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Choosing the right hosting package for you

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Server

Date
6 Jul 2017

Author
Thomas King

Not sure which hosting package is the right one for you? Read on to find out more. There are a variety of different hosting and server options available from a multitude of companies, so choosing the right one for you can be a difficult task if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. There

Not sure which hosting package is the right one for you? Read on to find out more.

There are a variety of different hosting and server options available from a multitude of companies, so choosing the right one for you can be a difficult task if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. There is often a lot of technical jargon and some small print (that’s small for a reason!), so what’s the difference and how do you choose the right one for you?

The main key points you should look for are: Security, Speed and Support. Security is paramount and must be top notch if your website or application contains data. Speed is also a necessity these days (no-one likes waiting right?!) with lightning services on offer. Support is also important as it’s always good to know there is someone on hand to help behind the scenes if something goes awry.

Cost is also an important factor and can have a huge baring on what option you ultimately choose. Prices can vary from as little as £80 per year for a shared server or up into the £1,000s for an application with huge traffic and databases, so understanding costs is vital when assessing what options you can get for your money.

You will need to weigh up how much space you will need and how much traffic your site will get, what operating licences you may need and what redundancy options are required in case of any unforeseen technical issues, so there are a lot of factors to consider.

We are lucky enough to be partnered with the UK’s leading hosting provider, UKFast, for our larger (mainly eCommerce-based) projects, and also partnered with Secura who handle our smaller-sized projects and offer a variety of hosting solutions. For some of our clients we also use specific providers such as Rackspace and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

To help you with some terminology, here are some basic phrases and explanations:

Shared Web Hosting

This is usually an entry level of hosting where you will share a machine and its setup with hundreds of other websites to keep the costs down. Advantages are that it’s cheap (the cheapest option usually), however your site can be unpredictable in terms of performance and uptime and you won’t have any control over the server itself.

Dedicated Box Server

‘Dedicated Box’ means you have a physical server located in a data centre that is yours and yours only, enabling you to have full control over everything. These are ideal for larger websites or applications that have high-demand. It is best practice to run 2 dedicated boxes in tandem as a fail-safe so you can switch to the alternate box if anything unforeseen was to happen. However, there are limitations when you hit the storage or memory limit and can’t progress any further.

eCloud Servers

The combination of scalable public cloud and high performance private cloud compute supports the constant demand for change, and when speed matters the most you get the same high performance levels as an enterprise level private cloud from a hybrid cloud. This can grow to be incredibly scalable and you can utilise machine learning to predict an influx of traffic to accommodate it. These are often priced at the higher end of the scale.

eCloud Private Servers

These are an ultra-secure, high-performance private cloud hosting platform built upon Cisco UCS blade architecture, providing your organisation with the ultimate in reliability, availability and redundancy. Combining the high performance and security of dedicated private cloud compute with your choice of either dedicated or shared storage, depending on the needs of your unique business. These are also often priced at the higher end of the scale.

Specialised eCommerce Servers

For eCommerce builds on platforms such as Magento or Magento Enterprise, specialist eCommerce servers designed for increased usage and extremely high customer base are the best solution. They are specifically built to optimise your website to its maximum potential as well as providing dedicated support.

If you’re still feeling a little overwhelmed about choosing which server is right for you, then there is no need to worry, it’s all part of our service to help you find and manage the best solution suited to you and your project.

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