The web hosting market is very competitive and, for this, reason professional web hosting providers are offering higher levels of services and support.

The benefits of professional web hosting:

• A professional web hosting provider usually dedicates their core business to this. In this way
they can focus their attention on higher quality.

• They are better equipped to keep their finger on the pulse of technological advances. In a fast paced market it is vital that their offerings include up to date technology and expertise.

• They will never offer more than they are able to deliver. Instead, they focus on long term benefits and offer quality of service which attracts repeat business. Overselling leads to unreliable service and damaged reputations.

• Technical support is crucial for professional web hosting providers. For this reason they offer resources with technical backgrounds and professional qualifications. They are also able to offer customer support such as email, telephone and knowledge bases like that of forums, where clients are able to find information.

• Professional web hosting providers offer a wide range of web hosting plans as well as those tailored to specific requirements. They have an in-depth understanding of their client’s needs and offer new or updated features in order to satisfy their demands. The wider the choice the more they appeal to a wider market.

• Professional web hosting providers are usually those that have a track record in the industry. Experience is vital in a crisis situation.

• They can offer very reasonable pricing correctly situated in line with their offerings. You will not be paying for more than you get.

• Your web hosting provider can also help your professional image. Keeping company with professionals will in turn rub off on you.

Both managed and dedicated servers offer a user the ability to run a server without sharing it with anyone else. The term ‘managed’ is where things may get confusing. What one provider defines as managed hosting, another may define as unmanaged. There is no industry standard and this means the services you get depend on the provider.

Included in Managed Hosting

Managed hosting involves features such as system updates. They also include monitoring of applications and detecting any attempts of intrusion. They monitor the server performance, conduct backups and administer databases.

There can be a host of features offered in managed hosting which differ from provider to provider. One thing for certain is that managed hosting is always dedicated hosting. Yet dedicated hosting offers its own definition of managed which again depends on the provider.

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting can be broken down into types. The first is basic hosting which offers low RAM plus a hard disk and an operating system.

High End dedicated hosting on the other hand offers dedicated bandwidth, a dedicated database, dedicated server mirroring and a Quad Core configuration. Nowhere is the word ‘managed’ used. Management services are over and above what a dedicated server offers and are usually add-on benefits.

However both dedicated and managed web hosting offers you your own server. Managed hosting often means those benefits can be added to a dedicated server.

To answer the question, dedicated server hosting is rented and includes the physical server while managed hosting refers to the administration. They therefore do not have the same meaning.

The amount of websites on the internet is fast overcoming the amount of people alive today. With this comes a huge volume of traffic which means that any online advertising campaigns have to work harder and harder to get their presence noticed as each year passes.

Many search engines only rank sites according to their IP Address. If you live in the UK for instance and have an IP address registered in Australia, than your web presence in the UK will be much more slight. Google UK for instance will only index websites that carry a UK domain or those that are hosted in the UK. Therefore, it makes good business sense to place your web hosting in UK.

Web hosting outside the UK

Many companies are opting for web hosting in cheaper countries because of the cost benefits. Yet, at times, cost savings may result in losses elsewhere.

If you are seriously considering web hosting elsewhere you have to make sure that they can fulfil your requirements fully. Your speed may well be comprised, especially if you are running a large e-commerce site.

Customer support may also be compromised if you choose web hosting outside UK – you may encounter time zone issues. Even though they offer 24/7 service, you may be left with a skeleton staff during your operating hours and be left with having to assemble your teams after hours each time you have an issue that needs resolving.

If you are not web hosting in the UK where your core customer base is located, what is the use of getting higher rankings in another country? Even if you do business outside the borders it still makes sense to source your web hosting in the UK.

Colocation hosting depends on the colocation Centre. When it comes to planning one, there should be sufficient planning in place that will make it energy efficient. Our current energy crisis is filtering down into all areas of life. Colocation centre designers need to take responsibility and design in the most energy conservative way possible.

