Agilera: Making E-Business Agile

Agilera's heritage of hosting enterprise solutions goes back to the late 1990's when Ciber Enterprise Outsourcing, a wholly owned Ciber subsidiary, began to manage customer operations, maintenance and support of their ERP systems. Agilera was formed in March 2000 through a joint venture with Ciber, Verio and Centennial Funds. Agilera offers a combination of IT expertise, infrastructure, strategic counsel and e-business fulfillment services to emerging and middle-market companies.

Agilera utilizes Verio's Internet infrastructure, including their data and network control centers and business processing centers, featuring technology from HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Cisco, 3Com and Citrix. CIBER offers the resources of 6,000 professionals with successful implementation and integration experience of more than 3,500 enterprise solution projects.

In this joint venture, Verio has invested $30 million and owns 39 percent of the company. Centennial Ventures, a venture capital firm, has invested $15 million and owns 19 percent. CIBER contributed its ASP subsidiary, CIBER Enterprise Outsourcing, representing a 42 percent interest. Agilera is headquartered in Englewood, Colo., which is also home to both CIBER and Verio's worldwide operations.

Agilera has hosting partnerships with vendors of ERP, CRM and e-commerce software, including PeopleSoft/Vantive, Lawson Software, J.D.Edwards, BroadVision, Rightworks, Symix, Frontstep, Commerce One and Ariba. Agilera's knowledge base allows them to provide service solutions and proactive IT counsel. They offer services, such as a "personalized enterprise view" that aggregates in-house and Agilera's hosted applications. Agilera's solutions are delivered via the Internet or virtual private network (VPN). Additional value added services include e-business fulfillment services ranging from distribution and print services, to human resources administration and payroll processing.

The Enterprise View

Agilera offers a browser-based solution that provides a view of each user's applications including enterprise software and legacy systems. The Enterprise View allows users to monitor information within their scope of responsibilities. This browser-based tool (portal) allows users to view personalized data relating to enterprise applications and/or legacy data without launching the actual applications. Should they need to act on the information, they can launch the related application directly from the Enterprise View.

Platform Services

Agilera offers two hosting and application platform services. They are the Extended Enterprise (XE) and Extended Platform (XP) services.

1. Agilera's Extended Enterprise™ (XE)

The Extended Enterprise product offers end-user organizations the ability to extend their current information technology (IT) systems via an ASP model. Customers have the option of sourcing Agilera's menu of enterprise applications along with their existing systems in an integrated interface known as the Enterprise View.

2. Agilera's Extended Platform™ (XP)

Agilera's Extended Platform (XP) offers Independent Software Vendors (ISV), value added resellers (VARS), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and technology service providers the ability to utilize Agilera's facilities, expertise and network to deliver their applications. The XP product is offered in an OEM, co-branded, and Agilera-branded methods.

Agilera solutions are categorized into four major areas:

1. Global Infrastructure - the core technology components including physical facilities, servers, storage devices.

2. Network Operations - the communications facilities, protocols, processes, and architecture to network both internal and external operations into a seamless computing environment.

3. Application Services - Application solutions such as B2B e-commerce, ERP, CRM, messaging, and other productivity services.

4. The Integration Hub - the Integration Hub provides integration between applications.

Global Infrastructure and Network Operations:

As a joint-venture partner with Verio, Agilera leverages Verio's global network to deliver its enterprise solutions. Verio provides a high capacity national backbone, 24-hour Network Operations Center (NOC) and support services.


Verio offers a Tier One Backbone with over 200 Points of Presence:

The National Network links Agilera's local points of presence to each other and to the key national exchange points - MAE West, MAE East, NY NAP and the Digital Internet Exchange, located in Palo Alto, California. The network features OC12, OC3, and DS3 links, as well as Cisco 12000 series gigabit switch router technology, and Juniper Networks M40 Internet Backbone routers that connect the national exchange points and Agilera access points. Regional networks and carrier class POP facilities connect to one of the access points located in metropolitan areas throughout the United States. Network capacity has been increased to OC12 and OC3 capabilities and additional access points are being added.


Application Hosting Services:

Agilera provides the processing and communication infrastructure required to host applications. This includes data center operations, WAN communications control centers, network operating systems support, hardware and software maintenance (program temporary fixes, bug fixes, release upgrades), and related technical personnel.

On May 17, 2000 Agilera announced the opening of a new, Eastern Operations Center in Columbia, South Carolina. Agilera has plans to open two additional operations centers within the next twelve months. The newest center has direct connectivity to the Verio data centers, allowing Agilera to monitor the service delivery from the application infrastructure across the network into the data center.

Agilera's operations centers combine data center, co-location, network operations, BPO and customer care.


Application Hosting Categories:

* Business-to-Business e-Commerce(B2B)

* Business-to-Consumer e-Commerce (B2C)

* Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

* Supply Chain Management (SCM)

* Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

* Messaging / E-Mail

* Productivity

The Integration Hub:

Agilera has designed its Integration Hub to provide flexibility for client operations. The Hub allows the integration of legacy systems and applications from other vendors. Using the Hub, combined with client customized scripts, an Agilera solution is delivered as an interface on a client's desktop, showing critical views into systems operation. It provides clients with one "clickable" view of the business, based on an individual viewer's job responsibilities.

More Infrastructure Support for CyberCarriers

On May 31, 2000, Lucent Technologies' NetworkCare Professional Services and IBM Global Services announced an alliance to help an emerging group of service providers, called CyberCarriers, deliver next-generation network-based services to enterprises and consumers.

The alliance, combines IBM's expertise in integrated technology solutions, especially data center planning, design, integration and technical support, with Lucent's expertise in planning, design, integration and technical support of complex, carrier-grade network infrastructures.

The announcement is the first step in a CyberCarrier initiative by Lucent Technologies to help ensure design and delivery of end-to-end network and Internet data center solutions for CyberCarriers.

CyberCarriers are service providers who offer a combination of high speed networking and data center services, including servers, storage and network transport, to Application Service Providers, Internet Service Providers, web hosting companies and others. Those companies in turn sell services, such as hosted e-mail or e-commerce to enterprise and residential customers.

Lucent has also developed a CyberCarrier Reference Architecture which defines the network and data center elements required to deliver services. The architecture, a blueprint for building end-to-end CyberCarrier networks, is the framework for the services alliance.

The alliance will draw on the CyberCarrier Reference Architecture in developing customer solutions. The companies will take advantage of multi-vendor products to fulfill customer requirements. Offerings will include these solution areas:

Business Planning Solutions: develop business and technology strategic road maps that help CyberCarriers enter and expand into new businesses, and grow revenues

Platform and Application Management: develop and support platforms and applications that help ensure rapid expansion of markets such as e-commerce, unified messaging and hosting

Engineering Solutions: best practices for selecting and deploying high-performance, high availability solutions in networking hardware, software and transport services in order to speed network applications to market

Security Solutions: security for continuous e-commerce applications, as well as threat monitoring, intrusion detection, and firewall management through 7 x 24 remote security operations

Performance Solutions: desktop-to-server performance assessment services and instrumentation tools to tune data centers and networks to meet Quality of Service (QoS) metrics, service level and application level commitments

Site Operations and Facilities: build, operate and manage CyberCarrier network operations centers, data centers, network facilities and local or remote network maintenance centers to keep a network running at peak performance

Solution Integration: prime contractor project management covering all components of a multi-vendor CyberCarrier solution

Market Impact

Booz Allen & Hamilton, the management and technology consulting firm, estimates CyberCarriers could spend $133 billion on data center and network infrastructure improvements during the next three years, about half of that for professional services.

