There are many different kinds of hosting for businesses to choose from, and depending on your business model, some kinds of hosting will make more sense than others.

When it comes to tech companies — i.e. companies that exist and operate primarily online — there two alternatives to actually having to invest in the infrastructure of having your own servers in-house. For companies that are relatively well established and are experiencing stable growth, dedicated hosting probably makes the most sense. But for newer companies still in the start-up phase of their existence, cloud hosting will probably make a lot more sense. Let’s take a look at how these two kinds of hosting differ, and why your tech company should rely on one rather than the other. read more »

There’s a certain element of luck involved in finding a perfect web host – not all free web hosts suck and not all hosts who charge sky-high rates are the best in the business. Some people get lucky with the first host they sign up with, and for them, it’s a lifelong relationship that has its ups and downs, but which survives nevertheless. Others however, have to undergo a number of divorces before they find their perfect match. Although a lot of thought and research go into the process of finding the perfect web host, you know you got lucky with your choice if:

• Your site is up 99 percent of the time: If your web host has servers that are not capable and that get pretty slow when they are overloaded, you know you’re out of luck. Your page does not load and the status is often “not found.” This annoys visitors who are specifically looking for your site and drives away those who are arriving for the first time based on search engine results. So if your site is up and running 99.9 percent of the time, you’ve struck it rich in the world of web hosting.
• Your visitors don’t complain of slow access: When your server is capable of loading your pages in the blink of an eye no matter how large your files are or how heavy the traffic is, you know you were lucky enough to find a good web host. Most web users are frustrated with slow load times – even if their speeds are at DSL-level or higher, they are limited by the speed of the server that loads the page they’re looking for.
• You know how to reach your hosts in case of any problem: Not many hosts are great with customer support and service, so if your provider answers your calls and takes care of any issues immediately, you’re luckier than a man who just won a lottery. When you’re able to avoid downtime and frequent technical hassles because your customer support is top notch, you know you have a web host worth staying with.
• You have the option to upgrade your space requirements as you go: Your storage space depends on what you pay for your web hosting service. When you start out on the Internet, you don’t expect too many visitors and your needs are limited. But then as you gain in popularity and your traffic increases, you expand accordingly. And if your web host accommodates your storage needs as and when you need more space, then you know your partnership was a stroke of luck.
• You don’t find that your site has disappeared overnight: We live in a world of fly-by-night operators who close shop without a word and disappear into the dark when they’ve made their money. They don’t bother to inform people who depend on them to run their sites, so if you find that your website has disappeared, it’s because your service provider has shut shop to cut their losses. If your host has been around for a while and you’re never worried about being left in the lurch, you know you got lucky with your choice of web host.

About the Author:

This guest post is contributed by Barbara Williams, she writes on the topic of Computer Technician Programs . Email her at:  barbara.williams07@gmail.com .

Agreed, it’s a pain in more places than one when you have to migrate from one web host to the other, but when your needs grow and your current host fails to keep up, it’s best to do the dumping as soon as possible. But before you sever all ties, you must protect what’s yours and make sure your site is up and running without a hitch at your new host. Here’s a list of 13 things you must do before you dump your web host:

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Choosing between a dedicated servers and shared hosting brings up a lot of questions. Does your site need a dedicated server or is shared web hosting good enough? How can I tell? Should I save money or get a powerful server now? How much control will I have with each option? Today I will be answering these questions and hopefully helping to make the choice easy.

When Is The Decision Is Easy?
The decision is easy when you don’t have a choice… If your site is getting tons of visitors, if your current shared host says it is using too many resources, if you are running a lot of dynamic php mysql sites that demand a lot of memory and cpu, or if you can’t afford downtime because you are doing marketing on your sites that can’t be down. Any of these reasons make the decision to go with a dedicated server easy and the real question then becomes what type of dedicated server.

By The Numbers…
You should fit into one of these hypothetical situations… Just keep in mind these are very ruff and you should give your hosting company stats so they can decide.

1. I run WordPress or PHP/MySQL site and get over 500 unique visitors a day. Get a dedicated server. Under that number of visitors and you are probably fine on shared web hosting.

2. I run a static site and get under 500 visitors a day. Shared hosting is fine. Go dedicated or VPS if it grows a lot. Static is a lot easier on the server.

A lot of shared hosts will be fine with bigger sites but its borderline in most cases. I also tend to error on the side of caution. I’ve seen plenty of intensive forums with 3,000 visitors a day running on shared hosting for months and then one day something flukes to cause a spike and suddenly they have 10 days to upgrade.

By The Money
Shared hosting is around $10 a month while a dedicated server is at least $70. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to make this choice. If money is a factor go with shared hosting.

I Want Control
If you want complete control of your hosting environment go with a dedicated server. Shared hosting will limit what you can do, what you can tweak, and what you can install. With a dedicated server you can do anything you want!

I work for UK2 and over the last ten years have helped a lot of people choose between the dedicated servers we offer versus our shared web hosting. It really just boils down to the above issues.