Business Web Hosting

Hosting requirements for a business web site are determined by the site's content, intended traffic level, and required functionality. This article provides an introduction to business web hosting, and explains hosting features commonly required by business users.

Disk Space

If your web site is simply an introduction to your company and services, your disk space requirements are likely to be minimal. HTML code and text content does not require much disk space, so the largest items are likely to be photos and other embedded images. In this case, an entry-level hosting plan is likely to be sufficient for your needs.

If your web site is intended as an extension of your business, you may need databases to manage site content, customer information and other data. You may also wish to include sales material, brochures and reports. Such content can be large, so may require a more advanced hosting plan, or additional disk space for an entry-level plan.

Bandwidth

Your web site consumes bandwidth whenever content is accessed. This means that a page containing 100 KB of text and embedded images will consume 100 KB of bandwidth each time that page is viewed. This may not appear significant, but if 100 visitors view 10 such pages each day, that's equivalent to 3 GB of bandwidth usage per month. It is therefore important to assess both site content and expected traffic levels before selecting your hosting plan, as you may otherwise incur unexpected bandwidth charges.

CGI Scripts

CGI scripts are often used to provide user interfaces for databases, as well as and other server-side functionality. Custom scripts can be developed using Perl, C, and other CGI languages, and many pre-written scripts are also available on the Internet. If you intend on using such scripts, you should ensure that your hosting plan includes CGI support.

Databases

Databases offer a fast and efficient way of storing and retrieving data. If you need to store customer information, product details, or other repetitive data, you may require a hosting plan with database support.

This is an advanced feature that also requires the development of a front-end for writing to, and retrieving data from the database. CGI and PHP scripts are often used for this purpose.

Secure Server

A secure server (SSL) provides an encrypted connection to your domain. While this feature is commonly used by commerce sites to collect online payments, it can also be used to provide business web sites with a secure connection for customers to access sensitive or confidential information.

A shared secure server is provided with all FastVirtual web hosting plans.

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