The IBM and Lucent alliance confirms the Telecom industry's endorsement of the Application Service Provider model. The move to establish infrastructure mechanisms to support data center and network offerings is not new. In February, AT&T announced their "Ecosystem" (see our article: "AT&T's Ecosystem") which offers companies a suite of solutions from AT&T, Cisco, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, EMC and others. In May, MCI announced their "generation d" initiative to help companies develop and enable their "e-capabilities." (see our article: "MCIWorldcom: It's not an age, it's an attitude"). With Lucent, AT&T and MCI offering infrastructure initiatives CyberCarriers have more choices in this evolving market.

Lilly Software Visualizes Its eBusiness Offering, NOW

On October 16, Lilly Software Associates (LSA) (www.lillysoftware.com), a privately held enterprise applications provider for small and medium sized manufacturing and distribution enterprises, announced VISUAL eBusiness version 3.0, the latest release of its online solution designed to help businesses streamline processes, improve productivity and increase efficiencies through the use of Internet technologies.

Simultaneously, Lilly also released VISUAL eBusiness NOW, a new application service provider (ASP) option that should deliver speed, flexibility, and affordability through Web hosting. Version 3.0 supports business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions for both make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) environments. It is an extension of Lilly's ERP and warehouse management system (WMS) products, allowing manufacturers and distributors to post catalogs and pricing information on the Web. The self-service features of the application allow customers and distribution partners to view pricing, order status, product features, and product availability.

Lilly believes that, with the opportunity to implement the application either through an integrated module within the VISUAL product suite or via Lilly's new ASP option, manufacturers and distributors can easily get started with their e-business initiatives.

This is Part Two of a two-part note discussing Lilly Software's recent announcements. Part One covered the announcements, this part discusses the Market Impact and makes User Recommendations.

Market Impact

For the near future Lilly Software (LSA) will leverage its job shop manufacturing domain expertise, the latest technology and object-oriented architecture, and an established distribution channel to pursue mid-sized manufacturers, distributors and distribution-oriented manufacturers.

In the medium-to-long run, LSA will be broadening its offering out to manufacturers and distributors with mixed mode and make-to-stock (MTS) strategies, and mid market enterprises looking for interoperability with other enterprise applications. To that end, the Lilly has struck an alliance with Viewlocity to facilitate interoperability with other ERP systems.

From the technology standpoint, the company has long supported Microsoft's technologies (COM/DNA, ODBC and Office 2000), with a recent embracing and move to Microsoft .NET architecture framework. Its products support almost all relevant databases (SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM DB2/400) and operational systems (NT, Unix and OS/400) platforms.

Earlier this year, the company launched its portal product, called LSAGateway.com. The offering provides access to the Knowledge Center, a customer-support portal; Education Center, for information on education and training opportunities; Market Place, a place to identify other Lilly users as potential customers, vendors, and business partners; and Collaboration Center, for on-line design collaboration. Therefore, with VISUAL eBusiness as part of its solution, and with ASP/ hosting and integration services, Lilly rounds up an impressive arsenal for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The real strength of VISUAL is its integration across all the functions of a manufacturing enterprise from design, via sell, make, distribute, to after-sales service. The fact that virtually all of LSA's applications have been developed in-house, instead of through multiple acquisitions, might be a significant differentiator in the areas of product consistency and integration. Another reason of Lilly's success is its distribution model, which is based solely on an indirect channel. The channel is comprised of over 500 companies and individuals that sell only Lilly's VISUAL product suite.

Challenges

Nevertheless, Lilly Software will have to address certain challenges in order to continue to thrive in this cutthroat competitive environment and to move up-market. Its market awareness and global presence are still insignificant in spite of the recent international expansion like, e.g., in the UK and the Latin America.

Furthermore, the product shows inferior functionality in realms outside of job-shop manufacturing functionality on the plant level and of distribution, like the 'ivory tower' corporate level financial and human resources capability. Moreover, the product does not currently offer the ability to control repetitive production with rate-based scheduling techniques.

Creating and managing individual work orders is still a requirement; hence, it is not well suited for lean manufacturing/pure repetitive environments. Further, it offers only a limited standard costing method, cost simulation and planning tools compared to what most cost accountants are expecting in a "standard cost" system.

While VISUAL's multi-site and multi-national capabilities have been improving (the product currently supports 8 languages), it still has some limitations in handling distributed manufacturing entities - it requires either a completely centralized set of activities for manufacturing and accounting or a completely decentralized one. As an example, there is no ability to perform some functions like production control on a decentralized basis and then to have centralized order entry and accounts receivable. The product also still requires a single database per one manufacturing entity, and it has not been designed for high transaction volume environments.

On the technology front, while Lilly has embraced the above-mentioned trendy Microsoft technology that promises a building-block approach to application development, and XML-based interconnectivity, its vast majority of customers still run on a fat client two-tier client/server architecture. Migrating these onto new, more advanced product releases and/or continued concurrent support of diverse product architectures will demand duplicated R&D resources.

It is also somewhat intriguing that the company neither has multiple prominent functional and technology partners nor ready-made applications programming interfaces (APIs) to other prominent products, which may indicate insufficient product interconnectivity. The mitigating factor though is the company's decent approach towards not overselling its offering and declining to compete in instances where it does not seem its products fit. However, the company's need to re-deploy the product on a new technology and to deliver the needed functionality for its new desired markets, will demand the continued hefty R&D investment, which may put a significant strain on the company's resources in the long run, particularly if the top line remains flat or possibly even declines.

CIOs Need to Be Held Accountable for Security

While law enforcement agencies chase their tails in an international hacker hunt, hosting providers and eCommerce CIOs have surprisingly escaped the wrath of accountability. Stockholders of Internet companies should be asking who inside their investment holding is responsible and is being held accountable for security. If no one is held accountable, you can be assured that security will continue to be a low priority.

All too often in Internet companies, security is an afterthought. The executive management team chooses not to take enough measures to protect its customers and systems until after a security incident of considerable magnitude has taken place. This consistent pattern of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen has been going on in Internet companies for years. In fact, it is incredible that many large-scale corporations have experienced significant security violations and have managed to keep these violations from reaching the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Some hosting providers knowingly expose customers on insecure backend networks simply because internally security is not given a high-enough priority. Typically, getting new customers up and running has a lot higher priority than securing old customers. When it comes to provisioning new customers, hosting providers often become neglectful after the honeymoon period is over.

If an Internet company is outsourcing its web hosting to a service provider, a member of the executive management team needs to be held responsible for making sure its service provider has taken due security precautions. If your service provider claims your site is secure, they should not have any qualms about their customers performing audits on them.

For publicly traded companies, when a site goes down due to a security attack, this affects the bottom line.

Fig. 1 Amazon.com Share Valuation Drops after Site Outage due to Security Attack.

Amazon.com has seen steady declines in the valuation of its stock since its site suffered a pro-longed outage due to a Distributed Denial of Service Attack on February 9th. According to the Yankee Group, eBay, Buy.com, E*Trade, and Amazon cumulatively suffered losses in excess of $1 billion in the second week in February when they were hit with what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service attack.

Attorney General, Janet Reno, testifying before a Senate panel, called the challenge of averting cyber-crime "one of the most critical issues that law enforcement has ever faced," the Associated Press reported. Among security professionals, time spent chasing hackers has long been regarded as something that typically never proves worthwhile.

CIOs Need to Be Held Accountable for Security

While law enforcement agencies chase their tails in an international hacker hunt, hosting providers and eCommerce CIOs have surprisingly escaped the wrath of accountability. Stockholders of Internet companies should be asking who inside their investment holding is responsible and is being held accountable for security. If no one is held accountable, you can be assured that security will continue to be a low priority.

All too often in Internet companies, security is an afterthought. The executive management team chooses not to take enough measures to protect its customers and systems until after a security incident of considerable magnitude has taken place. This consistent pattern of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen has been going on in Internet companies for years. In fact, it is incredible that many large-scale corporations have experienced significant security violations and have managed to keep these violations from reaching the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Some hosting providers knowingly expose customers on insecure backend networks simply because internally security is not given a high-enough priority. Typically, getting new customers up and running has a lot higher priority than securing old customers. When it comes to provisioning new customers, hosting providers often become neglectful after the honeymoon period is over.

