Meet Areeb Yasir, CEO of compevo communications

Areeb Yasir is the CEO of compevo communications and has driven compevo's strategic growth since 2001 in the IT and hosting markets.

1. Why did you decide to start compevo communications?

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and anticipated this move from a very young age. I think I've always been interested in the business world. Going into the IT world was only natural because I've been obsessed with computing and technology since I was a child.

2. How has your business developed since you started the company in 2001?

Honestly I started small; we started by selling CD-R discs and offering tech support and basic consulting and web development to the local Vancouver, Canada area. Within a few years, we grew with clients around the world while offering a variety of IT services, hosting and software products under our many brands from multiple parts of the world, with a focus on Asia.

3. Why has cloud hosting become so popular?

Cloud hosting has become popular because of changes in society, namely where everything we do is connected and on-line.

It is only a natural response that services to support this new way of living from personal to business would drive exponential growth in a short period of time. However, with the Cloud, I may be biased but there are also many pitfalls in terms of security, reliability, and privacy that most firms and individuals have not understood or addressed.

4. What are the benefits to your international customers of having your servers based in Canada?

In Canada we do not have the Patriot act, yet we are still quite neutral in terms of routing to the whole world, so we bring a lot of benefits of being close to the US with slightly less government oversight and intervention. Canada has proven itself a politically and economically stable country throughout many world events and the financial crisis of 2008, so many firms see value in working with a Canadian company. With that said, many of our clients opt to host their data in China or Russia for enhanced privacy, so long as their operations are within the legal framework of their respective countries.

5. I noticed that your personal website offers quite a variety of content related to software, hosting, and more. How do you choose what to share on areebyasir.com?

Quite honestly it is a bit of a toss-up. If I have time to get on the blog and I'm in the middle of something or just completed a task, a lot of times I just blog and document what I did. I think it's also important to humanize yourself and stay grounded. At the end of the day whether we work for ourselves or work for someone else, all jobs have their pros and cons.

A lot of people say to me, "it must be great to be your own boss," and I'll chuckle and explain that in some, if not most ways, it is like having a large amount of bosses with high expectations and tight deadlines--not to say I don't find it all thrilling, but it's important at least for me to remember compevo is only here because of our customers and our dedication and innovation to cutting edge, reliable IT services.

Thanks, Areeb!

Computer Prank Could Result in Federal Prison Time

A reader of this blog, Jessica, asked me if I could share a link to a petition she set up in support of her boyfriend, Jason Miller. As the result of a dispute between two computer users, Jason is potentially facing federal prison time.

Jason is a data scientist (programmer) who joined a computer club after grad school. He explains what happened as follows... Jason picked a screen name another hacker didn't like and got his email hacked by him. To get the hacker back, Jason ended up slowing down his WiFi for 20 minutes a day on three days. The hacker called the FBI about it (without telling them he hacked Jason first), and Jason was arrested and charged with "accessing a protected computer network."

Jessica's petition asks President Obama to intervene on Jason's behalf. For more information, check out http://saveanerd.net.

Introducing Cloud Storage Top 10

Many of us have used cloud storage in one way or another--maybe to share files with a friend or coworker, or maybe to store our own files as a backup to what's on our computer, and so on. But how do you choose a cloud storage provider? Cloud Storage Top 10 is a small website with just one purpose: to share information about different cloud storage options.

This UK-based site gives reviews of different providers and also lists the costs and features of each service. The reviews emphasize paid services as these offer more storage space and are meant for regular/daily users who need to store lots of files. So if you are in the high megabytes or even pushing a terabyte when it comes to the amount of space you need, this site is going to be useful for you in looking at affordable paid options for cloud storage.

I found the site interesting as the only provider on the top ten list that I was personally familiar with was Dropbox, so I appreciated learning about other options. Six of the top ten currently listed offer unlimited storage, which is pretty cool if you ask me! And the reviews are very thorough in explaining exactly how each site works in terms of upload, storage, dashboard, etc, and what you're getting for your money.

If you are like me and have smaller needs in terms of cloud storage, you might like the article that Cloud Storage Top 10 has posted about free cloud storage options.

An Introduction to Coherent Solutions: Software Development Outsourcing

The process of developing a piece of software for commercial release is, of course, not an easy one. But small or large companies engaged in this process don't have to go it alone--and they don't have to create permanent staff positions for a temporary project. Coherent Solutions is an outsourcing software development company which offers a variety of services to assist in the development, testing, and maintenance of commercial grade software.

Professionals from Coherent Solutions can augment a company's existing staff and help make sure that a software project is delivered in top form and on time. These professionals have expertise in a variety of platforms, including development for mobile platforms such as Android and Apple's iOS. There's more information about Coherent Solutions' mobile services here: http://www.coherentsolutions.com/services/mobile-development.

Founded in 1995, Coherent Solutions has 350 full-time employees who have completed over 500 projects. They have four offices in the United States and Europe, and the company debuted on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2012.

To quote from their website, "Teamwork is the ultimate competitive advantage." With their collaborative work culture, the team at Coherent Solutions is ready to go to work for you.