Web Hosting Blog

Dedicated server hosting and Colocation Server are two of the common terms frequently used by webmasters. Here is a explanation of the difference between the two.

A dedicated server hosting is one of the very well known type of web hosting service. Dedicated servers are used by large organizations and enterprises as they have to manage large amount of data. This service is further distinguished as Linux Dedicated Server Hosting and Windows Dedicated server hosting, depending on the platform a customer chooses.

A customer leases an entire server from a web hosting provider, it is as good as owning a server yourself. The customer has the privileges of using the server as per their own choice. One can opt for Managed Dedicated Server Hosting solutions, in this the hosting provider takes care of the maintenance, data back-up, security etc. A dedicated server provides an assurance of better security and speed.

With a dedicated hosting solution, one has the complete freedom to modify the server settings of sever hardware components and operating system as per business requirements. Depending on the web hosting service provider, one can get the dedicated server customized as per requirements. A control panel alongwith the server can add to the ease of managing the web hosting accounts. With a dedicated server, one gets complete administrative access to the server, enabling customers to install, uninstall, modify, delete, upload, download anything of their choice.

Colocation which is also referred as “Colo”, is a Web server hosting service offered by Web hosting providers. In this type of hosting solution, a customer can place his own server hardware in the data center of a third party. The customer is required to have their own server hardware and software licenses to place in the data center. In this type of service, the customer has the flexibility to manage, secure and take care of maintenance of their servers. In this, the data center provides only the space, security, redundancy etc. Colocation service is one of the most expensive type of web hosting service. Only people with good experience in server administration opt for such a service. Also, the maintenance, upgrades of the server needs to be taken care by the customer themselves (Some of the web hosting providers do offer managed collocation services too.).

Both these types of server hostings have their own advantages and disadvantages. With a dedicated server hosting solution a customer gets all the services provided in a collocation hosting solution, except that the customer does not own the hardware. Whereas, in Colocation Hosting solution, the hardware is owned by the customer, therefore the customer needs to bear initial set-up costs and the charge of placing the hardware in the facility of a third party.

As an amateur, any webmaster can get confused with the common web hosting terms which can make things complicated. Therefore, below is a list of commonly used terms in the business of Web Hosting.

Bandwidth : Bandwidth is the term that is used to describe the amount of data that is passed or is estimated to travel across a communication channel in an estimated period of time. It can be measured monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or Annually. It depends on the plan a client signs-up for.

Hosting Plan (Dedicated Hosting) : A dedicated hosting is recommended for websites that incur high amounts of traffic. A user gets complete root/administrative access to the server. Same is the benefit with a VPS or Virtual Private Server.

Gigabytes (Hard Disk Space) : It is an unit to measure a computers storage capacity. One Gigabyte equals one billion bytes.

DNS : DNS is an abbreviation of Domain Name Server. It differentiates between different institutes such as .com, .us, etc.

Domain parking : When an individual or any company purchase domain names and keep it unused is known as domain parking. Later when required, they can link those domains to their required old domain. Domain parking has become a common way of business, individuals buy domains in a bulk, park it and then resell it at a higher price.

FTP : FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a common way of transferring files or data across a network in a secure way.

Auto-Responders: While auto-responders are not email accounts in themselves, they are assigned an email address and it auto-respond to anyone who sends them an email. The reply is a pre-formatted email and every response is identical to the corresponding queries.

HTTP and HTML : HTTP or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is used inorder to request or transmit web pages and components over the Internet and various other computer networks.

HTML is an abbreviation of Hyper Text MarkUp Language which is used to structure the multimedia and text present in a website. It also creates hyper text links between electronic documents.

ISP : One might be aware of this, an ISP is the Internet Service Provider. An ISP is essential if one wishes to connect to their servers.

There are many more terms that I would describe in my later post. The above mentioned terms of Web Hosting are some of the very commonly used one’s and are essential for a webmaster to know.

With the development of Internet the e-commerce services too have increased rapidly.There are varied types of web hosting services that are available with various web hosting service providers. Below are the different types of services offered in Web Hosting category.

1. Virtual Private Server (VPS)
2. Dedicated Hosting,
3. Free Hosting,
4. Shared Hosting,
5. Clustered Hosting,
6. Reseller Hosting,
7. FFmpeg hosting,
8. Blog hosting,
9. Image hosting,
10. Video hosting,
11. DNS hosting,
12. E-mail hosting,
13. Application hosting,
14. Social network hosting,
15. Game server hosting.