If an Internet company is outsourcing its web hosting to a service provider, a member of the executive management team needs to be held responsible for making sure its service provider has taken due security precautions. If your service provider claims your site is secure, they should not have any qualms about their customers performing audits on them.

Fighting Cybercrime on the Internet

This note is based on a presentation on cybercrime by Laura Taylor, TEC Director of Security Research for the E-Gov 2000 Conference sponsored by SAIC on July 10, 2000 at the Washington Convention Center.

Note: Portions of this note are excerpted from the presentation, other parts are explanatory text to relate this information to the Technology community serviced by the TEC web site. Information that was not taken directly from the presentation is in blue.

I am from a company called TEC, or TechnologyEvaluation.Com, a hybrid online destination site and research consulting company in Woburn, Massachusetts and Montreal, Canada. I have been working in the capacity of Director of Security Research at TEC for almost a year. Prior to TEC, I worked as Director of Information Security for CMGi's flagship webhosting company known as Navisite. Prior to that I founded a consulting company called Relevant Technologies, which still exists, and currently I maintain a position on the board. Before that, I was CIO of Schafer Corporation.

At TEC I manage the research of security technologies and vendors, identifying and qualifying key criteria necessary to assist high-level IT decision makers in making best-choice infrastructure investments. As well, I report and analyze current security news events, pointing out how these events affect you, your network, and your organization. As businesses continue putting their web-enabled e-commerce sites, and the jewels of their infrastructure online, the importance of security and privacy is becoming increasingly critical. What I plan on talking about today is "Fighting Cybercrime on the Internet."

My research is supported by 17 years of industry experience in the Information Technology field. There are three primary aspects of cybercrime that I will be talking about today: cyberpedophilia, keeping digital evidence pure, and mitigating white collar cybercrime. The other various security topics that I will touch on will have to do with how processes and procedures can support the management of these three important Information Age Law Enforcement and Public Safety concerns. The various security processes worth understanding include, "What are the basics for managing security in an organization? What security policies do you need? And who should you call to assist you in investigating and reporting cybercrime?"

Lilly Software Visualizes Its eBusiness Offering, NOW

On October 16, Lilly Software Associates (LSA) (www.lillysoftware.com), a privately held enterprise applications provider for small and medium sized manufacturing and distribution enterprises, announced VISUAL eBusiness™ version 3.0, the latest release of its online solution designed to help businesses streamline processes, improve productivity and increase efficiencies through the use of Internet technologies.

Simultaneously, Lilly also released VISUAL eBusiness NOW, a new application service provider (ASP) option that should deliver speed, flexibility, and affordability through Web hosting. Version 3.0 supports business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions for both make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) environments. It is an extension of Lilly's ERP and warehouse management system (WMS) products, allowing manufacturers and distributors to post catalogs and pricing information on the Web. The self-service features of the application allow customers and distribution partners to view pricing, order status, product features, and product availability.

Lilly believes that, with the opportunity to implement the application either through an integrated module within the VISUAL product suite or via Lilly's new ASP option, manufacturers and distributors can easily get started with their e-business initiatives.

This is Part One of a two-part note discussing Lilly Software's recent announcements. Part Two will discuss the Market Impact of the announcements and make User Recommendations.

Product Details

Lilly Software is offering both a Foundation and an Extended Edition option for VISUAL eBusiness version 3.0. Lilly includes the foundation module with its core functionality in the VISUAL Enterprise product suite. This module provides VISUAL users with the essential features to quickly set up storefronts and allow their customers access to product listings by category, product searches, product pricing, detailed parts specifications and part availability, as well as lists of substitute and cross-selling items.

For manufacturers and distributors who want more advanced features, Lilly Software encourages its users to purchase VISUAL eBusiness Entended Edition. This package complements the Foundation capabilities, allowing companies to further customize their sites and post customer-specific promotional items, identify top-selling items, assign shopping carts and personalize shopping experiences to individual preferences. Other features include enhanced searching capabilities, shipment tracking capability, increased security and an account management option. Extended Edition enables online customers to create multiple wish lists of items, request for quotations (RFQs) and estimates, and provides options for a configurable view and express entry. These features should empower customers by allowing them to control their shopping experience.

With VISUAL eBusiness NOW, companies reportedly receive: (1) the latest release of VISUAL eBusiness software, (2) ASP Web hosting from Lilly Software for their integrated VISUAL eBusiness solution, and (3) bundled consulting services to help them configure the site to their needs. Lilly Software claims to provide the software, the hosting and the consulting for an affordable monthly fee, enabling VISUAL users to jumpstart their e-business strategy at low risk and low cost. VISUAL eBusiness NOW may allow companies to focus on their business while having Lilly Software manage the Web-based application. Manufacturers and distributors have a variety of other hosting options available to them with the VISUAL eBusiness software, including:

* ASP hosting by a Lilly Software Sales Associate Organization

* ASP hosting by an external Internet Service Provider (ISP)

* Internal hosting within their own company site

Lilly cites that by selecting its hosting services, companies should take advantage of secure communications, fully automated virus protection, tape backup procedure, remote file storage, monthly site statistical reporting, usage trend reports and 24/7/365 system support. From its center, Lilly's expert technology staff will maintain company sites, keeping information confidential and safeguarded. The data center pledges to provide high performance server solutions, security detection via redundant, load-balanced firewalls, backup CAT generators with unlimited fuel capacity, strict physical security and reliable environmental controls.

Company Strengths

Although not achieving the growth of the golden late 90s lately, Lilly remains profitable and without a long-term debt, while investing heavily in R&D (33% of revenue) and consequently rounding up a compelling product portfolio for its target market. After almost a decade of serving the small-to-medium end of the discrete manufacturing and distribution market with one of the first Windows-based manufacturing software solution with a graphical metaphor, Lilly has a good handle on what these companies are looking for - a reasonable pricing, software solutions that return results quickly, and rapid implementation timeframes.

Lilly Software's financial success and double-digit revenue growth until recently have been attributable to the understanding of the requirements of SMEs that wish to acquire most of their business applications from a single source. Also positively impacting the sales of its flagship product suite, VISUAL, has been its intuitive graphical user interface (GUI).

LSA's VISUAL Manufacturing suite is a shop floor oriented ERP system with embedded finite scheduling and constraints management in mind. Its advanced planning and scheduling (APS), which is based on concurrent scheduling of materials and capacity, has been patented with the US Patents. Focused on make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing, the product also features strong built-in manufacturing execution system (MES) capabilities.

Another notable difference with VISUAL is the ability to use metrics and tools not found in almost any other ERP system to manage throughput in an orderly way to increase customer service and profit on a period-by-period basis. Consequently, with its intuitive and easy-to-use graphical nature, the VISUAL suite enables companies to capture accurate, real-time data about their plant-level business processes using ERP, E-Business, finite scheduling, MES, Quality Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and WMS capabilities.

The big recent license driver has been VISUAL CRM, part of the VISUAL Manufacturing suite. The product supports marketing campaigns, sales force automation (SFA) tools, product configurator, call center, and customer service functions, and it is fully integrated with the rest of the VISUAL product components. While one can refer to those as basic CRM functions, the SME market should appreciate the native integration. As a result, field service can, e.g., be scheduled from within the core ERP system, which is able to display availability of field service resources and repair parts.

At the beginning of 2001, Lilly introduced VISUAL Jobshop, an integrated manufacturing solution for small, entrepreneurial companies. While the company has been reaching down-market with Jobshop, it has also been attempting to expand up-market by adding capabilities to support multi-site manufacturing and distribution customers. To that end, Lilly features the software that supports the needs of distribution companies with its VISUAL Distribution product. While many peer ERP products support picking and putting away requirements, a vast majority of them do not have the ability to manage an order that might require kitting, assembly, or light manufacturing in the distribution center.

