Synopsis
How we choose the right type of hosting solution, be it in-house or external, depends on several factors, both technical and business related. This guide helps to explain what web hosting is and provides guidance on how to select the best approach for you and your organisation. When we are using the Internet to access the World Wide Web, it becomes all too easy to take for granted what is actually happening underneath it all. The apparent simplicity hides the real level of complexity that enables the web to operate. Connecting the computer to the phone line, starting the browser software and finding a web site encompasses a raft of intercommunicating technologies and systems, hidden from the public. That web page you see has to live somewhere, sitting on a computer on one of the interconnected mass of computers that make up the internet. It is being hosted on this computer and made available to the public Internet. Hosting is the business of housing, serving and maintaining files for a web site or a secure server for an e-commerce site. A critical element in any hosting solution is a fast connection to the internet.
Whilst this can prove expensive for an individual business hosting its own site, using an external hosting service lets many companies share the cost of a fast internet connection for serving files. This, together with the cost of providing security, database and administration functions, has lead to a variety of different external hosting solutions. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) offer a number of standard packages, some of which include free space for a web site. However they can be basic and may not cater well for specialised needs.
