As you can see, the non-functional aspects of your website are just as important but a little harder to quantify! The following sections provide an overview of the non-functional aspects of your Website and our policy and approach toward each.
Performance
Although we provide no specific performance benchmark for our software systems, we do make every effort to ensure that our systems perform as optimally as possible. This includes not just the efficiency and speed of our code, but also its ability to be applied to different scenarios, our ability to deliver your solution within schedule, the balance of technologies we adopt and our approach to Design. Often a solution that is aesthetically pleasing can also be incredibly slow or cumbersome to use; we try to strike a balance between functionality, aesthetics and useability.
While bos web systems makes every effort to ensure that your solution performs as quickly and as efficiently as possible we cannot guarantee that we will be able to meet any specific performance targets. There are many factors that can affect the performance of your solution that are beyond our control. These can include technical issues with the hosting provider, issues or congestion with Internet in general, the type and speed of connection that you or your users have to the Internet, the number of users who access your system and the tasks they perform at any particular point in time, the type, age and configuration of the computer, operating system or third party software that you or your users may be running.
Safety
Safety in the context of your proposed solution refers to the ability of your system to recover from a disaster situation such as an electrical fault, accidental data loss, etc. and services designed to mitigate these are provided by your Hosting Provider.
The Hosting Providers recommended by bos web systems use RAID mirroring to prevent data loss due to hard disk failure, are connected to Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS) with backup generators that prevent power spikes and outages, and are connected to multiple Internet provider backbones to minimise loss of connectivity to the Internet. In addition to these, complete backups are made each night and stored off-site so that your system can be restored to essentially any point in time usually up to seven days before a problem is detected. These services are included in your hosting package at no additional cost, however there can be costs associated with data restoration. In the case of hardware failure the hosting provider will generally restore your system within a guaranteed timeframe at no cost, however if you accidentally delete information and want to have it restored, the provider will normally charge a fee to perform this task.
If you choose to provide hosting yourself, either internally or through a third party provider not recommended by bos web systems, then it is important that you evaluate the Safety aspects offered as part of that service and understand that it is your responsibility to ensure that adequate redundancy is in place to prevent the loss of any software, configuration or data.
Please note that bos web systems is itself not a hosting provider. While we may act as an agent or provide value-added services such as technical liaison, any hosting service provided to you by a hosting provider is done so under an agreement directly between you and that provider. Please ensure that you have read and understood any terms and conditions provided with the service provided by your hosting provider, and note that the information provided in this section is simply a summary of third party services that are subject to change at any time.
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Security
Secure Hosting Environments
Security for the hosting environment is provided by your hosting provider. The hosting providers recommended by bos web systems provide services such as firewalls and authentication systems to help prevent unauthorised access and detect and minimise threats from attackers, apply the latest security patches from Microsoft and other software vendors typically once a day and operate real-time anti-virus and damage cleanup monitors. If you choose to provide hosting yourself, either internally or through a third party provider not recommended by bos web systems, then it is important that you evaluate the Security aspects offered as part of that service and understand that it is your responsibility to ensure that adequate security is in place.
SSL
Security for communication is provided through the use of encryption, and specifically a technology called "Secure Sockets Layer" (SSL). SSL provides a secure communication channel between each user and the server and ensures that information exchanged cannot be intercepted. This comes at a cost however, as encryption and decryption at each end, and the transmission of the information itself takes longer than normal and it consumes more server resources. The delay introduced by SSL can be has high as four times what your users would normally experience, which makes SSL impractical for use to host "normal" applications. The convention is to use the standard "unsecure" HTTP protocol to deliver most, if not all, of your web solution to your users and switch to SSL only when sensitive information such as credit card details are being transmitted. SSL also requires the purchase of an SSL certificate which must be renewed annually and is installed onto the server hosting your solution.
Software Security Components
bos web systems is also committed to ensuring that all our applications utilise the latest technologies and best practices when it comes to Security. Critical components of our systems are protected against common attack methods such as SQL Injection or QueryString Spoofing, and these security measures are constantly reviewed. We do not however guarantee that our systems are 100% secure, because no system is ever truly completely secure.
Please note that bos web systems is itself not a hosting provider. While we may act as an agent or provide value-added services such as technical liaison, any hosting service provided to you by a hosting provider is done so under an agreement directly between you and that provider. Please ensure that you have read and understood any terms and conditions provided with the service provided by your hosting provider, and note that the information provided in this section is simply a summary of third party services that are subject to change at any time.
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Software Quality
bos web systems as a company is strongly committed to Software Quality as a standard across all its products and services. All software developed by bos web systems is designed to promote best engineering practices including adaptability, correctness, maintainability, reliability, reusability and useability. bos web systems employees qualified technical staff that either hold, or are in the process of obtaining, tertiary-level qualifications in industry-relevant degrees including Automation, Computer Science, Engineering Science, Information Technology and Software Engineering.
bos web systems is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner with competencies in Information Worker Solutions, Database Management Solutions and Custom Developed Software Solutions. In addition bos web systems provides training and external certification for its developers in Microsoft technologies who are either certified, or in the process of being certified, to Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) level. With the revision of Microsoft's certification system, we have already commenced re-certification to Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) level.
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Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
Our Team
