Website Hosting in Stirling and Falkirk
What are the different types of Web hosting?
Shared Website Hosting
The most common website hosting used by small business would be referred to as Shared Hosting. Essentially this means that there will be one physical web server with many web sites sharing the resources of the one machine. This will vary from several hundred to several thousand sites – the good thing about this is the cost is generally reasonably low. The downside is that each site is demanding a share of the web server resource and a poorly written piece of code could bring the whole thing down requiring a server reboot and therefore downtime for your site.
VPS – Virtual private server
VPS is the next step up from shared web hosting, where your site is more demanding and require a greater performance in terms of speed and control. The costs are still reasonable and you have a dedicated resource of the web server, this means your web site will load faster and less risk of others web sites on the shared server causing problems which would have previously led to a reboot.
Hybrid Server
Hybrid server bridges the gap between VPS and dedicated servers, a Hybrid Server is an affordable and powerful hosting solution suitable for a wide range of applications. A Hybrid Server is a virtual server with guaranteed RAM, dedicated hard disks and your own dedicated 100Mbps network connection for impressive all-round performance. A virtual server comprises of one physical webserver but with separate areas each with it’s own operating system and set of resource.
Dedicated Server
This is where you have one physical webserver that is specifically for your own needs and responsibly lies with you. You many need this if your site is very busy, or you want to keep it separate from other sites or you may have a number of your own sites which you wish to keep together on the one webserver. Security and data may be another reason for this. This would typically be the most expensive option.
Cloud Hosting
This is becoming a very popular option for many now and one that is very flexible. We can offer a few options again it depends upon your requirements. Often cloud hosting is based on the data transfer rates and automatically scales to cope with peak traffic demands on your site. For example, your site normally only requires one webserver but you have a countdown launch of a new iphone, as the deadline approaches and for the first few hours after the site would scale to a second webserver when demand reaches a certain set point. It might then scale further to four or even eight or more webservers before gradually coming back down again as the peak interest fades. This scaling is done automatically and you are only charged for the data transfer.
Other web hosting points to consider
Windows v Linux
Unlike what we use on desktops where a windows based computer is the norm, the web is the opposite with around 70-80% using Linux based operating systems. Linux machines tend to be more secure and less prone to hacks, fast, reliable and free OS. The most common solution which works very well is often referred to as LAMP (Linux – operating system, Apache – webserver software, Mysql – database and PHP – scripting language). The main reason this combination is so dominant online is the cost or lack of particularly the Mysql database.
Please note if you have a Windows PC there are no compatibility issues for your email or viewing webpages if you have you website on a Linux webserver.
Please contact us if you have further questions or guidance on the services that would be most suitable for your needs.
