Purchasing Options for Web Hosting - Reseller & Cloud

Multiple racks of servers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are still looking to rent hosting resources rather than invest in your own in-house IT to get your website up and running there are further channels which can provide alternatives to buying physical service space directly from a hosting provider and which have particular appeal to smaller scale clients.

Resellers
For those still looking to rent server space there is the additional option of using a hosting reseller rather than buying directly from the hosting provider. A reseller will buy up hosting resource, disk space and bandwidth wholesale and then sell on hosting packages to individual clients by dividing up these resources. They can add a layer of support to their offering if they are specialist resellers and some will include their own branded control panels to allow clients to configure their hosting platforms.

There are specialist reseller companies in the market, but there are also many organisations that either sell hosting as an add-on to another service, such as digital media companies who build or maintain web sites, or that need to buy their own hosting resource and find it economical to buy wholesale and then resell the excess that they don’t use to counterbalance their own costs.

The hosting packages on offer from resellers can incorporate both shared or dedicated hosting platforms as resellers can either sell on a certain amount of shared disk space or complete individual servers. The most common reseller packages, however, involve shared hosting and in particular Virtual Private Servers (VPS) where the shared servers use virtual partitions to create distinct operating environments.

Reseller packages can be particularly beneficial for clients that do not have the expertise or resource to work with their underlying service provider in maintaining their platform. They can, depending on the package, have no need to be involved, direct or indirectly, in maintaining any of the hardware and infrastructure themselves. The reseller can effectively act as a conduit between the client and the service provider, either working alongside them to resolve any issues that crop up on behalf of the client, or acting as a middle man with whom the client may find easier to deal than the underlying service provider, especially if the client isn’t overly confident with their own technical awareness. For those who do get more involved, the packaging of reseller hosting can be less esoteric and easier for private and small business users to understand making use, for example, of simple control panel interfaces for configuration changes.

In addition, the reseller-support dynamic works well where the reseller is involved in other elements of a client’s digital package, such as the aforementioned digital agency who would build and maintain a site and then liaise with the hosting provider to manage the hosting of the site as part of a more holistic and joined up approach.

The twin drawbacks of reseller hosting, however, are that it can introduce an added layer of cost and, for those who do have the technical awareness, the middle man is simply another level of communication when support is required. Instead, tech savvy clients in particular, may prefer to deal directly with service provider to resolve issues more expeditiously.

Cloud Hosting
A newer alternative to the more traditional idea of renting a portion of a server is the idea of renting space within a cloud of hosting resource. This service relies on the hosting provider pooling the physical resources they have - disk space, bandwidth etc - and offering consumers a virtualized platform within this virtualized pool of computing resource on which to host their site. The consumer does not rent space on, or the entirety of, a single physical server therefore, and instead their site will in reality be drawing resource from a network of multiple physical servers. The environments in which their hosting platforms exist will be distinct in a virtual sense rather than a physical one, by employing virtual partitions (similar to VPS). Consumers can even go one step further and rent an entire network of virtual servers to form a Virtual Data Center (VDC) to satisfy any of their web hosting or broader business hosting needs.

Hosting in the cloud sits within the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) band of cloud services and its dynamics mean that hosting resource is sold more like a utility which can be tapped into as and when it is needed. The virtualized hosting platforms can be scaled to suit the demand for resources because they are freed of physical constraints and the consumer need only pay for the resource that they need as and when they use it; negating the wasted capacity that could otherwise result from either in-house hosting or rented disk space (especially dedicated servers). What’s more, the economies of scale that the hosting provider generates by running large scale data center resources can be passed down to the consumer meaning that cloud hosting can also be a cost effective way for the consumer to access the particular levels of resource that they need.

Whatever your budget, the technical demands of your website, your expertise and your expectations there is likely to be a hosting option on the market that suits. Ultimately, hosting packages will vary from one provider to the next but it is still important to be aware of the different routes that you can go down and the options you’ll find when you get there.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

Purchasing Options for Web Hosting - Renting Direct

A typical server "rack", commonly seen in colocation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every website needs to be hosted somewhere and so every business or private individual who is looking to claim one small corner of the world wide web for themselves will have to get to grips with the idea of web hosting and find their way through the many options that will be available to them. The following three part article outlines a few of the paths that prospective web site owners can take to get their site online.

Buying Direct Hosting Service Providers
The first and perhaps most obvious option available to consumers is to pay a hosting provider to host their site for them. As the bare minimum in this type of package the client is paying the service provider for rent of the hardware that they need to display their site to the world. In practice this hardware will consist of space on a physical server and its connectivity to the internet within a data centre environment. It will also therefore be accompanied by the physical infrastructure required to keep the server running smoothly and safely including cooling systems, tight building security and protection from physical damage such as fire.

