The management layer.
WHAT A CONTROL PANEL PROVIDES
Account provisioning File, database and mail management Domain and certificate handling Backups Resource reporting Customer self-service
WHY IT MATTERS COMMERCIALLY
It is the product, from the customer's perspective.
WHAT IT ALSO IS
A privileged system controlling every account on the machine.
WHAT THAT MEANS
A vulnerability in it is a compromise of everything.
WHAT TO DO
Patch promptly, always Restrict administrative access Require a second authentication factor Never expose administrative interfaces broadly
WHAT TO MONITOR
Failed authentication Changes to accounts Administrative sessions
WHAT TO BE CAREFUL WITH
Customisations that break on upgrade Undocumented manual changes Configuration the panel overwrites
WHY THAT LAST POINT
Hand-edited configuration is frequently replaced by the panel without warning.
WHAT TO DO INSTEAD
Use the panel's supported mechanisms for customisation.
WHAT TO PLAN
Licensing cost, which scales with accounts and can change.
WHAT TO AUTOMATE AROUND IT
Provisioning from billing, so accounts are created and suspended automatically.
