Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Server Hosting Can Help Many Businesses

Server Hosting Can Help Many Businesses
By Adriana Noton


Computers have revolutionized every aspect of life including commerce. Yet the machines themselves and the programs they run are labor-intensive and costly, which can adversely affect a company's bottom line. The innovation of server hosting has come to the rescue.

Most companies think of this option in terms of their websites. It's true that such services started out as major on-ramps to the Internet superhighway. Over the past decade leasing online service came in three versions: shared hosting, virtual private server or dedicated server, all of which function Internet gateways.

A natural evolution of this commercial niche has been the recent emergence of operating "in the cloud" of Internet computing. This is now known as Software as a Service hosting, or SaaS.

This latest development has moved to an entirely new realm where global business is concerned. The traditional three-part model involving shared computer space, virtual private servers and dedicated computers remains, but its low-end options grow increasingly limited. For example, shared hosting, in which clients "take turns" using a leased computer, can quickly become cumbersome and slow with the amount and complexity of Internet traffic used by business. A shared arrangement may still work for community organizations that lack complicated e-commerce functions, but even these sites are setting up social networks that require more disk space and bandwidth.

Virtual Private Servers, or VPS, offer a stronger option for some small and medium-sized companies. By leasing a specified portion of a computer, companies gain access to greater amounts of computer resources.

Vigorously growing companies soon reach a point where their online business can consume an entire computer's functions. This type of Internet service is known as managed hosting or dedicated server. In this arrangement, a business leases an entire computer and gains full management control of the operating system, the type of hardware, and a range of software. The lessor can administer the leased computer (usually as an add-on service) or the lessee may have employees manage the dedicated computer.

Dedicated computers and VPS models have worked well for start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses. They provide necessary business functions while helping companies hold down their costs. In addition, computers leased in this way usually are group together in a single site known as a data center that's operated by the provider service. The lessor makes sure that the building is physically secure, climate-controlled and has primary and back-up power sources. These are all expenses that the leasing companies don't have to worry about when they hire a computer from a provider.

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is the latest development in online computing. Also called "on-demand software", SaaS relieves a company of nearly all the operational burdens of administering its own system. With this option, the business' data and software are hosted on a distant computer, often the same machine that the company leases for online commerce. Employees then use a computer or software known as a "thin client" to access business functions such as accounting, order fulfillment, supply management, customer service and other work.

Server hosting has become one of the few business growth areas throughout the global recession of the past three years.




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Server Hosting Can Help Many Businesses

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