Technology in web hosting and server functioning has evolved. The resultant growth in the numbers of companies in web hosting service is there to be seen by all. Each of these companies, today, has on offer a long list of varied services. While each variety of hosting services has its strengths and weaknesses, it is crucial to understand the differences among the types of hosting offered. For your benefit you have to make a selection of the service that suits you most.
Following is a handy guide to make you wiser about the subject matter of Web hosting.
Shared hosting (also known as virtual hosting) lets you to share a server space with other clients of that company. Even though you enjoy the right to maintain your account and site, the host manages the server almost completely. It is a cost-effective web hosting solution for every small and medium-scale business establishments.
But since the same server space is being used by different web sites, the resulting inflow of heavy traffic to one specific site on the same server may affect the performance of your site. Also, in most of the cases, one is not allowed to install special software programs as because the host needs to keep a constant environment for all of the clients using the server.
Co-located hosting allows you to co-locate your server to a host site and connect the same with host’s network and its power systems. The host is responsible for ensuring continuous network availability while you are responsible for support and maintenance of your server.
Top of the line web hosts offer management contracts to their co-location clients and by allowing you to outsource much of the support to them, they take up a comprehensive responsibility of your server and its performance.
Unmanaged dedicated hosting is similar to co-location hosting facility except that you lease a server from a host and do not own it yourself. Other than some typically Web-based services, the level of support varies widely among unmanaged dedicated hosts. Supports are provided only in general terms and queries on specific service support are needed to be cleared on the very first stance. The host should be specific about the supports on offer form it.
Unmanaged dedicated hosting service is perfect for gaming or hobbyist servers, but not for serious businesses that need responsive, expert-level, dedicated service.
Managed dedicated hosting lets you to lease a server from a host on terms that the hosting company would provide a robust level of technical support and maintenance on the server backed by quality guarantee. Managed dedicated hosting includes services such as server uptime monitoring, hardware warranty and security patch updates.
Before agreeing to the norms of a managed dedicated hosting service, it is imperative to get a clear idea about the services to b offered by the host. Right questions are needed to be asked so that a host does not disguise an unmanaged dedicated offering as a managed dedicated server.
Now, once you are aware of what to get from a web hosting service, hope better commonsense prevails to help you choose better!!
Get hosted and….. get hoisted to reach new gains now.
This information is an excerpt from “9 Things to Know Before Selecting a Web Host” by Chris Kivlehan, Marketing Manager at INetU Managed Hosting, Allentown, PA.