Most hosting packages where the client is renting server (or disk) space within a data centre will additionally include the setting up and use of the software environments that the site needs to run successfully. The client should be able to choose between packages that offer the right combination of features the hosting environment needs such as Linux vs Windows operating systems, email servers, FTP access, the relevant database support and scripting software compatibility (PHP, Perl, ASP.NET etc).

Many such packages will extend to offering ongoing support which can vary from one provider to the next, and one package to the next, in what it will cover. Levels of support can range from fully managed hosting packages, where they will likely offer a 24/7 support telephone line, full monitoring of uptime/performance and advise on configuration changes etc, to self-managed packages where the client is supplied with a control panel to monitor and configure the hosting platform themselves.

Consumers are able to choose from dedicated hosting packages where a web site is hosted on its own distinct physical server with its own hardware and software resources, such as connectivity and operating systems, in order to benefit from high performance capability and stability. Alternatively there are an array of shared hosting packages on the market which use the same hardware to house more than one site. These packages can include Virtual Private Servers where the hardware (the servers) may be shared but the sites sit within distinct software partitions that allow the service provider and the client to individually configure the software partition. As a general rule of thumb the more dedicated resources that your hosting platform has, whether it be dedicated hardware or dedicated software partitions, the greater the cost of the platform but in exchange the better the performance, security and scalability.

When choosing your hosting package directly from the service provider there is more likelihood of being able to find, possibly in consultation with the provider, the appropriate hosting services for your requirement, particularly if your site requires specific or high performance.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

Investing in a Gap Year Trip

100 gap years (Photo credit: eleannab)

The gap year cliché is one of middle class eighteen year-olds taking time out between leaving school and starting university to back pack around the world and ‘find themselves’ whilst they flourish into adulthood. In truth gap years are becoming more and more popular across the demographics and socio-economic groups in spite of the fact that there are more competing financial pressures on our young people than at any other time in recent memory.

Why Take a Gap Year Trip?
There is no doubt that extensive travelling provides not only a geographical perspective but also a mental and emotional one. From the experiences gained with different cultures, religions and economic classes, young people who do embark on a gap year trip often report that they come back as more rounded individuals with a greater empathy and understanding of the wider world. However, these trips also offer more practical life lessons in preparation for university and adulthood in general, such as the ability to manage finances and to get themselves from a to b. In both respects initiative is vital in getting work and consequently money to fund the adventure, as well as in fathoming the best ways to travel.

All youngsters that embark on a gap year trip should find that their soft skills improve drastically through exposure to strangers and strange situations, having to communicate effectively with those they encounter. However, gappers that go for a more structured trip that incorporates a work or volunteering placement will certainly develop their soft skills in more formalised contexts as a result of having to work with bosses (perhaps for the first time) and colleagues, speak in public, resolve conflicts and communicate with all manner of people they including children - particularly those who follow the popular path of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL). What’s more, work placements are a great way to hone those other skills that are fundamental to success in the professional world such as time management and organisation.

All in all, a gap year should improve a youngster’s future career prospects as well as their ability to succeed in the rest of their education. Most importantly, employers seem to agree and place real value on the experiences through a gap year, believing that the experiences and skills mentioned above will have been enhanced through such trips.

How Much Will it Cost?
So, for those that do place value on the experiences garnered through gap year travel, the next question is how much can you or your child expect to pay for such an adventure. The first obvious point to make is that the price of a gap year trip will vary substantially according to where you go, what you do and how long you go for.

As a very rough guideline, a typical trip for 6 months could cost between £4k to £5k depending on which countries and parts of the world are on the itinerary. Trips to places like the US will cost considerable more than trips across Eastern Europe for example and this budget may only last 3 months in the States. Again using very rough approximations, those hoping to really push the lower end of a budget could look towards surviving on a meagre £15 a day (visiting cheaper countries, cutting costs on travel and accommodation) but other trips that don’t make these savings can easily double that figure. In addition, a round-the-world ticket for gappers who are organising their travel in advance can cost anywhere from just below £1k to £1,5k with the inclusion of various airport fees that may be incurred.

There are many techniques that seasoned gap year travellers will recommend to keep these costs down or to cover them as you travel. Buying tickets when your abroad rather than before you go will reduce the travel costs (albeit at the expense of some forward planning) whilst picking up paid work during the trip can help. Casual work, such as bar work, is only likely to bring in a little social money, but a popular solution is to organise a placement teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) as that can bring in a little more to help with the costs whilst really strengthening those soft skills in the process.

