Large Web Site Hosting

A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea

Web Hosting for a Large Site

There is a big difference between web hosting a small site and hosting a large-scale, active, site which allows for transactions such as ecommerce or individual participation. Plain HTML pages with forms and mail-tos are easy to set up and maintain. It is feasible to build a Web business with fairly simple resources. The needs of a high-traffic, commerce-enabled Web site that is likely to be using hosting processor and bandwidth intensive cutting edge Internet technology is quite different.

This type of web Site experiences heavy traffic and needs to be up at all times. If the site is down even for moments, sales are lost, their image is damaged and jobs can be jeopardized.

Things You Need for Hosting a Large Commercial Site

You will need complete control of domain name(s) for your site(s), CGI-bin access, the ability to compile and load data-driven components, sufficient bandwidth, organized backup strategy, extensive email services, the ability to maintain mailing lists, and advanced database functionality.

Virtual Web Site Hosting

Virtual Web servers allow you to have your own site exactly as if you had a separate computer with your own web server running. These virtual servers are separated into distinct areas that share almost no software resources. Virtual services usually host several separate sites on the same physical computer. When done correctly, you never know others are on the same server. You can load software, set up your own cgi-bin directories and do whatever you want without interference.

There should not be too many high-activity sites sharing the same computer. Your only limitations are hard drive space and bandwidth costs. Companies offer several levels of service. At higher fees you get a more powerful machine with fewer other sites sharing it. Virtual servers are great for most web sites.

Co-Location Web Site Hosting

Co-hosting or co-locating offers the most freedom but can be very expensive. You rent storage space from a hosting service and pay to access the hosting service's network. You place your own or rented computers in their racks and do all maintenance and repair on them yourself. Access to these data centers is carefully regulated to maintain premise security.

For some of these businesses, your monthly payments will be based on the amount of traffic your web site receives. Some services will connect you as directly as possible and let you have all the access you might need.

A Basic Server Farm

A basic server for a large web site might consist of several separate systems that perform different functions. These things can be put into one cabinet:

Web server(s) that serve Web pages or templates.

External disk packs that include the fastest, widest, latest SCSI drives.

A database server which should be powerful with lots of RAM. Your database design and management have a lot to do with performance but processor power and lots of RAM make a huge difference.

A media server to serve streaming things.

An ad server for running ad management software.