How the Different Types of Hosting Actually Differ From Each Other

To start with, you probably want to know all of the kinds of hosting that are available to you. How do they compare when it comes to security, expertise, included services, cost and value? This is just the beginning of the questions, but it's a good starting point for us to explain the differences between what we do, and what other types of providers do or don't do.

The descriptions below are meant to give you a general understanding of the hosting landscape. To make sure you are getting the hosting solution that's right for your business, we suggest that you ask us or any provider lots of questions.


Managed Hosting /man·aged host·ing/

A more advanced type of dedicated server hosting (see below), with extended support and management delivering system-level administration and support, comprehensive Internet infrastructure and extensive services that relieve IT departments of many critical, but expensive responsibilities.

In a managed hosting environment, the provider owns the data centers, the network, the server and other devices, and is responsible for deploying, maintaining and monitoring them. The customer retains full control of their operating systems and applications. This balance of responsibilities allows for levels of security, scalability and uptime that far exceed basic dedicated hosting and other hosting options.

Service typically includes: Dedicated devices, advanced monitoring, load balancing, managed security, data storage, managed backup, premium bandwidth, service level guarantees and industry-leading technical expertise.

Things to consider: Although seemingly expensive, managed hosting is a smart and cost-effective hosting solution for those with mission critical websites and applications that need 100% network uptime, support responsiveness, technical expertise and a secure, high-end infrastructure. The provider owns the hardware, network and data centers, eliminating considerable capital expenditures as well as the extensive payroll required for regular maintenance and ugprades.


Dedicated Hosting /ded·i·cat·ed host·ing/

This form of hosting allows customers to lease pre-configured, dedicated equipment and connectivity from the provider. Offering greater flexibility than shared hosting and less responsibility than colocation hosting, the customer generally retains control over their hosting environment and choice of their operating system. The provider, however, remains responsible for hardware and network administration.

Service typically includes: Dedicated devices, server monitoring, unmanaged networking and storage equipment and complete data center support.

Things to consider: Customers using a dedicated hosting solution require an overall competency in IT and server administration issues. It also requires a more significant investment of finances, time and human resources than shared hosting.


Cloud Hosting /cloud host·ing/

The Cloud is a type of hosting architecture that allows computing resources to be consumed as a service via the Internet. Typically, cloud environments are able add or even remove resources like CPU cycles and memory and network storage as needed. Even Infrastructure services like load balancing and traffic shaping, security, intelligent caching along with dedicated computing platforms for performance analysis, monitoring and reporting scale with the environment.

The bottom line is that cloud architectures have the ability scale to suit user demand and traffic spikes quickly. Developers don't have to constantly re-engineer their environment and cost structures to handle peak loads. Businesses don't have to wrestling with the underlying infrastructure and core technologies or the day-to-day operational, performance and scalability issues of their platform. Instead, they can truly focus their resources on developing their applications and sites.

Service typically includes: Scalable capacity and interface to the cloud service

Things to consider: While a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution for certain needs, it's important that you consider a proven cloud hosting provider that has a stable infrastructure due to the relative "newness" of this type of hosting.


Shared Hosting /shared host·ing/

This is the most basic and the most inexpensive of hosting alternatives. With shared hosting, numerous customers host their websites or applications on the same server, sharing the cost of an Internet connection that's generally faster and more secure than dial-up connections. Because the resource is shared, server performance is impacted and security is easier to compromise.

Service typically includes: A range of services are normally bundled, including disk space, bandwidth, basic monitoring and pop email accounts.

Things to consider: While economically attractive, this type of hosting typically cannot handle large amounts of storage or traffic and the provider offers little to no IT services or flexibility. For this reason, shared hosting is often most popular for organizations with non-mission critical IT needs.


Colocation Hosting /co·lo·cat·ion host·ing/

For company's that desire complete control over their server, colocation hosting is a common alternative over doing everything in-house. The colocation provider usually only offers space for devices on a rack along with low performance bandwidth. The customer is responsible for everything else-purchasing, configuring, deploying and maintaining the physical hardware (servers, firewalls, etc.), software and the operating system.

Service typically includes: Physical space within the datacenter (e.g. a rack), power, internet connectivity and basic server availability monitoring.

Things to consider: Setting up and maintaining a colocated server is not a simple undertaking. It demands that the customer have a great deal of IT expertise and time. Any extra services or assistance by the provider, if available, incurs extra costs and is generally best effort support.