Web Hosting as a Long Term Investment 

Web hosting is basically a service for web users who may be, but not limited to, individuals or companies with web sites for storing any information or data that can be accessed through the Web. Web hosting companies provide space on their web servers and Internet connectivity for their clients. 

In a nutshell, web hosting means making web sites accessible via the Internet. Access could mean through File Transfer Protocol or by any Web interface. 

There are several types of web hosting depending on the method of hosting and the targeted clients.
 

Free Web Hosting.

Some web hosting companies offer you to have your web site accessible in the Web at no charge at all. In return, they will be having their advertisements popping-up or added to your web site. The services you get for free have usually limited bandwidths, disk space, traffic limits and limited web development tools. For up and coming web developers this is a great way to have their web sites accessible via the web.
 

Image Web Hosting.

Some web hosting companies prefer having an image gallery or pictures depot. Image Web Hosting is usually free but you have to become an active member of the web host's site.
 

Shared Web hosting.

This service is also usually for free. Their method of hosting usually only allows a few web pages to be uploaded for a web site, (Ex. Resume Web Hosting Site). Disk space for the entire server is limited and so are the other resources.
 

Clustered Web Hosting.

Unlike Shared Web Hosting where the resources are common for all web sites, this type of hosting uses Clustering Technology. This technology offers strict security, it has a load balancing system and all the other necessary web development tools that is replicated for each web site. Clustered Web Hosting may involve several physical servers working together and is also very open for disk space upgrades or memory upgrades.
 

Reseller Web Hosting.

This hosting method is actually a scheme for entrepreneurs to market Web Hosting for reselling by other entrepreneurs. You practically buy a large chunk of space in their servers with all the web development tools and can divide that chunk for you to be able to create space to other web sites.
 

Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting.

This hosting service is like clustered Web Hosting. The difference is that the web sites that are hosted are all in one physical server.
 

Dedicated Web Hosting.

This type of hosting requires that the client get his own physical server. The client may enjoy all the resources that a dedicated server has but would still be restricted by the policy set by the Web hosting company. It is also quite expensive and is only for big companies with high bandwidths and large databases.
 

Co-located Web Hosting.

This is like dedicated Web Hosting but without the policy restrictions of the Web hosting company. Individuals or companies having Web Server Administration knowledge prefer this scheme. 

Before obtaining the services of any web hosting company, an Internet access scheme or plan may be a good idea. This would be more of a necessity for large companies that rely heavily on web access and web site hosting. Security issues should also be a main concern if privilege data is to be posted on databases hosted on web servers. 

The web hosting company must support the platform or application requirements for the existing or intended Web site. Currently open system platforms are supported by most Web hosting companies. The open system platform usually consists of Linux as the Operating System, Apache as the Web server application, MySQL as the backend database, and Php as the server side interface. Some web hosting companies have Python of Perl as their server side interface. 

There are several hundreds of web hosting companies that you can find in the Internet offering features that would seem attractive at first. But you have to know what your web site really needs. You also must be able to compare prices and be able to identify which hosting company is legitimate and which web hosting company has a good track record by researching on the history and track record of the many Web hosting companies. 

Web hosting is a long-term investment on your part. Choosing the right hosting company is choosing the right investment.
 

By: Rebecca Hubbard