The algebra of web hosting services needs a fresh outlook. The first equation that hits the desk of new businesses is the scope of their market. All the professionals working for a particular business ponder over one basic question: How big is the market? It is indeed vast and large, at any point in time, with fluctuations explaining its dynamicity.

So, the first task that a new business or startup has to face is to tap this open market. In other words, it needs to go online. The first order of business is to set up a website. For your website to be live on the internet, it needs to be hosted. A website is hosted through a server. Put in simple terms, a server performs the basic function of storing and delivering information related to websites over the internet.

Web hosting services: Explained

Any website is backed by a server which is a strong supercomputer to provide hosting services. A web host literally contains all the content that is present on the website which may be in the form of data, images, and videos. Web hosting servers are present in datacenters which are physical spaces or in simple terms the workstations of web hosting services.

Types of web hosting

There are four main types of hosting.

  1. Shared
  2. VPS
  3. Dedicated
  4. Cloud

1. Shared hosting- To understand shared hosting, let us start with an example. Think of hiring a resort to spend your holidays. You may be tempted to hire it all alone but after seeing the price, you decide to hire it along with your friends so that the price gets distributed. Similarly, in shared hosting services, a server is hired by a large number of websites. This serves two important purposes. Firstly, it reduces any unnecessary burden on the exchequer of the company. Secondly, it allows the company to channelize its resources for other important purposes. However, it has some drawbacks as well. When a large number of websites are hosted by a single server, there is every chance of the traffic getting increased and this may cause the speed of the website to slow down. Moreover, it may also intrude upon the security of the website. Nevertheless, it is good for startups and other small businesses that do not have a voluminous seed capital in place. To address the shortcomings, we introduce the concept of dedicated server hosting.

2. Dedicated hosting- For entrepreneurs for whom money is not a problem, dedicated server hosting is the best option. It servers multiple numbers of benefits. First things first, dedicated server hosting ensures that a particular server is used for one and only one website. This serves two important functions. Firstly, it ensures that the technical control of the server lies with the company itself. Secondly, it ensures that downtime is as minimum as possible.

3. VPS hosting- VPS hosting can be regarded as the next as well as upgraded level of shared hosting. As the name suggests, VPS or virtual private server is all about providing a virtual server to individual websites. Let us take a close look at this. In VPS hosting, the main server is split into smaller or virtual servers. The prime purpose served by this type of hosting is that it improves the page loading speed of the website due to lower traffic.

4. Cloud hosting- In cloud hosting services, a website is hosted by numerous servers all at the same time. This type of hosting is most conducive for those websites that are expecting a large volume of traffic and are not worried about the technical control or related matters.

Some more hosting options

By now, we must be prepared to think about the possibilities of various kinds of other hosting services, if any. There might emerge a scenario in which a leading multinational company which has its own IT team and server, be tempted to lease vacant space in its rack to small businesses. In fact, this is not only possible but a reality.  This process assumes the name colocation hosting. There are a number of startups that want to explore the power of digital marketing through colocation hosting but they find the infrastructural and other costs standing as hurdles in this venture. As such, bigger companies might provide handholding support to these smaller businesses at their data centers and enable them to flourish.

Conclusion

The need for going live is a need immediate. However, there can be no rush around it and basic knowledge about various types of hosting services is a must. The primary aim of this write up is to educate the audience about the basics of these hosting services.

In order to deliver to the reader a tool to make an informed choice about hosting services, this article has been penned down!