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Web Hosting, Web Hosting UK, Dedicated Servers, Managed Hosting, Dedicated Server | CWCS
Over the last few days, we’ve been contacting some of our virtual server customers as we have some new budget dedicated servers in stock, which brings a dedicated server within the price range of customers who could only previously justify the reduced cost associated with a virtual server. The response has been overwhelming, with so many choosing to move up to having their own dedicated server in our data centre.
What was more satisfying is that several customers who had virtual servers with us and maybe another one with another managed hosting company have used the opportunity to rationalise their hosting into one place, which has saved them money and given them better performance and more control of their environment.
As we prepare to launch our cloud hosting service, we similarly expect a lot of virtual server customers to move to that platform, where they have more significant cost restraints, as a dedicated server is always clearly the best option.
For a dynamic, growing business, with increased amounts of web traffic, and perhaps an e-commerce arm, a dedicated server soon becomes a serious option.
A dedicated server is a web hosting server entirely dedicated to your site. Your site gets a unique IP address, which gives the added bonus of highlighting its uniqueness to certain search engines. As well as this, the site can support considerably more traffic than a website on a shared server.
However, physical dedicated servers tend to be on the expensive side, doubtless because of their many advantages.
It is now possible to benefit from the advantages of a dedicated server, but at a more reasonable cost, through a “virtual dedicated server”. A “virtual dedicated server” is an emulation of a self-contained physical computer created entirely in software. More than one of these virtual machines can exist on a single computer, which has been configured as a virtual server host machine.
A virtual dedicated server performs and behaves in ways almost identical to a physical dedicated server, but without the overheads of “real” hardware. Site owners can still choose between the Linux and Windows operating systems. They can also install whatever website software they require, from forums and blogs, to e-commerce.
Here at CWCS we find that many clients are keen to take advantage of this economic means of getting hold of the “holy grail” of a dedicated server. We are also proud of the high level of technical support we offer our dedicated server clients.
Security is one of the most pressing concerns for any website owner, especially if the site is integral to their business and a means of income.
One of the keys to a secure website is to ensure that your web hosting company takes security as seriously as you do. So, when researching web hosting deals, take the trouble to ask the company about three key aspects: firewalls, virus protection, and backup.
A firewall is a hardware or software component that minimises the risk, as far as practicably possible, of intrusion on to the hosting web server. A firewall is the first line of defence, and is arguably the most crucial part of your armoury.
Antivirus software is the second line of defence and works, a little bit like vaccines, by checking against a harmless internal database of known threats and neutralising any software on the host PC that appears to be “carrying” that threat.
Finally, there’s backup. Backup is essential in the event of data loss of all kinds (theft and fire damage for instance). However, a good and frequent backup service will mean you can get your site restored by your website hosting company in the unfortunate event that a hacker manages to break through the first two lines of defence and corrupt your site.
Here at CWCS we provide the most up-to-date and robust security services as part of our hosting packages, as well as regular site backups, in combination with high-quality, dedicated and responsive technical support.
Websites tend to grow and change in tandem with the site owner’s organisation or business.
A website might start out as a 3-page marketing platform, but can, over the years develop in to a fully-fledged large-scale site, perhaps including video, e-commerce, blogs, and a forum.
When a site reaches that kind of size the dedicated server web hosting option is a serious option.
A dedicated server is a server entirely given over to hosting your individual site and there’s usually a choice to make between the Linux and Windows operating systems.
There are sometimes good reasons for choosing a Windows dedicated server.
First, the server itself comes loaded with Windows, an operating system which is familiar to users the world over, and so there will be less of a learning curve when managing the system, installing updates and so on.
Furthermore your windows server will come pre-installed with an entire web application framework, called .NET, which will give your software developers a head-start when building applications such as forums and picture galleries. .NET is both powerful and scaleable.
With Windows dedicated server, there’s also support for the database systems which underpin your site, whether MS SQL or Access.
If your website designer prefers working with any of the above tools then they will be most comfortable working on a Windows dedicated server.
Here at CWCS we provide a variety of Windows dedicated server packages, along with expert 24/7 technical support, and an assigned project manager.
Having found a website hosting company and launched your site, you might want to consider adding online retail to your site, otherwise known as e-commerce.
There’s no doubting that e-commerce is almost impossible to ignore for any growing business. The figures tell there own story with the UK e-commerce market now valued at around £69 billion.
However, before leaping on the bandwagon there are some practical steps to consider.
First, to trade online beyond comprehensively, you will need what’s called a ‘Merchant Account’. This is a financial contract with a merchant acquiring bank that will let you accept debit and credit card payments. You can acquire one from a third party broker or direct from the banks themselves.
Next you will need to set up your website to handle e-commerce. There are a range of options, from simply using Paypal (which does not require a merchant account), to complex e-commerce software, which would include the vital ’shopping cart’. Many website designers are now geared up to integrating e-commerce in to their projects from the outset, so it is worth considering handing the whole process over to a professional designer.
Finally, a reliable, secure web hosting company, which can guarantee maximum uptime for your site, is essential. Here at CWCS, with our 99.99% operational guarantee, we can look after all your web hosting needs, and will be happy to assist you with any increase in traffic should you decide to branch out in to e-commerce.
The market for hosting, be it dedicated servers, virtual servers or shared servers (or even colocation), is often mired in half truths and misleading statements.
That’s a very controversial thing to come right out and say, but many web hosting companies offer specifications of services which, on the face of it, cost many times less for what appears to be the same specification as that offered by long-standing and trustworthy hosting companies like CWCS.