1. Virtual Private Server (VPS): The VPS is also referred as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS). It is a method of partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers in a way that the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. Every virtual server can run operating system on the individual partition.

The VPS is as good as a dedicated server but the VPS package is cheaper than that of the dedicated server package.

2. Dedicated Server Hosting: The dedicated server hosting is also called as managed hosting service. It is a type of hosting service where the client leases the entire service. The server is not shared with any of the other clients. This type of service offers more rights and flexibility than the shared hosting as the client has the complete control of the server. The client can decide the operating system to be installed or the hardware to be selected as per requirements. The server administration can be provided by the hosting company. The dedicated server is often housed in the data centers.

3.Free Hosting: Free web hosting is just an advertisement tactic, actually its never free. Free web hosting has a lot of limitations, such as:

• Limits on the hosted files
• Smaller bandwidth
• Disabled hotlinking files
• File type restrictions
• No uptime guarantee
• No allowance of custom URL’s (Pronographics)

Extra features That May be Available:

• Web based control panel
• Free email accounts for the domain and sub-domain
• File transfer through FTP
• Forums and community resources not typical to paid hosts.

4.Shared Hosting: In shared hosting many sites may be hosted on a single server. The resources of a single server are shared between multiple customers. A shared web hosting option is one way of cheap and economical option of hosting the web-site. Many users share the overall cost of the server maintenance.

5.Clustered Web Hosting: The clustered hosting technology is designed to eliminate the problem of typical shared hosting infrastructure. This technology provides customers with a clustered handling of security, load balancing and the required website resources.

6. Reseller Hosting: Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting where the account owner has the privilege to use the allotted hard drive space and bandwidth to host websites on behalf of the third party. The reseller buys the web host’s services and sells them to its customers. A reseller does not require an extensive technical knowledge of web hosting.

7. FFmpeg hosting: FFmpeg is the term that is referred to every assortment of software that is freely available. It is helpful form recording, converting and streaming of digital video and audio files. It falls in the category of video hosting services.

8.Blog Hosting: Weblog / blog software/blogware is a type of software that consists of a specialized form of content Management system desigined specifically for creating and maintaining weblogs.

9.Image Hosting: An image hosting service allows individuals to upload images to an Internet website. The image host will then store the image onto its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view that image.

10.Video Hosting: A video sharing service allows individuals to upload video clips to an Internet website. The video host will then store the video on its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view this video. The website, mainly used as the video hosting service, is usually called the video sharing website.

11.DNS Hosting: It is a type of service that carries out Domain Name System servers. Free DNS hosting services too are available.

12. E-mail Hosting: E-mail hosting service is another type of Internet hosting service which runs e-mail servers.

13. Application Hosting: An application service provision is a type of a business that provides computer based services to customers on the network. The most limited sense of this business is that of providing access to a particular application program (such as customer relationship management) using a standard protocol such as HTTP.

14. Social Network Hosting: A social network hosting service is a web hosting service that specifically hosts the creation of web-based social networking services, alongside related applications.

15. Game Server Hosting: A game server might be leased by game clients for playing multiplayer games over the internet. The Game server Providers (GSP’s) are the companies that lease dedicated game servers. Game server providers often offer web based tools to help control and configure the game servers

Experts of the Hosting Transformation Summit believe that Virtual Private Server (VPS) is the future of Web Hosting industry.

Exactly like the stand alone web server, Virtual Private Server (VPS) can perform and execute the tasks. The VPS hosting technique includes multiple servers on a single physical web server. The physical server is split with the use of highly sophisticated kernel based partitioning software. Every VPS has its own hard disk, IP, operating system, RAM and control panel with complete root SSH access and 100% guaranteed equal share of CPU processing power. The most important quality of the VPS is that any VPS account cannot affect the other accounts in spite of using the same hardware.

FEATURES:

Every VPS account has its own system configuration files and applications.

Every VPS account has its own processor, users, files with full access of the root.

Every VPS account can have its own system libraries or else, the existing can be modified.

Every VPS account can have its own IP addresses, port numbers, tables, filtering and routing rules.

BENEFITS

Any VPS file cannot be accessed by any other VPS account or VPS user present on the same hardware, hence enhancing privacy and security.

The VPS users have the complete control of the root, which enables users to modify server configuration files, install software’s and applications.