The effect of energy conservation

In terms of colocation centres, dedicated servers may not run as you may want them to. It might be prudent to consider the UPS. Many UPS only run at about 60% efficiency, so just by opting for a smaller modular UPS more energy could be saved.

Cooling equipment is another item to be investigated. Cooling systems are vital for colocation hosting centres. Floor based cooling systems offer poor performance as they are not efficient when it comes to circulating air. Replacing them with in-row chillers will allow you to direct air circulation to your dedicated servers and reduce energy consumption. The equipment will run on full capacity so you will not end up paying for something that only provides a percentage of your needs.

Installing meters that are able to provide good energy readings and which can break down energy usage will enable you to monitor what are your peak or low energy demand cycles.
There are many tools that can help design an energy efficient colocation centre which should be used. They can help you stay ahead of market trends and in doing so offer users a web hosting service that is not draining our resources unnecessarily.

Internet business – or e-commerce – is a large and busy industry. When you are running a website, its performance and success relies a great deal on the capabilities of its server. One option is to host your own server which means you need to install, configure and maintain it yourself. Another option is to hand it over to those who make it their business to offer services for hosing your web.

What is colocation hosting?

Colocation hosting is a data centre which provides bandwidth, storage space and managed hosting services, plus 100% power at all times. It can also be referred to as the installation and running of data or applications in one single process.

For instance, web hosting is a good example. Within this platform the host server offers a portal to gain entry to content plus the other portals that exist on the web.

Colocation centres need the utmost attention and must be monitored each minute of the day. Systems must be kept in an area that is air conditioned and filtered, and it should be constructed in a way that circumvents power failures. The housing should be built to the highest standards of security in order to withstand natural disasters or accidents. It must also be guarded against unlawful entry both physically and virtually.

Benefits of colocation:

• They are very cost effective when compared to the higher bandwidth provides

• They are highly dependable and provide more than just a back up generator in the event of
power failure

• They are consistent and never shut down even when your site is inactive

• They are safe. Your dedicated server is pristinely maintained and secured.

Without the advances of technology we would not be living in the Information Age, we would not have access to global presence and we would still be relying on brick and mortar buildings to house, protect and maintain our assets.

Technology is a necessity for any 21st Century business. Without a strong web presence, many businesses would not be able to survive. Today, computers, networking and virtual presence are replacing many brick and mortar businesses. Yet with it comes its own challenges. Rising costs on the maintenance of IT departments for instance, it just gets too complicated and this is where full managed hosting providers are providing invaluable services.

What does fully managed hosting provide?

With managed hosting, what you get is a way to completely outsource all your IT requirements. You hand them over to a group of highly experienced and trained IT specialists. This means you can either do away with your own IT department altogether or at least free them up to attend to other in house tasks.

You hand over your day to day running of your IT infrastructure to them. This includes your web servers, applications and databases. All your data is moved onto their servers which are at the cutting edge of technology advances. You do not ever need to worry about spending money or upgrading and maintaining your own server. Your staff resources are freed up to concentrate on your core business.

Fully managed hosting providers offer support that puts measures in place to provide preventative maintenance. They also offer round-the-clock customer support and are monitoring the performance of the server consistently. They provide what security is needed to stop any virtual threats and also offer complete back up services for all your data.

The missing step between creating a state of the art website or even a humble one is allowing access to it. This is only possible with web hosting.

Web hosting provides the processes needed to get an amount of space on the web so that you can publish our site. Once that is done you can start actively working on and establishing your web presence. Without web hosting you will not be available on the internet. There are many providers that offer web hosting capabilities. Some offer their services for free while others charge a fee according to what features you choose.

Customer service is also a needed aspect of web hosting. Providers of web hosting must own state of the art infrastructure in order to provide good customer service and no downtime. If your site suffers from frequent downtime it is a sign that your providers may not be as reliable as you want them to be. Your business will suffer in the long term as more and more customers start thinking that you are unreliable.

