We hear quite a lot about the word “hosting”, but how many people understand the meaning of it? What exactly does “hosting” mean?
Well, shortly explained, it is an online service that allows you to store and publish your web information and data. Imagine it like a virtual space where your data and files are safely stored, and which allows you to access it worldwide via a network.
Running a company, small or big, often means you have to figure out how to store your important data. The easiest way to do this is to find a good and reliable hosting provider for your business. Since there are so many servers on the market, settling on a specific server for your business might be confusing. The type of server you get will determine how successful you can run your business. Some of them offer free facilities and they are suitable for small blogs; others are quite costly and are mostly recommended for big organizations.
If you are conflicted over what kind of server you should pick, here are some of the things you need to keep in mind.
Type of hosting available
The first thing you need to figure out is the kind of web hosting. There are a few kinds of hosting, but here are three main types from the market. They have different features and efficiency, but let’s take a close look:
Shared Hosting
This kind of hosting is the most popular and chosen. Shared hosting means that there are more websites located on the same server: you are not the only user of this server, but you need to share it with other websites. That might have an impact on the quality: you will have a limited processing power, bandwidth, and space. Keep in mind that, when other websites traffic issues have, this may affect yours as well. On one side, you do not have direct access to the server, but on the other side, being a shared service, you are not responsible for the security and maintenance of the server.
The shared hosting is ideal for a website with small traffic, and it can be easily chosen for a starting small company’s website or personal blogs. It is the most affordable option because you are not the only user paying for this space and service.
Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS)
With a Virtual private server (VPS) you are still sharing the server with other websites, but you are allocated a separate partition there. It is a good “upgrade” option for a shared hosting, the middle way from a shared server to a dedicated one. It is a private virtual space, a server running within another server and where you can host your website.
The big advantage is that you do not have to share the bandwidth with anyone else, so this hosting option offers you more power and disk space than you would get with the shared one. With this kind of server, you do not have to worry about the huge traffic flowing from and to your site. Another advantage is that you can ask the hosting provider to manage your server, or you can do it alone. But keep in mind that being the manager of the server brings security responsibility with it.
One less nice thing about this version is that it will cost you more than a shared hosting. But because of it’ efficiency and versatility it is a cost-effective solution for small businesses, and it represents a good choice when considering both quality and costs.
Dedicated Server Hosting
As the name implies, this kind of hosting gives you the full power in controlling and managing your web server; it is an entire server just for your website, dedicated to your website. You can choose the software, applications, and configuration you need; have full control. You do not have to share it with others, and that offers you full flexibility, access, and capacity. Your website can handle high traffic without problems, more uptime and faster speed are not being disturbed by other websites; so, this fact opens the way to a superior performance of your site.
Of course, all those advantages come with a higher price: the dedicated hosting has the highest costs of all three options presented here. That is why this kind of hosting is recommended for big companies and for websites handling a huge traffic.
About servers
Once you know what kind of hosting option you will go to, you need to figure out the type of server you will get. The main role of servers is to store your data and make it easy to retrieve. There are various types of servers on the market, and they all come with their pros and cons. When choosing a server, one thing you should do is look at the main features they have and whether they suit your needs or if you should get something different. Here are some things you need to look at that will ensure you get the best server for your business.
Power
One of the things you need to check is the level of power the server operates at. The more power the sever uses, the harder it is for your site to get downtime. Before you get started on the site, figure out what you expect for your traffic and whether the power the server comes with will handle it. If you own a small business, you will not need as much power as a bigger business.
Scalability
Often, when you start a website, you will want to start small because it is cheaper and needs little power to run. However, as time goes by, your site will grow and start attracting a lot of traffic. In such a scenario, you will need to increase the storage and power you use. While some sites are meant to accommodate these changes, some sites cannot do that. It helps if you can find out whether your site is scalable, so you have no issue expanding or downsizing.
Security
Another important issue you need to considerate is how secure is the server you are about to use. While cloud-based servers are good, they can also be susceptible to cyberattacks. If you want a safe server, always ask for a VPS server. You might need to pay a little extra for it, but it will be worth it in the end because of its stability, performance, and flexibility.
You do not want to take any risk with your online business, so a secure server is vital. Do not forget about the SSL certificates, maintaining the software with patching and firewall protection. As you can see, there is not only a feature that makes your server secure, but a whole constellation of them and they have to be set up from the very beginning. Getting a good server will go a long way to ensure that you can run your site without issues. Before you embark on your site-building journey, ensure you take the time to figure out what site you plan on having and how safe it will be for your business. Once you do that, you can be sure that the server you pick will serve you for a long time.
