
That said, the growth of multi-cloud environments is accompanied by newer challenges, particularly those concerning privacy regulations and jurisdiction control.
Technology comes to the rescue—the Sovereign Cloud.
What is a Sovereign Cloud?
In simple terminology, Sovereign Cloud ensures that all the enterprise data remains on sovereign soil and prevents any data from being accessed by foreign entities under any circumstances. It offers a secure and trusted environment for the storage and processing of data, ensuring it never crosses borders.
The rationale behind the architecture of sovereign cloud is to deliver security and data access that complies with the stringent industry regulations and adheres to the local jurisdiction laws on privacy, security, and control.
Importance of Data Sovereignty
Of late, there’s been a growing concern across countries on data privacy and localization. Under this, nations like the European Union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while others, including Australia and New Zealand, focused on enacting data localization regulations.
VMWare Research indicates that around 80% of global organizations use a combination of private, on-premise, and edge cloud environments. And 46% of organizations are expecting to add more cloud environments.
However, while organizations use multi-cloud for various reasons, they are equally concerned about data privacy and integrity in these environments. In a study conducted, 80% of respondents from the healthcare sector reported that multi-cloud use puts their sensitive patient data at risk.
These facts indicate the importance of data sovereignty across industry verticals, emphasizing the inclusion of sovereign cloud in an organization’s multi-cloud strategy.
Benefits of Sovereign Cloud
The sovereign cloud offers various cloud-native advantages to enterprises while adhering to the principles of data privacy, security, sovereignty, and other regulatory mandates.
Role of Sovereign Cloud in a multi-cloud strategy
By incorporating and integrating sovereign cloud into their multi-cloud strategy, organizations can enhance their productivity and services while enjoying various benefits.
Let’s check it out.
With rapid digital transformation, economies across the globe, including Australia and New Zealand, are looking for opportunities to tap the potential of Sovereign Cloud. Regulatory authorities and policymakers are shifting their focus towards judiciously investing in data spaces. That said, Sovereign cloud ensures all data storage and management takes place within the purview of the data privacy, security, and compliance regulations.
In a limited cloud adoption scenario, sovereign cloud providers can help enterprises better to meet the data storage needs while remaining compliant with privacy standards. Besides, local cloud providers contribute to the growth of local communities and, thereby, a nation at the broader level.
VMware Cloud Provider Program partners offer local services on a geographical basis.
All data is not the same. That implies the correct data must be deployed in the right cloud in case of a multi-cloud environment. Here, the sovereign cloud plays an integral role by enabling enterprises to innovatively manage critical data in a dynamic geopolitical landscape.
Users need a robust network to experience a hassle-free 24/7 availability of digital services. If a server goes down due to a cyberattack or a natural calamity, enterprises are confronted with the risk of their sovereign data, stored in a secondary location as a backup, being compromised.
However, with Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) on the sovereign cloud, organizations can rest assured that all sensitive and critical data resides on a sovereign infrastructure, securing data integrity and ensuring business continuity.
Closing thoughts
In the era of digitalization, data privacy and integrity have increased significance. With enterprises migrating to multi-cloud infrastructure and countries mandating data protection, Sovereign cloud will gain more momentum soon.
About GDMS
GDMS is a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) specialized in sovereign cloud for developing markets. We currently operate in Laos and Myanmar and ambition to expand to Cambodia and Vietnam by the end of the year.
As a fully independent CSP, we leverage our wealth of experience in multi-cloud deployments and in-country multi-site facilities to address Clients’ needs for flexibility and integration with Global Hyperscaler’s.
How to Choose the Right SSL Certificate for your Business?
Globally, 30,000 websites are hacked daily. Every 39 seconds, there is a new attack somewhere on the web.
Trust is paramount to any business transacting online.
GDMS is supporting businesses in building trust and security across Asia. We offer a wide range of security certificates such as SSL certificates (wildcard, OV, DV…), Email Signing Certificates, and Web Security Solutions.
What SSL Certificates matter
Now that browsers display “Not Secure” warnings for webpages served over HTTP, making the decision to protect your entire website with SSL/TLS certificates is a no-brainer. What’s not so obvious is which type of certificate makes the most sense.
