Oyster Technology

Comparison Between Managed and Unmanaged Hosting Services

If you have a large and complex website that receives a lot of traffic you may find that shared hosting is limiting your growth and the capacity to serve your customers. It may be time to move on to dedicated hosting. Shared hosting involves placing many websites on one server. All sites share the resources of that server such as disk space and bandwidth. Dedicated hosting means that instead of renting space on a server, you rent an entire server for your sole use.

Dedicated web hosting is much more expensive than shared hosting because the cost of operating the server is not divided between various accounts. The advantages of dedicated hosting include the freedom to use the resources of the server as you please. There are many different dedicated hosting packages to choose from. Their prices depend largely on the physical setup of the server computer. Just as with your home computer, faster processors and bigger hard drives cost more.

Another factor influencing the price is whether or not the server is managed. Keeping a server running in top condition can be a time consuming task. A managed hosting service offers the support and expertise to maintain your server and to perform routine maintenance such as software upgrades. This kind of service can be a viable alternative to hiring your own staff to look after your servers. Managed hosting, however, can be a lot more expensive than unmanaged hosting.  Whether the price is justified depends on the complexity of your website and whether or not you already have people on staff who can look after the day to day operations of a server.

Unmanaged hosting, despite its name, does not really leave you entirely to your own devices. Most hosting companies will offer a certain level of support for all their dedicated hosting packages. This support of course includes hardware maintenance for things like hard drive failure and extra technical support may be available if you need help with configuration or software installation. You will probably have to pay for this extra support but hiring a tech on an hourly basis from time to time may be cheaper than going with a full managed package.

If you are considering unmanaged hosting check to see how much control you can have over the server hardware. If your server becomes hopelessly locked you should be able to perform a re-boot or to expect someone to do it for you with a minimum of delay.

As with any hosting package the value of a dedicated hosting service depends on the reliability and integrity of the hosting company. If your website has grown to the point where you need dedicated hosting you need a hosting provider that you can rely on to keep your site online as much as possible.

Whether you choose managed or unmanaged hosting depends on the technical requirements of your site and the ability of you or your staff to manage a server so that it is running at peak efficiency. If you prefer to have the re-assurance of having highly trained professionals looking after the server, go with managed hosting. If you or your staff can handle most of the maintenance chores, you would be better off with an unmanaged server.

You have decided that a dedicated server offers the best features for your online presence. There is no need to share resources and you can set up the server as you please. There remains just one question: Are you going to rent or buy your server? Dedicated hosting means that you are renting a server from a web host. But you also have the option of buying your own server and having the host provide the facilities to house it and connect it to the Internet. This service is called co-located hosting.

The advantages of colocating include all the advantages of dedicated hosting, i.e. you have the resources of the entire server and bandwidth to do with as you please. The additional benefit over dedicated hosting is the lower cost. Because you own the server, your monthly fees don’t include charges for hardware maintenance and upkeep. On the other hand, your initial outlay will be larger because you have to buy the server. If the server is good quality and remains in service for a reasonable length of time, however, your overall costs will be lower with co-location.

The cost of co-location depends on the amount of space your server occupies. Data centers house servers in racks that in turn are housed in cabinets. Cabinets are usually 40 rack units in height, with each rack unit equal to 1.75′. The cases of server computers are measured in rack heights – 1U = 1.75′. Typical sizes for servers are 1U, 2U and 4U, so the physical size of your server will determine how much the co-location host will charge per month. Bandwidth is another factor affecting price.

There are several options available when purchasing a server and getting it to the co-location data center. If you live in close proximity to the data center you could buy a server locally and set it up at your own premises. Once it is setup you can personally deliver it to the data center. Another option is to buy the server from a mail order retailer and have them deliver it directly to the data center. This is a good option if you are not located near the data center. It saves you the cost of shipping the server and the retailer will be responsible if the server happens to be damaged in transit.  The disadvantage is that you have to set up the server remotely through a web interface. The third option is to buy the server direct from the host. Not all hosts are in the business of selling servers, but those that do may offer financing and setup assistance.

