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Website uptime is crucial to companies with an online presence.  When your site is down, you’re potentially missing out on sales or other opportunities that can cost you thousands of dollars.  In the long run, the damage to your company’s reputation might be worth even more.

Web hosting providers usually estimate a 99% uptime for their clients.  When your website is the main focal point of your business, that 1% is an uncontrolled shutdown of the availability of your goods and services.  Even if the host advertises a high uptime of its servers, how can you verify its claims?  Third party reviews are helpful, but you can never know what kind of issues might lie right around the corner.

Some online businesses take care of their own web hosting through an IT department.  Since the website is hosted under your own roof (usually to the tune of several thousands of dollars per year), the servers are continually monitored to verify that everything is functioning correctly.

Since new businesses can’t afford to spend the kind of money required to have all the technology in one place, third party monitoring is a cost-effective option.  Pay a reasonable rate for the web hosting that comes with user-friendly development tools and spend a little extra money to ensure your website’s uptime remains high.

Monitoring firms can be tied-in with hosting packages.  Having a graphic displaying the uptime guarantee on your website increases consumer confidence in the product and shows them that customer service is one of your priorities.

There are several factors to consider when selecting your web hosting plan.  Anyone can browse the almost unlimited number of offerings across the web, but savvy website designers will carefully weigh all their options before spending unnecessary time and money on a web host that doesn’t meet their needs.  It’s simply not as easy as just selecting your provider, then kicking back and watching your successful web-based business.

While many hosting providers advertise cheap plans, only a limited number offer any of real value.  Avoid services that throw in extra expenses that you can only find by reading the fine print.  Ensure your storage and bandwidth requirements are met, otherwise your visitors may be unable to reach your site once the limit thresholds have been crossed.

Verify your monthly traffic limits when selecting your web host.  “Unlimited traffic” might have restrictions based on the amount of data transfer or another limiting factor.  Exceeding these thresholds could put a dent into your bank account, leaving your hands tied until next month.

Most web hosting providers advertise 99% and higher uptime.  While a high uptime percentage is a must, verify these claims through third party tests and reviews whenever possible.  When your website is down, your business is completely inaccessible to your customer.  During the research phase of your project, talk to your prospective hosting providers and clear up any questions before jumping in head first.

Successful businesses tend to grow quickly out of their lower-priced, minimum service web hosting packages.  The resources required to keep expanding might have changed to included higher email limits or larger data transfer allowances.  Server downtime becomes more of an issue the larger your company grows, costing more in lost business each time is happens.

There is a type of web hosting designed to minimize the downtime of your web site called “Cluster” hosting, or “Complex” hosting.  With cluster hosting, the data on your server is shared with other servers, creating multiple backups for your website when you primary server goes down.  Talk to your hosting provider about cluster hosting.  While moving from a shared server or dedicated server to a cluster hosting setup can be a highly technical process, your professional hosting company will be able to assist in completing the most beneficial setup.

In addition to the redundancy that comes with a cluster hosting setup, the response time is usually higher when accessing your website.  Since your website is connected to the computing power of more than one server, the data transfer can be balanced to minimize the impact on each server.  Special software ensures that the data is transferred and processed by the most efficient means.

Since your website will be faster and more reliable when using cluster hosting, your reputation as a web-based company will increase.  Reputable web hosts will provide the technical support, customer service, and all of the software required to complete a successful hosting setup.

There are a couple of different kinds of web hosting that new webmasters have to consider when planning their sites.  Free web hosting services are plentiful, but they come with their share of shortcomings, such as the lack of user-friendly tools that come with paid hosting.  The advertisements that appear on free hosted sites take away from the professional appeal of the website.  Business owner especially know that a customer’s first impression is generally the most important.  The technical support associated with free sites is usually non-existent, meaning users could be completely on their own when problems arise.

Another option for web developers is called “shared hosting”.  Shared hosting is when a web hosting provider provides server space and bandwidth to several websites.  While this has financial benefits, there is a higher chance of hang-ups and security issues.  These hosting companies generally offer better customer service and technical support than their free counterparts, as well as a wider array of development tools and a guarantee of your website’s uptime.

Other companies offer “dedicated hosting”, where website owners don’t share servers with other websites.  These setups generally cost quite a bit more than shared hosting packages, but slowdowns are much more rare.

New website developers should look at several factors when deciding on a hosting provider.  Besides price, consider the availability of user tools to assist with your development, email services, file transfer allowances, and bandwidth limits.  Sometimes spending a little more for hosting with a lot of little extras is worth more than the frustration that comes with not enough service.

Webmasters can benefit from the knowledge of the variety of statistics about their visitors that is available through the various analysis programs on the internet.  Knowing how visitors find your site, as well as their geographic location, and even their web browser can be advantageous when planning, developing, and improving your website.  Some of these programs are free, and some do have a price tag attached.  Fortunately, most paid web hosting packages have web analysis and statistic applications built in at no extra cost to the developer.