Without guidance, choosing the right SSL certificate can be a bit overwhelming. But, it’s way too important to be left to chance. Your online reputation and success depend on making an informed decision. Online buyers get savvier by the minute, and website security solution says a lot more about you than you think. Here are the key factors to consider when deciding which SSL certificate is right for you.
How many domains and sub-domains do you need to protect?
Single SSL certificates secure one domain name or URL. When you have multiple domains and subdomains to protect, things can get a little pricey and tough to manage. That’s where Wildcard and Multi-domain certificates come in. They save you money and simplify management.
How important is identity validation?
Trust is today’s most valuable currency online—no matter what type of website you have. All SSL certificates include encryption to protect data in transit, including usernames, passwords, and credit card information. But, you need to decide what level of identity authentication, also known as validation, is enough for your visitors to feel comfortable without a doubt that you’re a legitimate organization and not some phishing site. The more premium the SSL certificate, the more in-depth the validation, the more visible the visual trust indicators, and the more confident your visitors.
What are your goals?
If your online reputation is a key factor in your success and your goal is to maximize conversions, trust is essential. Studies show 69% of online shoppers specifically look for websites that display trust symbols. display instantly recognizable visual indicators, plus are proven to increase sales.
How much risk can you afford?
SSL certificates typically come with a warranty so, in the event of a hack or data breach that results from a flaw in the certificate, you’re covered. Warranty levels vary, with some lower-end certificates—such as DV and a few OVs—covering up to $10,000 in damages and some higher-end products offering up to $1,750,000 in coverage.
General rules of thumb
If you’re running a blog or personal non-e-commerce website, a Domain Validation (DV) SSL certificate is probably sufficient. They’re fast, have no frills, and provide basic encryption with domain-only validation.
If proving your organization is legit matters, but EV is outside your budget, an Organization Validation (OV) SSL certificate might be a good fit. It provides a bit more authentication and comes with a clickable dynamic site seal, so visitors can feel more confident it’s really you on the other end. For eCommerce sites, OV should be the absolute minimum.
If you’re a national or global brand, want to maximize confidence and conversions, and clearly show customers their security is one of your top priorities, an Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificate is the way to go. The authentication process is the most extensive, so it takes a little longer, but the payoff is it comes with the green address bar—the most universally trusted symbol across the web. It’s impossible to fake so it’s the ultimate trust builder. One Tec-ED study even showed EV is proven to increase conversions.
Still not sure? We’re here to help.
Tips and tactics for securing a VPS Server
Introduction:
A Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a cross-functional virtual operating system that resides within the host server and effectively mimics a dedicated server environment despite being on a shared physical server. The usage of VPS hosting has increased exponentially because it is less expensive than dedicated hosting and provides better security protocol, performance, affordability, accessibility, control, data protection, flexibility, growth, customization, and reliability than shared hosting.
Tips and Tricks for securing VPS structure
To avoid cybercriminals and fraudsters to attack your data files, Virtual Private Server (VPS) can be secured in the following ways:
Disable Root Logins
Cybercriminals and fraudsters try to unlock the login credentials and gain access to the server. Disabling the password from the “root” username enhances security protocol and the cyberattackers will not be able to guess your login details. Therefore, creating another username to execute root-level instructions is recommended.
Use Strong Passwords
It is easy to guess weak login credentials that contain information related to identity. Passwords containing upper case letters, special characters, and numbers can secure your account from any cyber threat. It is also recommended to not reuse the same login passwords. Bitwarden and Lastpass are online security tools that can also be used to create strong passwords.
Configuring an Internal Firewall
Configuring an internal firewall helps the user to avoid undesirable and malicious traffic to gain access to your system and also helps to defend the distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS).
Change Default SSH Port
Switching the SSH port number can avoid hackers to connect directly to the default number (22).To change the SSH port number, you will have to open up /etc/ssh/sshd_config for appropriate settings.
Prioritize the use of SFTP instead of FTP
Cybercriminals can cause a sniffing attack to gain access to your login credentials if an outdated File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is used, even while using “FTP” over “TLS” (FTPS). To avoid cyber attacks, use “FTP” over “SSH” or (SFTP).
Install an Antivirus Software
Setting up an internal firewall is the first line of defense that can deny access to any malicious activity, but it is not a foolproof security protocol. Installation of antivirus software is needed to further enhance security. ClamAV is an open-source antivirus that is most commonly used for the detection of any malicious activity.