Recently, the company also released VISUAL DCMS, a radio frequency (RF)-enabled warehouse management system (WMS). The primary enhancements focused on expanding lot, serial number, and expiration date tracking capabilities. New functionality also includes support for third-party logistics (3PL) providers.

Another notable new offering is VISUAL TMS (transportation management system), designed to facilitate the shipping process - by bidding rates from multiple carriers, it may significantly reduce the freight cost. Also, customers can track orders' status in an end-to-end fashion - from order management, via the factory plant, to the transportation. The stand-alone nature of the Distribution and WMS products expands the company's opportunity well beyond its manufacturing stronghold.

Hosting Horrors

The development team has spent 3 months night and day to get a beta version of your product ready for testing. The COO wants to know when the customer will be able to see the product. The Venture Capitalist wants to see results for the $3 million they've invested. You just want to get everyone off of your back for 10 minutes. This is not the time to hastily pick a Web Hosting Company.

As an ASP your application is not a standard off the shelf product. Months and possibly years have been spent perfecting how your application operates. ASPs are creating applications that a few years ago would only be found in a LAN environment. These applications have similar components to their LAN brethren, and operate in a similar fashion to their LAN counterparts. It's this uniqueness that can cause problems at the hosting level.

Know what your needs are!

As simple as this statement is, you might be surprised by what actually goes into your application. Think about your needs: server capacity, storage space, multiple NICs and TCP/IP addresses, Firewalls, etc. Think about your application at the processes level and how the different components interact, look at how the different servers work together. Then draw the whole server farm out and document everything. This map and specification sheet will be your guide to the hosting company and a reference for everyone when things go wrong.

The map will also come in handy at the office. I posted a copy on the wall outside my office; it's amazing who refers to it. I knew development would use this map, but a few days ago I caught our Director of Marketing using the diagram to explain our product to someone.

What to look for in a Hosting Company

As critical as it might seem to just get the site up and running, it is best to take your time and research the companies you would like to use. The best place to find out information about Hosting Companies is though their web sites. For obvious reasons, Web Hosting Companies will have plenty of information about their services on tap. The first thing to keep in mind is that this is marketing material; this information should be used as a starting point not as the final place to make your decision.

When you look at the different companies you'll notice similarities. Everyone has secured facilities; they all have backup power sources, and enough bandwidth to play the ultimate game of Half-life with 10,000 of your closest friends. Not to say these are not important issues, but they are so common they should be part of the standard configuration of any hosting facility.

Most hosting companies will have different levels of service depending on your needs. These can range from just rack space and a connection out to the Internet, to where the Hosting Company has full control of the boxes and gives you access on a limited basis.

Consider if you need to get into the box. Does your software need special access to the operating system? If so, then you would want to have root control so that you can make the security setting personally.

Once a box is built, do you need to change anything? If not, then consider using a lower level of service. This is more of a cost savings than anything else; why pay for more service than you need. Check to see if they have specialized products that fit your needs, remember the diagram? Usually if a hosting company has a special service, they are not going to hide it.

As soon as you have a short list of Hosting Companies call them and talk to a sales person. Do they know the company's products? Have they worked with an ASP before? What is their background? Do they work with a project manager? Don't be afraid to ask questions! This person is here for your benefit, not just the Hosting Company.

If the Hosting Company has a facility in your area ask for a tour. During the tour take a good look at the place. Is it well lit, clean; Are the cables in the rack run neatly? Look for consistency in the way the racks are setup. The condition of the facility will tell you a lot about the staff maintaining it. Talk to the system engineers. What are their backgrounds? Do they know your operating system? Are the engineers trained on the latest installation and maintenance procedures?

David vs. Goliath

No, I'm not talking biblical prophecy here. What I mean is do you go with the big established Hosting Company, or the smaller newcomer to the industry? Being a good Web Hosting Company has nothing to do with size. Not to say that the established companies cannot meet your needs.

The best of the Hosting Companies will understand what your needs are, and can provide the resources you need. Remember the ASP industry is only 4 years old. It is still a young industry. We are all trying to figure out how to do things. Don't be afraid to look at what the newer Hosting Companies have to offer. It never hurts to look. You might find exactly what you need from a David.

SLAs and Confidentiality agreements

Service Level Agreements are a way of life for the ASP. We make our customers sign them and we have to sign the Hosting Company's SLA. This is so everyone knows where the boundaries are. But, have you thought about how the hosting Companies SLA would affect your SLA?

I'll give you an example.

In your SLA it says that files can be restored from backup within 4 hours. A major customer calls; the file they downloaded off of your system 3 days ago is corrupt. Your customer has to have this document or it will cost them thousands of dollars. You say sure, not a problem and call the Hosting Company. They say, "Yes Mr. Smith, we will restore that file and we'll let you know as soon as it's done." The time passes and no file, one of your best customers is now threatening to sue. The Hosting Company is saying that the SLA that you signed sates that they will restore a file within 24 hours.

This is just one reason why you should make sure that the Hosting Company's SLA doesn't contradict your SLA. Make sure the Hosting Company can provide the services that you are promising your customers. If they can't, then either look for a Hosting Company that can or think about taking that service out of your SLA.

Make sure you get a signed confidentiality agreement from your Hosting Company. This may seem trivial, but the Intellectual Property could be worth millions. The last thing you want is for some low-level systems engineer to pirate your application and become the next Bill Gates. Your Intellectual Property is the real value of your startup.

What's Next?

Once you've narrowed down your choices. Send a copy of your diagram along with a list of your needs to each sales team. Ask for a detailed breakdown of cost by one-time charges and recurring charges. Your sales person will give your diagram and needs list to a pre-sales engineer to review. Ask how long the turn around time is to receive a quotation.

When you receive all of your quotes, compare them closely. Make sure that each quote covers everything on your list. It seems each hosting company has it's own slang for different items. If there is terminology that you do not understand, ask the sales person to clarify it. It is important to get things figured out now, before anything is installed.

Time to choose

Now for the moment of truth, time for you to pick a hosting company. Ok, you've decided what you need for hosting, and created a diagram. You've visited the sites and received your quotes. If there are differences between the quotes, chart them out and go with the best of the lot. If everything is equal, then flip a coin. Seems simple? Remember, it took me almost two and a half pages to get to this point and I haven't even talked about cost.

Now that you have picked a Hosting Company, it's time to get the financial people involved. Don't kid yourself! A hosted server farm is expensive, One hundred thousand dollars or more to setup and Ten Thousand dollars a month to keep operational. I'm just talking about a small farm of a dozen systems and one location. If you are building a multi-site network with hundreds of boxes, it could cost millions.

Don't panic; remember that it is your job to make sure everything is setup properly. ASP's use cutting edge technology to it's fullest. Unfortunately cutting edge technology costs money. Hopefully lots and lots of customers will share that cost, so that you can make a profit.

After the finance people are through moving bits of paper around you can finally sign the paperwork to install your server farm. Speaking of paperwork, make sure you get a confidentiality agreement signed by the Hosting Company and a copy of the original document signed by all parties involved.

In conclusion

All of this breaks down into the few simple things:

1. Know what your needs are before you start looking.

2. Research Hosting Companies before you make the first call.

3. Ask Questions, it's better to ask a stupid question than to pay to change something later.

4. Eliminate any Hosting Company that doesn't fit your application.

5. Give each Hosting Company a diagram and breakdown of your server farm needs.

6. When the quotes are back compare and question everything.

7. Get copies of all signed documents.

We are a part of a brave new IT world. The applications we are making today will change the way everyone works tomorrow. We are here for the challenges, and with some luck we'll be successful. Good Luck!

Dell Updates Its Appliance Line

Dell Computer Corporation introduced its new line of Dell PowerApp appliance servers as part of Dell's comprehensive Internet infrastructure strategy.

