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Web Hosting For Managing Multiple Websites

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:13:36 +0000

If you own multiple websites, chances are that you are making a living on the Internet and these websites then equate to your virtual offices. It therefore becomes highly desirable that these websites remain functional, up and running 24/7/365. Running and managing multiple websites can however become a daunting task but by employing the right strategies you would be able to make the most of it.

It is advisable to host your major websites with 3 to 4 different web hosting companies. If you wish to open a reseller account, ensure that you open that with another hosting company. The only downside with this strategy would be that hosting with different hosts would increase the time and make site management a little difficult.

Cost: First thing to consider here is the cost. If you are planning to host 10 to 50 websites, it is best to open a reseller account and then host any new or small websites on these reseller accounts for as less as $15 per month as opposed to $25 per month for multiple websites. You host one or 2 major websites with one hosting company. Shared hosting account costs under $10 a month, and dedicated server will cost $50 or more a month.

Downtime Risk: If your websites generate consistent revenue (like a travel website or other shopping websites), then you cannot afford your website to experience any downtime. Even though most hosting providers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, in the unlikely event of a technical failure, you would end up losing online revenue. So if your website is hosted with a single host, the case would be even worse.

Backup: It becomes imperative to backup all data. If you are not satisfied with your current hosting provider and want to switch hosting companies, then a backup makes the entire process very convenient. If you have a backup or secondary copy running on another server, all you need for the switch is the transfer of the domain, which will take no more than a minute.

The user must take into consideration various aspects that come into play when selecting a web-hosting provider. There is a wide array of hosting packages to choose from ranging from Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting or Co-location Hosting, ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting and more. When dealing with multiple websites it is advisable to compare and carefully analyze the cost, hosting features, tracking records of hosting companies and the services offered by the host. It is important to read reviews, do your research well and ascertain your website needs and budget before you make a commitment. These preliminary decisions would decide the success or failure of your online ventures. Managing websites therefore need not be a daunting task as long as you are well equipped with all relevant information and facts.

A Dedicated Server Firewall

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:44:25 +0000

One of the applications included in the management of a dedicated server is firewall protection.

A firewall is used in conjunction with a web server as a security measure. It is a function that applies a configuration that accepts or denies transfer of data in whatever form the transfer is taking place. It can encrypt or proxy all information that is travelling to and from a computer between different security domains. The dedicated server firewall is established based on a particular set of criteria that forces the moving data to adhere to specific rules.

Levels of Trust

The web server’s firewall inspects all traffic that attempts to pass through it and based on the preset criteria, determines if the data transfer may continue. The firewall is configured to variable levels of trust from which it makes its determination. Typically, the Internet is a traffic zone where the trust level is extremely low due to the fact that computer viruses and worms can be sent easily over the internet through emails and contracted by visiting websites. These viruses and worms can be extremely harmful to a computer, to the point of rendering it useless.

An internal network is considered to be on a higher trust level, since the data that is being transferred originates from an internal source, thereby lowering the likelihood of the harmful elements which can destroy documents and software programs. A traffic zone that includes data transfer involving both the internet and the intranet (internal network) is referred to as a “perimeter network” or Demilitarized zone (DMZ) and is managed by dedicated servers as an intermediate trust level.

How a Firewall Works

Picture a fire door in an office building to gain a clear understanding of the function of a firewall in a web server. In both cases, its task is to contain or delay potentially damaging factors from spreading to the rest of the facility. If a firewall is not correctly configured it can become essentially useless. The typical standard security level that is built into a firewall allows only traffic and connections that have been “explicitly allowed” but without in depth comprehension of network applications required in a specific operation the “default-allow” ruleset can be mistakenly implemented. This permits everything and anything to enter the system. Dedicated servers management covers this base – configuring the firewall for the specific needs of an organization so that there is no danger of a network system compromise.

Dedicated Servers: Usages and Benefits

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:02:13 +0000

About Dedicated/Private Servers

Dedicated Servers or Managed Dedicated Servers is a type of Internet Hosting where the client leases an entire Server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than Shared Hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc.

Dedicated Severs usually are used for extensive Web Sites which serve too many online visitors at once. Mail Servers, Virtual Universities or extensive ECommerce Web Sites are samples of Dedicated Server usages.Dedicated Servers provide huge Web Space and BandWidth.

