Web Hosting Blog

The basic description of Cloud Computing is the use of computer data storage, web or software applications, central processing units via the Internet alongwith software development tools and associated software architecture components. It is another way of computing in which typically scalable resources are provided as a service on the Internet. This technology integrates Software As A Service (SaaS), Web 2.0 and other recent well known trends of technology which targets a common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.

Cloud computing is a computing model in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, softwares and services accessed over the network. This network of servers and connections collectively called as a “Cloud”. Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users to access power equivalent to that of a supercomputer. Cloud computing can be contrasted with the traditional desktop computing model where the resources of a single desktop computer are used to complete tasks and an expansion of the client/server model. Cloud computing can be used to sort through vast amount of data. Like grid computing, cloud computing requires the use of software that can divide and distribute components of a program to thousands of computers. New and advanced processors, virtualization technology, inexpensive and fast servers, disk storage, broadband internet access all have combined to make Cloud computing a compelling model.

A major advantage of Cloud computing is that it allows users and companies to pay based on the server utilization, used processing power or the for the actual consumed bandwidth.

To create web presence, one needs to submit a web-site on the Internet and for this purpose some space is required. The amount and nature of server space featured in the website determines the size of the web page. A web hosting provider can be the best guide for determining the space and service that would best suite the web-sites requirements.

For the purpose of bring a company or products/services to the knowledge of the world, web hosting proves to be an essential entity. By making a web presence people come to know about one’s company and its objectives. The information or services offered by one’s company can be viewed by people whenever required on the internet. To make a good impact on the web or Internet world, the web-site should be logically and professionally developed. The website must have a quality of catching the attention of readers. Relevant content is extremely important if the website is designed for targeting particular audience. Selecting the correct domain name too plays an important role in the success of the web-site. If the purpose of the website is clear then it simplifies the task of the web host to suggest the appropriate service to be offered. All this is essential because web space is required for hosting the website on an appropriate server. The information provided by you can be accessed by anyone who has an Internet connection. The web hosting companies provide server space with some monthly, quarterly, half yearly, yearly, etc. for dedicated, shared, VPS, co-located etc. server hosting packages. One of these packages can be selected depending on the budget and the purpose of the web site. Before opting to host the web-site on the space offered by web hosting company, one needs to be cautious and careful at selecting a web hosting company.

Many might think that, is hosting the web site with a web hosting provider really important or is it really required? Then I would say that its not must but is always helpful and convenient as there are a lot of other critical factors involved in hosting the web site. ­­­­­­ For example: Hosting an eCommerce web-site requires additional security and upto-date technical services. Even if the web-site owner is thorough with web hosting techniques yet hosting a web-site with a web hosting company is always recommended. They have profession crew to take care of technical or other issues related to the web-site. They are well acquainted with web hosting services. They are dedicated towards delivering quality services. They are the best people to guide you to understand the actual amount of web hosting necessary.

Depending on the purpose of the website, the number and size of web pages may vary. The web host may come handy in suggesting the exact web space that might be essential for hosting the web-site. But the final decision is always upto the owner of the web-site. It’s a simple equation: More the web space = More Information can be stored on the website. As the site grows older and the traffic to the web site increases more server space becomes necessary.

Server space for Personal web-sites: 2 Mb to 10 Mb is required for personal web sites. The reason for suggesting this much space is because after considering that personal web pages are developed in a very simple way without much input. Usually such web sites need least space and bandwidth hence cheap web hosting packages can be opted.

Server space for Commercial web-sites: 50Mb disk space can be opted for commercial and business websites considering the fact that they contain larger number of variety web pages.

Server space for Corporate web-sites: 500 Mb space is recommended as such sites contain ample information and also require large web space for e-mails. Documents, press releases and news items are also covered in this website and hence consume lots of server space.

SUMMARY

Server space is the primary factor based on which an appropriate web hosting company is selected. It must be confirmed with the web hosting company that they can provide with the necessary web server space or not. Reliable web hosting firm is one of the most important factors affecting the success of the web-site.

Online gaming industry is one of the highest earning businesses in the world of Internet today. The choices of online gamers have drastically changed. Online gamers no longer like to play simple games. Todays trend is of high definition and more realistic kind of games.

Due to the ever increasing users of online gaming, many users have switched to dedicated server hosting to provide their customers with better services. In the initial stages users opted for shared web hosting packages to start the online gaming service. But as the number of gamers increased, the web hosting packages had to be upgraded. Today the big online gaming web-sites are hosted on dedicated servers.