PowerApp appliance servers focus on Web hosting and Internet caching. For Web hosting, PowerApp.web products are dedicated Web servers that include optimized versions of Web hosting software from Microsoft or Red Hat Linux. The PowerApp.web 100 products can be ordered today and will ship in early May.

Optimized Web server software from Microsoft includes Microsoft Windows Powered Web hosting server software, co-developed by Dell and Microsoft, and Microsoft Internet Information Server. Optimized Web server software from Red Hat includes Red Hat Linux and Apache Web server. For Internet caching, PowerApp.cache products are dedicated Internet caching servers that leverage Novell Internet Caching System (ICS) technology. PowerApp.cache 100 and 200 products can be ordered this month and will ship in May 2000.

International Data Corporation, a respected industry consulting firm, forecasts the worldwide appliance server market will grow dramatically, from virtually no market presence in 1998 to an estimated volume of over two million units by 20032.

The 1.75"-high (1U) PowerApp.web 100 for Linux is pre-configured and includes Red Hat Linux 6.2 featuring Apache Web Server 1.3.12, Sendmail, and Piranha load balancer installed. The PowerApp.web 100 for Windows, based on Microsoft's Windows Powered Web hosting server software, includes Internet Information Server 5.0, Microsoft Network Load Balancing Service, and Microsoft Terminal Services for remote administration.

The 1U PowerApp.cache 100 and 2U PowerApp.cache 200 (3.5-inches) appliance servers are pre-configured with Novell's Internet Caching System application stack.

Market Impact

With Dell's new professed focus on Internet infrastructure (II), this announcement comes as no surprise. Dell has been dropping hints about server appliances for months.

Until this point, Dell customers wanting an appliance would have to buy a PowerEdge 1300 with Novell's ICS caching software pre-loaded onto it. Obviously, this was not aimed at Web serving, but at Web users/clients. Although these units functioned adequately, they were clearly not geared toward ISPs or toward companies trying to rackmount a bunch of caching servers. The 1300 was 5U tall, too large for a highly-dense configuration.

Clearly, these products are to be used in trying to gain a major foothold in the non-transactional section of Web infrastructure, with "Transactional" used here to mean the database and "back office" or "back end" of a given Web business. Dell believes that it can translate its success in the general-purpose server market - currently #2 in both U.S. and worldwide (Intel) market share - into a leading II position. Although skills in one area don't necessarily map well into another, we believe Dell's business model combined with its recent alliances give it a better-than-even chance at meeting its goals.

This is also a signal of a more aggressive stance toward Sun Microsystems. Although Dell's offering is not aiming directly at big systems such as Sun's E10000, it believes it can surround the "Big Iron" and bide its time until Windows 2000 is proved to be more robust than Solaris. Of course, we're not holding our breath for that. (Linux is also an option, but Dell is still primarily a Windows shop.)

Application Service Providers and Web Hosting by nathan woods

Application Service Providers (ASP often called) has grown rapidly on the site of web hosting companies offering new and innovative services. The term of ASP should not be confused with the Microsoft Software Corporation.

The number of applications via ASP model is increasing. Therefore, the fast growing companies develop software for the ASP market. What types of applications are developed? As remotely-hosted web applications can be inexpensive for businesses to gain access an unique software to provide many applications for infrequent use in terms of use. Others focus on the use by the group to connect over the Internet to an application that is flexible to offer.

ASP software has developed for business functions such as to handle different businesses functionality, materials management, human resources, dealing with financial management and e-commerce solutions.

The range of solutions provided by ASP is enormous. And many ASP solutions are good for the company to the operational needs of companies in different industries and business functions to meet. There are several technical and business issues currently addressed by ASP system to develop and improve system applications.

The big advantage for companies to ASP services are that they have a chance to reduce costs and increase effectiveness. Companies can have access to a wide range of software products with the option of paying less than an outright purchase through usage charges. This enables companies to gain access applications that can service the needs of the enterprise so that business can focus on their core business. Besides developing new ASP software that is suitable for business solutions to operating problems not yet addressed by the software on the personal computer based software. ASP has also remove most of its technical and administrative issues associated with the software by providing updates in real time, remote web hosting, remote access support and customer support and total software management.

Web hosting companies are involved in developing applications. However, most hosting companies running the network and control the application remotely to users. By providing ASP relate services, these companies are essentially related to application infrastructure providers. Web applications for mainframe hosting, asp service providers are inventing a new way to host and maintain business applications.

PHP and MySQL Database Web Hosting by nathan woods

The MySQL database server is really reliable for use. Used with different software languages, including PHP, and some of the families in open source software such as Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

Any data that you need to store, can easily stored in a MySQL database. For this you require a database management system to add, open, edit and record data in your MySQL database and it is the best package and most well-rounded package on the market. You can also use MySQL as a relational database management system, which means that it can store data in different tables that can communicate with one another instead of everything in one big "storage room" data.

Even you can run a MySQL server on your local computer machine or can access through remote server. All you require to get your MySQL database and MySQL functionality access to your server name likes the name serer of your MySQL web hosting provider or the right IP address. You can then input your different commands, most likely using PHP scripts, to communicate with your different databases. The orders are written on programming web scripts.

When choosing a MySQL web hosting provider, you need to study some extra factors on the far side of the standard Uptime, redundancy backup systems, disk space, email, and bandwidth concern. Hence, you need to search MySQL hosting provider that offers as many data structure as you want. And well established web host who promote himself as the best MySQL hosting provider should provide its clients reliable technical support such as live chat, email support, and phone support.

Also you need to check a web interface because whenever you work with your databases often closely. You will require a MySQL hosting provider that its admin interface designed with the MySQL user friendly. If you have different staff members who are participating in the building and maintenance of your different tables and databases, you can create several users ID's to allow changing degrees of secure access. And to make a smooth operation with MySQL cPanel is a good administrative tool.

You also require helps support for Cron jobs. Usually cron used to run particular scripts for regular, routine tasks are performed at regular intervals. A reliable MySQL web hosting provider should allow you to develop crons from your control panel. Even these scripts are good for maintenance routine.

The most nearest web script programming language for MySQL database is a PHP and a web hosting provider who gives the enabled PHP extensions solution with MySQL is really best and useful for your Website. To check hosting providers PHP capabilities, you can make sure characteristic between your side scripting language and your database management, which will saves you from tons of problems.

Thus, if you are working with MySQL databases, ensure one thing that you choose a web host who is specialized in MySQL web hosting.

This Article Which shows the Importance of MySQL Database Should Helps You to Choose Best PHP Hosting company.

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Web Hosting Company India: How to Get the Most Out Of the Services Offered By It? by Aman Satphati

Over the past few years, several web hosting companies have mushroomed in India. In order to survive cut-throat competition and to attract customers, most web hosting companies in India have lowered down the cost of their services. If you want to ensure that you gain from this cheap bargain, do look for certain things when selecting the cheap web hosting company in India.

Uptime Server & server speed: When selecting the cheap web hosting company India, make sure it promises uptime server and great server speed. Web users who visit your site must not find few or all of your web pages missing. If it happens, they would not take your online business seriously. Also, they should be able to download the web pages, images, or content quickly. Slow server speed might turn the web users away from your site.

Optimal website space: Do check the web site space offered by the cheap web hosting company. The website space should meet not only your current web hosting needs, but also future. You must be able to add content, images, web designing features, or advanced applications to your site as and when you want. The web hosting company should not impose any restrictions on the website space that you can use.

Server back-up: Ask the cheap web hosting company in India if it offers server back up. Good website hosting companies offer server back up facility to ensure their clients don’t lose any important data or files during server break up.

Customer support system: Make sure that the cheap web hosting company in India has 24/7 customer support system. It should always be ready to help you during server break up or when you are facing any technical problem. Good web hosting companies always have a team of qualified and experienced technicians ready to assist their customers.

