Let’s start with the basics.

Today, not just most businesses but people also have websites developed on either free CMS platforms or otherwise. Once the development is completely, the website should be launched. For this, you will have to find a suitable web hosting service provider depending on where you target your business. For web hosting Dubai, you can find many good deals in hosting services with various benefits.

What is Web Hosting?

Basically it is something that provides a storage space and access to your website for its operations in the internet. The website is stored on the web server of the host. You are charged for the space your website takes on the server.

Web Server: The server serves your website over the internet to visitors. 

Web Host: The companies that provide space for your website on servers. Large web hosts have servers as well as data centers to host multiple websites. Many other hosting service providers rent servers from larger firms and then resell them to website owners (reseller hosting).

What Web Hosts can Provide?

Disk space: The storage space provided by a web hosting company for storing website files including images, video and text. You can choose disk space depending on the size of your business.

Uptime: The time a web server is active and running. A high uptime percentage indicates that the server stays running without issues while hosting a website. An eCommerce website requires a server with greater uptime. 

Bandwidth: It’s the amount of data that your host allows to transfer between your website, visitors and the internet. The more the bandwidth, the faster your website loads and appears before a user. If your website will have a lot of multimedia content, it’s preferable to choose a host that offers higher bandwidth and storage. 

Support: Your web host should be reliable at all times and should be available when you are experiencing issues with your website. You should be able to contact them through telephone, email or chat. Some companies offer 24x7 support.

Types of Web Hosting

 There are four types of web hosting in general.

Shared hosting: Multiple websites share space on a single server. It’s cost effective service preferable for small businesses and websites that won’t have a lot of traffic. The websites share server resources like storage, bandwidth etc. 

Virtual private server (VPS): Basically, from a number of virtual servers, you get a server with dedicated IP address and resources. You get root access to your virtual server, providing the same solutions you get from a dedicated server. It costs less than a dedicated server. 

Dedicated hosting: You get full control of your own server that hosts only your website. Ideal for large websites, secure and reliable. You can use all the server resources to their full extent without having to worry about other websites in the server taking up a share of the resources. 

Cloud hosting: Cloud hosting interconnects multiple servers, and works based on “Service on Demand” principles. You can only use resources that have already been allocated to you based on your service requirements.

There is a ‘pay as you go’ policy which allows you to scale up the resources you are allocated depending on the traffic increase to your website. You are charged only for what you use. 

There is still a lot more you can learn about cloud hosting. But for beginners to get started, this should provide a good introduction.