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Options of Web Hosting Services
Operating Systems and Web Servers There're many Web servers you can choose from to serve the Web pages. Apache, Internet Information
Service (IIS) and Netscape Enterprise Web server are among the popular Web servers. Most of Web servers support multiple platforms - Windows,
Unix or Linux.
Programming Language Support You need a hosting environment that supports your favorite programming languages - ASP, PHP, Perl or JSP.
Database Support Ecommerce applications demand database backend support whether it's a MySQL, MS SQL Server or Oracle.
Disk Space and Bandwidth It's common for hosting plans to offer over 200MB disk space and over 40GB bandwidth a month. Don't worry
about disk space and bandwidth unless you plan to distribute large software or images on the net.
Other Features Other must-have hosting features include control panel, email, FTP, backup and site traffic analysis.
Enterprise Web Hosting
For enterprise applications, you should look for dedicated hosting, co-location, managed Web hosting, or application hosting.
Enterprise applications are commonly implemented in 3 tier Web Application Architecture. JSP or ASP are used for dynamic content,
business logic tier is usually powered by a Java Application Server, and data tier is usually powered by a relational database server.
A dedicated server is usually dedicated to one, or just a few websites, usually for the sole use by one company. The cost of a dedicated
server is higher than that of a shared hosting account. With a dedicated server, you have access to the core administrative functions of
the server. Dedicated hosting plans cost any where from $50 - $100 a month.
The alternative option of Web hosting is to use co-location service. You place or rent dedicated servers (physical machines) at a hosting
company's data center. You could have full control of the machines without worrying about infrastructure of network connection and operations.
Co-location service usually cost about a few hundred dollars a month. The major limitation of using a Web Hosting company is that you don't
have full control of the web server and database server. You can't install, upgrade and configure the web server to fit you specific needs,
you can't use the programming languages you prefer. For instance, most hosting companies don't support JSP (Java Server Page).
If you don't have an IT staff or a server administrator to provide support, you can use a "managed hosting plan". Managed plans offer dedicated
server plus comprehensive support.
Related Topics
ASP Web Hosting
Managed Hosting
Web Hosting: Shared or Dedicated - Which Should You Choose?
Evaluating Ecommerce Hosting Plans
WebSite Traffic Analysis - Site Statistics and Visitor Tracking
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