The Hosting With the Mosting
While frequently taken for granted by inexperienced web site owners, the quality of a hosting provider can be very significant to the success of a site. Many considerations should go into a hosting solution choice. Bandwidth, or the speed and amount of data that can be communicated from your server to visitors, has a part to play in how fast your site loads for a visitor, and whether you can accommodate large amounts of traffic. Up time, or the amount of time that a server is in operation as compared to time it is non-functional, for what ever reason, is obviously important. Depending on the applications you intend to run on the server, and on how many sites the same server is hosting, the actual processor speed can be significant. The amount of RAM is always significant, especially with database applications. Many people seem to think that a large amount of hard disk space is important, but we have found that most sites take advantage of only a very small percentage of their allocated hard disk space. More important is the reliability of the email server, the FTP access and control panel functions.
You mean I have to pay for a host too? We have always been surprised by the number of novices who don't understand hosting services. We have had experience with otherwise savvy business people, who while bargaining on the costs of developing a website, try to leave off the hosting fee, as if they could run their site without it. But what are real hosting issues that the professional must address and give due consideration to? Is the host a Tier 1 ISP? What does that mean and why do you care? What are the operating systems of choice and the pros and cons of each?
This area of the site contains articles, notes, and links to other resources that will help you answer these and many other questions. |
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Hosting Solutions