Whichever way you or your child chooses to fund a gap year, there is no denying that it will cost a substantial amount of money at a time in their lives when they are also having to think about how they will afford university and/or adult life. However, there is also no denying that the experiences and skills they’ll gain can be immeasurable so it might be best to start putting some money aside in that JISA as soon as possible.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

A Brief Introduction to Criminal Law - Actus Reus & Mens Rea

The first part of this article looked at the definition, aims and origins of criminal law, in particular in comparison with civil law. The second part however outlines what constitutes a crime in a little more detail.

There are two legal concepts which are particularly key to the understanding and administration of criminal law and these are Actus Reus and Mens Rea.

Actus Reus, which is Latin for the ‘guilty act’ represents the idea of the act of a crime and therefore can be considered to be anything that an individual does, or doesn’t do, or even threatens to do, that can be said to have caused a crime. There has to be clear link between the ‘act’ and the crime (the consequence) and this brings into play ideas such as causality and proximity in determining whether the accused was actually responsible for the crime.

Mens Rea, translates from Latin as the ‘guilty mind’ and represents the intention to commit a crime or take a course of action which risks a criminal act occurring (i.e., recklessness). This is a concept that is distinct from that of motive where the accused my have had a potential reason which could have grown into an intention to commit a crime (but doesn’t necessarily) and must be present at the point in time when a crime is committed to be relevant to the outcome and severity of a case. The presence and manifestation of mens rea can influence the classification of a crime when the actus reus is the same as another and the most salient example of this is manslaughter versus murder. If an individual committed an act which resulted in death they could be convicted with murder if they intended to take that life, or the lesser charge of manslaughter if they intended to take a risk that they could or should have realised could lead to death even if they didn’t intend to take the life.

What’s more, intent to commit a crime is not specific to a victim. In a process known as transferred malice, someone who kills their victim whilst intending to kill another individual will still be convicted of murder due to their original intent to kill.

The definition of what constitutes a crime is defined by the presence of both of these concepts; an otherwise criminal consequence that results from events where no-one was intending to commit a crime, or was being reckless, broadly speaking, will be accidental. Having said that, there are however a limited number of offences that don’t require mens rea, where the legislation determines that the intention of the offender is not relevant, and these are termed strict liability offences. Strict liability offences are more common in civil law but are still found in criminal law where they often involve motoring offences. As an example, the mens rea of someone who is speeding is not relevant to their prosecution, instead simply the actus reus of speeding is sufficient for a conviction.

All areas of law can be complicated, convoluted and hold profound consequences, so anyone looking for further advice on criminal or civil law proceedings should seek professional advice from qualified criminal law solicitors or, for example, motor law solicitors specialists respectively.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

A Brief Introduction to Criminal Law - Aims

In the UK, as in much of the world, the idea of breaking the law is closely aligned with the idea of committing a crime. However, crimes in truth only result from breaches in criminal law, a defined and restricted area of law which is looked at further in this two part article.

Criminal law can generally be thought of as the law of the land or the law of the state. That is, it refers to the laws that the state puts down in writing, legislature, to protect itself and its citizens. As a result, a breach in criminal law will result in a case being brought by the state (in the UK, the crown prosecution) against the accused offender.

It is helpful to consider criminal law in contrast to civil law, where cases are brought by individual parties against other parties, and which is based on a common law (or case law) framework where the law is not defined in legislature but instead cases are settled in accordance with precedents set elsewhere in the judicial system.

In criminal law a breach which leads to a conviction will, generally speaking, result in a punishment for the offender. These punishments will have a number of aims including one or more of the following:

Retribution - inflicting hardship on the offender to reflect the hardship they inflicted on their victim.
Deterrence - of the offender from committing further crimes as well as other potential offenders
Incapacitation - of the offender to prevent them committing further crimes
Rehabilitation - of the offender so that they can add value to society and to prevent further crimes
Restitution - to restore the legal status of the victim, as is the aim of civil law (see below)

These aims are not mutually exclusive. Incarceration as a punishment, for example, may fulfill the first three and, depending on the nature of their time in prison, the fourth as well.

The aim of retribution for retribution's sake is less popular now despite being key to the development of criminal law down the ages. It originated from a concept similar to restitution but with the aim of restoring a universal balance where the offender should suffer the equivalent consequences as experienced by the victim. This lead to the establishment of institutions to restore this balance, to determine, formalise and measure out the retribution rather than allow personal retributions (vendettas, revenge) within a society which may have gone beyond the scale of the original offence.

The earliest forms of criminal law therefore followed the lines of lex talionis (a punishment to fit a crime) otherwise referred to as ‘an eye for an eye’ (after a passage in the Old Testament/Torah). However, the ideas of ‘turning the other cheek’ from the New Testament and more generally that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ (‘an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind’) have tempered this philosophy, particularly in the west.

