Podcast | The Keys to Success on the Web with Alberto Medina

Podcast season 2 google success on the web Plesk

Hello Pleskians! Another month, another episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In this episode, we welcome Alberto Medina, Developer Advocate at Google. He and his team are focused on developer relations and the Open Web, with a keen interest in WordPress.

Podcast Plesk Alberto Medina

In This Episode: 4 Factors for Measuring Success on the Web

Just creating on the web isn’t the best approach when you’re trying to be a successful creator or business owner. Alberto knows that, and he, with his team at Google, are dedicated to helping creators by showing them how to be more successful.
Straight away, Alberto talks about why Google is interested in this. And it’s simple:

I am very interested in doing everything I can to contribute to the evolution and the quality of the web, for everyone…Google, like many other organizations, is a company that depends on the web, right? We are a web company; therefore, the success of the web is at the core of our success as a business.

A rising tide lifts all boats, as it were! Because of that, Alberto (and Google) have put a lot of thought into tools and concepts to help us all make better, engaging websites and content.
In fact, Alberto says that there are 4 key factors to measuring success:

  1. Quality Content: Content is king, and the more value you bring to your users, the more successful you’ll be.
  2. Performance: Your content needs to load fast, be accessible, and have a good user experience. People won’t wait around for content if it takes a long time to load or it’s hard to access.
  3. Monitoring: By tracking page views, monitoring performance, and learning how people are interacting with your content, you’ll better understand your users to create even better content.
  4. Monetization: Understanding that there are several ways to monetize your content allows you to get paid for what you enjoy doing, as well as spend more time doing it!

To help with these success factors, there are lots of tools and resources that Alberto mentioned, like:

In fact, the whole reason Google teamed up with Plesk to bring you this episode is because both organizations offer a whole suite of tools to help you create great, performant content that you can monitor and monetize.

Key Takeaways

  • Creating on the Open Web instead of just on closed platforms is better for your content in the long run. Web Stories, an Open Web form of the popular social media feature, is one way to publish your stories on your own platform.
  • While there are lots of ways to improve performance on your website, many are technical. This can be the hardest part of a good website experience. Tools like AMP can help.
  • You need to understand how your content is performing. Monitoring tools like Google’s Site Console, and Site Kit can go a long way…as can A/B testing.
  • The idea of User-perceived Speed is you want the least amount of time between a user going to your website and the first thing they see. Don’t block content with heavy resources, like big images or videos.
  • Core Web Vitals, which can be found at Web.Dev, provides a unified set of signals to help you deliver a good, quality experience, based on the 4 success factors.
  • Above all, be sure to focus on the user – tell stories that will help them!

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

 

Joe Casabona


Joe is a college-accredited course developer and podcast consultant. You can find him at Casabona.org.


Alberto Medina


Alberto is a Developer Advocate at Google.


Did you know we’re also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts? In fact, you can find us pretty much anywhere you get your daily dose of podcasts. As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops. And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Podcast | The Importance of Digital Presence with Jens Meggers

Plesk podcast digitalization

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back and we’re kicking off Season 2 of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In the episode, we’ve got Jens Meggers setting the stage for the entire season, as we talk about the importance of having a digital presence, and the growth of eCommerce in 2020.

Podcast Jens Meggers Plesk WebPros

In This Episode: You Need a Digital Presence, The Future of eCommerce, and how WebPros can help

COVID-19 and the global pandemic changed how many people are doing business. Anyone who relied on foot traffic and in-person shopping needed to make a serious pivot if they wanted to survive. As a result, eCommerce grew considerably. But as Jens points out, it’s not just a the website that matters:

“It’s all about getting the results fastest with the least amount of effort, because they also don’t necessarily want to hire a whole bunch of people…And it’s also not only just creating, it’s entire workflow. We already know that [a bagel shop] has bagels. But you want to pick your favorite bagel Monday morning 8am, without touching anyone. So the workflow and the automation around that is the most important thing.”

This lead us into the future of eCommerce. Jens believes there’s no going back to the way things were. We’ve shown customers what they can have, and we can’t take it away now. The convenience of ordering online and picking something up is too great. Similarly, lots of people are learning for the first time that they can make good money online. That’s the highest priority now, so we will see more people creating digital presences and better experiences. “As many experiences as possible will move into the virtual world,” says Jens.With that in mind, WebPros is equipped with all of the tools necessary to help all businesses create better digital experiences. cPanel and Plesk, their flagship products, are designed to help you create and manage your website, giving you a huge suite of tools to do so.

