A Beginners Guide to Web Hosting

Basic Understanding

Copyright © Cyber Futuristics India Private Limited.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Web Hosting: An OverviewProfessional vs. Self-Web HostingBasic to Advanced Web Hosting Alternatives

Types of Web hosting Web Hosting: An OverviewVPS HostingDedicated Hosting

Selection Process: Parameters to Count Network UptimeBandwidthSLAStorage CapacityData Center ArchitectureSecurityDisaster RecoveryCustomer Service

Introduction to Domain NameDomain NameDomain Name RegistrationClassification of Domain NamesSix common characteristics of Domain NamesFinding the right domain name hosting provider

Understanding DNS ServersDomain Name System (DNS)Domain PrivacyBenefits of Using Domain Name PrivacyFinding the right domain name hosting provider

Tools that Can Make Sense for your Business

Windows vs. Linux Web Hosting

Proprietary Control Panels

01

02

03

04

05

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Basic Understanding Page | 1

Web hosting is the technology that helps website creators to make their websites accessible to users worldwide over the internet. Websites are usually a combination of text, images, videos and other related content. Web hosting allows website creators to store such content on a data center, popularly termed as web server and make it available to the users worldwide via theWorld Wide Web. Web serversare data centers provided by internet web hosting companies. These companies sell space on their personally owned or leased servers to clients. It is sold as a service to customers wanting to host their websites on the internet. Web hosts are people or organizations that rent out server space for hosting websites. There are broadly two kinds of web hosts based on their size, scale of operations and ownership of data centers.

The primary business of web hosting companies is to sell server space. However, in addition to selling server space, web hosting companies also sell various other allied services such as domain name registration, email hosting services, internet connectivity, database support, content management platforms, SSL certificates and application development.

Keep reading!This guide will help you gain an in-depth insight and understanding of the thriving web hosting business:

Web Hosting: An Overview

Professional vs. Self-Web HostingMost businesses opt for professional web hosting service over self-hosting owing to multiple factors. Self-Hosting suffers from a few dis-advantages which can be negative for a business in the long run. As such, most businesses prefer professional web hosting to self-hosting.

Availability and scalability can be an intricate issue including expensive proposition

Self-hosting

Dense peak visitor traffic periods & unwarranted swings in traffic patterns can cause downtime

Power sabotage due to lack of redundancy and power paths ceasing business-productivity

Involves hectic and time-consuming server management

Provides dynamic IP address that changes over the time

Reliable, scalable, and performance- drivendata center architecture to meet needs of most demanding web applications

Professional web hosts owns infrastructure that suits IT costs with customer traffic patterns in real time

Static IP address for your business-critical website that do not change over the time

Erudite professionals to manage and maintain web server

Multiple telecommunication networks that ensures fastest Internet connectivity and page loading time.

Professional-hosting

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Basic to Advanced Web Hosting Alternatives

Web hosting services are typically categorized into three major sections depending on the following parameters:

Potential to handletraffic spikes

Scalability to matchbusiness demands

ComputingResources

Reliability Pricing Speed

These Web Hosting Services Are:

Dedicated ServerHosting

Virtual PrivateServer Hosting

Shared WebHosting


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Types of Web hosting

Shared Web HostingIt acts as a stepping-stone for the clients planning to start-off their online manifestation. Economical in nature, shared hosting invites companies and individuals to register their presence on the Internet servers without involving them into long-winded set-ups and management processes. In shared hosting, a physical server hosts multiple clients' websites onto it, providing common pool of compute resources to each of the shared hosting client, such as RAM, and processing speed, and storage capacity. Technically, a shared server is based on ASP.NET or LAMP stack.

A standard

shared server has

the potential to

host – 600 -700

websites of 1GB.

Economical and easy-to setup No Root Access

No Server Management Headaches Limited resources at your disposal

Limited resources at your disposal Single Apache server, MySQL server, and Mail Server

Requires minimum technical expertise Restrictions to install modules and programs on the server

Unlimited Bandwidth (T&C applied) Performance Issues

Easy to use admin panel like cPanel Spamming Attacks

Poor Customization Flexibility

PROS CONS


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Ratings

Customization

Simplicity

Scalability

Affordability

Security

Server Control

Performance

VPS HostingIn the vigilant landscape of online businesses, it is an ideal alternative for all range of SME's to opt for VPS hosting with enhanced control and power. Economical in characteristics and capabilities, it is built with a shared kernel technology, mostly Open VZ/ Vituazzo. Additionally, Virtual Private Server is an isolated, virtualized server environment in which a physical server is partitioned into multiple server instances on which a user can run an individual copy of operating system. Equipped with easy-to-use control panel and set up wizards, it provides a graphical interface and automation tools to streamline the process of hosting web applications. In context to this, it facilitates web masters to reboot, rebuild, set root password, and customize software without any restriction of a web host.

