What is Website
Hosting?
We hear the term "Website
Hosting" very often in todays technology driven market, but
what does that mean? What is website hosting and how can people
understand it?
For someone to have a website
you need a couple of things:
Most website hosting
companies have additional resources including:
UPS Backup
Systems
Back Up
Generator
Air Handlers
& Chillers
Humidity
Control Systems
Security &
Access Controls
Website and
Server Monitoring
Network
Monitoring
Redundant
Bandwidth Providers
Firewalls and
Network Security
The key elements to website
hosting is having a computer that can run every day 24-7 and a
dedicated IP address that can be assigned to that computer. Those
two elements combined with web server software like Apache allow you to host a website.
It is not actually that
complicated and believe it or not you could do this from home on
your own computer or on an extra computer but due to the costs
and technical aspects it does not make sense to try to host your
own website. None the less, when all said and done it is not much
different than creating a folder on your computer and adding some
files in it.
Because, websites and the
internet are just a larger network that operate the same way as
smaller networks such as offices, business and even home networks.
The only difference is that the Internet is bigger and allows
everyone access to everything.
So why pay for website hosting
when you could do it yourself?
Just like everything else
large companies that specialize in website hosting can do it
better, cheaper and more reliably than you could do it yourself.
For example: what
happens when a server at your home is unavailable? People can't
reach it, what do you do?
The Answer: you don't know what to do. You are not an expert
and you would have to either learn what the problem is or
hire an expert to fix it. It could be a simple fix or
something more complex, but it will cost you time and money
to correct the problem.
Hosting companies have
dedicated staff that deals with those issues every day and
are experts on the problems and can resolve them usually in
minutes after they occur.
With the cost of website
hosting so cheap it does not make sense to try to host a website
yourself. Just the cost of electricity to run a single computer
24/7 will cost more than what companies charge for the full
service, bandwidth, networking, name servers and even support. So
from a financial standpoint, it does not make sense.
The cost of trying to host
your own website would be so high by the time that you get the
infrastructure in place that you would be broke.
So lets talk about what "Website
Hosting Providers" have in place to run a basic website.
Website Hosting
Requirements
A Web Server (the
computer that holds the website)
The first requirement is a
webserver or computer to actually host the website. This could be
something as simple as your own desktop PC or something more in
line with enterprise level hosting and having the power of 100 of
your desktop computers. Most professional hosts use servers with
more than one CPU for extended performance and the ability to
host many websites on one machine.
pageBuzz.com uses servers with
a minimum of 4 CPUs as well as redundant drive arrays with SCSI
interfaces for much faster speeds and better data transfer.
Comparatively with the $400 desktop good web servers cost upwards
of $20,000 each.
Obviously, having better
equipment means you can do more, offer better reliability and
transfer more data. You can avoid web server overloads and
website down time. So while the technical requirement is very low,
website hosting providers don't usually use the minimum
requirement, at least if they have any sense.
Dedicated Internet
Access
The next requirement to host a
website is dedicated Internet accesss. This could be a line from
your cable provider, broadband company etc. We are all familiar
with having full time access these days with broadband although
at one time that was not possible. So website hosting companies
and ISP's were the only ones with dedicated access.
Of course there is a huge
difference between the broadband connection at your home and the
one in a datacenter. While typically provided by the same
companies at your home you use shared lines and the data centers
or website hosts have dedicated lines. This insures that there is
enough bandwidth to cover all of the websites hosted.
At home, you could be slow
because a neighbor is playing world of warcraft online while
downloading movies a the same time. So having a website on a
network that is dependent on what everyone else is using is just
not sensible.
A Dedicated Ip
address
While hosting a website
yourself is not sensible it is possible and the last component
you need is a Dedicated IP address. That is the address that your
computer uses online to identify itself and communicate with
other computers hosting websites.
Typically ISP's use dynamic IP
addresses for users, that allows them to use less IP addresses
than they have customers and expands their ability to make money.