WHMCS, the fastest growing product, allows you to automate your hosting business. XOVI helps you see how traffic is being driven to your website. Jens says, “We see this as a responsibility…to help you after [your site launches]. SolusIO and SolusVM are virtual machines done right! They simplify virtual infrastructure management – an important task in an increasingly remote-work centric world.”

Key Takeaways

  • We saw industries digitize over the last 10 years. Video meetings, retail stores, digital price tags, and much more. This got accelerated with pandemic.
  • Customers thought, “Get me to the results faster.” It’s not just website, it’s workflow. And during the pandemic it needed to be good, fast, and cheap.
  • We have set the standard on digitization and business digitization, and it’s here to stay.
  • A lot of people are moving to transact and make money online. It is the highest priority for a lot of people.
  • WebPros supports business owners by supplying the technology that creates digital experiences (not just a shopping cart or web page). Their vision is to create a digital presence for anyone.
  • Soon, anything we can do in the physical world, we’ll be able to do in the virtual world.
  • “It’s always a good time to start a business if you have a good idea.”

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring


Joe Casabona


Joe is a college-accredited course developer and podcast consultant. You can find him at Casabona.org.


Jens Meggers


Jens is the CEO of WebPros
Did you know we’re also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts? In fact, you can find us pretty much anywhere you get your daily dose of podcasts. As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops. And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Next Level Ops: Season 1 Recap

Hello Pleskians! As we approach our second season of Next Level Ops: The Official Plesk Podcast, we’re bringing you a Season 1 Recap while you get ready for more quality content. 

The podcast was created for you, Plesky reader (and listener), to give you industry insights and tips into the world of web hosting, development and management. 

So let your curiosity fly and learn through listening to these 10 curated episodes, hosted by podcast wiz Joe Casabona.

Episode 1 

20 Years of Evolution in Web Hosting

Kicking off our first ever episode of Next Level Ops, Joe meets Lukas Hertig, veteran Pleskian and fellow hosting enthusiast, to look back on 20 years of websites and hosting.

As they re-live the early years of websites and hosting (the ‘wild wild west’, in the words of Lukas), the interview unpacks the industry evolution from 2000 to today. From the first dynamic webs, to major disrupters like WordPress, the conversation ponders the growth of web hosting, and questions the future of hosting as-we-know-it. 

Looking for a trip down memory lane? Stream the episode here:

Lukas Hertig  

Lukas is the SVP Business Development & Strategic Alliances at Plesk.

Episode 2

Partnerships and High-Level Hosting Support

In this chapter, Joe interviews Pleskian Partner wizard, Francisco Pereira Carvalho, to delve into the global nature of today’s hosting market.

With more than 32 languages supported, serving 140 countries worldwide at Plesk, Francisco describes the essence of understanding what’s important for different cultures and regions. He explains that members of the Partner Program benefit from the intuitive and easy Plesk tool with the advantages of an international team.

Enticed yet? Stream the episode to find out more about the program here:

Francisco Pereira Carvalho  

Francisco is the Head of Sales at Plesk.

Episode 3

The Power of Extensions

If you’ve ever built a website, you’ve probably installed at least one or two extensions to enhance your web management. They provide extra tools and features to make your website run smoothly or to improve user experience.

In this episode of Next Level Ops, Joe talks to Jan Loeffler about Plesk’s extensions and kits that make users and admins love the Plesk experience. Some of the so-called ‘Lighthouse extensions’ – which are the most popular ones with users – are included as standard on Plesk. Others, like the SEO Toolkit, are available for download.

But what makes them so great? Let Jan and Joe tell you in Episode 3:

Jan Loeffler  

Jan is the Chief Technical Officer at Plesk.

Episode 4

How Not to Become a Security Engineer

For the fourth instalment of the series, Joe chats with security warlock Igor Antipkin about safeguarding websites. As he explains, the need to educate and be aware of potential threats is real. Web admins need to know the software they use, and share key insights with their own communities.

Alright, so now you’re getting worried. But have no fear, this episode explains how easy security can be with Plesk (and how to avoid dedicating your life to it):

Igor Antipkin  

Igor is a Security Engineer at Plesk. 

