A hosting provider will either provide clients with space on servers to store and make their website accessible or a location in which they can house their own web server.
Colocation Hosting:
When a hosting provider offers the use of a data centre to house the client’s own server, it is known as colocation. Although the client will need to supply the server they can still benefit from the physical safety and security of the data centre and the facility’s high bandwidth to boost performance and availability. According to the package they sign up for they may also benefit from expert maintenance supplied by the provider.
Shared Hosting:
For less critical and lower performance driven websites, particularly where security is not such an issue, clients can opt to host their website on a shared server provided by the hosting company. In this scenario the site is stored on the same physical server as the websites of other clients (usually many others) and consequently, if there are performance issues, security issues, corruptions etc that occur with the sharing sites they may have knock on effects on each other.
Websites which are hosted on shared servers may also have to share resources such as server configurations and software, and therefore will not necessarily provide the solution for clients wanting a bespoke or tailored hosting solution.
The big advantage of shared hosting is however, the fact that it is more affordable for smaller scale operations and you can even find some resellers who will offer free web hosting on shared servers, funded by advertising.
Virtual Dedicated Servers:
Otherwise referred to as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), this uses a shared physical server but employs separate operating system installations or partitions for each site so that there is less shared resource between sites and more independently tailored software configuration. Virtual dedicated servers therefore carry a lower risk of security issues such as malware propagating from one site to another. and higher performance levels as the virtual spaces can be set up independently.
Dedicated Hosting:
In this scenario a website is hosted on its own physical server, usually within a data centre and therefore will not be affected by knock on issues from other sites sharing the server. In addition, the client will be able to fully configure the server to their needs, either with their own access or by handing over control to the hosting provider (see Managed Hosting).
Clustered hosting:
The term clustered hosting applies to any hosting solution in which the website is hosted on multiple servers, whether they be dedicated or shared servers. The solution provides a good solution for client’s looking for a high levels of uptime - because if one server fails the website can still run off the remaining servers - and performance - as load balancing can be employed so that web traffic is evenly distributed between the different servers so that individual servers are not overloaded.
Cloud Hosting:
This is essentially a form of clustered hosting whereby websites are stored on multiple servers via the cloud and can therefore benefit from the high levels of capacity, scalability and load balancing that the clustered solution offers whilst bringing it to a wider consumer market. With cloud hosting the client has access to a vast resource of servers so that they can use and pay for as much or as little as they need at any given time without the physical hardware restrictions of traditional hosting.
Managed Hosting:
This type of hosting package is ideal for a client whose website will require more complex configuration or will need to be adaptable to the changes in the clients requirements, e.g., business domains with changing propositions and marketing strategies.
Managed services can incorporate any of the other hosting packages but are most often associated with dedicated hosting plans. Here the provider will offer the management and maintenance of the website’s server configuration using a level of knowledge that the client is not likely to have themselves to ensure that performance, availability and security are maintained to a high level.
Importantly, providers can ensure that the server set up is fully responsive to changes in the website’s proposition or usage, such as the introduction of an ecommerce element or spikes in the level of traffic hitting the site.
Whatever level of online presence you are looking for with a basic understanding of the different elements on offer, you will be well placed to pick a Hosting solution to suit your needs; whether you want an affordable mass market cloud solution for a personal website or a robust and fully managed dedicated server solution for a critical and high visibility business domain.
