A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation. There are many websites that provide data on which is the best web hosting.
The scope of hosting services varies widely. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.
Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages. The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Hosting reliability and uptime
Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. A common claim from the popular hosting providers is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but this often refers only to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime.
Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server. Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.
Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service.
Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution.
Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.
Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A customer may also choose Windows as the hosting platform. Most modern desktop operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X) are also capable of running web server software, and thus can be used to host basic websites.
A shared web hosting service or virtual hosting service or derive host refers to a web hosting service where many websites reside on one web server connected to the Internet. In general shared hosting will be inappropriate for users who require extensive software development outside what the hosting provider supports. Almost all applications intended to be on a standard web server work fine with a shared web hosting service. But on the other hand, shared hosting is cheaper than other types of hosting such as dedicated server hosting. Shared hosting usually has usage limits and most hosting providers have extensive reliability features in place.
Most of the large hosting companies use their own custom developed control panel. Control panels and web interfaces can cause controversy however, since web hosting companies sometimes sell the right to use their control panel system to others. In shared hosting, the provider is generally responsible for managing servers, installing server software, security updates, technical support, and other aspects of the service. There are thousands of shared hosting providers in the United States alone. Shared web hosting can also be done privately by sharing the cost of running a server in a colocation centre; this is called cooperative hosting.
In name-based virtual hosting, also called shared IP hosting, the virtual hosts serve multiple hostnames on a single machine with a single IP address.
The server uses this information to determine which web site to show the user.
In IP-based virtual hosting, also called dedicated IP hosting, each virtual host has a different IP address. Name-based virtual hosts have some disadvantages:
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Updates to core operating systems include kernel upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden of server management from the dedicated server owner.
For example, visitors to your server, web site, or applications utilize bandwidth as the traffic moves from your server to the Internet and vice versa. Connectivity refers to the “access providers” that supply bandwidth, or data transfer rate, through various connection points across a network or footprint to one or multiple data centers where dedicated servers are housed.
Unmetered Method: The second bandwidth measurement is Unmetered service where providers cap or control the “top line” speed for a server. One of the reasons people choose to outsource dedicated servers is the availability of high powered networks from multiple providers. As dedicated server providers utilize massive amounts of bandwidth, they are able to secure lower volume based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of bandwidth. Many dedicated server providers include a service level agreement based on network uptime. Some dedicated server hosting providers offer a 100% uptime guarantee on their network. As the shared hosting model developed, the trend towards gigabyte or total bytes transferred, replaced the megabit line speed model so dedicated server providers started offering per gigabyte.
For some dedicated server providers, fully managed is defined as having a web based control panel while other providers define it as having dedicated system engineers readily available to handle all server and network related functions of the dedicated server provider.
Dedicated hosting server providers define their level of management based on the services they provide. Dedicated server hosting providers may provide the following types of server managed support:
Fully Managed - Includes monitoring, software updates, reboots, security patches and operating system upgrades. Customers provide most operations and tasks on dedicated server.
Dedicated hosting server providers utilize extreme security measures to ensure the safety of data stored on their network of servers. Providers often bill for dedicated servers on a fixed monthly price to include specific software packages. SPLA software includes the Windows Operating System, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint and shoutcast hosting, and many other server based products.
Dedicated Server Providers usually offer the ability to select the software you want installed on a dedicated server. Other software applications available are specialized web hosting specific programs called control panels. Control panel software is an all inclusive set of software applications, server applications, and automation tools that can be installed on a dedicated server. Control panels include integration into web servers, database applications, programming languages, application deployment, server administration tasks, and include the ability to automate tasks via a web based front end.
Most dedicated servers are packaged with a control panel. Control panels should not be confused with a full server management solution by a dedicated hosting provider.
Free web hosting typically means that there are very large advertisements on the website being hosted. Shared hosting is usually provided using multiple web servers in a data center (a specialized building built just for holding a huge volume of computers). These data centers have extremely fast and large industrial sized internet connections. This is true for free hosts as well. A dedicated server is a server that is entirely dedicated to one person’s account. A dedicated server can come with or without normal routine server maintenance being provided by the provider. A dedicated server can also allow the customer to have access not practical in a shared server. Unfortunately there is some overhead in having a virtual private server (each virtual server uses much more disk and memory on the server than on a shared server so there is a limit to how many of these can exist on one server. An Internet hosting service is a service that runs Internet servers, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content to the Internet.
A common kind of hosting is web hosting. Most hosting providers offer a combined variety of services. Web hosting services also offer e-mail hosting service, for example. DNS hosting service is usually bundled with domain name registration.
Generic, yet rather powerful, kinds of Internet hosting provide a server where the clients can run anything they want (including web servers and other servers) and have Internet connections with good upstream bandwidth.
Dedicated hosting service, also called managed hosting service, where the hosting service provider owns and manages the machine, leasing full control to the client. Virtual private server, in which virtualization technology is employed in order to allow multiple logical servers to run on a single physical server
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Many companies started building very large facilities, called Internet data centers (IDCs), which provide businesses with a range of solutions for systems deployment and operation. The TIA-942:Data Center Standards Overview describes the requirements for the data center infrastructure. The most stringent level is a Tier 4 data center, which is designed to host mission critical computer systems, with fully redundant subsystems and compartmentalized security zones controlled by biometric access controls methods. Air conditioning is used to control the temperature and humidity in the data center. Air conditioning systems help control humidity by cooling the return space air below the dew point. Data cabling is typically routed through overhead cable trays in modern data centers. Data centers feature fire protection systems, including passive and active design elements, as well as implementation of fire prevention programs in operations. A fire sprinkler system is often provided to control a full scale fire if it develops. Clean agent fire suppression gaseous systems are sometimes installed to suppress a fire earlier than the fire sprinkler system. Physical security also plays a large role with data centers. Some of the servers at the data center are used for running the basic Internet and intranet services needed by internal users in the organization, e.g., e-mail servers, proxy servers, and DNS servers.
Common components of such applications are databases, file servers, application servers, middleware, and various others.
Data centers are also used for off site backups. Companies may subscribe to backup services provided by a data center. Moreover, by outsourcing network traffic to a colocation service provider with greater bandwidth capacity, web site access speeds should improve considerably.
Most network access point facilities provide colocation.
A fire sprinkler system is often provided to control a full scale fire if it develops. Clean agent fire suppression gaseous systems are sometimes installed to suppress a fire earlier than the fire sprinkler system. 19-inch racks for data equipment and servers, 23-inch racks for telecom equipment.