When you have found your provider and selected your package it is time to publish your website. Once done you need to update regularly and, for this reason, your web hosting provider needs to offer you reliable and easy to use control panels.

What are the options?

Private individuals may find shared hosting sufficient for their needs, yet if you are running a website that needs to provide the exchange of money, you will probably need web hosting that offers higher levels of security. Dedicated Hosting or VPS Hosting, for instance.

CWCS Managed Hosting has decided to broaden different types of domain registrations and keep on top of new types of domains by introducing the .Tel domain name.
The .Tel domain name has been introduced to allow businesses to provide information tailored to the location of the customer.
An example of how this could work, if a customer enters the domain into a browser on a portable device for a local business, the listing will direct the customer to the nearest business to their specific location. The service will work by creating a virtual address book and by storing the variety of contact information online.
Tel domains work completely different from other types of domain names across the internet, the information provided only lists information stored on the domains name servers. According to Telnic this can be addresses, contact details and even GPS coordinates.
The idea is new and is hoping to take off with companies keeping their .tel addresses and contact details up-to-date. This will also work with email, if an email is sent to a .tel domain it is possible for the email to be redirected to the correct person based on the customer’s location.

If you are experiencing difficulties managing your current server and it’s threatening to have an impact on your business or web presence, you may want to consider a dedicated server with or without managed hosting.

While a dedicated server offers you almost unlimited storage space, fast-speed connections and your own choice of operating system and software applications, you still may not have the time or skills to devote to running it. This is where managed hosting is helpful.

Managed hosting together with your own dedicated server can offer you superb benefits. You have more than enough bandwidth as well as high levels of reliability, security and stability. You also do not need to be in possession of an IT degree to maintain your website. Your provider will take care of all your technical issues involved with installation, maintenance, updates, patches, software uploads and hardware configurations.

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

However, if not, you are free to run and maintain your own dedicated server as you get complete control over it. You will need to do all your own installations and management on the server. While this may entail substantial technical expertise or time, it is often the preferred means of web hosting.

It is also feasible to start off with managed hosting as it gives the user an opportunity of acquiring the knowledge they need. When it comes time for a contract upgrade, you can choose to be independent. This option is able to provide savings but, apart from that, many users prefer the freedom and flexibility of managing their own dedicated server.

When deciding the storage option for your services, you need to take 3 things into account. Depending on your budget and priorities will be the key influence on whether you want to use a SAN/NAS solution or to go with the more traditional setup of having your data stored on your main production servers. Security is always an important issue, especially when dealing with sensitive information like customer card details. If you need to keep secure details, you will need to ensure that if you choose to use a NAS or SAN that you will most likely need to keep the backend “data” network completely separate (physically and virtually) from the front end of your system.

This would usually mean an increase in cost for the additional network infrastructure as well as increasing the complexity of the system for maintenance. With on-server-storage, you have to take a slightly different approach and ensure the data is both encrypted on your system and that your system cannot be compromised by attackers. This usually doesn’t involve extra hardware costs but can incur labour costs.

Speed is quite often a key factor for systems that are critical to a business or are customer facing. Using on server storage can sometimes be the fastest method, especially using RAID 0 for your hard drive configuration. This is usually a cheaper option as well as it doesn’t involve adding more hardware or network infrastructure to your setup. It is sometimes possible however to make an extremely fast network storage device using fibre connections. This is usually a much more expensive option compared to normal network connections but makes a huge difference in speed and can compete with on server storage options.

When it comes to data storage, reliability and data protection are key factors. Losing data must be avoided the extent your budget allows. Both solutions offer this using the same technology, RAID. However SAN/NAS devices tend to have many more hard drives and can be configured in RAID 5,6 or 10 which all offer excellent data protection methods and allow for hot swapable hard drives to avoid the need for downtime when a hard drive fails. Many servers which are not setup as SAN/NAS can also have this function, however they tend not to be designed to take as many hard drives so their redundancy can be less than that of network storage.