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| 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
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