Episode 5

Finding the Right Managed Hosting for You

As WordPress continues to grow, traditional, service-free hosts could be left behind. This is what Andrey Kugaevskiy tells us in this episode of Next Level Ops, spelling out the benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting. 

In this month’s discussion with Joe, we learn how choosing a suitable WordPress host can be tricky, and you should keep WordPress-savvy people around if you’re not sure. Andrey suggests, for a smoother, easier and safer experience, take the option of host + management, any day.

Hear the full break-down of Managed WordPress options to make your life easier:

Andrey Kugaevskiy  

Andrey is a Senior Program Manager at Plesk.

Episode 6

Competing in a Hyperscale Cloud Environment

Welcoming back Lukas Hertig, episode 6 explores the world of cloud hosting, its applications in our everyday lives, and ‘hyperscaling’. In other words, companies like Netflix and Amazon that are scaling their operations thanks to shared services in the cloud.

More and more, hosting services opt for the cloud, with its flexibility and specialist managed services. So how do you compete in that environment? Are you thirsty to know how to benefit from the cloud, from experts?

Well then listen to this episode here:

Lukas Hertig  

Lukas is the SVP Business Development & Strategic Alliances at Plesk.

Episode 7

The Downtime Checklist and Web Scaling

Jan Loeffler, tech mage at Plesk, returns for this edition of Next Level Ops to discuss scalability and hosting. 

As you grow your online presence and traffic starts streaming in, Jan talks of the necessary steps for scaling. Have you considered how you’ll avoid downtime? Does your server have the capacity to grow? How long will customers have to wait for the page to load? Jan suggests a Downtime Checklist for scaling and optimization, but you’ll have to hear the full version in the episode here:

Jan Loeffler  

Jan is the Chief Technical Officer at Plesk.

Episode 8

Solving Common WordPress Problems

“The great and terrible thing about WordPress is the amount of freedom you have.” Guest-starring to discuss common issues with WordPress, product wizard Lucas Radke explains the value of a secure hosting environment. With so much margin for error, web builders, admin and users have to be proactive in preventing risks for their WordPress.

But hope is not lost. Click play to learn how powerful hosting and plugins make your life easier and avoid the most common WordPress mishaps:

Lucas Radke

Lucas is a Product Manager at Plesk

Episode 9

The World of Email Hosting Providers

Are you searching for the best email hosting provider, and don’t know where to start? Scratching your head about enterprise options? Then put on those headphones and tune in to this edition of the Plesk Official Podcast, where Joe speaks to Christian Mollekopf from Apheleia IT to clarify the features and pitfalls of email hosting.

You’ll learn about calendar options, self-hosting, spam control and more. Click play to get the full intel:

Christian Mollekopf

Christian is a Senior Software Engineer at Apheleia IT.

Episode 10

Toolkits and Tips for Web Development

For the final episode of this season of Next Level Ops, special guest Brian Richards, Creator of WPSessions, takes us listeners through the modern tools for everyday web developers. 

Besides imparting useful tips about coding, Brian provides a specific list of great web dev tools and learning resources, suitable for keeping any developer in-the-know. 

Intrigued? Get your coding fix by pressing the play button:

Brian Richards

Brian is the Creator of WPsessions and an independent web developer.

Did this series leave you wanting more? To make sure that you get your regular dose of tech podcasts, Season 2 is coming soon. Watch this space, or our Spotify and Apple Podcast channels to get the latest updates.

Get to Know our Season 1 Host:

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Next Level Ops Podcast: Modern Web Development Tools with Brian Richards

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the tenth and final episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. We’re already at the close of the season and we’d like to thank every single one of our guests and listeners, as well as our host for being a part of Next Level Ops! In this installment, Superhost Joe chats with Brian Richards, Creator of WPSessions, about essential web development tools for modern web developers.

In This Episode: jQuery Turns 14, Brian’s Toolkit for Web Development, and Leveling Up

What coding tools are there for the everyday web developer? With a great amount of web development tools out there, how do you decide which ones to have in your toolbox? How can you level up your skills and find new tools to use? All of this and more in this episode of Next Level Ops.

“Knowing which tools to look for is the entire battle. So, where do you find the tools that help make your job easier? How do you know that they actually work as advertised? Why should you trust them? When can you trust them?”