One web hosting company in India that offers uptime server, server back up, unlimited website space and bandwidth, 24/7 technical support, and lot more at cheap rates is Manashosting. It is a leading web hosting company in India that has been catering to the web hosting needs of small and medium scale businesses since many years.

To know in detail about this web host in India, the best web hosting services provided by them, and more, you may log on to manashosting.com

The Author generally writes on the topics related to Web Hosting Services, Web Hosting India and Web Hosting Company.

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Free Web Hosting ……not Bad!!

n terms of price, one can find two types of hosting in the market:
1. Paid web hosting and
2. Free web hosting.
Several people run away from free hosting thinking it nothing but making fool of one.

However, it can have its own advantages.
It relies on the use and place of the user.

Why use (purpose)?

When one talk about a commercially meant website, for e.g. an Ecommerce web-store, dependability and uptime is must. As it is well said, downtime for second, high amount revenue in crater. However, some free web hosting assures providers warranty of uptime, still one cannot make them liable if they fail to reach as per user’s requirements. Now one will ask why? Since their clause mention lack of uptime guarantee due to free of cost service. As mentioned above, along with a crucial business website one cannot commit suicide by relying on a free web hosting.

Though, there are several user’s trying something outstanding or different from others on their websites, not assured with positive output. For them free web hosting is the best choice as it does not involve any gamble with currency and both parties can prevent themselves from any unanticipated damage. Each person learns from experiences and what can be the best way to learn as compare to it? One can see free hosting plans as supreme platform for optimistic webmasters to launch themselves to a new helpful scenario. Certainly, it is not free in the real sense, they ask something in return i.e. visiting sponsors, exhibiting ads on hosted pages, reading emails, and not long, sharing in online communities of the free web-host. This final alternative cannot say to be a worse thing as online communities permit several users to interact and discover something new from one another.

At the other hand, there are several users who heir free web hosting for a personal site as they do not think there is any use to denote time and payment for it. Still one can find few free web hosts in the market offering free service for nothing just to deal with. Thus, an apparent objective for going for a free web hosting is quite imperative. If the objective is sensitive and no excuse to problematic situations, then one should not recommend free web hosting. Except that, free web hosting cannot consider as bad.

Why position of the user?

In the present scenario, one can afford Web hosting plans in a reasonable way (some even for $1 a month). Thus, charges are not a big issue regarding web hosting for the people having high standard of living, reserve revenue can be a good option for the people to groom their web site. Further, working people can use a Paypal account as a source of payment. If one talks about students and young people they do not have much revenue to spend. For them, free web hosting plans can be the last and best alternative.

Hence, one cannot consider free web hosting a worse thing as people of some specific category can utilize it to fulfill their goals. So for the students and people trying to learn new things and gaining new experience can select, free web hosting as the best alternative.

Something About Free Web Hosting

World never ever run on the idea of one-sided benefit, mutual benefit is accomplished one way or the other. This very concept ere is applicable on free Web hosting also. But before that one must what the hosting term is; it is a process of accumulating files onto a web server so that through a web browser visitors can evaluate it.

Webmasters
who have recently built the sites always face a dilemma in choosing an appropriate host for his/her site, they get magnetized towards free host providers which are available throughout the cyber world, however, as discussed previously, the service provided by a free web host is not actually free as it declares, it has it’s own drawbacks such as lack of sovereign domain name for the user.

In the case of a new webmaster, selection of ideal host can be a daunting task and even when it comes to free web host; the choice should be selective one, because the majority of free web hosts aim to exploit their users. Moreover, as user counters some of the drawbacks such as assisting a small server place and inability of utilizing the FTP clients, lack of domain name, and ample amount of ads via the Web Company and scarcity of benefits, needs to be faced while searching for a free hosting. The web hosts attempts to wrap up their costs by publishing their or any other companies ads on their user’s website.

One should account about few things, before deciding about a host, it includes requirements of the user, features offered by the host, space allowed by the host, any statistics, what form of domain name offered by the host, can user use his/her own domain name or rather provide name servers, do the host provide feature of email address, type and location of advertisements on user’s site? Firm answers of all these questions are must before coming to any of the conclusion.

If one talk about the requirements, then now a day’s websites are available in two forms static or dynamic, majority of hosts prefer static hosting and if a user’s website is dynamic then he/she should search for a host providing the potential to host the website with the use of scripting languages. Dynamic services are provided by only few companies but with several restrictions, such as no data availability, etc. Same happens with availability of space which is in the range of 5MB to 50 MB, changing with respect to other factors; companies extract more benefits as they provide more space to the user. There are many free hosts who don’t provide the use of own domain names as it is not beneficial for them. That is the reason why most of the time the user’s web address becomes www.myname.freehosting.com.

Further to long URLs accounts, a further contentious issue is their reliability. It is generally believed that free host providers means hosts with old servers and giving free space wrapping up the amount through free advertisement. This is the reason why majority of free web hosts don’t provide the guarantee of servers running through out the day excluding general breakdowns? Another problem lies in scarcity of bandwidth providing, it may create problem when user’s site starts gathering a large amount of traffic and bandwidth extends its genuine limit.

Hence after judging all the factors one can say that free web hosting is not that bad as it looks, here one can surf without many charges. One may need to counter some of the restrictions but it is a boon to newcomers who want to do something new on the web.

A Fact; Canada Web Hosting: the Closer the Server the Faster the Response Times Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/a-fact-ca

Before choosing a Canada web hosting provider, one should realize that it has several advantages that most people may not be aware of at the outset. Obviously, if a company is intending to target a Canadian audience, it would most probably look for a Canadian web host having servers located in Canada to get best site responses as well as best search engine rankings
on Canadian search results. So, being closer to the server will enable one to experience better response timings.
Search Engine Results Page

Another important advantage to using Canada web hosting is SERP or search engine results page which is the page that a search engine returns displaying results of its search. Most leading search engines will normally show four kinds of listings on their SERPs. These are listings indexed by the search engine spider, listings indexed into the search engine's directory by humans, listings that are to be listed and finally, and most importantly, Canadian search results.

However, Canadian bandwidth is more expensive than that of US counterparts who sell bandwidths at less than half the Canadian Internet Service prices. Nevertheless, being close to the server gets better response times and even though this only amounts to milliseconds, it is of importance to a number of webmasters.

Depending on which city or location that the business or individual is located in, the company or individual can select the Canada web hosting server according to its proximity to their own location and, thus get the maximum mileage out of their websites. To find a decent web host one may make use of hosting directories that contain names and addresses of Canadian web hosts and, this is a recommended strategy due to the fact that such sites aggregate a great deal of information pertaining to the Canadian hosting industry as well as its participants.

Leveraging a host directory will enable regular customers to contrast as well as compare different features of several Canada web hosting firms. The best web hosting directories will contain catalogues which allows one to search for hosts that meet specified criteria is it cost based, technology or geography based.

No Need to Climb a Hill for the Top Web Hosting

Finding Top Web Hosting

There are many ways in which you might want to go about finding top web hosting. In order to find top web hosting, you should look very carefully at the things certain web hosting places offer you, to see if you are going to get what you need.
Things To Look For

There are several things that you should look for when you are looking for top web hosting. First of all, one of the most important things that you need to be considering is space. When you are building a website, for whatever reason, you are going to want to make sure that you have enough space for everything that you might want to put on it.

You might want to consider having unlimited space, even if you don't think you are going to be using that much space, because having unlimited space is the only way that you can be sure you will have enough room to incorporate any kinds of technologies that come out between the time you have your site and the time you might want to add more to it.

The top web hosting sites will be able to offer you unlimited space, and therefore you will be able to see that you have plenty of room for whatever you want to put on your space.

