Types of Web Hosting and Importance of Website Monitoring

Web hosting in the past involved firstly choosing between windows or Unix hosting service.  Once the operating system based choice was made, then there were options based on the volume of traffic expected or budget.  Obviously, larger traffic supporting hosting was at a higher fee. The types of plans typically available were amateur plans, small business plans and corporate plans.  All these plans are shared hosting plans where one web server is shared with multiple websites.  This works for most sites and will fit in well with most SMBs. However, for those sites whose web traffic and processing needs are higher there was the addition option in the form of the dedicated server hosting.  Based on their needs they choose a more powerful server configuration.

VPS and Dedicated Hosting for High Performance Websites

With time various new types of hosting became available. The Virtual Private Server (VPS) is an addition that was facilitated by the growth of virtualization technologies.  Virtualization allows one powerful web server to be split into multiple virtual servers and each is made available to a different customer. The VPS hosting allows an intermediate capability between the shared hosting and dedicated hosting.  The dedicated server hosting is a type of hosting in which one server is dedicated completely for one client. The dedicated server hosting allows complete control of the server and enables to install customized software.  This is especially helpful to deliver a very fast response time, handle large volumes of visitors and also helpful for sites that process a lot of transactions on their server.

Cloud Computing Alternative

Cloud computing is the latest type of hosting and is fast gaining traction. Unlike traditional web server based hosting, in a cloud hosting the resources required for maintaining a website are spread over many servers that work together. The website is rendered by the servers working together in tandem which are collectively referred as the cloud. The advantage of this method is that it allows in expanding the capacity of the website to handle volume without having to do a migration. The memory or processing speed are added to the cloud hosting plan from the shared cloud resources.

Content Delivery Network:

The content delivery network or CDN and cloud computing appear similar on first glance but serve two different functions. The content delivery network or CDN was added initially to help very popular static websites to quickly load their pages across the world. These are geographically distributed servers which enable to increase the speed of the site for users by providing the website content from a geographically closer server. This ensures better user experience and fast response time for the users. This has been in use for decades now and many of the most popular sites currently use the CDNs. This is an add-on service to website hosting and not a substitute for website hosting.

Importance of Website Monitoring Service

There has been a lot of innovation in the web hosting plans to improve the quality and to tailor to the budget needs of the customers. In fact, much of the innovation has been in improving the site speed and response time so that the visitors to the website have a great experience. This superior user experience can give a competitive edge in business and can enable success or failure of business.

After taking so much effort to choose the right hosting plan for a business, there is also a need to monitor the website to ensure it is working as it should. Through automated tools a website monitoring service allows for monitoring the various components and services on a website from multiple servers. This is needed to ensure no false alerts are sent.  It is a good idea for businesses expecting strong online presence or online revenue to choose a good paid service provider for website monitoring while choosing the website hosting provider or service.