Indulge in a truly pleasant experience as your platform does all the heavy lifting for you.
Integrated Site Speed
Getting your site to run fast and smooth is handled for you automatically during your site's
final setup phase. This automated process integrates your website into the underlying
server's operating system, thereby eliminating the need for WordPress to compile any speed
related plugins to achieve the same result.
Your WordPress site requires NO PLUGINS to help it run efficiently and deliver pages fast.
The integrated systems design of your hosting environment performs all of the page tweaks and
caching on the back-end. Now WordPress isn't slowed down trying to compile several plugins
prior to delivering your web page back to your audience's browser. When you eliminate plugins
your site runs faster, and by leveraging the server's integrated Page Speed features, you
get the benefit of two times the speed to your users.
The Site Speed features are enabled when your site is SSL enabled. This requires you to
click the [Enable SSL] button in the SECURITY tab in your Site's settings in your Administrative
Dashboard.
Even though Site Speed is automated, you still have access to all the settings Site Speed
uses to enhance your site's performance. The Site Speed defaults are made available to you
through each Site's Administrative Dashboard. It is here that you may tweak the defaults
further and perhaps squeeze even more performance from your site. Full-text explanations
outline what each option is responsible for, and what the expected outcome is. You may
select and deselect as many options as you like and test to your heart’s content.
At a minimum, integrated Site Speed features handle:
- Caching
- Image size reduction
- JavaScript minification
- CSS minification
- Automated 'Above the Fold' CSS optimization
- HTML minification
Catalogued Backups
Your site is backed up for you automatically without ever having to lift a finger. This
totally automated process is built-in to every site that's hosted at Blue Axis Hosting. Once
your site is setup in our environment, you NEVER have to worry about losing data. The
automated Backup system makes a copy of your files AND your database, so you can rest easy
knowing your environment has you covered.
The default setup performs backups once a day and retains each backup for at least 1 week.
You may modify the backup schedule any time you like if you have a case where more frequent
backups are necessary, or if you'd like to retain the backup longer than the default.
All the available backups are ideally organized and listed for you in your Administrative
Dashboard. You may view the date and time the backup was performed, and have the choice of
downloading or restoring any backup with the click of a button.
If something gets messed up on your site, or if you simply want to revert to an earlier
version of your work, no worries, there is a backup!
Single-click Restoration
All your backup data is made super-easy to restore with the one-click restore process.
Simply select the backup you want your site to utilize, chose whether you want just the
files restored, the database restored, or both - and click! You’re done. That backup's data
is immediately restored and your site now renders the data from that specific point in
time.
Backups can be restored into your Production or Staging environment. With the integrated
Staging domain as part of your Administrative Dashboard, you can restore a backup into your
Staging setup prior to restoring it to Production. This way, you can fully vet or test the
backup and be sure it is exactly the backup you want restored into your production setup
before finally sharing it with the world.
You may go back and forth between backups as often as you like. Don’t like the backup you
just restored? No worries, just select a different one and click again. After all, it is
your data - use it how you want.
SFTP File Access
You have direct access to all the underlying files across all your sites within your server.
File access is make available via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) so all your files stay
protected during transport.
You may use any third-party File Transfer Protocol program such
as FileZilla (Windows),
Core FTP (Windows), or
Cyberduck (Mac OS) to access your files.
The SFTP server address, username, and security key are all provided for you in the "Sared Access" tab in your
Administrative Dashboard after you sign up.
You can also share access to your files by enabling "Shared Access". Inside your
Administrative Dashboard you may easily assign security keys to developers, copywriters, or
just about anyone else when you create private keys for users on your list. The
private/public keys you generate limit access to only the files you want to give access to,
so those users cannot view or modify files or directories they shouldn't.
When the Admin interface in WordPress is not enough to get everything done that you need,
SFTP is there to ensure you have access to everything under the hood. Creating a Child Theme,
for example, requires access to the underlying file structure. Blue Axis Hosting uses a
Public/Private key exchange, giving your site even more security against unwanted access to
your private data. Key exchange is a far superior method of identity validation than
username/password logins.
Easy Site Migration
We make it easy for you to transfer your existing site to hosting heaven. Easy to follow
instructions are provided for you to help with that process, regardless of where you’re
presently hosted.
Moving a WordPress site can be an overwhelming process - so much so that it can paralyze you
from moving your site into a better hosting environment. There are too many blog posts sharing
partial truths about how to make a migration happen, which often leaves you in a bit of a
pickle when things don't happen exactly like the blog author thinks it should.
Blue Axis Hosting makes that process as simple as humanly possible by giving you step-by-step
instructions for creating a transferable backup on your old system - regardless of where it's
presently being hosted. Once the backup process is complete, all you need to do is upload
that backup in the migration handler of your Administrative Dashboard, and the rest of the
work is handled for you. Sit back, relax, and wait for the server to complete the process.
Simple, easy, painless.
