Web Hosting Explained (part II)
This is the second part of a series of articles I’m writing about Web Hosting. If you have not done so already, please read Web Hosting Explained part I.
In the previous articles I introduced you to the basics of web hosting. We will now look at the different types of web hosting that are out there.
Colocated hosting
I’ll start by explaining colocated web hosting. Once you understand colocated hosting, it’s easy to see how other types of hosting work.
With colocation, you are able to provide your own server hardware and software so you are free to configure a server anyway you want. You can use Linux, BSD, Windows or any other operating system. You can also pick the hardware yourself. It’s important to consider the size of the server though. Datacenters use standard sizes. The width is virtually always the same. The height is usually something you will pay for: space is expensive, so it’s best to get a small case if you can. Server cases are sold in the sizes of 1U, 2U, etc. 1U being the thinnest type. The 1U size is enough for a regular server, but larger servers with many harddisks and such may require 2U or sometimes even more.
Once you have your server configured and working correctly, it’s time to colocate your server in a datacenter. Your hosting provider will help you with this. They will hopefully tell you upfront what the network settings are, so you can configure your server at home. Mounting your server in a rack requires some tools and rack mounts or rails. Check with your hosting provider first. They are able to tell you what you need.
Although colocation means a lot of work for you, it will, at least in most cases, save you money in the long run.
Dedicated hosting
Sometimes colocation is not worth all the trouble. Cases in which you could prefer a dedicated server over colocation are:
- you need a server for only a short time
- you don’t have the time to setup a server
- you don’t have the skills to setup your own server
- you don’t want the risk of having to fix your server when it breaks (harddisk, fans, etcetera)
These are all good reasons not to go for colocation. Don’t worry, there are plenty of other options!
With dedicated hosting, the server hardware and software is provided to you by the hoster. The hoster takes care of installing the server and the operating system. All you need is an ip and a login and you are ready to go. There are two subtypes of dedicated host.
Managed dedicated hosting: your hosting provider takes care of updates to the server software. You don’t have to worry about anything. Of course, this comes with a premium price.
Unmanaged dedicated hosting: you are responsible for keeping the server up to date. If you have knowledge of the OS, this doesn’t have to be too hard. It also gives you a lot of freedom to install additional software.
Shared hosting
With shared hosting, you share a server with multiple sites. Everybody pays for a piece of the resources that server has to offer. There can be up to a couple of thousand websites per server so it is really important that the host monitors this server. If one site screws up, everybody has to suffer the concequences like slowness or even downtime. Shared hosting is appropiate for low traffic sites like a company portal. Some shared hosts will allow you to have quite big sites, but you may have the risk of getting a warning or needing to move your site to a dedicated server.
What usually happens is that you will get some kind of control panel login. Common control panels are Plesk, Ensim and DirectAdmin. They all have their specific advantages and disadvantages. Lucky for us, most hosting companies will be able to import sites from one panel to the other without too much trouble.
Shared hosting can be cheap, and I mean really cheap! Some hosts offer rediculous prices like $1/month for loads of traffic and diskspace. Always keep in mind though that it’s simple not possible to give you the best support at these rates. If you like to be able to ask your host questions, instead of begging 3 web forums for an answer, try to get a quality host. One last piece of advice: if you are looking for a host and asking others about experiences, be warned that some people will earn commision by redirecting you to a specific host. If anyone gives you a link, look for traces of such commissions. Or simple strip off everything from the link and go to the host’s main domain.
Virtual servers
The use of virtual servers is a new trend that is emerging right now. With the continually increasing speeds of computers, emulating a complete computer is starting to pay of. A hosting company can for example buy ten big and powerful servers. On each server, they run 10 emulated servers. These are complete emulations of a computer, including the operating system and software. Now they can sell you one of these so called virtual servers. You get the best of two worlds: you have a complete system for yourself that you can modify and screw up anyway you want while you still share a single server with multiple persons, so you can expect lower prices. If you screw up so badly that the virtual server is no longer usable, the host will simple replace the virtual server with a fresh copy. This can be done in minutes instead of hours!
The obvious advange for hosting companies is the ease of managing these virtual servers. They are easilly replacable. If you want to apply a risky upgrade to the OS or control panel, you can make a copy of the server and test the upgrade on that copy first. If all goes well, you perform the upgrade on the virtual server (or you replace the old copy with your upgraded copy).
It’s also easy to move a virtual server. If one of the virtual servers is hosting a very popular website, you could decide to move that virtual server to another machine that is less loaded or one that has better hardware.
I personally believe virtual servers have a big and glorious future. Companies are already falling for the easy management that virtual servers offer. Even if that means that they have to take a small performance penalty. After all, emulating a complete computer will cost you a bit of performance.
Besides ease of management, it’s a fact that hardware is progressing faster than software. A virtual server allows you to keep running the same software much longer. All you have to do is keep that virtual server software working on new hardware. Virtual servers are here to stay.
This concludes part II of the Web Hosting Explained articles. I’m still thinking about the content of part III, so stay tuned by subscribing to our RSS feed.
If you have any questions or comments, please leave a message below. I really love to hear from you. It makes my day.