December 2nd, 2016
If you don't have any experience with web hosting, it's easy to get overwhelmed. In reality, web page hosting is straightforward when all the components are broken down. In the first part of our new series on cloud web hosting, you'll learn the most basic terms associated with website hosting.
So, first things first...
What is web hosting?
Simply put, web hosting refers to the place that websites are stored. Even if you build a website from scratch, the site's data needs to be hosted somewhere to be accessed.
Just like the host is someone that welcomes you into their home, the web host welcomes your website into their system. The site is stored by the host in a server, which serves as a central point so that other computers can access the website. In some cases, the host is the server itself. This would require your company to have access to a server and the capability to maintain it. In other instances, companies hire a web hosting company to rent space out on their server for you.
What are the types of web hosting?
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Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is when a site is placed on the same server as several other sites. Because of this, each site shares a limited amount of resources. Shared hosting is extremely cost-efficient, and often the best option for companies that don't update their website regularly. Because of the shared resources, your site's performance could be affected by the performance or content of another site. - Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting
VPS hosts are divided into smaller virtual servers so that there are fewer sites to share space with. These servers are assigned by how much space is needed by the site. Sometimes a website may score its own server, but in other cases, it may share a server with a few different sites. The small-scale shared access may slow down a site's performance, but not as much as full-scale shared hosting.
- Dedicated Server Hosting
Dedicated servers are just that, they are dedicated to one site only. This gives the site owner maximum control over the site's performance. The downside to this is that it is far more expensive to have a dedicated server than it is to share a host.
- Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting allows the user to have unlimited access to resources to combat spikes in page activity. Like shared hosting, a website shares the server with other sites. However, cloud hosting companies usually maintain a considerable number of servers. In practical terms, this means that there is a near-infinite amount of memory available to promote optimal performance. Typically, a user rents a specific amount of space within the cloud. For years, traditional server hosting has had one major drawback: when a server goes down, all hosted sites are affected. With cloud hosting, if one server goes down, the hosted websites are then transferred to another server.
Today, the entire hosting industry is shifting to cloud web hosting. In fact, 80% of users see improvements in site performance within just six months of switching to the cloud.
Want to learn more about the cloud hosting options for your website? Wait for part two of this series or give us a call for more information.