Brian Richards, Creator of WPsessions

Use Code Linting

First of all, you can start with some concepts to get familiar with. For example, code linting helps you find errors in your code while you’re writing your code. It shows you where you’ve inserted a character that breaks your code depending on the language you’re coding in.

Configure Your Code Editor

Second, Brian recommends that you find a code editor that you love. Moreover, you can configure the code editor of your choice to be more productive for you by changing short codes and adding code completion and formatting. A few changes like this and it will customize your code editor to be the best choice for you. Keep in mind that instead of looking for the next shiny product, use the tools that work for you and stick to them. Keep reading for recommended code editors and local development tools below. 

Follow Coding Standards

Additionally, for coding it’s important to adapt some kind of coding standards and making sure that you follow them. Following standards should help you avoid running into bugs. Learn about local development environments that help you build projects for the web while offline. There are many tools specialized for the platform and languages you want to work with.

Love the Command Line

And last but not least, become familiar with and begin to love the command line. So, read on to find the key takeaways of recommended tools and strategies from Brian to orient your web development. This list is a must-have for web developers so better bookmark this page!

Key Takeaways

A List of Great Tools

  • Free and open-source code editor: VSCode
  • Code sniffers that can check your code for compliance with regulatory requirements.
  • Github needs little introduction. Use it for testing, deploying and peer-review.
  • Laravel Valet is a fast local, development environment for Mac with minimal resource requirements.
  • Use Local by Flywheel for local WordPress development.
  • Lando is a local development dependency management and automation tool.
  • Know and love the Command Line:
  • Wait at least two years before adopting a new library. And if you’re picking up a code library, don’t forget to follow the coding standards set by the library.

Choose Your Learning Battles

…Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear all the details. If you’re interested in hearing more from Next Level Ops, check out the rest of our podcasts. This was the last installment this season, so keep checking in to find out our future plans!

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Brian Richards

Brian is the Creator of WPsessions and an independent web developer.

Did you know we’re also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts? In fact, you can find us pretty much anywhere you get your daily dose of podcasts. As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops.  Until next time, stay safe.

Next Level Ops Podcast: Working with Self-hosting Email with Christian Mollekopf

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the ninth episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. Only one more to go and we’re already at the close of Season 1! In this installment, Superhost Joe and Christian Mollekopf from Apheleia IT talk about working with self-hosting email.

In This Episode: Choosing An Email Hosting Provider, Reputation Management and Taking Back Control

What should you consider when choosing an email hosting provider? What are some of the options users have when searching for good email providers, especially if you also want to look at enterprise options? Is it good enough to opt for what your web host offers or to use a service like GSuite? What are some of the things you should think about when going the self-hosting route? In this episode, Joe and Christian discuss how to address options and issues surrounding email hosting. 

“I think usually it [email] is something that you are going to use for quite a long time. It’s like a very central part of your infrastructure typically. So, I think it’s definitely worth considering a couple of options,” says Christian. When choosing the right hosting provider, it’s worth considering things like what are the features you require, whether it’s simply email or also calendars and tasks, whether you need shared folders and calendars, and which type of client do you want. Another factor to consider is vendor lock in – just in case you want to transfer to another hosting provider and how easy will it be for you to migrate your data to another system. 

If vendor lock in is an issue of concern for you, then the question arises whether you can self-host your email. What happens when you do that? Some common issues to watch out for are to make sure that other servers can distinguish between genuine email coming from your server and spam coming from other servers, pretending to come from your server, to ensure that your server doesn’t send spam, and reputation management of your domain. To read some of the best practices of self-hosting email, go here.

Key Takeaways

  • What should someone consider when choosing an email hosting provider? Your email is probably going to be a central part of the infrastructure and you’ll use it for a long time to start out by keeping this in mind. The second thing is to consider the features you need, such as a calendar, for example. Do consider your email’s interoperability and vendor lock-in. You should be able to migrate away if you want to.
  • What are the benefits of self-hosting over using a service like Gmail? One word: Control. You maintain control over your solution. If you self-host, you have more control over your email.
  • As a hosting provider, what are some of the pitfalls of hosting email? The biggest pitfall is reputation management. Other services that receive email have to fight a lot of spam. Track the reputation of domains and IP addresses.
  • What features in Plesk help with email hosting? SPF, DMARK, DKIM are built-in. Other UIs for important measures like rate and message size limits and the Plesk Email Security extension with anti-spam. Find out more about the features here.

…Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear the rest. If you’re interested in hearing more from Next Level Ops, check out the rest of our podcasts. We’ll be back soon with our last installment.

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Christian Mollekopf

Christian is a Senior Software Engineer at Apheleia IT.

Did you know we’re also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts? In fact, you can find us pretty much anywhere you get your daily dose of podcasts. As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops.  And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Next Level Ops Podcast: Solving the Most Common WordPress Problems with Lucas Radke

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the eighth episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In this installment, Superhost Joe and Product Wizard Lucas Radke talk about common WordPress problems and what hosting providers and users can do about them.

In This Episode: Noisy Neighbors, Fixing WordPress Problems, and What Hosting Providers Can Do

What are the most common WordPress problems for hosting providers? In what domains do common WordPress problems fall for most users? How much does WordPress itself mitigate these problems and what can hosting providers and users do? In this episode, Joe and Lucas discuss the three main areas under which WordPress problems usually fall — performance, updates, and security. You can have noisy neighbors when an environment is shared by too many users, impacting your website’s performance. 

Frequent updates are also often a pain point as non-updated plugins and themes can lead to security issues. Hosting providers should ideally provide solutions for this, otherwise it can lead to backdoors that compromise websites. For instance, tools such as Smart Updates for Plesk WordPress Toolkit analyzes WordPress updates and identifies and performs changes without breaking the production site. It also notifies users of any potentially critical updates. 

It’s essential for users to be proactive about potential issues from their side, especially non-savvy tech users. What can users do to ensure that they are taking the right precautions? The first thing is to make sure that they use a trusted web hoster who provides them with a secure hosting environment. Recently, WordPress has also had an increasing emphasis on security and recommends some basic security protections. For example, to make sure that access is limited, keeping backups, regular updates, and installing plugins and themes from trusted sources. For WordPress, security is about risk reduction.

“The great and terrible thing about WordPress is the amount of freedom you have. The freedom to set up whatever website you want considerably cheaply. But also the freedom to cause problems for either yourself, your client or your hosting provider,” says Joe, “Because if you’re on a shared host and your website is compromised, then it’s possible that other websites are compromised as well.”

Key Takeaways

  • What are some of the actions hosting providers can take to fix common WordPress issues? Hosting providers are responsible for how well the site performs. Users may expect high performance without paying the price for it. Many users install plugins to help with the performance or security of their website. The hosting provider has to make sure that plugins are updated and to make sure that there are no open doors for hackers. It’s also essential that hosting providers have a properly trained support team, specialized in solving WordPress issues.
  • What can users do to minimize some frequent WordPress problems? Being proactive is very important for users. Along with being informed about what’s happening in the community from a security perspective. Which plugins are having potential issues? What are some of the security issues coming up in the WordPress community? Trying to get the information that helps users reduce security risks should be a priority, especially for non-tech savvy users.
  • To what extent does WordPress mitigate these problems? WordPress has had a recently increased security focus. It’s forcing stronger passwords; it’s verifying email addresses; it has a site Health Checker and Troubleshooter performing checks on users’ WordPress installations; and other criteria for running WordPress sites securely.
  • Which plugins can mitigate some of the issues? iThemes Security is a useful plugin. Smart Updates for Plesk’s WordPress Toolkit has some cool features. WordPress Toolkit checks for updates for plugins, themes, and core. It can automatically perform updates if you choose to do so. Smart Updates makes sure that the proper changes are identified and implemented without breaking the live site.

…Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear the rest. If you’re interested in hearing more about WordPress hosting, check out this Next Level Ops episode. We’ll be back soon with the next installment.

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Lucas Radke

Lucas is a Product Manager at Plesk.

Did you know we’re also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts? In fact, you can find us pretty much anywhere you get your daily dose of podcasts. As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops.  And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Next Level Ops Podcast: Tips for Scaling Your Hosting with Jan Loeffler

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the seventh episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In this installment, Superhost Joe welcomes back Jan Loeffler, Plesk’s CTO and Tech Mage, to talk about optimizing and scaling your hosting.

