Recent Advances in Web Hosting
With the dot com boom, website hosting became a necessity for all the companies regardless of size and capacity. It has also become a latest craze for the individuals who are internet savvy and love to share information with other people on the internet. Web Hosting thus fast grew as a service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems so that they can interact with others, promote their products, share information, images and videos. The Web Hosting is supported by the Web Hosting platforms – the operating systems. There have been lots of recent advancements in Web Hosting and the Web Hosts are continuously striving to offer their clients with the latest and the most upgraded technologies.
Getting to grips with Web Hosting Platforms.
The two main types of web hosting platforms are the Windows and Linux systems and these are the operating systems that are used to support the hosting of websites.
Linux – This is the most traditional form of Web Hosting Platform used. It is widely regarded as the most reliable and uses memory and disk space efficiently. More than 70% of the web servers in the world make use of Linux / UNIX due to its exceptional power and reliability and also because the cost of Linux / UNIX hosting is low.
Windows – Windows is Microsoft’s answer to Web Hosting and is becoming highly popular with the Web developers with its potential ASP and ASP.NET programming environments. This operating system also integrates very well with the advanced .NET server technologies such as:
* Commerce Server 2002
* SQL Server 2000
* BizTalk Server 2002
Web Hosting packages used to be bundled with only the minimum features but many of these features are vital to the package and they include:
* Space available on the Disk – Each and every web hosting account contains a finite amount of disk space that can be utilized by a customer to place all their files on. The total size offered on the disk varies by firm and by each individual package. Potential clients should be aware that the disk space offered by a shared web host will be smaller than the space offered by a customized host.
* Accounts relating to emails – The actual amount can depend on the physical cost of the package but there will be a provision of email accounts with a Web Hosting package. Amongst all of these packages, the provision of email accounts is extremely common and come in useful when hosting a domain. Having control over the email account can be offered to the customer if the Web Host wants to but there are many Web Hosts who will perform all the set-up processes for the customer. Whilst different users may have their favorite type of email account and their own preference there are 4 key types of email accounts and there are auto responders, aliases, forwarding and POP3 accounts.
FTP Access – Another common feature of all the paid hosting accounts is the FTP access. The FTP programs allow the users to upload files, edit and delete the contents on the server much more quickly than using a web-based interface.
Modern breakthroughs in Web Hosting:
People and companies always require more and as technology advances and the internet becomes stronger, there is always going to be further demand for new and more impressive technologies.
The technology up gradation of the Windows Server technology and the release of the Windows 2003 Server provides what is now arguably known as the highest performance server environment. It provides outstanding support for the web developers and has a single vendor (Microsoft) committed to its ongoing development.
One area where the advances have brought many changes is with regards to the Linux and Windows operating systems and the features provided by the two have never been closer. There used to be key differences between the two, allowing users to make a distinct choice between the two but this is no longer the case and the differences are now minimal. It is now the case where a hosting company does not have to make a massive choice over which operating system to offer as it is not a major concern to a client. Nowadays, it is more likely a client will base their choice of web host on the range of features and price they offer as opposed to the operating system they have in their package.
Software for hosting a Web Site
The development of the new Web hosting software is the recent advancement in the Web Hosting field. This software makes Web Hosting more efficient and effective. They are available to assist in the functioning of Web Hosting in the following ways:
* Automation of account creation
* Allowing users a better quality of management with regards their dedicated servers
* Ensuring that monotonous tasks can be automated saving the time of system administrators
The software helps the companies in more than one ways. By opting for and hosting the automation software, the management of the dedicated server becomes easy to control and the provisioning of resources comes down from hours to minutes.
Some of the dedicated software packages for the Windows server include Plesk for Windows, Helm for Windows, Cold Fusion MC, Anti Virus & Security Software and Easy Admin Echange Control Panel amongst many others.
Similarly, the Linux server is supported by software packages including centos Linux, cPanel / Web Host Manager, Red Hat Enterprise, Anti Virus Software and Security Software, Fantastico De Luxe and Plesk for Linux.
> Web Hosting and VOIP – Voice over Internet Protocol technology
Like any growing industry, Web Hosting is creating new technologies to provide a better service to their customers. Due to the competition in the market there is a need for firms to provide improved services and one of the areas of advancement is Voice over Internet Protocol and this technology has been widely used in the web hosting industry. Basically, this technology enables people with a broadband internet connection on their computer to communicate with other people around the world without having to pay the usually associated high costs.
As this new technology is fairly cheap, many service providers have figured out that VOIP is able to give them an edge and can be seen as a new and innovative addition to their range of services and one which can be implemented with no real trouble. This has led to a surge in VOIP companies who are seeking to find a way into this lucrative market.
It can be seen that the Web host genre is coming up quickly with regards to this provision and is looking to follow on. A sizeable proportion of the key Web hosts have devised plans to launch VOIPO, a telephone services that utilizes the benefits of VOIP. This is something that a Web Host provider would seek to distribute across the world
> Launching the Virtual Rack:
The “virtual rack solution” was created by one popular web host and it offers the benefits of rack solutions to customers who may have as little as two servers running. The chief goal of this product is to enable customers to have 100% customization on their own web hosting.
Having installed the virtual rack, the client is able to choose the servers they truly desire or need. There is also the provision for them to choose which type of network and security-based technologies they would like to have. These can range from loaded balances that are provided by server iron to the range of ASA firewalls from Cisco. If a customer ever wanted to tell their Web host exactly how they would like their web site to be configured or to demand what IP arrangements would be best for them, the Virtual Rack will allow them to do it all.
There is no doubt that the advances and improvements in Web Hosting have greatly increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry. All of these steps have played a part in fulfilling customer needs and serving the consumer purposes in a far better manner and one which may have exceeded expectations.