But they will almost always offer dedicated IPs for an additional
$5 or $10 a month.
If you have a dedicated IP
addresss you can designate one computer with that address and
host a website or even a group of websites on that IP addresss.
Name Servers
For anyone to access your
website as "thenameofyourbusiness.com" you will need
name servers.
Name servers are the internet's
411 or information system to convert name like "thenameofyourbusiness.com"
into a computer understandable IP address like 192.168.0.1.
Think of this like
this: You want to go to Mark's House.
To get there, you need an addresss like 8710 West
Hillsborough Avenue, Tampa Fl.
To get that information you
need some type of a directory, some type of a master list where
that information is held and that is where the name servers come
into play. In the interest of accessibility and redundancy, you
are required to have at least 2 name servers assigned to each
website name.
If you were doing this
yourself, now here are 2 more computers, 2 more ip addresses and
a load of additional technology that you need to deal with
yourself. But website hosting providers do this all for you.
Now today, even these services
are being offered by domain registrars sometimes free and
sometimes at an additional cost. However you decide to host your
website, you will need name servers unless you use the actual IP
address as the website name.
You can host the website as
192.168.0.1 but who will remember it? While technically possible,
again, not very practical.
Optional Website
Hosting Requirements
UPS Backup Systems
Of course professional website
hosting companies like pageBuzz.com have other considerations and
thousands or even millions of websites to keep online every
minute. So system like batter backup power are required otherwise
every time there was a power spike the datacenter would go
offline.
At home, we can all use those
little battery backups with a small 12 volt batter that will keep
your computer on for 3 to 5 minutes if the power is out. But at
datacenters servers use considerably more power than a desktop PC
and we can't have thousands of UPS units by each server. Not to
mention, 3 minutes would not be long enough on battery power to
keep servers running in a power outage.
So bigger systems are used
with bigger batteries that power the entire datacenter from a
single source and you guessed it, costing more than a brand new
SUV.
This allows full Uninterrupted
Power for the entire datacenter so even if the power goes out
completely, everything continues to run.
Back Up Generator
In the event that the power
stays off for more than a couple of minutes data centers have
back up generators that start automatically to provide power for
as long as needed.
Again these systems are
expensive and cost a fortune to run, maintain and service. But
they provide power 100% of the time even if the power company
goes offline.
If you are hosting a website
for customers the last thing they want to hear is that a car hit
a power pole and the power is out for 12 hours and their website
is down for that time as well. Without backup systems it is
impossible for website hosting companies to meet their service
level commitments.
Air Handlers &
Chillers
As a result of all the power
being used you have a huge amount of heat. Now with one PC at
home, it can cool naturally, but with datacenters they have to
add in cooling systems to offset the huge amount of heat. Now
basic air conditioning could do the trick but larger facilities
use chillers and air handlers to move cold water around the
building and blow air through heat exchangers to cool the air.
Air is then directed into the servers keeping the environment at
a constant temperature.
Humidity Control
Systems
With all the cooling
requirements you now have humidity issues. If the humidity is too
high you might get condensation and corrosion of electrical
components, fan failures and other problems. If the humidity is
too low, you get static electricity ad shot hazards that can
destroy electronics and expensive servers.
So keeping the humidity at a
constant level is critical.
As air is moved over heat
exchangers you get condensation and the humidity drops, so you
have to add water back into the air to maintain a safe level of
humidity for the equipment.
Security &
Access Controls
Since datacenters are so big
they often have to give access to many customers. In these cases,
they must have a way of managing the traffic and keeping other
customers equipment safe.
Most have video surveillance
systems to monitor what people do and server racks with locking
doors much like the lockers used in schools.
Key card systems and biometric
data locks allow only authorized individuals access to the secure
areas.
Website and Server
Monitoring
But people are not the only
thing that needs to be monitored. Data centers have to monitor
each server to make sure it is up and functioning. With thousands
of servers it would be impossible to know which servers are
offline with automated systems to monitor everything at one time.