Another thing that you should keep in mind when you are looking for the top web hosting sites is whether or not these sites come with domain names that you can choose, or if you have to go through another company to find a domain name. If they do come with domain names, can you pick the ones that you want to pick, or does it have to be something that the company chooses?

All of these things are important for you to consider when you are looking for the top web hosting sites. Remember too, that you should always feel comfortable with the web hosting site that you have chosen, so if you don't feel comfortable, it might not be a good place for you and your website to be.

4 Key Guidelines to Locate an Ideal Web Host Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/4-key-guidelines-to-locate-an-ideal-web-host

No doubt, making a web site is not a playing sort of job. However, selection of web host is even more serious decision and cannot be taken lightly. Due to presence of several web hosts in the market of various ranges, it is quite difficult for the user to select out the ideal one. For selecting the best host the user should keep several alternatives in his/her hand and user should possess a clear mind set about the expectations from the host. Next are the four guidelines which make the user’s way to select the top web host a lot easier.

1. One should take the help of search engines like Google and Yahoo through keywords like “web host.” If the user carefully analyzes the search engine output then he/she can get the precise idea of types of web hosting options available in the market. Some category of people may think that the top ranking web hosts are no doubt the best, but this is not obligatory. Proper time devotion in the analysation of search results will provide the user an ample amount of hosts for comparison.

2. One should possess the knowledge of working nature of the site. Puzzled!!!! But it is an unavoidable fact that the user should have the information about the objectives of his/her site. If the user requires a site capable of loading a huge amount of large files, then his/her search ends on a host which offers huge amounts of space. Bandwidth is another factor to consider. Another important question arises is whether the site is a personal site, or a commercial site? If the user plans to produce revenue from his/her website, than doing more investment for ample storage space and bandwidth is an advisable thing. If the user possess an intention to make the site a blog and wishes to host it with a service like TypePad, then the user should search for a web host which provides him/her the facility of domain mapping.

3. The user should have a budget in his/her mind. Knowing about the actual budget will not only help the user to make quick decision but also saves a large amount of time. In the condition when a particular web host seems to be very much expensive, then one can rightly move onto the next one without any problem. Moreover, if the user knows about the budget contained with him he/she can easily select the best option (web host) in that particular price range. As few of the web hosts proposes additional space for $20 as compare to others who do for the same price.

4. At the end, the user should ensure that the web host support should match his/her requirement. If the user is building the web site for the first occasion, then he/she may need a host who is eager to advice on the proceedings of building new sites. Some web hosts offers several sorts of help to the inexperienced users. While several others web hosts simply let users with anything they want to do without much indulging in the work.

One of the most crucial things is that, the user should be aware about his/her expectations from the host, while searching for it. The service of search engines like Google and Yahoo makes the search a lot easier, as the user know what he/she is exploring for. It is a matter of fact that, every web host offers something outstanding than others. The user should give priority to a web host which passes in the measurement of simplicity and customer service. One should always keep in mind that severely expensive and top most ranking of the host is not the passport of satisfaction of the customer. The user should begin the journey of searching the web host with a clear, sound and informed mind because then only he/she can reach to the desired speculation.

We All Know What Web Hosting Is, Right?

What is Web Hosting?

Technology moves so quickly, many of us feel like an ostrich with our head buried in the sand. Often we find that what was new yesterday is suddenly old news today and trying to keep up with the technological advances with concerns to the web hosting industry can be mind-boggling for the common individual.

If you have worked in an occupation that did not move swiftly along with the Internet, your knowledge of even the basics can now be considered illiterate. Now, more than ever before people are utilizing the Internet to advertise themselves and their businesses on the World Wide Web.

In order to establish your own web page on the Internet, it is important to understand some very important terms. The first and most important term to getting your website on the Internet is "web hosting".
Who or What is a Web Hosting Server

A web host is a company or an individual that owns a server that is connected to the internet 24 hours per day, seven days per week and who is willing to sell you a space on that server for a certain number of dollars. The ideal web host is online 99.9% of the time, however, many cannot fulfill this goal. There is a broad range of what hosting services can and will do, so research is a large key to successfully finding the correct server for your intentions.

How Do I Find the Best Web Hosting Server for My Needs?

There are many types of web hosting. It is very important to review, outline and determine exactly what your personal needs in a web hosting company are prior to establishing any type of business relationship. It is also extremely important to research each web hosting company thoroughly to insure that they are capable of providing the type of services you need for a price you can afford. There are many different ways to research a web hosting company.

You can take the time to contact each company personally and inquire as to the parameters of their services; hoping that they will honestly tell you the pros and cons of their business. However, you could access an independent Internet review company that specializes in web hosting and compare their findings with your needs.

Start for Web Hosting

Even for a layman , its important to know the concept of web hosting. Visiting any website shows a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto the user's web browser. Generally, web site is made up of many web pages and web page is made up of texts and graphic images. Now these pages are then stored and made available for the visitors on web servers.

So for a layman if his intention is to have is own web site, then the first step would be owing a host provider so as to host the website on web server. As soon as the website is online on the server, online users can browse that website through Internet. All this job of providing host facility is with the providers called web-hosting providers.

Any established web hosting provider can host even thousands of websites example, iPowerWeb is a popular web hosting company that hosts websites in amounts of lakhs i.e. 3 lakhs. Due to this reason only these hosting companies needs large number of web servers for storing the website. Thereafter all these web servers are connected to Internet and are kept in a physical center 'data center'. As these web servers needs to be fully operational all the time so data centers are made fully secure having 24/7 environment and given protection from fire, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.

Now after knowing what is web hosting it is also important to know the different types of web host which are summarized below:

Shared Hosting
As the name suggests, in shared hosting several websites share space on the common physical web servers. A physical web server can host thousands of websites at one time depending upon the web host. With so much pressure on web servers it tends to make one think that due to over burden perhaps the performance of web server gets affected. But that thinking is totally wrong as for this reason only web servers are equipped with high-end powerful computer so as to support large number of websites to some extent without any problem. However but it is even possible at time of over burden on web servers that the response is badly effected.

In order to get rid of this problem reputed and experienced host providers constantly keep on monitoring the performance of web servers and keeps on adding new web servers when and where required. As many websites share a same physical web server the cost is generally low with start from mere $5-$20 per month and they also have to accept slower server response time.

Dedicated Hosting
As against shared hosting, in dedicated hosting a specific web server is allotted to one customer only. Due to one server the customer is having option to host his single/multiple web sites, can modify the configuration of software, can handle greater site traffic and can even scale the bandwidth when it is taken as necessary. It is because of this facility that dedicated hosting charges good amount which starts from $50 and can range even upto$200 to $500 monthly. So dedicated hosting is regularly used by extremely important web sites having high traffic.

Co-location hosting
The only difference between dedicated hosting and co-location hosting is that here in this case customers can own the web server hardware whereas in case of dedicated hosting customers can just rent the web server during the hosting period. So Co-location hosting provides more flexibility to its customers in respect of control and maintainence. Here in this case 24/7 server monitoring is also possible which can evade the problem of slow response. Because of all above benefits co-location hosting charges good amount depending upon monthly bandwidth and rack space required which is as high as $500 - $1000 monthly.

Reseller hosting
The third type of hosting is reseller hosting where the provider offers web server storage space to third party at a discounted price, who again resell it to his own customer. Normally resellers include web consultants like web designers, developers or system Integration Company who after charging commission which is even upto 50%(taken as discount) can resell the web hosting. Resellers can set up their own hosting company and can decide for their own pricing structure with establishing their own branding.

In case of reseller hosting for reseller's customers, the reseller is the web host provider. When some technical problem arises like down server or any access problem then in that case the resellers have to settle all with actual web host provider. However this is not the effective way as it leads to unnecessary waste of time due to various channels involved in the communication process like first customer contacts reseller and then reseller contacts actual web host provider and same is with the response it also comes back from the same process, so the problems pertains for a long time. Thus reseller hosting is not considered a good option unless user is having his own personal website or he is having an alternative for poor support from reseller.