Rock Solid Site Security
***
Website security is always better handled on the server than within the code of your
website. WordPress security plugins are good, but server security is better. Your site is
protected by the best-in-class security measures available and it all comes at no-cost to
you. These features are built-in and ready to start protecting you from the onslaught of
automated hacker bots and whatever else may try to gain access to your data and shut you
down. We’ve got your back.
Simple Resource Management
The Administrative Dashboard was designed with ease and simplicity in mind. Even though
there is a great deal of logic working behind each and every site, the interface used to
manage that logic isn't overwhelming or confusing.
Blue Axis Hosting's Administrative Dashboard is simple to navigate and understand. Within your
Dashboard, you can easily find what you're looking for, setup what you need, and/or ignore
what you don't care to deal with.
You may access the most basic of settings or dive deep into the advanced features of the
appliance all without the frustration of a poorly designed interface.
Convenient Database Access
Whether you have many Sites or one Site hosted with Blue Axis Hosting, access to each of the
databases working behind the scenes is made available from within your Administrative
Dashboard. Each of your WordPress sites is allocated its own dedicated database and is only
accessible by the site to which it is assigned.
Even though your databases are separated and protected across your Sites, you may easily
connect to all your database implementations simultaneously. Simply click on the [Open Database]
button from within the OVERVIEW tab in any of your Sites, and you'll be directed to the
database access interface.
If you need to write SQL commands, review data, or anything else you could imagine, your
entire database is there for you. It’s your data, you have complete control.
Complimentary SSL Certificates
A safe site is a happy site and in most cases, it is a site that's listed more often in
search results. Search engine algorithms prefer sites with ssl certificates
(see here),
and we think your visitors will feel better knowing their comments or posts are secured.
Blue Axis Hosting offers two methods of securing your site; each of which is just as easy as
the other. You have the option of uploading an existing set of certificates (private and
public with a certificate chain) or you may simply use the complementary certificates
provided by Blue Axis Hosting.
In cases where you wish to provide your own certificates, a third-party certificate
authority will have given you the two certificates you need to upload to your Administrative
Dashboard. Once the certificates are uploaded, your server handles all the rest of the
configuration and setup for you and gets your site secured.
If you wish to use the complementary certificate provided by Blue Axis Hosting, all you need
to do is click the [Build Certificate] button. It's that easy. No fuss, no muss.
Built-In Staging Environment
When you want to make changes to your website, you shouldn't have to publish those changes
on your live website UNTIL you have fully tested those changes to be sure that they look and
feel the way you want.
Every WordPress site comes with a built-in staging environment. It is here you may run all
of your tests, add plugins, change colors, update text, and do whatever you want without the
risk of breaking anything on your live website.
Blue Axis Hosting offers two methods of viewing your staging setup in the browser. You may
either:
- Add a 'staging' CNAME record to your existing DNS settings
- Use the automatically generated sub-domain name within the wpzen.host domain.
If you chose option 1, your staging site will point to staging.yourdomain.com.
If you chose option 2, your staging site will point to something like
name-123.wpzen.host. 'name-123' represents the name assigned to you when your
staging environment is initially setup.
Your staging environment works just like your production environment. Staging backups are
created for you automatically and you may restore any backup to staging - including any of
your production backups. You may also tweak any and all of your Site Speed settings, and
have full access to the underlying database.
Your staging environment gives you full control of everything you could possibly need.
Automated Resource Scaling
Your website server is running behind a load balancer, which distributes network traffic
across a number of servers. This relieves a single server from doing the brunt of the work,
and enlists additional resources to increase the capacity and reliability of your website.
If your latest post or product launch is getting an enormous amount of visitors, a single
server could have difficulty keeping up with the traffic. Our load balanced system improves
the overall performance of your Site by spreading the burden of managing and maintaining
your website traffic.
Websites aren't the only resource that can get hammered during high-traffic bursts. Databases
may also be hit with a high volume of requests. Because of this, your database is also
running behind a load balanced structure. If requests to the information feeding your
websites has reached the database's capacity to quickly deliver a response, additional
database resources are engaged to feed the required information back to
your website servers.
Having your Site reside behind a load balanced and redundant system means that the
additional bandwidth and server resources are there waiting for you. If you site is getting
hammered, it WILL NOT FAIL. Your site will continue moving along as if nothing out of the
ordinary was going on at all.
Multiple Site Management
Each hosting account may serve up to 30 Sites. That's 30 different domain names and Site
setups including backup logic, restore features, Site Speed, and everything else that comes
with a Blue Axis Hosting account.
Managing all those resources could be overwhelming, but with the help of the well designed
Administrative Dashboard, overseeing all those resources is a snap. We are constantly working
to improve the overall performance of the dashboard, and to enhance the user experience. We
listen to each suggestion for improvement and implement suggestions for an enhanced user experience.
If you see a better way to handle any aspect of the Administrative Dashboard, let us know!