Company websites are different from other websites as they represent the values and image of the company in the virtual space, and have to be organised and structured in a very professional manner. The purpose of company websites revolve around business promotion and revenue generation by catering to the requirements of the users.
Business firms or companies looking to host their websites will first need to have a good idea about the products or services they plan to market online, the target audience and the kind of traffic they expect to generate, the data load associated with the transactions initiated from the website, the kind of personal information captured and security requirements for the website. These factors generally drive the hosting needs of a company website.
Hosting Requirements for Business Websites
The web hosting infrastructure catering to company websites must be able to handle traffic ranging from a few thousand visitors a month to a few thousand a day, and ensure transaction security, high speed Internet connectivity, zero downtime and buffer the transactions from the impact of other sites hosted on the same server.
Shared Hosting
This cost-effective paid hosting option is ideal for small businesses, individual entrepreneurs, first-time users, hobbyists, and students looking to experiment and monetise their efforts. Minimum flexibility, limited features, common incidents of outage and latency with even a slight surge in traffic are characteristic of shared hosting as the infrastructure is shared among many websites. Web sites with static content and low traffic can find this option useful.
Virtual Private Hosting
Virtual private hosting service caters to the growing needs of small and medium companies that attract a steady stream of visitors. The infrastructure comprises several servers across which the website components are deployed in a tightly controlled manner, allowing a secure and scalable environment. Data-intensive and traffic-intensive websites are best deployed on virtual private servers where resources can be incrementally allocated to meet the demand. VPS networks are shared among just 10 web clients offering best of services at a comparatively higher price.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting simply means that the company’s content will be hosted on a single server, with the number of websites and software installations being limited only by the server’s storage capacity and compatibility aspects. However, this setup is not as scalable as the VPS. Highly secure and very expensive, this option is purely at the company’s discretion.
Reputed paid hosting companies such as Hostgator, WordPress and Blue Host offer the best of customised services to their customers including 24-hour customer support and website management options that businesses can avail of.