If server is physically located in administration area of Web Site, it is called Co-Location Server.
When a physical Server is devided to multiple Virtual Servers we will have several Virtual Private Servers(VPS). These Servers can provide greater control and performance than a Shared Hosting account. They come with exactly the same features, autonomy and functionality of a Dedicated Server, and are suitable for a wide range of tasks such as application testing/development, Domain and Hosting Resellery, high traffic Web Sites or game serving.

Dedicated Hosting Service
The user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); However, the user typically does not own the server.
If the server is administered in users’ location, its called Co-Location Server.
Suitable For:

o High Traffic WebSites

o Database-intense Web Sites

o Online Products Seller Sites

Virtual Private Server(VPS)
Slicing up a server into virtual servers. Each user feels like they’re on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with many other users. A Virtual Private Server (VPS) offers a more stable, secure, and flexible hosting environment than a Shared Hosting Service .
Suitable For:

o Resell hosting services

o Email Services

o Small eCommerce Websites

Dedicated Server Purchasing Guide – Things You Need to Know When Choosing a Dedicated Server

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:12:54 +0000

Why do you need a dedicated server?

The very first step in purchasing a dedicated server should be ensuring that you actually need a dedicated server. There are many other hosting options to be considered including shared hosting and virtual servers. At Anchor we see three independent reasons why customers may require a dedicated server, these are:
Performance Control Security
Performance
There are two reasons why performance becomes a factor in deciding to go to a dedicated server. The first is that the application has to date been hosted on a shared (or virtual server) environment and the load on the application has proved to be too high – ie – the hosting company has told you that you need your own server.

The second reason is that the application you’re hosting is very dependent on consistently fast response times. In a shared environment by definition you are using a shared resources, sometimes, not often, other users on the server can cause your site to slow down. If this can’t be tolerated then application performance can be a good reason to go to a dedicated server.

Control
If you need control over the server to do things that you can’t do on a shared server then you are often forced into going dedicated. Control is usually in terms of the ability to perform configuration on the server yourself without restriction. If you want to be able to log in as an administrative or root user then you will need a dedicated server to gain this level of control.

Unless you are on a dedicated server, you surrender a degree of control of the server to the hosting company. This has the advantages of ensuring all changes are made by professional Systems Administrators but there are the disadvantages that if you are a budding Admin yourself, you have to wait for someone else to make changes on your behalf.

Security
While shared servers are locked down to very high levels, the very fact that the server is accessible to other authorised users does introduce increased security risks in respect to host compromises. On a dedicated server you can be sure that any security breaches will only be a result of your own actions and not of somebody else.

Hardware specifications

The first thing that comes to mind for most people when deciding on a dedicated server specification is the hardware. You can see it and touch it so it’s an easy starting point. Choosing the right hardware on day one is critical to make sure that you find that balance between not over specifying and hence wasting money and not under specifying and hence finding you need to do an upgrade too soon.

Every application is different and so the loads that it will place on a server are very difficult to estimate. Pages, hits, visitors, data transfer/month can all act as a guide but the variability in load from one application to another can be so significant (and implementation-specific) that these figures might not tell you much.

Hardware components
Let’s have a look at the core hardware components in your server so you can see which ones warrant consideration when specifying a server. This table only attempts to discuss the components in the context of your ability to upgrade them in future, and the effect of the failure of this component on the delivery of services.

Availability monitoring

Depending on the service you purchase, your dedicated hosting provider will to varying degrees be responsible for monitoring the availability of your service.

If you need to know when services are going up or down it is important that your service provider is able to provide you with these reports. You should check for email or SMS based alert options.

Bandwidth

Most dedicated servers come with an initial data transfer allowance. This can vary anywhere from a few GB’s in Australia through to a terabyte on offer by some overseas hosting providers.

Before you get carried away with choosing the host with the most bandwidth, try to work out how much bandwidth you actually need, then make sure the hosting package you’re choosing meets that requirement.

Providers that offer excessively high bandwidth allocations may not always be the best choice. They may also be attractive to other high bandwidth clients that subsequently cause congestion on the network, or relate to a service that is not providing the same quality of bandwidth as other providers.

In comparing the bandwidth allocation, our article on [[planning/dedicated-colocation-data-billing-models|dedicated server bandwidth billing models]] may also be of assistance.

Reporting

While the server specifications are an easy component to identify in the selection process, there are other important things to make sure you get with your managed server.

Data reporting
Most dedicated servers will come with a base data usage allocation. Anything exceeding that, however, will attract excess usage charges.

It’s important that you do monitor your usage to make sure it’s in line with your business expectations, and that you have the ability to easily monitor it.