WINDOWS 2012 HYPER-V

SERVER ENVIRONMENT

PROVIDES MATCHLESS

HOSTING PERFORMANCE

WITH DEDICATED

AMOUNT OF RESOURCES

A standard VPS Hosting has the potential to

HOST 200 WEBSITES


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Economical Option- Hosting owners canincrease the resource capabilities on demand

Risk of shared resources- Disk I/O is often shared and the hostnetwork connection is also shared between the multiple virtualinstances.

Instant upgrades and often no reboot required

Full control over software along with webbased Control panel

During traffic spike, it may cause downtime

Migration is Easy

Unlimited Bandwidth

Easy to use admin panel like cPanel

PROS CONS

Round the clock 24/7 technical assistance

Ratings

Customization

Simplicity

Scalability

Affordability

Security

Server Control

Performance

Dedicated Server HostingBusinesses with high-end CPU-intensive applications and strict security requirements can cherry-pick this web hosting alternative. Allocated to one client, the server fully addresses the stringent performance, scalability and agility demands of the businesses.DedicatedServers can be customized by CPU, storage capacity, capability, cores, RAM, and clustering capabilities.


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Full Root Access Expensive Cost & Maintenance

Dedicated hardware & compute capacitys

Best-suited option for the websites with moderate - hightraffic levels

Requires technical expertise

Freedom to install requisite modules and programs on the server

Unlimited Bandwidth & Disk Space Complex Server Management

Flexibility to select desired OS (Windows, Linux, and Solaris) &hardware platform (HP, Dell, and Xeon).

Diagnostics & problem resolution is more difficult

PROS CONS

100% Network Uptime SLA

Faster speed, connectivity and upload time

24/7/365 Professional Support

Ratings

Customization

Simplicity

Scalability

Affordability

Security

Server Control

Performance

Full Root Access Expensive Cost & Maintenance

Dedicated hardware & compute capacitys

Best-suited option for the websites with moderate - hightraffic levels

Requires technical expertise

Freedom to install requisite modules and programs on the server

Unlimited Bandwidth & Disk Space Complex Server Management

Flexibility to select desired OS (Windows, Linux, and Solaris) &hardware platform (HP, Dell, and Xeon).

Diagnostics & problem resolution is more difficult

PROS CONS

100% Network Uptime SLA

Faster speed, connectivity and upload time

24/7/365 Professional Support

Have got fair idea about the three web hosting solutions? Now, here's the opportunity to contemplateabout the technical terms afore you plunge to a decisionin order to unlock the momentous business benefits


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Selection Process: Parameters to Count

Network UptimeEfficiency, reliability and improved performance are the key metrics to align success across all industry verticals. Network uptime is an undeniable term that makes a huge difference in empowering the business growth. It ensures high availability of a server, site or networking device to gear up the website performance, efficiency and ROI (return on investment). In context to this, considering a single hour of site network downtime can cost an enterprise dearly in customer impact, staff time, repair costs, damage to equipment and systems, and more importantly lost revenue and credibility.

Studies and research conducted by the Ponemon Institute's "National Survey on Data Center Outages," 95 percent of companies have experienced an unplanned downtime concern within the past two years. Therefore, to address this most critical aspect (network uptime) in this competitive rage, it is important to cross-check this attribute, and opt for a web hosting service provider that offers guaranteed network uptime between 99.95 to 100 % .

Data center classification and availability of uptimeData center classification and availability of uptime

Tier1 Non-redundant capacity components (single uplink and servers)

Tier2

Tier3

Tier4 Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Tier 3 +fully redundant subsystems bequeathedwith cooling, power, network links, storage, chillers, HVAC systems,servers etc.

DATA CENTER

Tier 1 + Redundant capacity components.

Tier 1 + Tier 2 + Dual-powered equipment and multiple uplinks.

99.671% availability




FEATURES UPTIME

Bandwidth

Simple Formula to Determine Bandwidth Requirement for Your Website:

Daily visitors X Daily Page ReviewsX Page SizeX31


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Service Level Agreement (SLA)

There is no second opinion that in today's cable environments, new generation of digital youths expects rich media experiences across more devices and screens than ever before.Wide adoption of powerful multi-core-processor servers, higher-bandwidth interfaces, and blade servers areimmensely escalating connection densities and intensifying bandwidth requirements. The bandwidth-intensive content and data services guzzle enormous amount of bandwidth in most broadband networks. Paucity of bandwidth can curtail your overall website performance, restricting your end-users to download or transfer data from your website, forums or blogs. Measured in bits per second, a balanced amount of bandwidth helps in improvising user's experience.

