Guide to Web Hosting

About Managed Web Hosting

You new computer (Desktop or Laptop) is ready. You have obtained high speed internet access and loaded essential software on your computer to help you develop web applications. Your web application could be a simple personal website or a sophisticated e-commerce store front. Now you want your website to be visible to others on the internet. Visibility of a website on the World Wide Web (WWW) is provided via an Internet Hosting Service. The most popular web hosting solution is managed Web Hosting.

Managed Web Hosting Plans are provided by the best web hosting companies today. Managed Web Hosting solutions are the ideal option for most commercial web hosting. Web hosting for small businesses also mostly use the services of Managed Web Hosting companies.
What is Internet Hosting Service?

In simple terms, an internet hosting service allows your website to be accessible on the internet by others. It is a service (made up of several complex computer programs, or software) that runs on a server (a powerful computer) connected to the internet. A website owner copies (usually via a utility called ftp) his website to this web server. This makes his website visible on the internet. The website owner interacts with the web server to configure his website via a control panel.
Types of Web Hosting Solutions

Which is the best web hosting package for you? This depends on your requirements. There are many inexpensive web hosting services. Some web hosting services are not only very cheap but completely free! If you have a few personal web pages that you want to host on a web server then you can use one of these free, cheap or inexpensive web hosting services. However, if your website uses databases, or SSL (most e-commerce websites processing financial transactions use SSL for secure transaction processing) then you need a plan such as a Dedicated Server Web Hosting or Secure Web Hosting plan.
What is Dedicated Server Hosting?

Under the Dedicated Server Hosting plan, the user has full administrative rights on the server without actually owning the server. He is responsible for maintenance and security of the data on the server. However, the company that is the real owner of the server is responsible for protecting the physical server from disasters such as theft, fire, floods and so on. It also provides all the software required to manage the server. Some high powered users also use Virtual Dedicated Server plan.
What is Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting?

A single web server is divided into several virtual servers. To each user of a Virtual Dedicated Server it appears that he is using a single server for himself although in reality many users are sharing a common server.

Some large enterprises require 100% availability of their websites. They also want their customers to have high speed access. Moreover they want a scalable solution, which means that if their websites expand in terms of additional webpages, or increased number of customers, the performance of their websites should not suffer. Such companies make use of clustered web hosting (multiple servers hosting the same website), Grid hosting, Server farms and so on.

Some other popular usage of web hosting is :

Reseller Web Hosting : Here the person who buys web hosting can sell the same hosting to other people.
Home Servers : Here a home user, typically with broadband access uses an ordinary computer to host his personal websites.

Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) also provide web hosting services. So if you have an internet connection you can ask your ISP for a web hosting solution.

To conclude, it can be said that Shared Web Hosting or Managed Web Hosting is the most popular web hosting option today. In shared web hosting websites belonging to several different people are placed and run from one common server.