Look for a web based interface that allows you to query your usage stats when you need them. Ideally look for something that gives inbound as well as outbound data usage figures. If there is no online interface, online reports should also do the job.

Support

Support is by far the most difficult component of a dedicated server package to accurately compare when choosing between hosts. To make this worse – support is actually the major point of interaction that you will have with your hosting company after the service is provisioned. The bit that will make the difference in what you get out of the hosting service will be the day to day interaction that you have with the hosting company.

We like to consider the provision of managed hosting services as a combination of three components:
Hardware: the actual server hardware provisioned for you – as discussed above. The Environment: consisting of the Data Centre, the network and ancillary shared services that go into keeping the hosted services online. Support: the ongoing management of the software on your server.

The reason that most people use a managed hosting service is that they have an application that they need to be kept online 24 x 7, with as close to 100% uptime as possible. This goal cannot be achieved without a lot of work, the same way that you can’t expect a car to always run without fault without proper routine servicing. The higher the demands that are placed on the service, the more maintenance that will be required. To continue the analogy – consider the significant difference in maintenance of your family sedan with a race car.

If you’re buying a managed server – it’s important to make sure that you’re not just getting hardware, but also the level of support that is right for you. If you don’t, you can be assured that it will either turn up in the form of consultancy fees after you’ve signed the contract, or worse yet, you’ll suffer from outages as a result of the much needed maintenance not being carried out.

We often think of the support that is needed to maintain uptime as consisting of three core components:
Prevention Detection, and Response

The more preventative work that is undertaken and systems that are monitored, the greater the chances of picking up changes to a service before they result in outages.

When considering alternative dedicated hosting providers, find out exactly what level of support is included in the quoted monthly charges and what services will attract additional fees.

Depending on your level of skills or interest in performing systems administration tasks, you need to make sure that the right level of service is being provided to keep the server online.

Typical support and maintenance tasks that you should ask about are:

Firewall & Security Is a firewall configured on the server or on a dedicated firewall device? Who is responsible for maintaining it and making configuration changes? Are there any systems in place to detect if the security of my server gets compromised?

Application and security updates

Will security updates and patches for the programs and operating system be applied to my server? How often will updates be applied? What time of day will the updates applied?

Monitoring

What services will monitoring cover? How frequently does the monitoring system poll the services? What reporting is provided for monitoring? What response is provided to problems when they are detected? What will happen if my application isn’t working but the monitoring system detects no problems?

Application installation

What applications will be installed at the time the server is built? What happens if I need additional applications installed at a later date?

Configuration management

Who is responsible for making configuration changes to the server? Do changes cost each time or are they included in the monthly fees?

Provision of support services

Can I call and have questions answered over the phone or will I have to email all support requests? Will I be able to talk directly with the support staff that build and maintain my server? What is the typical turn around time on non-urgent/urgent support requests?

Performance

If my application is running slowly will you help to diagnose the problem? Do you collect any data on server load trends over time?

Ideally your hosting provider will be able to offer you with a support pack that covers either the rudimentary tasks required to keep your server secure, or better yet, the services that are needed to meet your expectations of support.

Any such support pack that is offered for a fixed monthly fee will have a defined scope to avoid it costing the hosting company too much money in the case of the more demanding clients. Find out what the scope is, or what the limits are if you’re choosing a support pack. Make sure they are documented as part of the contract.

Why Does Your Business Need a Dedicated Server?

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:17:57 +0000

Do you well and truly need a server allocated to your business, and to your business only, or could you get by with shared hosting? I think it’s safe to assume that if you’re reading this article, you’re already aware of the fact that most websites use what is known as ‘shared server hosting’.

In other words, they register a domain name, and then they pay a hosting provider to host their website. In order for a website to be hosted, a server is required. These are basically large ‘communications’ computers, and for the most part, one server is capable of hosting thousands of websites.

Now, if a single server can cope with so many websites, why an earth would you ever need your own dedicated server? The bottom line is; even though more than a million websites may be sharing a single server, the vast majority of them don’t receive any visitors at all, at least not on a regular day to day basis. Only a very small percentage of them receive more than 1,000 visitors per day, and even with some websites receiving that amount of visitors, a single shared server will still be able to cope.

Unfortunately however, if several of those websites start becoming popular, and they start getting thousands of visitors each day, the efficiency and the speed of the shared server will soon begin to deteriorate. This will inevitably mean the functionality of your own website will also be affected, and visitors to your site will find that it takes ages to load. In fact, if you have some audio and video files on your website, visitors may not even be able to access them during times when the server is experiencing a large volume of traffic.