Some web hosts provide a web control panel called “Cpanel”.  This popular developer’s control panel generally comes bundled with a couple of different website statistic analyzers; specifically Awstats, Analog, and Webalizer.

Awstats provides geographical information about your website visitors, technical information about their computer and web browser, how long those visitors remained on your website, how many pages within your site they viewed, and other useful (and interesting) facts.  The information is displayed in an easy-to-read format.

Analog provides much of the same visitor information as Awstats, but in a text-based format that is not particularly user friendly to analyze.

Webalizer provides graphs detailing the month to month visitors to your website, but not much else.  Awstats and Analog offer much more detailed information, but Webalizer is handy for quick glances at the traffic stopping by your site.

A web search should provide a list of the various web hosting providers that offer Cpanel.  Knowing who is interested in your website is important to ensure your site is optimized for the right visitors and to keep them interested and stopping by on a regular basis.

There are many choices available to developers in the world of web hosting:  Windows or Linux platforms.  Shared or dedicated server hosting.  High or low bandwidth options.  Good customer support or bad customer support (hopefully this last example is an easy choice for everyone).  Fortunately, most website hosting providers offer all sorts of package deals that will allow even amateur website developers a way to determine what options they need for their project.

Some web hosts limit the content they allow to be displayed on their servers, so it’s a good idea to verify your material will be allowable with your host.  Pirated music and software, pornography, and viruses are main examples of prohibited content.

Most web hosts offer solutions specific for the type of goods or service you intend on providing through your website.  Shopping cart support and database tools can, for example, be packaged in with your web hosting.

When your site is in the development stage, look for packages that fit the needs of your project.  Web editors are usually easier to work with than raw code, for example, so it might be more cost effective to find a host that offers that type of service.  Other applications and tools are usually available as well.  The customer support department of your host will be able to provide you with complete details.

Searching for a reputable web hosting service can be a daunting task for all but the most seasoned professionals.  Listed below are several tips that will get you moving on the right track.

Looking for a web hosting company that spreads its resources around several other services (website maintenance or programming support, for instance) may fulfill your basic hosting needs, but the overall experience may suffer.  Companies that strive for excellence in one or only a few closely-related services may deliver more quality for your dollar.

Spend a little extra time to find a web hosting company that takes security seriously.  Hosting companies should keep their security software up-to-date and respond quickly to issues.  Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates provided by reputable hosting services will protect the security of your website by preventing unidentified browsers from potentially harming your website.

There is nothing more frustrating than having an issue and being unable to access customer support from your hosting company.  Telephone support is the most efficient means of resolving issues quickly, but many hosting companies offer limited telephone support hours or, even more disappointingly, email-only customer support.  Look for a company that can provide plentiful telephone support hours.

Sometimes it’s the little extras that can make an adequate experience an excellent one.  Bare-bones web hosting services may appear cost-effective up front, but the amount of time and frustration that comes along with them can offset the small price difference.  User-friendly interfaces like control panel tools, order forms, and multi-media features make every web designer more productive.  If you know which bells-and-whistles will assist with the development of your project, look for the hosting plan that doesn’t go over the top, but doesn’t sell you short, either.

Don’t buy into the numbers hype that web hosting companies advertise in their plans.  “99.9% uptime” and “10 Gigs of Storage” are not necessarily the most important factor to consider.  A small project won’t benefit from wasted bandwidth or huge storage space.  It’s difficult to substantiate uptime claims, so third-party reviews may assist in determining the most reliable hosting service.  Be wary of over the top reviews; if the company sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

There’s no sense in over-paying for web hosting services, but look closely at the product being offered if you appear to be getting a great deal.  Don’t make the mistake of missing out on crucial features or receiver poor customer service because the service price is suspiciously low.  Study the terms of service and determine exactly what you’re getting for your money.

You wouldn’t buy a one bedroom house when you’re expecting twins, would you?  Don’t get stuck with not being able to grow into the needs of your customers or target audience because of your web hosting.  You may want to increase your online content one day in the future, or add support for different scripts and features.  Buying a little more than you need now will ensure that your growth doesn’t get stunted later.

The global number of online shopping customers continues to grow.  Customers in the United States and United Kingdom will spend $150 billion per year online within the next 2 years.  Your commerce features need to be easy to use and secure for you and your customers.

Ensure that you don’t miss out on solid email protection against viruses and spam.  Your web hosting company should provide the features you need for the email programs you use.  This protection must keep you and your customers safe while not blocking important messages from the people you need to communicate with.

Look at all the factors when picking a web hosting company.  Good third-party reviews are important, as well as data to substantiate any claims made by the service provider.  Seeing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors hosting can assist you in your research.  Does the hosting service use high quality hardware, or out-of-date technology subject to failure?  Look for hosing company that offer a trial period to determine if all the features offered are right for your project.

