Which level of DoS protection is best to start off with for a startup building a social network from the ground up?

Godaddy is pain for developers and technical people, as it is set up for simple things. You can use any good hosting companies or any cloud servers. But if you need to talk to a human godaddy is a good option. Scalability will not be an issue with Godaddy, as they can sell you any infrastructure when you grow bigger.

If you feel that Clarity isn’t secure enough for your needs, you’re welcome to use another platform. Also, if you have something that’s extremely private, your welcome to use another platform. Clarity is a great platform with great customer support. I’ve needed them numerous times and they’ve always been super responsive and helpful. I only wish they promoted the platform even more. Good luck

If you're using source control, it's easy to track source and control access — or revoke access — if someone leaves the company. Also, your developers should have signed a contract about the project itself that clearly places the source code under your/the client's/the company's control, and if/when they leave, they release all rights to code created under that contract. You can never be 100% sure, but these small steps will at least ensure a legal high ground should anyone steal code. Good luck!

There are many security standards you can "certify" your datacenter with, such as NIST or ISO. You can read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_security_standards In addition there are some SSL and Antivirus vendors who provide "security badges" that can be embedded to your website and prove that your DNS domain and SSL certificate are valid. Having said that, If you are serious about security and want to leverage that as a competitive advantage you would probably have to implement deep security measures. You could then publish these measures in a whitepaper that can be shared with your clients. You can refer to what Amazon have published regarding their AWS product: https://media.amazonwebservices.com/pdf/AWS_Security_Whitepaper.pdf Guy

Having worked a consultant with global consulting firms and served over fifty of the Fortune 500 companies, I have been a consultant for over 15 years. Although the type of work will vary, consultants need to know why they are being hired. What does your client expect from you? If consultants are armed with that knowledge, they can best apply their skills. I have seen many consultants who jump right into the problem without understanding the context of why they were hired and what success will look like from the client's perspective. A very specific visual that I use is to imagine what the bullet point on my resume needs to look like after I am done. What am I going to do for the client that they can measure and be happy with that I can put down as an example my advice had on the organization. Once I have that in mind, I make sure the client wants that too and the rest is just doing my job. Another thing that consultants may need to know is the type of company culture. If the organization has a lot of certain types of folks, like passive decision makers, the approach to take will accommodate this. The culture of an organization can shed a lot of light on what a consultant can realistically accomplish, especially as the consultant's approach and personality will have an effect on how successful they can be in that organization. I have worked with some organizations where I was not a good fit, while others made working together easy. Being aware of the culture can help the consultant modify their approach accordingly and even know when they may not be the best fit. It is a mature sign for a consultant to read the problem well enough to know that they are not the best person for the job.