Of course, if you only have a website for the fun of it, then you probably have no reason to be concerned, but if you depend on your website for your living, then you certainly don’t want visitors to leave your website simply because they cannot access it. After all, when you run an online business, every visitor is a potential client, and you want them to hang around for as long as possible in the hope that you will make a sale.

The busier your website is, and the more complex features it has, the greater your need becomes for a dedicated server. This is because you will then have a server devoted entirely to your website or to your business in general. Under no circumstances will you need to share the server with other website owners. Not only does this mean your website will no longer be at the mercy of others, but it also means you can enjoy a greater level of security. With a shared server, if a hacker manages to gain access to any one of the websites sharing the server, each and every one of the websites on that server will be at risk. Of course this is something you don’t need to worry about if you have your own server.

Just in case you’re wondering whether or not you can actually afford the luxury of having a dedicated server, you need to bear in mind that it’s not necessary to buy one outright. Sure, many big businesses to purchase their own servers, but unless you have plenty of cash available, you can lease your server as well, and if you’re unsure as to how you would go about managing it, you can even choose a ‘managed server’ option.

Advantages of Hosting Your Email Network on a Cloud

admin — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 11:16:31 +0000

If you are hosting your company’s email network inside your physical building on an exchange server, there are certain risks you must deal with. What would happen if the building itself was damaged due to fire, flood, or another catastrophe? Having the server onsite also allows for unintended access by unauthorized people. There are other security issues, as well, such as the implementation of firewalls and other forms of preventing the data from being hacked – an important consideration for anyone who takes payments online.

If you are worried about the safety and security of your commercial email account, you may want to consider hosting it on a cloud platform.

Defining Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the latest way to host any number of digital services or resources. The infrastructure resides in a central location that is accessed via a single point over the internet, precluding the use of onsite servers. Many companies are now utilizing this technology because it tends to be cheaper, more scalable, and easier to upgrade to the latest level of technology.

Benefits of Using a Cloud for Email Exchange Service

The traditional manner of setting up corporate email accounts usually involved the installation of a dedicated or semi-dedicated server and installation of Microsoft Exchange Server software. As previously mentioned, this has its risks. In addition, you must keep upgrading the software on your own dime.

When you use a cloud-based infrastructure architecture provided by an outside vendor, many of the problems associated with an onsite server disappear.

Commercial clouds adhere to quality of service standards and service level agreements, taking away the need for an IT department at your company. The system provided on the cloud is almost infinitely scalable; many software service plans are priced according to your specific usage and needs, making it a much less expensive alternative. Conversely, if your needs change due to the growth of your company, the cloud-based infrastructure can handle that, too.

And instead of Microsoft Exchange, you can use an enterprise-class software such as Kerio Connect. You don’t need to allocate capital funds to upgrade; the service provider does that for you – ensuring that your email server software always uses the latest technology.

Backing up the data is another thing you need not worry about when you use a cloud-based system. The service provider will perform this task automatically and keep a certain period of backup data available on their server. No more need to worry about a missed backup or a faulty tape drive.

There’s a reason so many corporations are looking to cloud platforms to fill their need for resources and services. With benefits like these, who would want to keep the hassle and cost of maintaining their own email server?

Virtual Private Servers – How Do They Work?

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:09:00 +0000

Virtual private servers are an alternative for those who may be outgrowing a shared web hosting but not ready for a dedicated server. To understand how a virtual private server works it is important to also know what the shared and dedicated hosting do. In gaining a clear understanding of how each work, a web owner can determine which hosting type will best fit business needs of their web page. If the business is already well established and needs more of the resources to run the page then a dedicated server might be the best option. With a dedicated server, one server provides all necessary resources for one web page.

With a dedicated server, the web owner has more power and control of the page. The web owner must also be knowledgeable of technology because they will be doing most of their own page maintenance. Going with a dedicated server will set you back a little financially so it may not be the best choice for those just getting started. Virtual private servers are less expensive than dedicated servers and a shared server the least expensive of them all. A shared server is the most commonly used among new users because of cost and ease of use.

A shared server is one server hosting multiple different pages, as opposed to virtual private servers were each site has dedicated space on a single server. Each web page shares the same central processing unit, disc space, and memory capacity. This works well for most people but because of so many pages sharing one system it can cause the web page to load at a slower rate of speed. There is also the issue of only being able to use the resources that are actually available so if multiple pages start generating more traffic this could cut back on the available resources. When the traffic increases, upgrading to a virtual private server may be a better alternative.

