Web Hosting?… Part Two

So now we carry on with Part Two of our guide to different kinds of Web Hosting, kindly illustrated by the adventures of a man called Dave*.

In the last part, Dave has had experience with Free and Shared Hosting, but he’s now looking at getting advanced Web Hosting to offer him greater control and performance from his eCommerce store. Below are several of the options available to Dave.

It’s worth pointing out that, when Dave bought his Web Hosting, he went with a local (in this case, UK based) company, rather than one based abroad. There are several benefits to this – Dave had heard that Google preferred sites to be Hosted in their own country for their search engine results, but to Dave the important thing was that the company offered support in his own time zone – always worth considering, as even though many companies offer 24 hour support, Dave would rather not be talking to someone when it’s 3 in the morning for them (or, even worse, when they are all in bed when he gets to work).

VPS (Virtual Private Server)

VPS is a step up from Shared Hosting, and a step down from a full Dedicated Hosting solution. Just as a server can provide separate hosting accounts for hundreds of people at a time, a server can be configured to divide it into several sections, all separate from each other. Each of these sections can then be run as if they were their own Dedicated server, and so by purchasing VPS you have full control over and access to your own (virtual) server and the contents of it.

VPS gives you the benefits of Dedicated hosting, without the expense. You also don’t have to manage the actual server itself, and should anything go wrong your entire ‘server’ can be restored very quickly. It does require a level of technical knowledge to use properly, despite the fact that a lot of VPS services can be administered through modern control panels, and VPS is more expensive than Shared Hosting. It is, however, an excellent move towards Dedicated hosting without the commitment.

Dave is very tempted with this option. He gets almost all the benefits of having his own server, he won’t have to worry about other users affecting the speed of his site – and so he can confidently expand his own site without worrying about it appearing slow to users. He’s a bit concerned that he might not know what he is doing, as Shared Hosting is fairly easy to use, so he still wants to consider Dedicated Hosting along with some kind of Hosting Management to make sure everything is working correctly. Despite this, VPS is cost effective and less intimidating than Dedicated options, and he likes the thought of being able to restore his entire VPS should he make a mistake.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud Hosting bears similarities to Cluster Hosting. Instead of hosting a site on a single server, sites are hosted across a cluster (or cloud) of servers, that are all linked together to form a cloud (or cluster) containing the same information. Your hosting is, essentially, a VPS within a VPS. Although incredibly difficult and expensive to work, there are many benefits to this system – namely that, should one server go down, your site will not, as there are any number of other servers taking the load – and performance is rarely an issue, as the load is shared among many different computers. As it is also a relatively new and complicated method of hosting, you may find that there are compatibility issues that prevent your site from working properly.

Dave looks at Cloud Hosting as it is generating a lot of interest, and it will allow him to have Shared Hosting without the performance drawbacks that he may experience when his site really takes off. Consistent uptime and performance due to relying on a group of servers rather than one or two is very appealing to Dave. However he’s a bit concerned that his site might run in to compatibility issues due to the complicated nature of Cloud Hosting and the very intricate designs he has in mind for his site, and as he wants to upgrade from Shared Hosting, he isn’t too interested in remaining in what is essentially a Shared environment that he doesn’t have full control over.

Dedicated Hosting (Managed and Unmanaged)

Dedicated Hosting is an advanced Web Hosting solution, where your website(s) are Hosted from your own server. It is an advanced solution but the control and power you gain make it the choice for high traffic websites or hosting with very specific requirements. Resources are only Shared if you decide to share them, and you can specify the Operating System, CPU speed, Memory and Disk Space of your server to meet your needs.

Dedicated Hosting comes in two broad categories – Managed and Unmanaged. A Managed server means that, although the server is yours, someone else manages the performance, installation, configuration and support of your server (depending, of course, on your contract with the people managing your server!). An Unmanaged server is provided on an ‘as-is’ basis and you will have to deal with the support yourself. It is common in these cases for support from the people who have provided the server for you to be charged. Often, Managed servers will be more expensive as standard, but potential support costs with Unmanaged servers may outweigh this.

Dave looks long and hard at Dedicated Hosting. It is the option he had in mind when he considered upgrading, and though VPS is very appealing, he knows that a Dedicated solution will, without a doubt, give him the advanced hosting he needs, even if it will come at greater expense.

As his knowledge is above average but less than confident, Dave is presented with a dilemma. Does he hire someone to take care of his Hosting, and go for a managed server – or does he attempt to work with a company offering Unmanaged servers, and take care of most of it himself?

A Dedicated server will often require a lot of work to set up, but little work after this point if done correctly. Of course the support of the server can run into highly advanced areas, and this concerns Dave (it’s why a Managed option or VPS seems better). In the end he has to decide what he would prefer – Dedicated hosting gives him total control over the Web Hosting environment for his site, and it also lands a lot of the responsibility for his Hosting at his feet!

As a side note, this solution usually means that you don’t purchase the server itself – you rent a server to your specification from the Hosting Company.

Co-Location Hosting

Co-location Hosting is similar to Dedicated Hosting. However in this case you own the server yourself – you simply rent the space it occupies from the Hosting company (i.e. you pay them to house your server in their Datacentre). You pay the Hosting company to keep your server secure and operational, and the rest is up to you.

This is not something Dave is interested in. As he doesn’t know exactly what he wants, needs, or is doing, ‘Co-Lo’ seems too much for him. It’s an option usually reserved for large companies requiring the very best in Web Hosting, who contract teams to build and manage their own servers for them.

And so we have reached the end! There are a few more kinds of Web Hosting available to you – including running a server from your own home – but we (and Dave, of course) have covered the main ones. Hopefully the guide has given you a better understanding of the different kinds of Web Hosting you can purchase – so that you can decide what it is you want, and work your way through the long list of Web Hosts trying to convince you that they are the Host you want!

*Dave is still not real. He is just for illustrative purposes only, and any resemblance to any Dave or any events that have happened to any Dave, living, dead or otherwise, is purely coincidental.