Web Hosting: Who will be your White Knight?
by Peter Hinchliffe Director
Posted on April 13, 2015
Our latest Blog examines the differences between managed hosting and out of the box options direct from hosting providers.
The majority of our digital projects require some form of website hosting services to publish websites/web applications/content storage/ content delivery online. In most cases the customer may have had some form of incumbent hosting solution in place or it may be an new solution being developed. We've recently experienced a few challenging hosting set ups and issues surrounding site migrations and we thought it might be useful to list out the options and pitfalls.
Before we start talking about the difference between server packages and options we have to examine what actually is being hosted. Not all digital services online are the same. In fact, most times when NXT take over a project or complete a re-build the specification for hosting is usually never the same (unless we are re-factoring an old code base). Additions of source control, database management software, content management systems, eCommerce, mail management, SSL, Content delivery networks (CDN's), third party plug-ins and more are required on a new server not including licensing (and costs). Now we know what we need to include on our server what package do you choose?
Web Hosting Vs Managed Hosting...
Many providers give you the option of configuration of your server and support. We wish this was easy to set up but it's not just a copy and paste job. You can pay for infrastructure or full dedicated support...in either case you'll still need support tickets to log issues. Then it comes to the package you need to meet your business and system objectives.
Server Packages (Hybrid, VPS, Dedicated, Cloud and variants of all)...
There are various packages out on the market and then your might even need to choose the storage/memory/processor of the server needed not to mention the package available. Then finally the big choice of Linux Vs Windows.
Linux Vs Windows...
We have had on many occasions, clients will cross compare our annual hosting costs to then quote a shared small Linux box price with just "cpanel" access. It's like driving a Mini Metro in an F1 race - the two can't be compared like for like or price for price. All NXT's servers are Window's based for reference and we can't host sites on Linux space.
Hosting/In-house Support Vs Agency Support...
We know what it's like dealing with hosting providers (we work with a few) and the technical requirements needed to manage a live web server. Unless you have a dedicated IT contact who can liaise with the third party and is willing to work out-of-hours to support the system then let NXT be your White Knight! We'll help configure, host and manage all your digital solutions without the hassle and one point of contact for all requirements. We also use Pingdom alerts to manage live system up-time to make sure we have the healthiest servers and action updates or issues as and when they happen to limit the impact of an offline solution.
NXT can setup your solution on your package of choice and manage it on your behalf or your business can utilise our server options.
Credit goes to 20th Century Fox for the image from Die Hard.
About the Author
Peter heads up our client liaison side of NXT, supporting everything from new business and strategy opportunities, client and project liaison, through to project training and handover. Peter's key interests lie in digital marketing and technical development strategy and planning. Keep track of Peter's updates on the NXT Twitter feed. Don't follow his personal account unless you are into rugby, football, golf, F1, carp fishing or general customer service complaints to brands.