In This Episode: the TikTok Effect, Jan’s Downtime Checklist and When to Scale

What do we mean by scaling and why should you be thinking about it? What do you do if you suddenly become popular on TikTok and visitors are streaming to your website? Before you scale online, what is the first thing you should be doing? Jan and Joe answer these questions and more in the latest Next Level Ops episode.

Avoiding downtime is the first thing you should be considering, according to Jan. “Downtime is the worst problem for your business. Because that means that customers are not able to visit your site anymore,” says Jan. “Most of the downtime is not happening due to the hosting stack or the hosting infrastructure. Usually, downtime happens more often from the user.” 

Before you consider scaling and performance tuning, make sure that you have a process in place for:

  • Disaster recovery and creating regular backups.
  • Not making changes on a live site and using tools that provide you with test environments.
  • Making sure that your website is fast because businesses lose revenue when sites take more than 3 seconds to load.
  • Not using “too poor” hardware and always making sure that you have enough server capacity left.
  • Profiling your server and site activity by using performance monitoring tools to find out where your bottlenecks are.

To get the best out of scaling your hosting, make sure you follow Jan’s Downtime Checklist above. And remember, “It’s also like running a marathon. You shouldn’t always run at the limit because afterwards you’ll get a cold.” says Jan. 

Wise words. 

To check out Jan’s previous feature, go here to learn all about optimizing your website (and get bonus training tips for your next big marathon).

“Downtime is the worst problem for your business. Because that means that customers are not able to visit your site anymore. Most of the downtime is not happening due to the hosting stack or the hosting infrastructure. Usually, downtime happens more often from the user.” 

Jan Loeffler

Key Takeaways

  • What’s the Downtime Checklist? Before scale and tuning websites, make sure that the user is not contributing to downtime. Have access to regular backups, test environments, good hardware and monitoring tools.
  • Speeding up your website and caching. Everything that helps you reduce database calls is your first priority. The second priority is to reduce processing PHP. It’s even faster when you don’t need to call up your web server. This is possible through the Content Delivery Network (CDN). You can use the Speed Kit to speed up your website.
  • Scaling your website. A website should usually be able to handle 200 requests per second. If you’re scaling your business or brand, make sure whether you need a static or a dynamic website. If you run an ecommerce website, then you need horizontal scaling.

…Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear the rest. If you’re interested in hearing more about site optimization, cloud services and WordPress hosting, check out the rest of our Next Level Ops episodes. We’ll be back soon with the next installment.

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Jan Loeffler

Jan is the Chief Technical Officer at Plesk.

As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops. And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Next Level Ops Podcast: Using Cloud Services for Your Hosting or Website with Lukas Hertig

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the sixth episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In this installment, Superhost Joe welcomes back Lukas Hertig, our Highest Order Pleskian, to have a chat about hyperscale cloud services.

In This Episode: Cloud-Washing, Competing in a Hyperscale Cloud Environment and Specializing Your Niche

What do we mean when we’re talking about cloud services? What is a hyperscale cloud provider? How can hosting companies compete in a hyperscale cloud environment? Joe and Lukas get the ball rolling on cloud computing in this week’s Next Level Ops. “Unfortunately, there is a lot of “cloud-washing” out there in the market,” says Lukas.

“If you want to use cloud services, it depends highly on your use case or your business. All the great stuff that we’re personally using today - Netflix, Uber, Shopify - is backed by cloud services.”

Lukas Hertig

The main idea behind cloud computing is that it lets you share resources. Amazon was the first to consider this idea when it wanted to scale its services back in the 2000s. Companies can now run their applications on top of technology infrastructure provided by Amazon Web Services. These days, cloud computing is available globally. And a few big competitors have entered the market. One of the biggest advantages cloud services provide is that you can keep your data and your services where your customers are.

That said, in what circumstances can a company use cloud services? “If you want to use cloud services, it depends highly on your use case or your business,” says Lukas. “All the great stuff that we’re personally using today – Netflix, Uber, Shopify – is backed by cloud services.”

