Clients

How do we Build or Transfer to Amazon?

We create an Amazon AWS web services account for you, supplying your credit card for automated monthly payments.
A small learning curve follows so you know how to navigate the Account’s menus – invoicing and budget alerts.
You may choose to develop a test system first, or transfer/build on the live platform.
Advantage Web builds the server on a Virtual Private Server with Amazon EC2 Linux, (Linux2023 at time of writing) managing all technical details for you, including domain name configurations or management, file and database transfers to Amazon – we need your current login details to do a transfer.

Amazon provides an annual discount for hardware – a reserved instance. After your system is considered stable, we can manually pay for the discount once per year. Other costs are on-demand, or as-used.

What Website Platforms do you Transfer?

The focus is on WordPress. We may review other services and applications. For example, CodeIgniter apps.
We use current operating systems, at time of writing such as optimised Linux2023, or Debian 13 with PHP8.4 and Nginx 1.30/memcached on ARM or X86 architectures. If an older app requires back level code such as PHP7.4 on Apache2, this is possible, but obviously not including current security levels. We intentionally do not use LightSail or Ubuntu OS, but can migrate away from it.
We have transferred and rescued a number of websites using older databases or hacked files.

What Happens with E-mail?

Businesses require a reliable, “real” e-mail service. These are separate 3rd party services we integrate into WordPress & Apps,  such as MicroSoft Exchange, Google Business, Proton Mail and so on. “Real” services ensure proper security measures and delivery protocols are in place.
If you have a small website visitor count, we can forward e-mails at virtually no cost to your own e-mail address such as Gmail. We have developed secure industry standards for use of the Amazon SES Relay service to do this.

What will my end-user Experience Look Like?

You no longer have a cPanel interface. WordPress logins are identical – but performance is snappy. You should no longer wait several seconds for a page to update, or have frozen or blank pages.
E-mail is accessed through your e-mail client app on PC or tablet/mobile.
You may contact Advantage Web as needed where you are treated as a personal client as if your site is our own.
It is straight forward for us to add new websites, or remove an old one.
The backbone of your system has some performance, security and redundancy features, typically running on the Nginx web server with caching. This is preferred to Apache2 or LiteSpeed.

How do we manage the system?

System administration such as security updates are managed by Advantage Web. We use a combination of manual and automated programs to do this. There is no need to wait several months for critical updates. Where manual work is required, there is a low hourly rate, even sometimes done for nothing! It is preferred you continue to manage your WordPress updates, but we may review this.
Advantage Web has no problems working with others involved with your site, and is always happy to assist in any transfer in or out of our service.
https:// SSL certificates are renewed for free with the Let’s Encrypt service (common on cPanel services). There is a change in the industry for paid certificates that require a fee for automated SSL renewal from the SSL vendor. CDN SSL certificates are free from Amazon.

How is my Data Protected?

Advantage Web’s owner has experience and skill sets from having worked with many corporate companies, including IBM Australia as an In-Country Specialist and IT Solutions Architect. We use a Solutions Architecture and Design methodology to deliver components for full end-to-end Services, including Disaster Recovery, Security and Best Industry Practices, Monitoring and Problem Solving. We place various e-mail alert notifications into the system. Regular backups are tailored to your needs, stored on Amazon’s S3 Cloud. Data is kept typically in Sydney (or Melbourne).
The Amazon Account is protected by two-factor authentication and/or passkey.

Can I Manage the AWS System?

You sure can! However, it is Linux, with various Amazon AWS services behind it. You should be able to use Linux command lines and an editor like vi on an SSH Shell terminal, and follow certain practices such as using the “ls” command before using the “rm” command – basic things like that.
Advantage Web has a number of technical online articles.
Developers working with Advantage Web may move into additional details depending on their needs.

Solve Online Problems

Slow pages and frequent errors drive visitors away, abandoning brands that feel unreliable. Brittle code, downtime and security breaches demand emergency plans and remediation impacting business and costs, with potential legal and regulatory fines. YOUR time should be in business, not “patch and pray” website maintenance. Traffic surges can overwhelm hosting servers, causing slow-downs or crashes that leave revenue on the table and frustrate users. A single missed lead or booking can represent a significant chunk of your monthly income.

How AWS Migration Helps

AWS’s global footprint and 99.95% SLA minimise risks. Content is served from edge locations close to users. Scaling and monitoring your offerings lets you ramp capacity, assisted by Burst CPU that stops shock 503 errors. Pay-as-you-go pricing eliminates over provisioning. Built-in AWS services (Shield, Security Groups, Route53) protect against DDoS and other threats. AWS static IP4 addresses improve site reputation, removing black listing and inconsistent web page response times incurred from shared hosting plans.

Locking Your Site Down

Cybersecurity threats are no longer rare events—they are constant, automated, and increasingly sophisticated through AI targeting. From credential harvesting to data exfiltration, modern attacks routinely target misconfigured cloud environments and over-permissive access policies. That’s why our infrastructure on hardened Linux instances in Amazon Web Services (EC2) is built around prevention and containment. We eliminate long-lived private/public keys wherever possible, relying instead on tightly scoped IAM Roles and Policies. Permissions for storage services like Amazon S3 are strictly separated from Amazon Simple Email Service, reducing blast radius in the event of compromise. Every policy follows least-privilege principles. By integrating website access to resources through the official AWS SDK, we align with current security standards and continuously evolving best practices.

Our practices additionally include Nginx/Apache2 security hardening, and use of blocking at the operating system level with “nftables”.