Today those who wish to start an online gaming website either select a VPS hosting package or Dedicated server options. Now-a-days Gaming websites isn’t a normal business website. Though not every gaming website needs a dedicated server. It depends on the type of game that is hosted on a server, the number of visitors to the website etc.

Having an account for dedicated server with a web hosting company means, you are not required to share the server with any other user. Dedicated server hosting has more advantages than shared web hosting solutions. A dedicated server is necessary for the web-sites that has more traffic daily to the website. Usually most of the online gaming websites charge customers with certain amount of money every month for allowing them to play the games. Traffic on the Internet is dynamic, hence if a website is slow or takes long time to respond, then visitors might turn their back to such websites and search for a better option. Falling into such situations means losing out a lot of potential business. Here having a dedicated server hosting package becomes vital.

The fact that dedicated game servers are costly but if thinking of a long term objective then hosting the game on a dedicated server from the beginning itself can repay well in future, because as the web-site grows older on the web, means more traffic and more traffic means more business.

Usually a well reputed web hosting company provides assistance for all the queries regarding dedicated game server options. They would help your business grow. Hence, selecting the correct web hosting company is crucial. Selection of the appropriate operating system, data backups, bandwidth, package, hardware and space is the next thing after choosing a reliable web hosting company.

E-commerce web hosting is the type of web hosting which a business uses in order to sell products directly from their websites. Typically an E-commerce web hosts offer SSL certificates. SSL certificates are important for the protection of the private data and identity of potential customers. Business web hosting supports different variety of shopping carts for example: Cube Cart, Zen Cart, OsCommerce Shopping cart etc. Payment can be accepted online in many different ways. Usually Ecommerce sites support merchant accounts and Google checkout.

For carrying out such online trade, it is essential to have an account with a web hosting company which supports online shopping and has the latest trends and technology. The web hosting firm should have the capability of matching the plan ti the actual needs. Depending on the budget, many different packages offered by web hosting companies.

E-commerce is growing with a rapid pace hence E-commerce hosting companies have designed their plan to meet specific needs of the customers. There are few things that should be taken into consideration before choosing a web hosting company which are as follows:

1. Internet Speed: One needs to make sure that the E-commerce web-site is hosted on a fast data center.
2. Security: The environment in which the site is hosted must be extremely secure.
3. Support: The web hosting service provider must provide 24×7x365 days service.
4. Data Back-Ups: One needs to be aware of the schedule of data back-ups done by the web hosting company.
5. PHP/ CGI Perl Support: The support for this should be included by the web host.
6. Secure Socket Layer (SSL): E-commerce web-sites involve financial transactions, hence the web hosting provider should support SSL secure servers encryption.
7. Support For Database: Database support such as MySQL must be provided should be offered by the web hosts.
8. Server Uptime: The E-commerce business depends on the uptime as customers might visit anytime to the website and purchase the products offered by you. It is very important to make sure that the host provides atleast 99.99% uptime.
9. Unique IP Address: One should atleast ask the web hosts to provide minimum 2 unique IP addresses for the website to be hosted.
10. Automation: For the E-commerce web-site to be successful, one need access to powerful tools which automate various critical processes/tasks.

The E-commerce web-site should be designed in such a way that the visitor should be comfortable in searching the products or services offered by you. The web-site must have a Shopping Cart software or application without which an E-commerce web-site is incomplete. Flexibility is another major thing while choosing a web host. The web host must be capable of supporting the changing requirements of the web-site. Proper selection of payment gateways is important.

FTP is an abbreviation of File Transfer Protocol. The benefits of FTP hosting is the ability of handling the file transfer better than any other Internet Protocols. Today most of the file transfer takes place via the Internet. Organizations need to send huge data files, presentations etc. to clients,customers, other organizations etc. Sometimes the file transfer needs to take place through secure networks as confidentiality is of utmost importance. FTP hosting is the simplest and most secure way to make sure that the files arrive everytime.

FTP features the following benefits:

1. Ease of Use: Secure FTP Hosting is as simple as a hostname, a user name and a password. With these pieces of information one can log onto the FTP from any Internet connection. It is fast reliable and it makes file transfer simple.
2. Speed : FTP Hosting is the fastest and a direct way of making the files available to clients and customers.
3. Reliability: The user can keep a track of the files transferred, sent or arrived. Secure FTP Hosting is clear and leaves no doubt. Hence, one can be rest assured about the file been sent to the desired person that too in time.

FTP Hosting is an authentic way of transferring files over the internet. Now-a-days in the era of Internet technology it is very important to implement advanced communication protocol in the system of business to carry out effective communication with the clients. Transferring files through the Internet is fast and secure. This enhances the business process.