Co-location or Dedicated?

co-location puts you in charge of the hardware, but that also means that you are responsible in the case of hardware failure. If you have signed up for dedicated hosting you are renting the server, so the host will replace hard drives or CPUs if they malfunction. The initial costs of co-location are much higher than dedicated hosting. You have to buy the server as well as insurance and software licences. All that is included in a dedicated hosting plan. Hardware upgrades are also more expensive with co-location because you have to buy the new equipment outright and pay to have it installed. Dedicated hosting plans usually allow you to upgrade either hardware or bandwidth at a reasonable cost.

A co-location provider has to be chosen carefully. After all, they will host both your hardware and your data. Points to consider when choosing a co-location provider include:

• Security
• Network Redundancy
• Protection from Fire and Earthquakes
• Backup generators in the case of power outages

The Difference between Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting

There are two basic types of web hosting packages – shared and dedicated. This article will explain what the terms mean and how to choose an appropriate type of hosting for your web site.

Websites are stored on servers. These are network computers that respond to data requests over the Internet. Each server has its own Internet Protocol (IP) address. An IP address is four numbers separated by dots, e.g. 123.456.78.9

A web site that uses dedicated hosting has the server all to itself. This means that all the resources of the server as well as the IP address are unique to that web site. Shared hosting, on the other hand, places several websites on the same server, all of them sharing resources and the same IP address.

Shared hosting is much cheaper than dedicated hosting because the cost of operating the server is split between many different customers. Shared hosting is available for as little as $2 a month but dedicated hosting could cost up $100 a month or more.

Shared Hosting

As mentioned above, websites that share a single server are sharing all the resources of that computer. This includes disk space and bandwidth as well as the IP address. In order to provide adequate service to all sites on a server, your host will limit each site to a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth used per month. Sites that exceed these limits may have to pay a hefty penalty.

Since each server has a limited amount of bandwidth, the amount of traffic your neighbours receive can affect how quickly your web site is displayed. Each request coming in to the server is dealt with in the order it was received, so if there is a large queue, there will be a long wait.

The number of sites that are sharing a particular server is not as important as the amount of traffic each site receives. A server hosting 200 low traffic sites will respond much faster than one which has 50 sites that are receiving a lot of visitors.

There are some risks associated with shared hosting. If one of your neighbours runs a badly programmed script that runs amok the entire server could be affected. In extreme cases this could cause your site to be inaccessible for a time. Another risk is that if one of your neighbours is banned from search engines (for spamming tactics, for example) it could affect everyone sharing that IP address. Check with your hosting company to see their policy about third-party scripts and inappropriate activity.

Dedicated Hosting

With a dedicated server all the resources are yours to use as you please. You can use it to host a single site or multiple sites, you have access to the full bandwidth of the server, and you can use as much disk space as necessary.  Companies with large complex websites that receive a lot of traffic need to have dedicated hosting. Sites that use a dedicated server are also free to run any kind of script they wish. This may be ideal for those who are developing new scripts and need to test them without affecting other websites.

How to Choose

Small websites are usually better off with shared hosting. The cost is more affordable, especially for small companies and individuals. A reputable host will be careful not to allow activities that could jeopardize your site. Large complicated sites that receive more than 1000 visitors a day are better off with dedicated hosting. It is also a good choice for developers who wish to experiment with new Internet technologies.

Comparison of Windows and UNIX Web Hosting

When browsing through the offerings of various web hosting companies you are sure to notice that some offer UNIX hosting and others offer Windows. Some hosts even offer a choice of the two operating systems. What are the differences and which one is better?

First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.

In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable, though slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.

The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.

As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.

The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.

Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.

Which is Best?

Before deciding which type of hosting to use for your website, consider carefully what kind of technologies you will need. Do you need a dynamic site?  Will you have multimedia content such as streaming video or audio?

Both UNIX and Windows can provide dynamic content with PHP, MySQL, as well as CGI, and there are thousands of dynamic scripts readily available. Multimedia can also be hosted by either type of server, although Windows media (WMA and WMV) need to be hosted on a Windows server.

If you absolutely need Microsoft databases, ASP, and Windows media you have to go with a Windows host. Otherwise most websites are probably better off with a UNIX host. The advantages of UNIX over Windows include greater choices in web hosts, slightly better reliability, and (sometimes) cheaper hosting costs.

Every hosting account has a certain allotment of disk space. The disk space is used to hold all the files which make up your web site – HTML files, graphics, scripts, and multi-media content. Usually the more expensive the hosting package the more disk space and the more bandwidth you receive.