Apparently, it becomes of dire importance to calculate the minimum bandwidth your website will need to handle traffic spikes prior to signing up for a hosting plan.

GREATER BANDWIDTH IS

ESSENTIAL TO HANDLE

TRAFFIC PEAKS,

ENSURING HOW FAST

YOUR WEBSITE WILL

LOAD ON THE BROWSER.

LESSER BANDWIDTH

IMPACTS WEBSITE

SPEED.

Performance driven and well-established organizations define its success by incubating the SLA (Service Level Agreement). Bequeathed with the capability to ensure long term success, SLAshelp gaining competitive achievements through commitments. Effective SLAs plays a major role across all delineations of industry. This agreement between a service provider and a client ensures the stringent level of transparency as well as the bond of productive relationship.

In the context of managed IT services, fundamental to any contract of provision in the IT globe, the SLA covers all the aspects like terms of commitment, technical support, service-level goals, and detailed contractual deadlines in order to eliminate the event of corruption, downtime, data loss, and service-breach, underlying the agreement.

Data center classification and availability of uptime

Document

1Communicate

2Enforce

3Meet

4


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Record

5Publish

6Maintain

7

Storage CapacityIn lines with the bandwidth, storage capacity determines the availability and performance of your website. Sooner or later, your business-critical applications will appeal for greater space to run at its peak. In order to store and manage exploding data/applications growth, businesses need to choose a failsafe hard drive solution, so that their applications not only stay backed up and remain secure.

Right from the flash memory to network-area storage includingSATA, SAS, and SSD - multitude of options is available forenhanced capacity and high-availability clustering.

Data Center ArchitectureIn lines with the bandwidth, storage capacity determines the availability and performance of your website. Sooner or later, your business-critical applications will appeal for greater space to run at its peak. In order to store and manage exploding data/applications growth, businesses need to choose a failsafe hard drive solution, so that their applications not only stay backed up and remain secure.

Right from the flash memory to network-area storage includingSATA, SAS, and SSD - multitude of options is available forenhanced capacity and high-availability clustering.

Data center architecture must help to ensure:

SERVICECONTINUTY

Maximum availability architecture & robust disaster recovery planning

PERFORMANCE &FLEXIBILITY

Holistic, end-to-end security & compliance approach

SECURITY &CONFORMITY

Architecture features automation, orchestration, and lifecycle management to streamline & simplify deployment and operation of IT resources


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Security

Have you ever stubbed with the restricted access to your own web application hosting account?

Keeping up with criminals and security threats looks like a never ending pursuit. As companies embark on digital transformation, security and risk leaders must work together to incite awareness and in depth understanding of the associated chores and risks at the highest levels of the organization.

In the age of high profile breaches and intensified concerns about information privacy, malicious attacks, DDOS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) and massive data theft, IT pioneers are heading towards rigid security practices and tools to address the latest breed of multifaceted attacks. Leading security providers in today's increasingly complex enterprise environments drive innovation and on-demand data center security solution for servers, applications, services, and data across the data center. Additionally, to ensure secure, single-person entry, the controlled access in the building premises, data floors and individual areas is done through individually programmed access cards– using biometrics and visual identification.

SCARY BUTTRUE FACTS!

As per the Verizon Data Breach Investigation

report, held in 2011, 92 % of network threats are

external, which implies that all originate from the

external sources such as hackers, organized crime agents, and government

entities, manifestly targeted to a specific

enterprise.

According to a recent report, 83% of companies lack required security skills.

Protecting the data center more effectively: security considerations

NETWORKSECURITYProtects your network by implementing firewalls, enabling predictive, proactive, policy-based, and extensible management and control access.

SERVER AND STORAGESECURITY

Comprehensive server and storage infrastructure safeguards physical and virtualized based infrastructure.

DATAPROTECTION

Monitors network traffic spike and protect data at rest, and in motion.


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APPLICATIONSECURITYProtects applications, software and services delivered within your data center.

SECURITYMANAGEMENT

Equipped with connected intelligence, it ensures fully scalable security management for the data center.

Disaster Recovery

Digital assets, including data, software and applications are instrumental for smooth functioning of businesses. An enterprise continuity and disaster recovery planning is a road map, which a web hosting or data center benefactor prepares to combat against unwarranted catastrophic circumstances including tsunamis, hurricanes, and floods.