Connect to your VPS via VPN
Most VPS are configured simply by exposing web or app services directly to the Internet. If your VPS is only accessed by end-users within your enterprise environment, you should consider implementing a LAN to LAN VPN between your IT environment and the VPS server. Then you should implement a firewall and only allow the VPN ports. Every other service should be tunneled via the VPN service.
Avoid Anonymous FTP Uploads
It is important to edit your server’s FTP framework to disable unidentified FTP uploads. Because it can cause a huge cyber threat and make the system vulnerable to security issues.
Disable IPv6
In most cases, cybercriminals send malicious traffic through IPv6 to gain access to the system. And make the user more susceptible to hacking attacks. Upgrade the settings like NETWORKING_ IPV6=no and IPV6INIT=no.
Securing Offsite Backups
A significant data loss will occur if you keep the backup system on a similar VPS. To prevent further data loss and security breaches, it is recommended to store your backups on a remote server.
Install a rootkit Scanner
Rootkit is an important component of malware that works below other security tools and permits undetected access to a server. To fix this problem, reinstall the OS (Operating System).
Use GnuPG Encryption
It is important to encrypt transmissions to your server because cybercriminals attack data files while it is in transit over a network. Encryption can be done by using passwords, certificates, and keys. For that purpose, GnuPG, an authentication system, can be used to encrypt transmissions.
Use SSL Certificates For Everything
To ensure privacy, it is helpful to use SSL certificates that create an encrypted channel between the server and the client.
Conclusion:
Unlike VPC, Virtual Private Server (VPS) are exposed to the Internet, which means that these cloud products are exposed to a lot of cybersecurity threats that need to be defended to mitigate the chances of a security breach. It is very important to know about every perspective of security threats, especially on a self-managed VPS. Most companies running their business online have basic security plans, which are not effective enough to stop penetration attacks.
Therefore, IT admins must know how to implement the best security measures such as disabling root logins, ensuring strong passwords, configuring a firewall, using SFTP instead of FTP, changing the default SSH listening port, using antivirus software, using VPN for your VPS, disabling IPv6, avoid uploading anonymous FTP, securing offsite backups, updating the system on regular basis and by using Spam filters.
GDMS Infrastructure as a Service offerings (IaaS) solutions allow our customers to control their own data infrastructure without having to physically manage it on-site. Find out more about our VPC and VPS Services.
6 Ways VPS Hosting Can Benefit your Business
Introduction
You want to host a website for your business and looking for different options. However, when you are all set for hosting, there are certain things to consider. What type of plan will be good for your business and the one that aligns with all your hosting needs.
While considering different hosting plans, you might have come across VPS hosting but didn’t know if it will be the right fit for your business or not. Worry not. In this article, we’ll discuss VPS hosting, its advantages, and all the ways it can benefit your business.
What is a VPS?
Before diving more into its advantages, let’s have a look at what VPS hosting is?
VPS is a Virtual Private Server that uses virtualization technology to provide hosting solutions. It is the best solution for people who have outgrown their shared hosting. VPS combines the features of both shared hosting and dedicated hosting.
In VPS hosting, you will still have multiple neighbors, but it allows you to have a separate dedicated server for your website with a reserved amount of resources and memory. In short, VPS divides a single physical server into multiple virtual private servers.
Advantages of VPS as compared to the physical server
6 benefits of VPS hosting for your business
1. More Flexibility & easier Scalability
As your website grows, you will need to scale up your resources. Unlike shared hosting, VPS hosting allows you to easily scale up your resources when needed. Plus, it is easier to scale up and scale down your resources with the click of a button.
So, you can scale up when site traffic increases during a promotion or a sale, and you can scale down when it is over. Additionally, VPS hosting provides guaranteed server resources, resulting in zero to minimal fluctuations in the available resources.
2. Lowered cost as compared to the dedicated server
VPS hosting is cheaper than dedicated server hosting but provides more features than shared hosting. Also, dedicated hosting is one of the most expensive hosting solutions in the market. And if you want features of dedicated hosting in a cost-efficient way, then VPS hosting is the right choice for you. It provides greater control over the resources of the server at an affordable price.
