What Is Web Hosting?

What is web hosting, you ask. Well, with upwards of 200 million web sites worldwide (and counting), did you ever stop to think where all these sites are located, and located safely and securely, at that? What of the vast bulk of web sites belonging to companies and individuals – where do their sites live? Certainly, at the top end you have the web sites of banks and governments, with their data and systems located in duplicated high-security bomb-proof datacentres. Highly technical people could still host their website from home, but this is not for mainstream sites. This home brew hosting is almost unheard of today as the modern web hosting service provider will offer a secure technical solution for a web-site at an moderate cost because this is where most websites, live today – that means, are ‘hosted’. So there it is, thats what web hosting is. There’s much more, though, and the logic is obvious when you think about it.


Full-Service Web and Domain Hosting Company

The full-service web and domain hosting company will make it easy and quick for the aspiring website owner to buy a domain name and create the site. At least a simple site to start.This desirable aspect of hosting companies for web development is that they supply website building to have your site available fast or at least very quickly - maybe in just 15 to 30 minutes. This is the all inclusive service you need.. Importantly, anyone beginning a startup business or web branding shouldn’t have to spend time on technical issues – they need their new URL up and running quickly because getting traffic to the website is the only goal. Infact you need over reliable connections and with high up-time, earning income all the time, all day.

So, the best web hosting companies will have a good domain name search-and-buy online-store, quick and easy set-up, with high availability (well over 99%) secure sites (both from a data perspective and physically) which have high bandwidth pipes into the major internet switching centres. This ensures that a someone who has signed up for their web hosting service can be pretty certain that the site will be available 24 x 7 with the quickest of loading times for a user (all other things being equal).

You’ve heard the phrase ‘the web is a great leveller’ – that’s a great feature for a new or growing business with bigger competitors, but it’s death if you are being levelled down, with your site running slowly and your visitors bouncing out quickly with frustration, unlikely to return. Your competitors will eat you, and the web hosting company will eventually fail.

 

Is there More to What Web Hosting is?

What is web hosting – is there more? Well of course there is. Having surveyed service levels and how easy sites are to setup we have more to cover. If you want ten sites (and that’s far from unusual), then the challenges of DIY would multiply. Today, though, it’s easy. Advances in web hosting make todays web hosting a utility service. Whether you have one site or one hundred, you can increase your number of site easily – there’s a big server-farm and full time staff at the hosting company to take the load with backups and firewalls. Now, when the lowest monthly fee is need for the new website of a start-up it can use a shared IP address; many website owner must have a specific permanent “dedicated” IP address – hosting companies have that option, but it will cost a more. If you are a small self-hosted business how would you increasing the bandwidth, data storage, number of databases, etc, meeting this challenge has created the hosting industry. Hosting companies address these issues with scalability to provide seamless, smooth and economic value if they are a good hosting company.

As you ask ‘what is web hosting?’, the truth is that, using the premium hosting businesses, it should a cradle-to-grave home for a website, with an feature rich start for the domain hosting including smooth technical upgrades and continuing support ( a good ticket system) for maintenance for the site.