A basic web site with just a few pages requires less than 1 MB of disk space. As you add more content and include things like downloadable files, pictures, music, and video you will require more disk space. Email also takes up disk space. If you have an account with a small disk allotment you may find that unsolicited SPAM may be eating away at your disk allotment. It’s always a good idea to go through your inbox from time to time to delete unnecessary emails.

What will happen if you use too much disk space? Each web host has their own policy about this but it’s safe to say that you will be charged for the extra space. Often this penalty is much higher than regular rates for disk space so it’s important to keep an eye on how much space you are using and if you are approaching the limit, either purchase more space or delete some files.

How can you tell how much space you are using? Most hosting packages have a control panel for making adjustments to almost every aspect of your account. These control panels usually tell you how much disk space is being used and may also rate it against your allotment so you can see at a glance if you are approaching your limit. If your hosting account does not have this feature you can judge the amount of space by downloading your entire site to a folder on your personal computer in order to check how much space it takes.

As a rough guide, consider that an average web page (3 graphics and 2 screen lengths of text) takes about 20 kb (to be generous). At this rate, a hosting package with 10 MB can have about 500 pages. Since most small sites are less than 50 pages 10 MB should be plenty to get started. But what about databases? They are usually calculated separately from your disk allotment but check with your web host to see what their policy is.

If you place music or video files on your website your need for disk space (and bandwidth) starts to take off. A typical 3 minute MP3 file takes about 2.5 to 3 MB of disk space. A short video (very poor quality) can take 1 MB. A good rule of thumb for those wishing to host multimedia is to estimate the total size of the files and get an account with double that space. This will allow for future expansion. Always check with your web host, though, before placing sound or video files on your website. Some have policies against this type of content because it places a strain on the bandwidth allotment which makes this a serious consideration with a shared hosting package.

Definition of Bandwidth for Website Hosting

Bandwidth is a term that has several different meanings depending on the context. When talking about bandwidth in terms of Web Hosting it refers to the amount of data that transfers into and out of your web hosting account. Incoming data can include requests for web pages, email, FTP requests, and FTP uploads, while outgoing data includes file transfers, web pages, and email. Each hosting account is allocated a certain amount of bandwidth per month. Common figures for bandwidth range from 3 GB for small personal sites up to 200 GB for large business systems.

How much bandwidth do you need? This depends on the amount of traffic your website receives as well as the content. Web pages made up of text and a few pictures are very small in size but if you get thousands of visitors each day you may need a lot of bandwidth. On the other hand website content consisting of downloadable files such as software, music or video is much larger in size, so even if your traffic is fairly low you may need extra bandwidth.

The best way to calculate the amount of bandwidth you need is to calculate the size of your downloadable content and multiply by the number of visitors you receive each month. Add to that the number of emails sent and received and other content such as FTP uploads. The figure you come up with should be pretty accurate because it is unlikely that every visitor to your site is going to download every file or view every page. This will give you a bit of margin to play with.

As your web site grows and as you receive more traffic you may have to increase your bandwidth allotment accordingly. It is better to plan ahead and arrange with your web host for a larger hosting package rather than wait until you go over your limit. Check with your host to see what their policy is in regards to exceeding your bandwidth. Some will allow you to go over by a certain amount while others will shut down your site and demand that you upgrade your account before resuming service. It is always best to keep track of how much bandwidth you are using and anticipate when you need to upgrade.

If you feel that you have sufficient bandwidth for your website and would prefer not to upgrade you may be able to ‘throttle’ traffic if you are approaching your monthly limit. Some hosts offer this service as a way to limit incoming requests or to exclude requests once a certain number has been reached.

There are several throttling options. You can limit the number of incoming requests by specifying an idle time between requests. This causes incoming requests to be delayed by a specified amount of time if too many are arriving at once. Other options are to impose a limit on data transfer within a certain time period or to limit the number of requests for a certain file. The speed of transfers can also be capped at a certain level. Throttling may not be a good idea if you depend on web traffic for your business. If your pages are slow to load or if users can’t access files they are looking for they may give up and move on to another site. If you have a lot of free content, though, throttling can be useful for keeping your hosting budget within a certain amount.