3. Better privacy & security
VPS hosting provides you with a higher level of security when compared with shared hosting. It gives multiple dedicated servers on top of a physical server. This means each user has a complete isolated space from other users, thus making the system more secure.
Furthermore, Virtual Private Server hosting allows you to install custom security software, firewalls, and many other security features. It ensures to make your enterprise independent of other users. This provides better privacy and security to your server.
4. Greater storage & bandwidth
VPS hosting provides you access to higher levels of storage and bandwidth. Which in turn, results in better performance and more reliability. It allows you to have a greater disk space and more IOPS when compared to the shared hosting.
The resources increase as per the needs of your website. Higher bandwidth can even support websites with very high traffic. More space and higher bandwidth mean more control over the resources.
5. Faster & Reliable hosting
As your website grows, you will receive a massive amount of traffic on your website. You will need a hosting plan that has a greater loading speed no matter how much traffic your site receives. With this in mind, Virtual Private Server hosting can be the right choice for you.
As VPS hosting provides dedicated resources to each server, this can lead to the reliable and speedy loading time of your website. VPS hosting beats shared hosting in reliability, security, and overall performance. Moreover, it is not affected by other sites’ traffic.
6. OS & Software Freedom
Many shared servers are not compatible with different OS & software. They will not allow certain software to run, such as streaming software, gaming servers, etc.
However, this is not the case with Virtual Private Servers. With VPS hosting, you can run any software you want. It allows you to choose from the best OS options. Plus, with VPS hosting, you can have full control of your server with root access.
Get a field-proven VPS from GDMS today!
You have gone through the benefits of the virtual private server. So now, if you want to host your website using VPS services — try an industry-leading VPS from GDMS today.
Find out more about our VPS Service in Myanmar
Find out more about our VPS Service in Laos
GDMS (Global Digital Management Solutions) provides VPS hosting services, consulting, and digital solutions for various sectors, including government and the finance industry. Moreover, GDMS is one of the leading cloud service providers and VMware Cloud Service Provider partner. Its services are available in Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. Reach out to our team today and find the best VPS hosting solutions for your business.
Shift your enterprise communications to VoIP
With the pandemic hitting South East Asia, companies had to go through a brutal transformation of their organization to accommodate employees working from remote locations sometimes with unexpected notices.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, Governments in Myanmar and Laos have enforced lockdowns with such short notice that some companies see their business disrupted because they were not prepared to shift to work from home.
Even if the era of lockdowns seems to be a thing of the past, it could happen for employees to catch COVID-19 and need to isolate themselves. To ensure business continuity, it is crucial for every company to ensure employees can work seamlessly from home.
Customer Care and Tech Support, one of the top challenges of the pandemic
Working from home can be pretty easy for those that do not work in a customer-facing position. What is really needed is a good Internet broadband, a VPN to access the enterprise network, and shared drives.
The biggest challenge lies in departments that need to deal with customers on a daily basis. How do you ensure that inbound customer calls are routed to your customer care no matter where the team is at the moment. How do you make sure that people get the support they are entitled to when your team mostly works from home?
Some of the customer channels are easier to adapt to the new normal, such as instant messaging, emails, or chat boxes. These can easily be accessed by customer agents from home.
But a lot of customers still have the habit to pick up the phone when they bump into an issue. If the company phone number is tied to a physical line that ends in an empty office, the customer will face a very disappointing experience.
Shift your Customer Service to Voice over IP (VoIP)
What if you can dissociate the phone number from a physical location? What if a phone number can just be a virtual entry point to your customer service no matter where your agents stand?
According to Wikipedia, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.
Shifting to VoIP services ensure your customer call will always be picked up. How? Because a number is not tied anymore to a physical location but to an intelligent PBX -that could sit in the cloud- that will route the call to your employees no matter where they are.
By using VoIP services, your customer service can be reached from anywhere:
You can create policies to ensure that calls get rerouted in case the agent is not reachable. You can also create advanced IVR (Interactive voice response) to route calls to the right department.
GDMS offers VoIP services in Laos and Myanmar. We have partnered with leading telecom operators in both countries and can lease long and short numbers (also called DID or Direct Inward Dialing) to your business.