Considering the above information may save you time, money, and peace of mind in your search for safe, reliable website hosting.  Good luck!

Choosing a web hosting service platform can be a confusing task.  Potential users have to consider their specific requirements, their own technical knowledge, and the administrative costs associated with maintaining their project.  UNIX hosting is an option that is a generally cost-effective alternative to Windows-based web hosting.  UNIXs code is open source, meaning loads of technical support is available from other developers across the internet, as well as the continuous creation and development of new tools and applications.

Occasional security-related issues pop up in all software from time to time.  While traditional software companies (such as Microsoft) take a lot of time to develop, test, and distribute updates and patches, open source programs like UNIX are transparent and any competent programmer can develop a fix for the issue and distribute it much more quickly.

UNIX was designed for users with a higher technical knowledge of web hosting server support.  Hosting with UNIX generally requires a computer configured with UNIX OS (which itself has been in continuous development longer than Microsoft Windows).  Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris, all open source companies themselves, use the base operating system architecture provided by UNIX.

While learning the language required to program with UNIX is not overwhelmingly difficult, a working knowledge of its capabilities and commands is a prerequisite to successful hosting since most providers limit access to your account to SSH or Telnet.  Having a somewhat detailed knowledge of working with UNIX also allows its users more flexibility in customizing the software to fit their specific needs.

When you do choose a platform, consider all of the provided specifications and how they will affect your particular goal.  While many hosting companies offer UNIX as a hosting platform, each offers several features at different costs that can affect not only your sanity when developing your web site, but also your overall bottom line.

Many free online backup services allow you to store your backup data offsite. God forbid, should any disaster struck at your place, you can atleast access your backup data since they are kept at a seperate place may be even at a different country altogether.

Some of these backup services also allow to keep seperate versions of data files and you can even schedule your backups. So say for eg, if you have accidentally erased part of an important file, you can easily recover the earlier copy of the saved backup file. Some services even can encrypt your data files for added security over the internet.

Online backup services are possibly very helpful when you are travelling places and you do not want to carry your huge data everytime with you wherever you go. You may not need the data everytime but circumstances may happen that you need your data when away from your office computer. In this cases an online back up service would be very much helpful and time saving.

Another possible use for such services is if you are travelling and do not want to lug around your data with you. You can then back it up to the service, and access it from wherever you may be.

1. Mozy Online Backup.

This new backup service provides you with 2000MB of web space to back up your data files. Your data files are encrypted through out the online transfer from your PC to their online server and are always kept encrypted while they are in storage. They even provide unlimited backup data space for a very small fee.

2. IDrive Basic – Free Online Backup – Secure, Automated and Encrypted.

Here also you get 2GB of backup space, automatic continuous online backup with upto 10 mins frequency, different versions of your data files, encrypted storage and transfer, etc. You must have Windows Operating System to use their service, because you need to install a small Windows application on your PC to perform the online backups.

3. Humyo

Humyo is basically designed to share your media rich data files and making them easily accessible to you when you are on move. It provides you storage upto 25GB of media files (music, videos, photos) and another 5GB for non-media data files. Accounts are automatically deleted after 90 days of inactivity. (The website says you will be notified before hand).

4. BuddyBackup – Free Online Backup

This particular online backup service has a different approach to how it works. They actually do not provide you with any storage webspace for your data, but you are awarded “buddies” through the application by which you store your files on other buddies’ PCs. Similarly they store their data files onto your computer. You can store upto 5GB of data in this method, and previous generations of your data files are also backed up. All your data files are strongly encrypted, so even your buddies would not be able to open or even view it. This application requires Windows.

Only Microsoft doesn’t use Linux as a OS for its server virtualization platform. All other major producers of virtualization technologies use Linux Operating System.

VMware

VMWare hold almost 80% of virtualization market. Those who use their technology say that VMware provides great support, excellent training, and offers ver ystable virtualization products.

Virtuozzo

Virtuozzo and its predecessor OpenVZ are owned by Parallels. These are the worlds leading OS  levelvirtualization technologies. While OpenVZ is free and anyone would use it to develop in-house virtualization solution, Virtuozzo is a advanced and expensive software product. In OS level virtualization the kernel of the operating system allows for multiple isolated user-space instances, instead of just one. This makes each virtual private server an extension of the physical server. OpenVZ and Virtuozzo have many advantages and one disadvantage – we have to run on the virtual machines the same OS and kernel as we have on the physical server.

Xen

Citrix is the company that now owns Xen technology. Xen is popular hypervisor software and that’s why many commercial services and virtualization products are based on Xen. Citrix however has to offer a model of providing support for Xen that would help more businesses to start using this technology.