The similar concept of restitution is still the aim of civil law; similar except that civil law aims to restore the legal status of the ‘victim’ as if the offence hadn’t happened regardless of whether that acts as a punishment and/or deterrent and instead of aiming to restore universal balance.

The second part of this article looks at the key concepts that define a crime and criminal law including those of actus reus and mens rea. However for those looking for further advice on criminal or civil law proceedings they should seek professional advice from qualified criminal law solicitors or, for example, family law specialists respectively.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

The UK’s Best Beaches, South West of England

Durdle Door. Viewed from beach level (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As more and more holidaymakers are finding, the UK has a wealth of natural attractions to delight those either plumping for a ‘staycation’ or visiting from abroad. Despite lacking the sun of the Mediterranean, the UK can boast some of the most varied and picturesque coastlines in the world and in the first part of this series of articles picking out a few particular gems, the focus is on the South West of England - a traditional holiday territory for so many of us.

Cornwall - Porthmeor Beach, St Ives
Cornwall is the most south westerly county in the UK and as such has a coastline which faces both south onto the English Channel as well as west out into the Atlantic. Famous for its rugged charm, plentiful sandy beaches and world famous surf it is perhaps more synonymous with the title of holiday county than any other in the country. To pick a single beach to spotlight therefore is slightly unjust perhaps, but one that incorporates all of the county’s offerings is Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. Porthmeor is a sweeping sandy beach on the opposite side of the town center from the harbour, facing out to the Atlantic and framed at its northern edge by a promontory called the Island. It covers all bases being great for surf as well as swimming or simply a spot of sun bathing after a day touring the towns many art galleries, cafés and shops, particularly the Tate St Ives which looks out onto the beach.

Devon - Woolacombe Beach
As one of the largest counties in England and the only one to claim two separate coastlines in the UK, Devon gets two entries on the list. The first, from its north coast, renowned for its high sea cliffs and sweeping sandy beaches, is Woolacombe with its expanses of sand and views out towards Lundy island in the Bristol Channel, and the Irish and Atlantic seas beyond. Although popular with tourists it is large enough for you to find your own quiet patch and is great for both surfing and swimming.

Devon - Blackpool Sands
Nestled in the mouth of valley and surrounded by the rolling hills of the South Hams area of South Devon, Blackpool Sands can be found just up the coast from its more famous neighbour Slapton Sands (a shingle barrier holding back a large lagoon) and faces out onto the English Channel. The beach itself is a small crescent of fine shingle with pristine waters and is perfect for a relaxing family swim before a bite to eat at the beach’s eco friendly café. From a practical aspect the beach is perfect for families with full shower and toilet facilities, a shop as well as top awards for cleanliness but it is the unique setting amongst pines and evergreens that makes you feel like you in another country.

Somerset - Berrow Beach & Burnham-on-Sea
The Bristol Channel has one of the world’s largest tidal ranges at the mouth of the river Severn and many of the beaches on its Somerset shoreline are vast expanses of sand and mud flats with fast moving tides that can catch the unwary out. For a beautiful scenic setting, Berrow Beach, is ideal however with miles of sand backed by dunes and a stunning view out to islands of Flat and Steep Holm in the channel. Situated down the coast from its more famous neighbour Weston Super Mare (with its pier and traditional English seaside attractions), Berrow Beach is great to explore on horseback or under kite power. Although it is not safe for swimming due to dangerous mud flats further out, swimmers can follow the sands south a little to Burnham-on-Sea, past an unusual wooden light house on stilts. Although busier Burnham-on-Sea has all the amenities you need from a resort and is ideal for bathers.

Dorset - Durdle Door & Lulworth Cove
Despite recently being ranked as the fourth best beach in Europe, Bournemouth beach with it miles of sand doesn’t make this list, neither the millionaires stretch at Sandbanks. Instead, the more visually spectacular stretch of coast line including Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove take their place’.

The Dorset coast is not only famous for sandy beaches but also as home to the largest stretch of the World Heritage site, the Jurassic coast with its dramatic scenery, geology and fossils. The beaches at Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove offer the visitor a chance to explore the best of this landscape and its unique rock formations before catching a few of the suns rays or taking a dip in its clear waters. The cove at Lulworth is a wide, almost circular, basin carved out of the coast line with a small beach which is sheltered from the sea, whilst the rocks at Durdle Door have been carved into a stunning arch at one end of an attractive beach (Man O’War Cove). A bracing walk along the cliffs is the best way to admire both spectacles.

The South West of England on its own has a rich variety of coastal landscapes and attractions to suit any taste but the rest of the UK can offer even greater delights and will be explored if subsequent parts of this series of articles.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012
I'm a small business owner. If you want to find swimwear for you UK beach holiday then visit Designer Mens Swimwear.