Undeniably, the temporary downtime has the potential to debilitate enterprise by disrupting operations, causing wrecked revenue, dissatisfied customers, and other dreadful consequences. Exponential data growth is originating spiraling contingency in the digital world. Given the disaster recovery plans help companies to cope up with the geographical hurdles.

SCARY BUT TRUE FACTS!87% of the companies that lose access to their corporate data

for more than a week go out of business within a year.

80% of the companies go into the liquidation within 18 months

of duration due to major disasters accompanied by no

contingency planning.

Data recovery strategies should be developed to forecast the loss of one or more of thefollowing system components:

Computer room environment (secure computer premise with controlled climate, conditioned and backup power supply, etc.

Hardware (networks, desktop, servers and laptop computers, wireless devices and peripherals)

Connectivity to a service provider (fiber, cable, wireless, etc.)

Software applications ( electronic mail, electronic data interchange, enterprise resource management, office productivity, etc.)

Data and restoration


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Customer Service

Best-in-class web hosting solution powered by advancing technology and customer service– are the two major aspects that contribute in business continuity and expansion. Selecting a web host that employs team of professionalswith adequate domain knowledge to serve their clients (24x7) ensure that important business applications/websites/databases stay seamlessly functional.

QuickResolution

MinimumTAT

Nowaiting

SeamlessAvailability

Introduction to Domain Name

Next thing, which is very important to learn from this E-book, is Domain Name that reflects your identity on the World Wide Web. Knowing about a Domain Name is not as techie as it may sound. It can be understood in the simplest manner. Let's start with the introduction and then take a fleet to other aspects which are must for a thriving online venture

What is a Domain Name?A Domain Name is a right mix of characters that delivers your website an identity. All the websites need to be given a name, so that people around the corner of world can reach the website address easily. That specific site address can be termed as Domain Name.

Whether you are an individual or a business professional, you should opt for a name that resembles your identity across the web. Put simply, it is a unique address on the internet.

Domain Name Registration ProcessRegistering a domain name can be interpreted like acquiring a small slice of internet real estate, just like obtaining a land in real estate market. The guidelines about Domain registration are not set on a pre-registrar basis; instead, it can be determined by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. This governing organization is a global regulator of standard practices for Domain Name registrars, Domain Name registrants/ web hosts, and the clients who interact with them. To put simply, a domain name registration is the process of registering a domain name, which identifies one or more IP addresses with a unique name that is easier to remember and use in URL's to outline particular website address.


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First, check availability for the desired domain name.

Review the domain naming conventions/guidelines to ensure that the desired domain name complies with the conventions

Review the policy of the domain name registration

Classification of Domain Names

Every website name has a suffix which reflects the domain name it belongs to. Finding the right domain name is undeniably a very significant step in launching your new online venture.

Generic Top Level Domain Names are often recognized as GTLDs or international Domain Names. These are used to indicate an organization/ enterprise or a company, without specifying the country or origin. Examples are .com, .org, .net, .biz… and so on.

Country Code Top Level Domain Names can be called as CCTLDs, which is a combination of two characters representing individual countries. It defines more versatility in the domain name structure. Examples are .ac .ad .ae, .uk, .in and so on.

When it comes to choosing a domain, there are two main strategies that you should keep in mind:Brand Domain Name- To mark your indelible presence in the market, it is vital to select a domain name that strictly complements your business entity. For example, let's say you were making a website about great professional papers you designed. Here, a great brand name can be Propapers.com. This name has the advantage of being short, it resembles professional attribute and most likely available for registration.


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Six common characteristics of Domain Names

Relevant Unique Memorable Credible

Brief User-friendly

Discoverable Domain- After brandable domain names, the next vital strategy is "discoverable" domain. Basically, it is a keyword-rich domain name that is quite generic and costly. Such types of domains are easy to remember and discoverable on the internet. Consider the previous example of professional papers, a great discoverable domain name would be professionaldocs.com. Such kind of domain names are easy to remember, rank well in the search engines and also blend an instant idea about the content of the site.

Finding the right domain name hosting provider

The registration process starts with selecting a domain name registrar that is accredited by ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

It is a non-profit private organization, responsible for coordinating with the global internet system of unique identifiers and managing TLD's spaces.

There are domain lookup tools available at the domain registrar's website that facilitates Domain Name search procedure.

It is usually a wise decision to look around the customer reviews of the selected registrars prior registering a domain name.

The web host should be well established, have expertise skills and a large number of satisfied customers.

