Once you’ve made a decision to establish a presence on the Internet by developing a website for you or your company there are lots of decisions that you will need to make. The design decisions are easy and fun but once that great website of yours is ready to be launched there will be more decisions to make that will require a little more technical knowledge.
One of the most important decisions to consider carefully is who will be hosting your website, which leads to us to a question. What is “hosting?” What does it all mean?
Let me explain.
“Hosting” or “web hosts” are companies who provide server space to store your website files and data. Hosting companies also provide connectivity for your website to the internet. That was easy enough…
Hosting = server storage space and website internet connectivity.
Now that you know what “hosting” is you will need to consider the types of services your hosting company can provide you and your interview questions should touch on the topics listed below.
PART 1:
1. Security
2. Backups
3. Server Maintenance
PART 2:
4. Bandwidth
5. Stats
6. DNS
PART 3:
7. Shared vs. Dedicated
8. Hosting CPANEL
9. E-mail
Today let’s just focus on the PART 1 and we’ll tackle the rest in future blog posts.
Security
Your hosting company will need to maintain a server environment that provides unbreachable protection of your data from hackers, spammers and identity thieves. Security is by far the most important of all web hosting services.
Backups
Be sure your hosting company performs data backups regularly. Don’t be shy, ask how often backups are performed and where the data backups are stored.
Server Maintenance
Your web host should conduct regular preventative maintenance to their server in order to ensure all systems are running smoothly and no security has been breached. A professional network administrator should routinely review server log files, available hard disk space, application updates, security risks, backup protocols and, of course, a check of the equipment’s environment. These are just a few of the routine maintenance items that should be monitored by your web host. This regular server maintenance will ensure their server stays at top performance to keep your website live on the Internet.
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I know all this information can seem quite overwhelming but once you have just a little knowledge and know what questions to ask that is where the real education begins. Before long you’ll be tech talking like a pro.
Be sure to stop by my blog tomorrow for discussion about Bandwidth, Stats and DNS!