SQL Server is one of the most stable and widely used database engines around in corporate environments. Given that SQL Server 2008 R2 Express+ is available free of charge, is rock solid and can support databases up to 10GB in size, it's a logical choice for many web and desktop applications hosted in-house in corporate environments. 

What can often be overlooked until it's too late (i.e. malware has corrupted the database, ransomware has encrypted it or the hard disk has given up the ghost) is a robust backup strategy. Commercial SQL Server backup tools can cost thousands but our method of choice is a robust Windows Powershell script. This script:

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We'd like to talk today a bit about how you can quickly leverage the incredible power of Google Website Optimizer to roll out experiments on your data-driven website - ultimately driving your conversion rates upward. read more...

A solid site architecture is essential to any site hoping to compete in the online world. Your site architecture is, firstly, essential to your users. A logical arrangement, accompanied by on-page elements such as breadcrumbs, Johnson boxes, obvious navigation paths and page headings and sub-headings will ensure that users receive a clear signal that their current page is where they need to be. read more...

First of all, what is Gzip? Gzip is a compression utility that has gained in popularity in recent years for a few reasons, notably it's open source software and the algorithms it uses are free from patents. This might not appear to be a big problem but if you've ever had to pay for a AES-512 encryption licence, you'll probably appreciate it that bit more. read more...

This crops up all the time. We install a particular software suite on a clients' server and when we execute the script, it spits out an error about file_get_contents not expecting some arguments. Grrr, that's our first warning sign that we're probably running PHP4 on the server. A lot of companies continue to run PHP4 and while the upgrade from PHP4 to PHP5 is generally very smooth, not all server components update as well. Thus, rather than upgrading the entire server, we provide some simple bridging functions for some of the most commonly used PHP5 functions. file_get_contents is one such function. read more...