Make sure that the registrant you are dealing with is customer friendly and would help you round the clock i.e. in a 24/7 environment.


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Understanding DNS Servers

Domain Name System (DNS)DNS has always been one of the most vital and ubiquitous attributes of the Internet. The Domain Name System is a spinal cord of Active Directory and the primary name resolution mechanism of Windows Servers and clients. It helps in mapping host names by converting user-friendly domain names into IP address. For example – It converts www.yahoo.com to 66.94.234.13.

Remembering IP addresses is quite difficult, isn't it?Here, DNS takes the front seat by converting user made queries into computer understanding language that is IP addresses.

Alike Unix or DOS file system, DNS also starts with a root wherein branches (labels) are attached to the root in order to create multiple paths. Furthermore, DNS database is segregated into sections called zones. The name server in each zone handles and responds to the queries for their zones.

In addition to this, it can also be utilized to store and fetch data about a host, for instance which services it provides. Apparently, it is essential to ensure how your web host enters and maintains these DNS records.

Keep Reading…Next is DNS Privacy:

After registering a Domain Name, now things come to privacy which is very essential to protect your personal information. Every domain name has a publicly accessible record which is called a WhoIs record that comprised of the owner's personal information like owner name, mailing address, contact number and domain registration date as well as expiry date. As per the ICANN standard, the domain name owners must maintain this information on the WhoIs database. In the event of privacy breaches, spammers and marketers use the WHOIS directories to obtain the information and send out spam message to the domain owners. Hackers can move your domain name from one registrar to another. Therefore, it is vital to buy privacy for that domain name.

According to the World Intellectual property

organization (WIPO) in 2012, it has been revealed that a record of 2,884 cybersquatting cases

involving 5, 084 domain names, which is around 4.5 % higher

than the previous year.

Domain Privacy

SCARY BUTTRUE FACTS!


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The Anti- cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), provides for damages from $1000 to $100,000 if a party registers a domain in bad faith with the intent to profit

from a brand's goodwill.

DID YOU KNOW?

WhoIs ID protection to shield your identityYour domain record in the WhoIs database may also be used in the ways which are not legitimate. ID protect prevents spammers acquiring your email and contact information for violation and theft purposes.

Now let's take a quick glance at some of the benefits of usingDomain Name Privacy…

The registration process starts with selecting a domain name registrar that is accredited by ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

Helps eliminate fraud and scams

Keeps competitors from finding your information

ISpammers and other hacking agents won't be able to find and resell your information to others

Basic Understanding

Selecting a perfect domain name for your offered products/services that connotes the essence of your organization is often considered as a tricky task.

Google AdWords Keyword Planner & WordStream can help you perform keyword analysis. It allows you to search for the particular keyword, historical statistics, and market competition, so that you can opt for competitive bids and navigate your business to new heights.

Moving ahead, there are a host of domain name generator tools that can aid you with relevant ideas for your search:


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Domain Type Domain Namestation DomainsBot

Bulktopia

Windows vs. Linux Web Hosting

Linux and Windows are the two most popular operating systems offered by web hosting companies. Each operating system has its own strengths and weaknesses, therefore, demanding astute business analysis prior making a move.Both the OS provides FTP access, however Linux includes Telnet and SSH access as well. Telnet & SSH helps clients to directly open a window on the server and manage files using simple UNIX commands.

Windows Web HostingDeveloped and marketed by Microsoft, Windows is one of the oldest and the widely accepted operating systems run by companies/individuals across different geographies. It is an apt platform for the clients looking forward to create dynamic website using ASP.NET framework. Apart from this Access database is exceptionally compatible with Windows operating systems only.

Linux Web HostingIt is an open source operating system that is available free of cost. It offers low cost of ownership when compared to expensive windows operating system.Linux uses a cPanel or WHM, and best works withPHP, Perl or MySQL programs.

Options to Count Upon…


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Proprietary Control Panels

Web hosting service vendors provide user-friendly control panels and a set of custom-built tools to make intricate activities pertaining to business-critical websites/databases swift. Webmasters can efficiently manage; streamline all their hosted services in a single place. Today, almost all the web hosts provide the two most preferred and widely opted control panels – cPanel & Parallel Plesk. These two control panels perform similar functionality to a greater extent; however, they slightly differ in terms of technology and security model.

It completely depends on the priority and the nature of the business whether to opt for cPanel or Plesk.

Now you have gained enough knowledge about the web hosting world, impending opportunities, and different alternatives that can help you put a right step forward in

the world of web for continued success and impressive ROIs.


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