FTP Hosting supports transmission of all types of digital files over the Internet, size of the file is not a barrier. Costwise, transferring files is less under FTP Hosting service, hence this type of hosting is more preferred by businesses in the business process as an efficient medium to communicate with clients. Due to its ease of operating, one does not need to understand its technical details.

Benefits of FTP Hosting Service :

The cost of transferring items depends on the distance between the two locations, weight of product and the shipment selection type. For FTP Hosting service there isn’t any additional fee charged for transferring files via the FTP server. It isn’t authentic to send digital files via any type of courier service, but with the use of FTP such file can be sent with much ease and at a comparatively much lower costs, hence it is recommended to use FTP for transferring movies or images. With FTP hosting service one can send data in a compressed file format. Advanced FTP hosting service comes with a facility of 128-bit data encryption. This encrypts the digital data and restricts any other to access the content of the data.

The transfer of data through FTP is user friendly. One needs to register a FTP server. FTP service providers allocate web space on a server and provides the user with an FTP account, which helps to communicate with the clients. The remote computer acts as a FTP client. It enables users to upload huge digital files on the FTP server. The files uploaded on the FTP server can be accessed or downloaded from anywhere through the Internet.

To summarize the above content, FTP hosting service is an efficient, cost effective and secure service designed for every kind of users.

cPanel 11 and Plesk 9 are the latest control panels available for the web hosting service providers. These panels enable them to provide their web hosting services to their clients. With the help of these control panels provided by the hosting firms, clients can manage different tasks involved in the web hosting accounts, these panels simplifies the tasks for the support staff as clients are able to carry out majority of the tasks themselves. There are many different tasks that can be simplified with the use of these control panels, it involves the management of web services, E-mail, DNS and Database on both half’s i.e. client and administrator. Normally most of the web hosting service providers provide control panel access as a standard feature for the web hosting accounts. These control panels are simple to use, a person with no knowledge of web hosting too can operate it and hence this is one of the major reasons why these control panels have gained popularity in the web hosting industry.

Until now cPanel is compatible with Linux Servers only. Which means cPanel can be provided by web hosting firms only to the clients that choose Linux Servers for hosting their web sites. Which is not the case with Plesk, Plesk control panel is compatible with Linux as well as with Windows web hosting platforms. Plesk is majorly used by web hosts due to its stability.

cPanel and Plesk have their own advantages when used by customers and administrators of Web hosting services. Usually Plesk is provided with Windows Web Hosting service and cPanel with Linux Web Hosting solutions.

Below one can find the advantages of Plesk control panel.

>> Windows Support : Plesk works on Windows Web hosting service allowing web hosting service providers to provide Windows based web hosting packages to the customers. Customers ASP and ASP.NET websites can only work on Windows servers, so Windows Web Hosting service needs to be opted. Customers usually prefer Plesk with Windows Web Hosting.

>> Windows Service Support : As Plesk can be used on Windows based servers it has the capability to integrate to integrate with multiple Windows based programs. It has an advanced feature support for some Windows programs such as Microsoft SQL Server which can be managed by Plesk 9.0 by server administrators and clients with their own databases which makes it an ideal control panel solution for Windows.

>> Cross Platform Compatibility : From a system administrator’s point of view,  one may find it more beneficial having a single control panel on all the servers. Mastering a single control panel is much simpler than mastering two. As a customer one may find it easy since it means that one should be able to get the same sort of features from both Linux as well as from Windows web hosting solutions.

Though Plesk seems to be perfect for Windows web hosting packages, it can also be used for Linux packages.

cPanel is a preferred control panel for Linux web hosting services. Benefits of cPanel are as follows.

>> More Features of Linux : cPanel encompasses more features for Linux web hosting solutions than Plesk control panel. cPanel can be used in combination with different add-ons such as Fantastico script installer and CFS firewall to provide customers a wide range of services which can be used from their web hosting accounts control panel, such features can’t be used on Plesk Linux Web Hosting servers.

>> Reseller Support : Apart from Plesk 9.0 version, other versions does not provide support for reseller web hosting accounts whereas cPanel offers good support for resellers. cPanel is available with the Web Host Manager (WHM) panel which allows resellers to control all different aspects of their reseller accounts including the configuring of their own packages and the setting up of client web hosting accounts.

>> Faster Loading : cPanel’s internal pages load more faster than those of Plesk and certain tasks are carried out quicker than they would be with the Plesk control panel. cPanel does not rely on external databases in much cases, this is one of the reasons of the smooth functioning. cPanel has proven to be more reliable than Plesk on Linux.