Key Takeaways

  • Advantages of using cloud services. There has been concern among European companies about privacy in the cloud. However, today cloud providers are fully compliant with GDPR and local privacy regulations. This has made it easier for businesses to use such services. Using cloud services also depends on your use case. If you are a large enterprise, it allows you to spin up servers closest to your customers at the click of a button. When you are a start-up, it allows you to scale your services very fast.
  • Competing in a hyperscale cloud environment. Hyperscale cloud providers have made cloud infrastructure a commodity. So you need to find new ways to compete on a different layer, not just at the infrastructure level. For hosting companies that means moving from “generalist” to “specialist” managed services. Hosting companies should investigate what niche their customers belong to. This will enable them to provide more targeted technologies and services to their end users.
  • Partnering with hyperscale cloud providers. You can partner with companies like AWS and DigitalOcean using their partner programs and build on top of their hyperscale cloud. These companies are huge but they’re also human! It’s not all about competing but using existing services and building strategic relationships for growth.
  • Benefiting from hyperscale cloud technology. The rise of the platform plays a role here, i.e. look at platforms like Wix and Shopify who are actually using hyperscale cloud infrastructure to provide services to their users. Companies can develop more customized solutions using technology from hyperscalers. These solutions may not even be possible without hyperscaler technology!

…Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear the rest. If you’re interested in hearing more from Lukas, check out this episode. If you’re interested in knowing more about cloud service models, take a look at this guide. Remember you can find all episodes of the official Plesk Podcast here and here. And if you liked this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review in Apple Podcast. We’ll be back soon with the next installment.

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Lukas Hertig

Lukas is the SVP Business Development & Strategic Alliances at Plesk.

As always, remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops. And stay on the lookout for our next episode!

Next Level Ops Podcast: Must Haves for Managed WordPress Hosting with Andrey Kugaevskiy

Next Level Ops Podcast: Must Haves for Managed WordPress Hosting with Andrey Kugaevskiy - Plesk

Hello Pleskians! This week we’re back with the fifth episode of the Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops. In this installment, Superhost Joe speaks to Andrey Kugaevskiy, Plesk’s WordPress Paladin. Andrey tells us what to consider when setting up or looking for Managed WordPress Hosting.

In This Episode: Car Mechanics, One-click Hosters, Outdated Plugins, and More

In This Episode: Car Mechanics, One-click Hosters, Outdated Plugins, and More - Next Level Ops Podcast: Must Haves for Managed WordPress Hosting with Andrey Kugaevskiy - Plesk

How well do you know your hosting? Is your website, blog or e-commerce store secure and up to date? Do you get all the support you need? According to Andrey, choosing the right Managed WordPress Hosting is not a bed of roses. It’s, in fact, quite a tricky decision. 

For Andrey, hosters that specialize in WordPress take the pole position. Because every fast, modern, and secure Ferrari has a super-qualified team behind it. “A good Managed WordPress Hosting should handle the things you shouldn’t care about – like the technical infrastructure. So you should only be focused on growing your site or application”, says Andrey. 

Thank you master Andrey for your wise words. We’ll make sure our listeners follow your piece of advice when picking their Managed WordPress Hosting.

“A good Managed WordPress Hosting should handle the things you shouldn’t care about - like the technical infrastructure. So you should only be focused on growing your site or application.”

Andrey Kugaevskiy

Key Takeaways

  • Do your research beforehand: When choosing your hoster, make sure you spot the WordPress connoisseur. Having knowledgeable staff that can support you and your site, makes all the difference.
  • Know your resources and competence: Look at how many visitors you’ll have. There’s a big tech stack running on the hardware (Web, MySQL, PHP, Cache, security). And security is in a weird place right now between totally locked down and unusable, and more free-flowing and open. It’s a question of your knowledge, flexibility, and control.
  • Let your hoster take care of you: Managed WordPress Hosting should care about security issues and good performance. Outdated plugins are a common security problem. It’s important to keep your site up to date. And learn how to optimize your site for better results.
  • WordPress is here to stay: WordPress is growing extremely fast. So, it’s pretty clear that all hosts should have some kind of WordPress support. And most importantly, a bunch of experts. Hosts that don’t do anything for support, could face being left behind.

Alright Pleskians, it’s time to hit the play button if you want to hear the rest. You can listen to our previous episodes here and here. Or if you want to simplify the way you manage your website, you can also take a peek at our WordPress Toolkit. We’ll be back soon with the next installment!

The Official Plesk Podcast: Next Level Ops Featuring

Joe Casabona

Joe is a college-accredited course developer. He is the founder of Creator Courses.

Andrey Kugaevskiy

Andrey is a Senior Program Manager at Plesk.

Remember to update your daily podcast playlist with Next Level Ops. And stay on the lookout for our next episode!