What is Hosting?
Hosting is a service that enables businesses to rent or share space on a hosting company’s server(s) in order to carry out its web based activities, including running its website and the functions within it (such as online ordering).
How does it work in practice?
To put it simply, a web hosting service makes a website accessible over the internet. Web hosting companies supply the space on a server or cloud solution, owned or rented by the client, and connects it at the highest speeds to the internet to ensure that businesses can reach their customers 24/7. Web hosts may also provide space within a data centre for businesses to connect and manage their own servers, called co-location.
Why do I need a Hosted service?
To host your own web activities in house is often an expensive overhead. You would need skilled IT personnel as well as the required hardware and other technology on your premises. Hosting companies provide all of these services and resources as part of their offering, along with other useful services such as firewalls for generally less than it would cost to manage all of this in house.
How do I find the right vendors and partners?
Conjungo is a great starting point, because it will let you find the right supplier according to your location, company type, size and whether they have the right accreditations. Furthermore, Conjungo is completely unbiased, has most of the major vendors’ partners included and is supported by the vendors as well as being free to use.
How will I make sure that the hosting provider will provide the services that we agreed to?
Both parties must agree to a service level agreement (SLA) which is a list of services and objectives that the hosting company agrees to deliver. The SLA provides a framework that both you and your service provider agree to. In broad terms, it may be that the hosting company must respond to an issue within a fixed time, provide you with problem management and resolution and offer performance measurement reporting.