To sum it up, both the control panels cPanel and Plesk provide web hosting service provider firms a reliable control panel service but come with their own advantages and disadvantages. But, Plesk for Windows and cPanel for Linux is the perfect solution offered by web hosting firms.

Parallel’s Plesk Control Panel is considered to be a highly recommended and one of the most used control panels in the Web Hosting Industry today. Plesk control panel can operate with Windows as well as on Linux platforms.

Plesk is an ideal solution for Dedicated, Shared and Virtual hosting. Plesk control panel is the most stable and secure multi-platform web hosting control panel available for users. Most of the leading web hosting service providers use Plesk for the purpose of increasing their per server profitability. There are many benefits of using Plesk Control panel. Windows and Linux server’s can make use of Plesk.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Plesk’s RPM installation and modular design allow Dedicated Hosting providers to satisfy the needs of tech savvy customers. It deploys and is ready in a very short time. It provides high performance solutions which is comprehensive yet inexpensive. There are many unique features such as XML-API which automize the provisioning process and integrating 3^rd party applications, included in Plesk. It includes a complete Software Development Kit with multiple backend utilities delivering service providers and customers more power to adapt their offerings as well as an avenue for easy up selling and additions.

Shared Web Hosting

Plesk’s tiered self administration and uniform multi platform design is perfect for the management of a shared web hosting environment. The control panel strengthens providers for managing multiple domains running reliably on highly scalable  architecture optimizes for the reseller channel. A person with no technical background too can easily create, manage and set-up accounts while customers can administer their virtual domains without the support from the technical staff. Plesk satisfies the needs of both simple and complex web hosting system configurations at the same time allowing full customization.

Virtual Web Hosting

Plesk efficiently delivers management power with a small footprint making it an ideal for Virtual Private Server Hosting solution. With the use of Virtuozzo, Plesk users can deploy templates of Plesk control panel systems. Virtual servers provide an isolated dedicated server environment. Getting upgrades has never been so simple before from a single VPS console. Plesk and Virtuozzo are unsurpassed in their ability to increase ROI and generate revenue for the professional web hosting provider.

HyperVM is a multi-virtualization, multi-server and multi-tiered software which permits VPS seller to manage, provide and delegate Open VZ or Xen based Virtual Private Servers (VPS). HyperVM is available in an integrated form with Lxadmin hosting control panel. With the use of HyperVM the service provider is enabled to deploy a full fledged web hosting system. As said HyperVM is integrated with Lxadmin, all Lxadmin functions can be accessed from HyperVM with no requirement of logging into Lxadmin. HyperVM enables users to manage VPS across multiple servers transparently. It specializes in the provision of mechanism to manage their networking configuration i.e. gateway and IP address, from the Control Panel. HyperVM has a complete pool of IP addresses to fulfill large scale management.

The virtualization software plays a helpful role in the Web Hosting business.

Below are Steps to Configure, Set-Up and Add a HyperVM Server

A] Configuring HyperVM Automatically

In the module of HyperVM one can find options where the HyperVM can be added through an automation process. This makes it simpler for you as well as for the clients.

When a client selects an OS (Operating System) to be installed on the VPS, below method instantly creates the configuration instead of the pre-selected configuration by you.

• Go to Package
• Hit the Configurable Option
• Click on the Add New Configurable Option
• In the Option Name, correctly write Operating System without any quotes
• In Add Option enter Operating System’s name
• Create a new option for every Operating System

B] Setting Up A HyperVM Package

Follow following Steps in order to create a HyperVM package in WHMCS

• Configuration >>> Services/Product
• Click Create New Product >>> Enter Name of the new package
• Set product type to Other >>> Untick the Show Domain Option
• Now, Configure pricing, welcome E-mail and the other options of configurations as normal
• Go to Module Settings tab of the product configuration
• Here select HyperVM in the module Type drop down menu
• The page would get refreshed with the options for HyperVM package
• In Type field enter the type of server the package is for (OpenVZ or Xen)
• Enter Plan Name as appearing in the plan name listed in the dropdown in HyperVM when creating a new server
• In the OS Template field enter exactly as appears in the drop down menu
• In Server box you need to enter the slave server to set it on
• Select the Number of IP’s to be allocated.
• Set Up a custom field on the custom fields tab of Username which is set to show on the order form and be required so users can enter their desired username while placing the order.

This ends the configuration of HyperVM Package.

C] Steps to Add a HyperVM Server

• Configuration >>> Servers
  

• Add New Server
  
• Add Master Server Name, IP Address >>> select server type as HyperVM from the dropdown list >>> Enter HyperVM username and Password
  
• Click Create Server to finish the process