Interested to know more about VoIP? Read our article about SIP Trunk and DID numbers
GDMS also offers Cloud PBX capabilities with advanced features such as
All these features can be offered “as a service” with no investment from your end. GDMS can design, implement and operate a complete call center and VoIP solutions letting the customer focus on what matters the most: his business.
The shift to Unified Communications
Unified Communications (UC) refers to a phone system that integrates multiple communication channels within a business.
UC is the next level that helps companies consolidate their support channel into one single platform. With UC, customer service can access customer information in real-time from one interface with powerful integrations.
UC can fully integrate multiple communication channels such as Instant Messaging, Voice, SMS or Chatbox.
GDMS built strong partnerships with UC technology leaders in order to help companies in Laos and Myanmar transition their phone systems to Unified Communication.
Interested to shift your enterprise communications to Voice over IP? Contact us for a private conversation!
GDMS, a strategic player in the transition to the local cloud
The public cloud, which is currently making record profits, is reaching its limits. More and more companies are considering repatriating their data as close as possible to their business center. The reasons are diverse: economic, ecological, sovereignist, or pragmatically for performance.
Yesterday, Wednesday, March 30, the French Business Club in Laos met at Metisse Restaurant. Mathieu Ploton from Global Digital Management Solutions presented how GDMS supports businesses and the Lao government in their transition to the domestic cloud.
GDMS Cloud Services Presentation for the French Business Club in Vientiane, Lao PDR
GDMS Cloud Services Presentation for the French Business Club in Vientiane, Lao PDR
Why a local cloud?
Data Privacy and Data Sovereignty
Nowadays, US and Chinese companies dominate the public cloud market. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud represent two-thirds of the public cloud market share.
Public Cloud Provider Market Share in Q4 2021
The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act or CLOUD Act allows U.S. federal law enforcement to request data from U.S.-based technology companies regardless of geographical location. It means that data hosted in leading cloud companies such as AWS or Azure can by warrant be handed over to the US government. This could represent a sovereignty issue when it is related to sensitive data such as personal information.
As for Chinese companies, there are only a few cases where China compelled public cloud providers to release customer data.
Companies in Lao PDR and the government shall take this risk into consideration when selecting a location to store customer or citizen personal data. The best location will only be to host this data locally with a local company hence solely subject to the local law.
Local Cloud significantly improves user experience
There are two network parameters that impact the performance of web applications. Bandwidth and Latency. A common belief is that the former is the most impactful but it is actually not the case.
Page Load Time as Bandwidth/Latency Increase
Latency is the time for a packet to leave someone’s computer, reach the destination server and come back. When a user attempts to load a webpage, there are multiple sessions involved hence multiple back and forth between the user computer and the server.
The nearest public cloud provider from Laos is Singapore which represents a return trip of 40-50ms between the local user and the remote server. From a webpage loading perspective, it translates into 1s of load time between the time the user press enters and the time the webpage starts to load. This is quite significant, especially for users that work on business applications such as CRM or ERP which constant interaction to a remote web server.
By hosting a business application locally, the latency can be reduced from 45ms to less than 5ms. The impact on the user experience is immense and for business users, it also means a significant improvement in productivity.
Edge Computing, the future of cloud computing?
What Is Edge Computing? Edge computing is a distributed IT architecture that moves computing resources from clouds and data centers as close as possible to the originating source.
To foster the development of edge computing, it is crucial to develop in-country infrastructure. Datacenters of various sizes, fiber networks, local internet exchange. Edge computing in essence is deployed as close to the user as possible. A large data center in the city capital will not be sufficient to deploy edge computing but it is definitely a start.
Edge Computing Forecasted Value per Industry
Edge Computing enables the development of new applications: Smartgrid, Remote monitoring of assets, Predictive maintenance, In-Hospital Patient Monitoring, Traffic Management, Virtualised radio networks, and 5G, Cloud Gaming…
GDMS, an international company with a local reach
GDMS is the very first cloud service provider in Lao PDR. Our technology stack is deployed in a local data center facility in Vientiane that complies with international standards of availability and performance.
We partner with international vendors to offer cutting-edge cloud services to our customers in Lao PDR.
GDMS Cloud Services and Products
We have the ambition to deploy additional cloud availability zones in Lao PDR in the near future to enable Edge Computing Applications.