What sort of questions should you be asking of a hosting company that is bidding for your business ? Well, first of all, you’d want to know if the service they are providing is on their equipment or someone elses’, as their costs will be incredibly low if they are cramming you onto an old, loaded server with hundreds of their supplier’s other resellers’ customers, and your sites performance will probably be dire as a result.
Then you’ll want to know how many other customers they have on the hardware they’re proposing to offer you, for much the same reasons. You’d also want to know if they own their own data centre where they provide their hosting service or are they just renting some space off of someone else (who’s probably buying off someone else).
If you’re looking for dedicated server hosting, you would want to know what make of hardware they use, as the most reliable hardware will minimise any downtime you may experience.
For their network, you would want to know that they had control of it. A good starting point would be to ask them what their AS Number is – if the person you’re asking doesn’t know what one of those is, its probably best to move on, as its something you need to have in order not to be completely reliant on someone else’s network (which is clearly A Bad Thing).
You’d probably also want to check out their telephone support for yourself before you buy your hosted service too, and make sure the people you’ll be talking to can speak your language (wherever in the world you are).
Running a large-scale website can have its headaches. If your site is commercially oriented, you will need to ensure that all your e-commerce processes are running smoothly. In particular keeping online transactions secure will likely be a high priority.
If your site is database driven, ensuring the database is performing optimally will be vital.
These site management tasks can be daunting in and of themselves without having the additional headache of making sure your key IT hardware is being well maintained, and in a secure physical environment.
This is where colocation can be a real boon. ‘Colocation‘ is the physical relocation of your company’s or organisation’s server hardware to a specialist data centre, whilst your own system administrators retain full access remotely.
In other words, all the hassles of physically looking after your web server are taken out of your hands.
Meanwhile, your company’s own IT specialists retain admin rights, so can regularly monitor the server, apply patches, system updates, and any software upgrades as usual.
Here at CWCS we offer a range of good-value colocation packages, from housing a single server to a full rack, including both remote and physical access to the equipment.
We provide what we like to think of as ‘5-star hotel’ accommodation for your equipment, the security of a high-specification data centre, to fire suppression, a water detection system, theft prevention, and air conditioning.
Finally, all our colocation plans come with high calibre 24/7/365 technical support an assigned project manager.
Once you have found a suitable web hosting company and launched your website, you will obviously want to ensure that your site is returned as a search result when people search for the site itself or its related content.
Site owners want their site to appear high up in the search results for the major search engines. It’s easier said than done to achieve this, and an industry has sprung up devoted to “Search engine optimisation”.
There are, however, some straightforward measures you can take for yourself.
First, ensure that your site has a distinctive, catchy name that does not resemble other popular sites to much.
Examples are “bebo”, “flickr”, and “reddit”. A unique site name increases the chances of sites like “bebo” appearing at the top of the results list for a search on the word “bebo”.
Next, make sure that each page on your site has a short, uncluttered title that precisely matches the page content. To a search engine the title is one of the most important parts of the page. However, don’t neglect page content – it should be kept up to date, ensuring your site is not “forgotten” by search engines. You should also create a site map to make navigation of your site as easy as possible.
Finally, it would be unfortunate if your site was findable on search engines, but only intermittently available to users. Here at CWCS site “downtime” is not an issue. We guarantee 99.9% operational guarantee with all our web hosting packages, and provide unrivalled technical support.
Once you’ve found a suitable web hosting company and set up your site, you may want to add a discussion forum as one means of maintaining interest in, and activity on, your website.
Forums can bring real benefits to a website, especially a retailing e-commerce site, but there are some risks to bear in mind, and some key tasks required in order to keep the forum running smoothly.
The main advantage of a forum is that usage of your site is likely to be encouraged. Users are more likely to make use of the site if they know there’s an area where they can air their views, and even sound off if necessary. Busy and lively forums can trigger return visits.
A forum is also a signal to your audience that you are customer focused. Furthermore forums are valuable to businesses as a means of getting instant qualitative feedback on new products.
There are, however, some potential disadvantages:
*An underused forum can be off-putting to users. Better to have no forum at all than one that is hardly used.
* You may also get negative comment on a forum, and someone will need to be on point to handle these.
* Also, do ensure that all users sign up to “Terms and Conditions”, and that your forum is politely and regularly moderated. There’s plenty of guidance on “terms and conditions” available on the internet.
Here at CWCS we can advise on the best web hosting package for your forum needs.
We’ve been doing a lot of background work lately to cope with the growth we’ve been experiencing in the past few months, largely off the back of sales of dedicated servers, managed servers and virtual servers; our cloud servers will be launching very soon too, which we expect to be a real market-pleaser.
We’re upgrading power, generators, network (capacity, resilience and off-net routes) and fire suppression – all investments in our business so that we can consistently deliver a more robust service than our competitors. Sure, some of them may be huge global players in the market and claim to offer all kinds of special support or networks but that’s just what they are; claims – we can all stick a fancy label on an aspect of our service and tell everyone how much better it is.
Unless you’re spending millions of dollars with companies like that, you’re never going to be able to speak with anyone who makes any important decisions and the point of being in a service industry (like we are) is about making it easy for your customers to do business with you, before they buy and once they’re on board.
Just today, a customer called in wanting to increase the amount of rack space and power he takes from us to accommodate a NAS device. We simply asked him if he’d like us to get him a price for the equipment and he said yes. We went away and got pricing, added on a little bit to cover our indirect costs, got back to the customer and he was absolutely delighted that, although it’s a couple of hundred pounds more than getting it from his usual supplier, we’ve reduced his workload and the “hassle factor” of getting this important job done. The equipment will be delivered here, we’ll unpack it, rack it and connect it to his server and there’s no work for him to do. It’s a service. Simples.
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