These monitoring systems can
also fail, so they have to be monitored as well. It is all
complex and usually involves expensive equipment and software.
Network Monitoring
As well as the servers,
temperature, humidity ad customers needing to be monitored in a
datacenter you also need to monitor the remote access or
bandwidth providers. If AT&T provides your bandwidth and a
line is cut somewhere between the datacenter and the AT&T hub
it needs to be fixed ASAP. So monitoring which paths are up is
crucial to keeping them all working.
Redundant Bandwidth
Providers
To prevent an outage when a
line is cut, data centers use multiple bandwidth providers. That
way, if a line is out, websites still remain accessible.
Now if you host a website at
home you have just one bandwidth provider, so if the Internet is
offline, your website is offline.
Data centers can route their
IP addresses though any provider and if one is down for any
reason the traffic simply uses a detour route and nobody even
notices.
Of course, once again, this
means that they have to pay 2 or 3 times for the same service
just in case one route is out, slow or overloaded.
Firewalls and
Network Security
To do all of this the data
centers need to run expensive routers and firewalls to provide
network security ad make sure that all the traffic is routed to
the correct servers.
Conclusion: What
is website hosting?
The list of equipment and the
costs would amaze most people that think they can host a website
cheaper at home. In fact, running a website hosting business is
very specialized and very expensive.
Obviously, the millions of
dollars spent to run the operation are spread over the millions
of customers making the cost per person very affordable.
I would not advise anyone to
run a website from home when you have companies proving such a
high level of service and equipment like pageBuzz.com.
It is technically possible,
but without the knowledge and experience to manage it the results
would not be good. But as bandwidth and Internet access become
more affordable and accessible the opportunity for smaller
companies to enter the market are better and more common.
So website hosting providers
have now upped the game with online site builders and hosting
software on top of the basic hosting requirements.
Sitebuilder
Today people think of websites
as something they can access a browser and update, edit and
manage. Nobody is even concerned with the technology I have
descried in this document. What they can't see does not interest
them.
So companies have to create
visible software solution like the pageBuzz system for managing
websites, pages and ecommerce programs.
Hosting companies
are becoming software providers and not just hardware providers.
People don't want to hear
about your backup generator or fiber routes, they only want to
know what to click on to fix their website.
People use browsers to do
everything and now they even want to manage website using their
cell phones. So providing interfaces for customers has become a
bigger part of website hosting today than the technology managing
the delivery of the websites.
Companies like pageBuzz have
create website content management platforms for developing
websites using nothing more than a web browser.
This is the part of website
hosting that people do understand. It is what they want to see
and why small companies like pageBuzz are taking over in the
hosting market.
While the big
companies worry about huge infrastructures to run websites or
telecoms, the average customer is not worried about how their
phone call gets to another cell phone 2000 miles away, they
are only concerned with the color of the phone, the ring tone
and how easy it is to use.
At pageBuzz we have
to do both.
We have to manage the back end
so all of the website can be reached 24/7 and provide the
software so people can manage and build websites.
The commercial website hosting
model has not changed for many years until we showed up and gave
people a way to do it themselves. Now we are competing with
companies like Godaddy, 1and1.co, Web.com and others. But to date
none have done what we have and none have come close to providing
the tools we have.
We all have the hardware
requirements, bandwidth and network considerations. But in the
coming years, none of those things will matter as much as how
people build and manage websites on those networks.
We think we are the leaders in
that market when you compare what people think website hosting
really is. In the average mind, it is not a bunch of expensive
equipment, routers, firewalls, servers and power systems.
It is the page that you go to,
to manage your website and pageBuzz has the best hosting tools
and the best interfaces for managing websites.
Like the average
person, we believe website hosting is ultimately about what you
can do with your website and not necessarily what it takes to run
it on the back end.
|