Every VPS user gets the complete hardware resource, hence every VPS user present on the same hardware gets equal optimum resources.

VPS account is much cheaper than going for a dedicated hosting account. Day by day VPS web hosting account is preffered by more and more users. VPS hosting falls in the category of cloud/grid computing and virtualization computing. VPS technology is an advanced technology of the future of web hosting.

Within a datacenter when you have a dedicated server, you need to pay rental charges which are

pre-agreed, to use the services provided to you. Depending upon the number of days you wish to use the server, the rental fees may be required to pay on a monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly basis. For a dedicated server, the rental fee covers the cost of the hardware that your web hosting provider provides. Your dedicated hosting provider need to consider the electrical cost and the cost of bandwidth within the server rental fee which is charged to you. If you already own a collocated server, then the rental fee of the server paid by you, covers the cost of the bandwidth and electricity which is used by your server.

Dedicated web hosting is more popular as they provide businesses and individuals with high specification web hosting environment. If one does not require a dedicated server anymore then the services can be immediately withdrawn by the dedicated service provider at your request. Dedicated servers are most reliable form of web hosting than the other forms of web hosting such as Reseller Web Hosting, Semi-Dedicated Web Hosting etc. The user is not required to share the resources, the user is the complete owner of the server in terms of resource allocation. The hardware of Dedicated Server, particularly high specification hardware are expensive. The dedicated server hosting provider will add up their profit to the cost of electricity and bandwidth that needs to be paid to the datacenter.

Usually large businesses and enterprises who have many servers might not have the money to build their own datacenter’s, then they go for the option of choosing a data center web hosting by collocating their servers in a professional web hosting environments. Then in such cases the rental fee of collocation server is cheaper than that of dedicated server as the collocation web hosting provider is not providing their servers.

Linux server hosting is more recommended than Windows hosting as more scripts can effectively run on Linux. Linux server hosting is designed for the users who require a VPS or dedicated server hosting with Linux. Most of the businesses opt for Linux server hosting as it enables them to have access to a Linux hosting server. Users can host their website and applications which are specifically designed for use with a Linux web hosting server.

Linux server hosting is cheaper that windows server hosting as many applications are available on Linux for commercial use. Many businesses and individuals have been able to receive reliable web hosting service at low costs. For many Linux programs does not require licensing fees. A web hosting company initiates its service of web hosting with providing Linux web hosting with shared hosting packages and as the fund increases start giving Linux server hosting.

Standard set of applications are used by most of the web hosting providers. Same services are also available for Linux server hosting since like Linux they all are free to use in a commercial web hosting environment. The applications include Apache web server, Exim mail server and the Dovecot IMAP/POP3 server. Apache web server has a higher percentage market share of the web server market than Microsoft’s IIS web server, the reason is that Apache can run on Windows operating system too. Hence the web hosting providers who provide services for both Linux and Windows web hosting service can easily do it.

Linux VPS server hosting another web hosting solution for individuals and small businesses who need their own dedicated web hosting environment but are unable to afford higher costs of Linux dedicated server. Linux server hosting providers use applications such as Parallel’s Virtuozzo inorder to provide reliable Linux VPS server hosting to the clients. Virtuozzo allows clients to mange their own VPS web hosting servers from anywhere on the planet using web based administration panel.

Dedicated hosting is actually hosting a website on a Dedicated server. Dedicated servers are the servers which are dedicated to or in other words given to one single client. There are no other clients hosted on the same server and this is the reason that Dedicated hosting is preferred over Shared or VPS hosting. There is no sharing of hardware or software resources as websites of one single client is hosted on the server. It is easy for the client to install the software’s required on the server for the task to be performed. Also, dedicated servers offer much more secured environment than the shared server which is yet another benefit included with dedicated hosting. If you compare shared hosting with Dedicated hosting then, you will find that dedicated hosting is much more reliable and secured. Dedicated servers belong to one single client and the client can manage the resources of the server. This reduces the chances of the server facing downtime. On a shared server there are many websites hosted on the same server which increases the chances of the server facing downtime. This is the reason due to which many clients prefer Dedicated hosting in comparison to shared hosting.