Virtual private servers also share the same central processing unit. The difference between this server and the shared server is that the VPS is partitioned into individual servers giving each web page their own space. Each individual server is allotted certain amounts of memory and disc space. With the VPS the web owner also gains more flexibility in which they can download any software they need. For those ready to move away from a shared server but not ready for a dedicated server, a virtual private server is a great alternative.

What Are the Benefits of Private Cloud Computing For Businesses?

admin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:48:58 +0000

A Private Cloud computing platform is a stack of network, server and storage hardware dedicated to you for the purpose of cloud computing. When a managed cloud computing service is utilized, the stack of hardware becomes a customizable cloud of computing and storage resources that can be configured and re-configured when and as you wish. Why is this ability to configure and re-configure your server resources with a Private Cloud computing platform so valuable? Here’s why.

With a typical dedicated server stack, which is either managed by you or outsourced, you select your server, storage and networking needs, purchase them, and then live with that configuration for 3 to 5 years. During the course of those years, you might add memory, which isn’t too difficult. You might need to upgrade disk drives, which proves a bit more difficult. Over time, you might need to upgrade CPU’s, which is very difficult and expensive because this essentially requires changing the entire server.

When speaking to finance professionals, the following analogy can be used to describe the benefit of Private Cloud computing:

Imagine you were responsible for bus transportation in a metropolitan area. You are getting ready to order new busses that your community would need to live with for the next 7 years. Busses are available in 20, 30, or 50 seat configurations. You need 1,000-1,100 total seats to accommodate your population and the routes you’ve designed to service their needs. Each line is designed to maximize the use of a 20 or 50 seat bus. So, you guess and buy twenty, 20-seat buses, and twelve, 50 seat busses, and then hope it’s efficient for the next 7 years.

Interesting puzzle huh? Even if done really well, at the end of the day, there’s still tons of room for inefficiencies and wasted resources.

Instead of being forced to live with the same resource configuration for several years, imagine you could purchase a “cloud with 1,000 bus seats” and re-configure those seats at will into whatever size busses you want, at any point in time. Busses could be as small as a single seat or you could have one bus with 1,000 seats. Got a convention? Make 4 x 200 seat busses between hotels and the conference center. Having this flexibility is really powerful and valuable. Why? Because with the increased flexibility you can have more seats being used at any one time, thus requiring significantly fewer seats while providing a better experience.

That could be called “cloud transportation”, and it would be every Transportation Officials dream. Now think of each bus as a server and you have “private cloud computing” – every IT-finance manager’s dream come true.

An Important New Requirement

We just saw the power of the flexibility provided by Private Cloud computing. Unfortunately, it introduces a level of complexity that wasn’t present before. There are a few unique abilities that must exist in order to really gain the benefit of a Private Cloud.

Continuing with the transportation analogy… you now have this new on-demand flexibility for your busses. All you need now is a staff of people monitoring the traffic flow and re-designing the busses with more or less seats based on demand and utilization. They would work feverishly to reduce the wait and route times for anyone wanting a seat on any bus. The flexibility is powerful but to get the most out of it you need fairly sophisticated and complex (i.e. expensive) abilities to dynamically change your configurations and obtain the full benefit of the flexibility.

In the computing world, what you need to do is watch the server, storage and network resources. When one appears to be causing a bottleneck, provide it more resources. You also have to remember to reduce the number of resources allocated to a server that doesn’t need it. If you don’t, it sits idle and unavailable for another server that might demand it. This resource allocation process is powerful, but not inexpensive.

That’s where you need to pay attention when designing your Private Cloud. You need it to automatically change the cloud configuration in real-time so resources are where they need to be when they need to be there! In the blink of an eye and automatically, it needs to turn cloud servers off that aren’t being used and turn them back on when they are needed. This means that a small, extremely smart piece of software will have to constantly monitor your server, storage, memory and network resources and compare that to work-loads. It will then estimate and forecast which servers need more resources. After estimating, it then needs to automatically, in real-time, re-allocate resources so that you are always using your cloud computing resources in the most efficient manner. How cool is that? The dream continues…

Cost
The beautiful ending to this story is that the ultimate savings of idle capacity can be passed on to you. The cost for a well designed Private Cloud computing platform is less than a dedicated server on a per server basis! So, not only is it more flexible and can deliver a lower total cost of ownership, a managed Private Cloud can be outright cheaper. That’s the benefit of Private Cloud computing.

