Sunday, July 31, 2011

Selecting The Best Server Hosting Services

By Adriana Noton


Providing your own server hosting does not make sense financially for small and medium sized businesses. In fact, many larger companies do not host their own web servers, but instead outsource the work to save money. These same services are available to any business, but you need to first determine what type of system you will need to lease.

Many different services are now offered through the Internet. A company that needs to have a website will find thousands of hosting companies available to provide the needed services. For internal software, or software as a service, there are more limited selections available.

For SaaS, or software as a service, the provider will need to allow a different type of usage that includes secure logins, subscriptions, and possibly other services. If you are offering this as a service to your customers, the provider may need to setup a special virtual private server to handle the particular load that can occur. If it is for internal employees, the type of system will depend on the software and storage needs.

Dedicated and Virtual Private Servers are available from most web providers. These are typically for higher end users. There are several advantages to using these services. First, you do not have to share an IP address with other customers. If another customer is banned from sites for spam, the fact that they share your IP in a non-dedicated environment means you will be banned as well. You also do not have to share the load. Your customers will not be competing with other companies' customers to access the web server.

Most providers offer a 99% uptime guarantee. Typically, they will offer credit for any unplanned downtime. If they have a reputation or history of excessive downtime, your business will suffer considerably. The credits offered are a percentage of the total bill you pay. If you pay ten dollars per month and your service is down 50% of the time, you will only be credited five dollars. They do not compensate for lost business due to the outage. This is important to consider when looking into the reliability of any companies you investigate.

Plan for the right amount of traffic. This is not really very easy to do. If your site suddenly becomes very popular, you need to be sure your managed hosting provider will keep the site running and bill you for traffic overages. The worst thing that could happen is for your site to be disabled because you've reached your volume limit.

Video and other streaming media puts a heavy load on systems. If you are planning on offering a lot of media streaming, you may want to discuss this with your provider. In some cases, they may insist you lease dedicated servers to prevent having a negative impact on other customers on the same server.

Finding a Virtual dedicated hosting provider is the easy part. Making sure they fit your needs takes some homework. First, make sure you have a good understanding of what your needs are. Then, take the time to search for a provider that can meet those needs and allow for expansion. Finally, check the company's reputation to be sure they provide excellent services.




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