Dedicated hosting also has some of the drawbacks. One of them is considered to be the cost of the server. However, the cost of the server is decreasing with time. The cost of the server is high as the cost of the server hardware is high and the client of the dedicated server has to pay the cost of the server as he is the only user of the server unlike the shared server where a number of users share the cost of the server hardware. The cost of the server is declining as the dedicated hosting industry is growing. The Dedicated hosting industry is also growing due to the fact that nowadays many of the small and the mid-sized businesses are willing to make an online presence. These businesses have increased the level of service but have decreased the cost of the server due to the competition in the market which has increased a lot and is still increasing day by day.

Control

As Dedicated server is provided to one single client he has the full control of the server and he can perform the task easily on the server. This is not the case with the shared server as the shared server has many clients hosted on the same server. Dedicated server allows installation of software’s, changes and updates the client wants to do on the server and he can easily do that as he is given the root access to the server. This is a great benefit to the user as he can run the server as well as manage it on his own so that the server works smoothly and performs the task which is to be performed with the configuration it has without any difficulties.

Reliability

Dedicated servers are the most reliable servers when it comes to hosting your website on a server. Another benefit of the dedicated server is that the resources of the server can be managed by the client and he can allocate the resources on the server. This also allows the client to calculate the resources of the server and hence the chances of the server getting overload and facing downtime. If the server will not face downtime than it is good for the clients and they will be capable to satisfy their customers with the service they provide.

All these and many more benefits of Dedicated server hosting make dedicated servers the most preferred kind of server in the Web Hosting industry.

If you want to host your site on a server, you will have a lot of options for the server configuration but, the server types is limited and you have to choose among them. The server types currently available are Shared server, Virtual Private server (VPS) and Dedicated server. VPS server is also a kind a shared server which acts like a Dedicated server. So there are basically only two kind of servers and they are shared server and a Dedicated server. So you have to choose between these two servers. If you go for a shared server you will only get a part of the server or in other words server resources. Whereas, in a Dedicated server you will get the entire server, connection and the server resources. One of the main drawback of the Dedicated server is, Dedicated server are much more expensive than shared servers as the entire cost of the server is to be paid by a single client having the Dedicated server as there are no other users on the server (It depends on the client).Also, it is very difficult to operate a Dedicated server as it requires good technical skills. On the other hand, a shared server has a number of users contributing in the total cost of the server. As there are a number of users on a Shared server and the resources are used up by all of them, there are more chances of a shared server facing downtime which is a loss of business for the client who has hosted his site on a shared server. This is the reason due to which a Dedicated server is preferred by an individual or a company running a mission critical website or in other words a website which requires maximum uptime.

A Dedicated server allows you to manage and plan out your traffic level so that the server does not face any problem due to the traffic level. Dedicated server will also help you to manage other events which will definitely effect the server response time. One of the best parts of the Dedicated server is, you can install various types of programs and applications you wish to install. You can also customize the programs and applications on a Dedicated server without worrying about the other users as there are no other users on the server. Another benefit of a Dedicated server is, with a Dedicated server you can upgrade hard drive, RAM processors, platform or software applications at any point of time you feel to do so. Dedicated servers provide you the freedom to perform the tasks according to you. This kind of customization is only possible with a Dedicated server as the Dedicated server only belongs to one single client. As compared to the shared server information is more secure in a Dedicated server and the reason for this is, a shared server cannot be provided with its own Firewall but a Dedicated server can be provided with it which makes it more secure than shared server. Also, client can install a security system of his own choice to protect the server and the data stored on the server which is not possible on a shared server. If the website has highly sensitive information then it is recommended that the server is a Dedicated server as it is good for the internet security. For this reason, many of the organizations that are running websites with some of the private information choose Dedicated server for hosting sites even if there requirements are quite less then what is provided with the Dedicated server.

If you want to have your hosting account on a dedicated server than you will have to rent a dedicated server for this purpose. A web hosting provider can provide a dedicated server to you on a rental basis. However, if you have the hardware of the server than it is also possible for you to colocate your server within a data center. For this purpose you have to pay some rental fee which you had accepted to pay in returns to the service which is provided to you. The rental fees of the server is generally paid on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly basis and this depends on the time for which you are using the server that you are renting. If you are renting a dedicated server from a web hosting provider than most of the rent you are paying to your web hosting provider goes towards the server hardware as the hardware of the server is expensive. Also, the cost of the electricity and the bandwidth used by your server is also taken into consideration when a web hosting provider decides the rent of the server for which you pay. If you have your own colocated dedicated server than you will have to pay only for the electricity and the bandwidth used by your server and not for the server hardware as you have to own the hardware of the dedicated server for colocation server hosting.

