New Advances in Web Hosting

With the dot com boom, website hosting became a necessity for all the companies regardless of size and capacity. It has also become a latest craze for the individuals who are internet savvy and love to share information with other people on the internet. Web Hosting thus fast grew as a service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems so that they can interact with others, promote their products, share information, images and videos. The Web Hosting is supported by the Web Hosting platforms – the operating systems. There have been lots of recent advancements in Web Hosting and the Web Hosts are continuously striving to offer their clients with the latest and the most upgraded technologies.

Web Hosting Platforms – what are they?

The Web Hosting platforms are actually the operating systems that support Web Hosting. The most traditional forms of Web Hosting Platforms used are Linux and Windows.

Linux – This is the most traditional form of Web Hosting Platform used. It is widely regarded as the most reliable and uses memory and disk space efficiently. More than 70% of the web servers in the world make use of Linux / UNIX due to its exceptional power and reliability and also because the cost of Linux / UNIX hosting is low.

Windows is the response of Microsoft to provide to web hosting and is rising in popularity all the time with many web developers. This is because it utilizes ASP and ASP.NET. It is also true that the Window operating system works very well with other .NET sever systems like:

* SQL Server 2000

* SQL Server 2000

* BizTalk Server 2002

In days gone by, there may have only been basic functions for web host packages but there are more now and some of the most commonly found and essential ones are:

Space available on the Disk – Each and every web hosting account contains a finite amount of disk space that can be utilized by a customer to place all their files on. The total size offered on the disk varies by firm and by each individual package. Potential clients should be aware that the disk space offered by a shared web host will be smaller than the space offered by a customized host.

Accounts relating to emails – The actual amount can depend on the physical cost of the package but there will be a provision of email accounts with a Web Hosting package. Amongst all of these packages, the provision of email accounts is extremely common and come in useful when hosting a domain. Having control over the email account can be offered to the customer if the Web Host wants to but there are many Web Hosts who will perform all the set-up processes for the customer. Whilst different users may have their favorite type of email account and their own preference there are 4 key types of email accounts and there are auto responders, aliases, forwarding and POP3 accounts.

FTP Access – Another common feature of all the paid hosting accounts is the FTP access. The FTP programs allow the users to upload files, edit and delete the contents on the server much more quickly than using a web-based interface.

Recent Advances in Web Hosting:

People and companies always require more and as technology advances and the internet becomes stronger, there is always going to be further demand for new and more impressive technologies.

The technology up gradation of the Windows Server technology and the release of the Windows 2003 Server provides what is now arguably known as the highest performance server environment. It provides outstanding support for the web developers and has a single vendor (Microsoft) committed to its ongoing development.

One area where the advances have brought many changes is with regards to the Linux and Windows operating systems and the features provided by the two have never been closer. There used to be key differences between the two, allowing users to make a distinct choice between the two but this is no longer the case and the differences are now minimal. It is now the case where a hosting company does not have to make a massive choice over which operating system to offer as it is not a major concern to a client. Nowadays, it is more likely a client will base their choice of web host on the range of features and price they offer as opposed to the operating system they have in their package.

Software for hosting a Web Site

The key step forward in recent years in web hosting fields has came through web hosting software, which has greatly increased the effectiveness and efficiency of the hosts. The manner in which the new software can aid the host can be seen in the following functions:

* Automation of account creation

* Management of dedicated servers

* Making many tasks able to be automated allowing administrators increased time to work on other issues.

The software helps the companies in more than one ways. By opting for and hosting the automation software, the management of the dedicated server becomes easy to control and the provisioning of resources comes down from hours to minutes.

The Windows dedicated server software are Plesk for Windows, Helm for Windows, Easy Admin Exchange Control Panel, Cold Fusion MX, Anti Virus & Security Software to name a few.

Linux also offers a number of dedicated server software packages including,the Linux dedicated server software are centOS Linux, Fantastico De Luxe, cPanel / Web Host Manager, Red Hat Enterprise, Plesk for Linux and Anti Virus Software and Security Software.

Voice over Internet Protocol technology in Web Hosting

The Web Hosting industry is ever growing and coming up with new technologies to serve their customers better. The Web Hosts in the market compete with each other in providing the most up to date and latest technology to the clients. There has been a recent advancement in Voice over Internet Protocol technology in Web Hosting field. The new advancement has enabled anyone with a computer and a broadband Internet connection to communicate worldwide without paying the usual long distance fees.

The service providers have discovered that the VoIP can add a new, and often very appropriate, dimension to their services without much difficulty. The VOIP companies are coming up in great numbers in hopes of cashing in on the rather new industry.

It can be seen that the Web host genre is coming up quickly with regards to this provision and is looking to follow on. A sizable proportion of the key Web hosts have devised plans to launch VOIPO, a telephone services that utilizes the benefits of VOIP. This is something that a Web Host provider would seek to distribute across the world

Launching the provision of the Virtual Rack:

A popular Web Host has come up with a “virtual rack” solution, which is designed to make the features of its popular private rack solution available to customers running as few as two servers. The main aim of launching the private rack product to provide the customers with complete customization on there web hosting.

Having installed the virtual rack, the client is able to choose the servers they truly desire or need. There is also the provision for them to choose which type of network and security-based technologies they would like to have. These can range from loaded balances that are provided by server iron to the range of ASA firewalls from Cisco. If a customer ever wanted to tell their Web host exactly how they would like their web site to be configured or to demand what IP arrangements would be best for them, the Virtual Rack will allow them to do it all.

The recent advances and developments are sure to make Web Hosting more efficient and effective. They will help in serving the purpose of the consumers in a way more than expected!

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