Root Server Hosting

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:40:28 +0000

This type of hosting has also been referred to as semi-managed hosting. Root server basically refers to a type of dedicated web hosting in which you have control on the server via access to the root and provides benefits as well such as a good infrastructure, security of the system and maintenance of hardware. A dedicated web hosting is a more complicated that can let you rent a server and still access various resources that it has to offer to host a number of sites. The advantages of this type of hosting are the flexibility and the benefits it has. Because root servers are semi managed servers, the company that offers the hosting service helps you in managing installations and the server hardware but software upgrades and back ups are your priority. The advantage however is that as a user of a this sort of server system, benefits such as administrative right of entry that basically lets you perform any operations on the server.

Another advantage of a this type of server is seen in its versatility, that is, you have a free pass with regard to carrying out different actions as you wish on the server. This may even be things like uploading your own site on the server at relative ease. These servers have long been used by individuals or companies with the need for more flexibility in their web hosting and usage needs. This is the advantage the root server ahs over the dedicated server. On the net, a server system denotes the operation by which domain names are kept and delivered to different routers. The server system is made up of 13 file servers out which the main one, also referred to as A is operated by the Company Network Solutions Inc. It is the first company that had exclusive rights to all domain names hosting before the coming of the others.

There are twelve companies that operate root server in the world that are often referred to as “root server operators” that provide server services to other sub letting companies. Thus on a daily basis, the list of 12 is copied to the various geographical regions of the world as dispersed file servers that are kept and taken care off by a group of agencies charged with these tasks. For the internet to reach the various places, the routing system now comes in handy to disperse it from the server to the small time end user. Every time you access your mail, you use a domain name that is linked to a root server that helps read it. Root servers have revolutionized internet technology with the quality and ease with which communication can be passed around.

Do I Need Managed Web Hosting or Shared Web Hosting?

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:14:16 +0000

There are many different choices to make when it comes to selecting the best type of web hosting for your particular needs. Shared web hosting is by far the most popular type of web hosting, and is ideal for most websites. However, many websites, such as those with very high traffic or form whom security of sensitive information is of utmost concern, managed web hosting just might be a better choice.

Shared Web Hosting

For smaller websites, purchasing a server or paying to leasing a dedicated server would be an unnecessary and very significant expense. Shared web hosting is an inexpensive and effective web hosting solution for most smaller websites. This type of hosting is referred to as shared web hosting simply because multiple websites share space on a single web hosting server.

Web host servers are large and powerful, and have sufficient room and bandwidth capacity to host multiple websites with ease. When you select a shared web hosting option, you purchase a package from a web hosting company that includes a certain amount of space and bandwidth on the company’s server. This option allows website owners to enjoy the power of a powerful web hosting server without having to pay for more than is actually needed.

The number of other websites with which your site shares a web host depends on the size and bandwidth needs of each website along with the capacity of the server. As long as your shared web hosting agreement includes a sufficient amount of space and bandwidth for your needs, you don’t have to worry about running out of room in a shared environment.

If your website grows faster than you expect, and you do find that it is outgrowing your current hosting agreement. You can always negotiate with your web hosting company to add additional space and bandwidth capacity to your current shared hosting agreement. Another option is to step up to a higher level of web hosting, which could mean getting a dedicated server with managed web hosting.

Managed Web Hosting

Websites that deal with highly sensitive confidential information, as well as those who receive a great deal of traffic are more suited for a dedicated web hosting environment than for shared web hosting. With dedicated web hosting, your website does not share a server with other websites. One web hosting server is dedicated specifically to your website.

Most companies who need the capacity of a dedicated web host decide to go with a managed web hosting solution. This is because the actual management and administration of a dedicated host can be very time consuming. If a website owner selects an unmanaged hosting option, he or she becomes responsible for every aspect of maintaining the web hosting server. Managing a web host is very time consuming, and involves everything from day to day maintenance to security issues.

Those who operate large websites are typically busy with other activities, and it is worth setting up their web hosting agreement so that the hosting company handles most of the task associated with managing the dedicated host. Another option for managed web hosting is simply to contract with an outside organization to handle the duties associated with managing the web host server.

Making a Decision

If your website is large enough to need a dedicated web hosting, it is certainly in your best interest to go with managed hosting instead of unmanaged hosting unless you employ a server maintenance expert who has the time to handle the large task of maintaining your web server.

However, before making the decision to invest in managed hosting, it is in your best interest to see if shared web hosting will meet your needs. Shared web hosting is significantly less than dedicated hosting options. Remember that shared web hosting is sufficient for most websites, so don’t take on the expense of managed hosting if it is unnecessary.