Dedicated servers:-

Dedicated servers are the servers which only belong to one single client or in other words given to one single client. So, the client can use all the resources of the server it can be customized according to the requirements of the client. Also, the client can have a number of users on the server if he feels that the resources of the server are more than enough for him. For this reason, dedicated servers are very popular right from the time  web hosting came into existence as they provide flexibility, reliability and a high amount of resources which the other kind of servers do not provide. Hence dedicated servers are preferred by businesses and individuals who need a high specification and a dedicated web hosting environment. Also, dedicated servers can be used according to the client as, if the client wants to quit using the server he can do it easily if he has chosen a monthly payment for the dedicated servers. Dedicated servers hardware is very expensive and if the server is of a higher configuration than the server is more expensive. If you have a high configuration dedicated server from a web hosting provider than the web hosting provider has to pay for the hardware of the server. As you are using the server the hosting provider will charge you for the hardware as well as the electricity and the bandwidth used by the server. Also, a web hosting provider has to earn some profit from you as you are using the service provided by the web hosting provider. So, a web hosting provider has to keep the cost of the server as well as the service provided by him or his company according to the market level so that the clients buy the server and the services provided by him or his company.

Managed Web Hosting

Managed Web Hosting implies to completely managed web hosting Packages, The managed part Stresses on the deal of getting complete support with the Web hosting Package. Then there are other types of Web hosting packages as well which include Semi-dedicated Web Hosting Packages which comes with lower level of support and then there is unmanaged Web Hosting Packages which is with the basic level of support. Now comes the part that who should go for a Managed Web Hosting Package, Its most suitable for Businesses which require the best level of support at any point of the day and get a hassle free Hosting Experience. If you go for a Basic Web hosting Package which is meant for beginners who are running a Basic Website. Even if you decide to go for a Basic Web Hosting Package always Choose a Hosting Company which has Expertise in Managed Web Hosting so that if in future you need Managed Web Hosting you can upgrade easily.

Majority of Web hosting Providers with the Managed Web hosting package provide you with reliable support as they have experienced support staff to back up your needs anytime. Also they provide you with Easy to use control panels which give you almost complete control of you Managed Web Hosting Account. They have a User-friendly interface and most changes on your account can be done with the click of a mouse. The most user-friendly control panel provide with Linux Managed Web Hosting is “Cpanel”. The support staff will always provide you with the best support but it’s always useful to have some know how on your Web Hosting even if it’s a Managed Web Hosting. And for those who still prefer Windows over Linux. The most stable and User-friendly Control Panel provided by Web Hosting companies with Windows Managed Web Hosting is “Plesk”. Some words of wisdom regarding control panels coming from my novice experience is, that before you start using these control panels research on them or if you have any issue on how to use it contact the Web Hosting Support so that you don’t have any goof-up’s, After all what is the use of Managed Web Hosting if you can’t use it.

Managed Web Hosting Packages come with few more Advantages such as, If you have a issue with your account and you contact your Hosting Provider Staff your issue will be dealt on a priority basis even if the support has issues of other customers to attend to as you have a Managed Web Hosting Account. This holds good for any kind of Managed Web Hosting Package, Shared Web Hosting, VPS Web Hosting or Dedicated Web Hosting. You get a response from the support in acceptable amount of time with a Managed Web Hosting package. Also you get free add-ons with these Packages such as, free domains or free SSL certificates.

Also what you get with Managed Web Hosting is the best reliability possible, as most of the Hosting accounts come with a Clustered Environment. Clustering means that multiple servers back-up each other to provide un-interrupted running of your Managed Web Hosting account. If One Server goes down the other servers pick’s up form there and ensures Maximum Uptime for your Hosting. This specially helps you in case of Dedicated Server Hosting where only you have access to your Dedicated Server.

Managed Web Hosting ensures solution to any of your Issues such as, if you want to setup special permissions on your PHP Scripts or you need to setup MySQL database for you hosting and if you feel that you do not have the sufficient expertise the support staff for your Hosting Provider can easily do the same for you. Also they can help you with issue in ASP or ASP.NET that need some tweaking on your Managed Web Hosting Account. Also you can learn a great deal form the support staff of your Managed Web Hosting Account as the amount of experience that they have matters a lot. In the end if you see what all you get with a Managed Web Hosting account is a peace of mind, Service which is worth every penny that you spend on it, 24×7 assistance, Maximum Uptime and more.