Web Hosting as a Long Term Investment
Web hosting is basically a service for web users who may be, but
not limited to, individuals or companies with web sites for
storing any information or data that can be accessed through the
Web. Web hosting companies provide space on their web servers
and Internet connectivity for their clients.
In a nutshell, web hosting means making web sites accessible via
the Internet. Access could mean through File Transfer Protocol
or by any Web interface.
There are several types of web hosting depending on the method
of hosting and the targeted clients.
Free Web Hosting. Some web hosting companies offer you to have
your web site accessible in the Web at no charge at all. In
return, they will be having their advertisements popping-up or
added to your web site. The services you get for free have
usually limited bandwidths, disk space, traffic limits and
limited web development tools. For up and coming web developers
this is a great way to have their web sites accessible via the
web.
Image Web Hosting. Some web hosting companies prefer having an
image gallery or pictures depot. Image Web Hosting is usually
free but you have to become an active member of the web host's
site.
Shared Web hosting. This service is also usually for free. Their
method of hosting usually only allows a few web pages to be
uploaded for a web site, (Ex. Resume Web Hosting Site). Disk
space for the entire server is limited and so are the other
resources.
Clustered Web Hosting. Unlike Shared Web Hosting where the
resources are common for all web sites, this type of hosting
uses Clustering Technology. This technology offers strict
security, it has a load balancing system and all the other
necessary web development tools that is replicated for each web
site. Clustered Web Hosting may involve several physical servers
working together and is also very open for disk space upgrades
or memory upgrades.
Reseller Web Hosting. This hosting method is actually a scheme
for entrepreneurs to market Web Hosting for reselling by other
entrepreneurs. You practically buy a large chunk of space in
their servers with all the web development tools and can divide
that chunk for you to be able to create space to other web sites.
Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting. This hosting service is like
clustered Web Hosting. The difference is that the web sites that
are hosted are all in one physical server.
Dedicated Web Hosting. This type of hosting requires that the
client get his own physical server. The client may enjoy all the
resources that a dedicated server has but would still be
restricted by the policy set by the Web hosting company. It is
also quite expensive and is only for big companies with high
bandwidths and large databases.
Co-located Web Hosting. This is like dedicated Web Hosting but
without the policy restrictions of the Web hosting company.
Individuals or companies having Web Server Administration
knowledge prefer this scheme.
Before obtaining the services of any web hosting company, an
Internet access scheme or plan may be a good idea. This would be
more of a necessity for large companies that rely heavily on web
access and web site hosting. Security issues should also be a
main concern if privilege data is to be posted on databases
hosted on web servers.
The web hosting company must support the platform or application
requirements for the existing or intended Web site. Currently
open system platforms are supported by most Web hosting
companies. The open system platform usually consists of Linux as
the Operating System, Apache as the Web server application,
MySQL as the backend database, and Php as the server side
interface. Some web hosting companies have Python of Perl as
their server side interface.
There are several hundreds of web hosting companies that you can
find in the Internet offering features that would seem
attractive at first. But you have to know what your web site
really needs. You also must be able to compare prices and be
able to identify which hosting company is legitimate and which
web hosting company has a good track record by researching on
the history and track record of the many Web hosting companies.
Web hosting is a long-term investment on your part. Choosing the
right hosting company is choosing the right investment.
Rebecca Hubbard
Hubbard Enterprises
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