A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center.
Service scope
The scopes of hosting services vary widely. The most basic is web page and (small) file hosting, where files can be uploaded via FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many ISPs offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Web page hosting is typically free, advertisement sponsored, or cheap.
Web page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal home pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required. The host may also provide a Web interface (e.g. Cpanel, Helm, Plesk) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail.
Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company.
Hosting reliability and uptime
Hosting uptime is the time while the host is accessible. Hosting providers aim for 100% uptime but there are always server restarts and maintenance, so 100% uptime is almost impossible. A standard claim these days is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but the difference between these 2 regular statements is 80 hours of downtime each year. 99% uptime means the server is unavailable for 87 hours a year.
Types of hosting
Internet hosting services can run web servers; see Internet hosting services.
Hosting services limited to the web:
- Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is extremely limited when compared to paid hosting.
- Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as several hundred other sites.
- Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user does not own the server.
- Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service.
- Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users.
- Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves.
- Clustered hosting having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization
Some specific web services:
Obtaining hosting
Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.
A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python.
Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.
