There are several servers you can consider for hosting websites:
- Virtual or bare metal servers
- Shared or private servers
- Managed or unmanaged servers
Virtual Servers
The traditional webserver was a physical metal box that stored hundreds or thousands of websites. It needed a lot of computing power. The servers were either owned by the website owner and collocated at the datacentre, or they were owned by a hosting company and rented to the website owners. They have recently been labelled “bare metal” servers.
Virtual servers are independent segments from banks of bare metal servers. The segment you are using is stored is parts across multiple machines making it far more reliable. The biggest advantage with virtual servers is you can upgrade their size and performance anytime and in minutes.
Virtual servers can be rented to single customers who must cover all the software and some maintenance that a ccompany server operation. Virtual servers alternatively be offered by the hosting company to multiple website owners, splitting these running costs.
Shared Servers
Well operated shared hosting servers do not compromise security and for many website and ecommerce owners offer the best and most economical solution.
Some large hosting suppliers offer shared servers containing thousands of websites with unknown demands and content. They allow email and domain nameserver on the same servers. This is a recipe for poor performance unreliability and security risks. They are often labelled “unlimited” and are sell well under $50 per month.
Providing that your hosting company restricts the number of business and eliminates all email then shared hosting is completely viable for business and e-commerce websites.
Private Servers
Running a private server is ideal but some added responsibilities are bundled with the benefit. A private server is like buying your own piece of hardware but in this case, its stored safely in the cloud. Like buying any hardware, you need to specify its components.
When you buy a server, you must specify the (a) processors (b) memory (c) hard drive and (d) bandwidth traffic that you will use each month. These resources will all contribute to the price.
As a business owner, the performance of your private server rests on your shoulders. It needs a base of resources to operate and then additional resources for the website, its features and performance.
Server management
Virtual servers can be purchased with or without server management. Virtual servers purchased without management attract no support beyond reboot. This should be carefully considered before attempting to run your own server.
Monthly server management is provided to cover expected and regular server maintenance. This includes software installs, upgrades, server backups, server monitoring, antivirus monitoring, firewall maintenance, network maintenance, user administration, and reporting.
Unexpected faults and issues from use or misuse are the client’s responsibility and not covered by the monthly fixed management fees. The server is always considered owned and operated by the client. Monthly server management naturally does not include any work on hosted website(s) even when they may be impacted by a server issue.
Management consists of local technician time which is often considerably more than the bare machine costs. Management will depend on the level of service required by the client, size and complexity of the server.