Now with growing competition market is having abundant of resellers who are selling their services at a very low price. Due to this and other factors like even some web-hosting providers provide their own toll free numbers to their resellers for co-branded technical support, this makes the decision more difficult to choose which is the right choice.

Thus it is more important to act wisely and to not get attracted with marketing techniques employed by resellers like professional outlook of their website and other strategies like proving technical support in their own name which is actually provided by the provider and not by them but they tend to present it in such a way that they are providing that support.

The general distinguishing feature between resellers and hosting company is firstly the hosting price and secondly the company's information including their balance sheet example iPowerWeb.com get their company's information published where they mention their financial strength, their offices and highly equipped data centers. As against this resellers lack these assets and for price what they quote is generally below $5 per month whereas providers charge between $7 and $10.

Thus considering all these facts it can be concluded easily that due to a minute difference of several dollars one must not get struck in the web of resellers and must go for best facilities instead of getting harassment afterwards.

Webhosting: Enlightening on Dedicated Web Hosting

Now what is dedicated web hosting? Dedicated web hosting is having one single server rented to a single customer by the webhosting provider. Virtual dedicated servers and co-location web hosting are two similar solutions relatively familiar in the web hosting industry. In virtual dedicated server hosting plans one does not get an entire computer just for oneself this means that the virtual server shares the resources of a web server computer with other customers of the web hosting provider. There are many similarities between both Co-locating web hosting and virtual dedicated servers but the main difference is that, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer and web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer whereas in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer.

When single web server is rented to a single customer it is called real dedicated web hosting.

For businesses that work with high traffic, dedicated web hosting is the idyllic way out. Application required for its operation and functionalities of web site falls under ones specific control.

There are many advantages of dedicated webhosting:

• Concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of ones web server are all handled by hosting provider.

• One doesn’t have to bother about maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer as it is on rent and not been purchased

• One is freed from replacing the component or solving the problem, as everything is provider’s responsibility

• One gets compensations as part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) by most o f the web hosting providers.

• In the occurrence of failure one may get reimbursement with the cost of ones hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending upon the severity of the failure.

• When compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, while web site in not online all these advantages seems quiet good as at the day end one will just be paying for functional hardware.

Imagine the business with all the resources being saved on the above maintenance issues. One can choose between “managed” or “unmanaged” service levels as the costs of administering and maintaining the web server one has taken on rent will vary depending upon the web hosting provider.

One can choose “managed” dedicated hosting which means one will have access to “control panel” if one is uncomfortable with the technical expertise required by the management of a web server computer. All the essential tasks required to be performed by the proper functioning of ones web server via a simply point-and-click user-friendly interface are allowed by control panel.

This way one can setup, administer and maintain all the web sites on web server without knowing or typing any command lines nor having any in depth knowledge of the operating system.

Those with great degree of technical expertise in mastering a root access to the server can go for “unmanaged” option. “Unmanaged” option offers complete server administration, thus having possibility of configuring every service on the web server. But if necessary services are not configured properly it may result in failure of system. Due to these reasons unmanaged dedicated hosting is recommended for only people having solid server administration background or for web developers who require custom applications for their web sites, or a customized environment. Thus people having dedicated server computer’s stability will not be prone to the plagues affecting shared web hosting solutions.

Imagine-

-errors in programming usually made by the beginners,
- Or overload i.e. server being crowded with applications and components required by the other customers

- Or in a shared web server when the processor time and the installed memory are both shared by the software applications needed by the other users.

Instant support is provided to its customers when required by the dedicated web hosting whether managed or unmanaged which is not possible on a shared hosting plans where one will be facing delays and possible additional technical support fees.

If one is having prompt support service from ones side then the customers will be happy and at the same time there will be growth in business. For those doing business in web designing advantage to have his own dedicated server is priceless not because he will be able to offer pure hosting services, but because he will able to offer them packaged with the web design activity also. When one is having access to web server for 24 hours, then within minutes one can modify a website for a customer or upload a new one.

If complete web presence solution, design and hosting, is offered by the studio to a customer there is chance of that customer being regular this is an added advantage.

The benefits of a good dedicated web hosting are:-

• Businesses solutions being translated into sales growth

• Better customer relationship results to improved company image

• Reduced cost compared with in-house web hosting solution, and so on.

• One can run a better business and better business gives good profit.

Concept of Shared Web Hosting

After designing of website next important thing is to get it hosted on the internet. The task is not at easy as there are so many companies offering various types of web hosting packages like shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting etc. Now the problem is which one to use?

In general it is considered a good idea to go for shared web hosting if the user is in a small business and wants to save cost. However before finalizing the deal it is good to know what is shared web hosting service and what are the merits and demerits of shared web hosting.

Defining shared hosting:

If extremely high performance and high bandwidth are not the points in question, then shared web hosting service can be a most convenient and economic way of hosting web sites.. As name implies, in case of shared web hosting service, the web server that hosts the web pages is shared by several other websites. Talking about number of websites on a shared hosting server, they can be in thousands. Now due to the fact that just one server is fulfilling the requirements of many other websites, the plus point is they can offer cheap prices for their server.

As there are so many websites hosted on a single web server, still there is no pint of worry for the user as the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues in case of shared hosting servers. Not only that, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, so as to minimize server downtimes.

Shared hosting servers run on UNIX or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is provided a separate account in the operating system. These websites hosted on shared servers are provided unique shared IP addresses and are provided with a fix amount of web resources.

The following are some of the merits and demerits of shared web hosting:

Merits:

1. Cost effective: Due to the fact that many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers provide economic shared web hosting services. Generally, the cost is as low as $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Now-a-days due to cut throat competition in web hosting industry, one can find several web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth with as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwidth.

2. Feasible: Due to the fact that shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, who are experts in their respective field, one can concentrate more effectively on his/her web business and the problem of downtime and maintenance will not bother him/her any more.

3. Utility options: In case of shared web hosting, though web resources are shared, utility options are provided by the hosting company so that user can manage his/her website using control panel or similar tools. User is having an option to upload files, modify /remove web pages, add database, check web statistic etc. Not only that, user is also provided facility to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.

4. Efficient: Now-a-days shared web hosting service usually comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. Efficiency lies in the fact, that in addition to above, one can add more resources and can even overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.

Demerits:

1. Problem with response time: As the web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to face problem of slower server response time as compared to dedicate server hosting.

2. Problem of Reliability: In case of shared web hosting, problem of reliability remains as usually web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server but it is also possible that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a nasty program or script or over-utilize the resources, resulting in bringing down the web server. Thus due to fault of one all websites have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility in case of shared web hosting.

3. Problems related to sharing: As discussed above also, due to fault of one all users have to face the problem for example if there is any one "bad" website in shared web server, due to it all websites on the server can be banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address. However it is worth to note that one can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid the above problem.

4. Problems related to Security: As many websites shared one server, problem of security always remains in case of shared web hosting as it is quite easy to hack one’s sensitive datas by another on the same server.

Thus in conclusion it can be said that before deciding to deal with shared web hosting, one should consider all the merits and demerits of shared web hosting as highlighted above. One should not forget the success of his/her business depends upon his/her website which in turn depends upon good host provider

Web Hosting, Defined

Web hosting may be defined as renting space on a web server in its simplest form. One should keep in mind that a website is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. However website is not complete here until and unless it is displayed on the net. To make it visible for the world it has to be housed on a computer somewhere that has access to the Internet. This is not possible by just a computer rather special device is required termed as web server. A web server may be defined as a computer set up with special software that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files out over the internet so that the requesting computer can display them.

Web server in addition to making site visible performs several other functions as well like it provides the ability to create email addresses based on one’s domain name and even helps in sending and receiving emails with them. There are several types of software installed on the web server that allows one’s website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, etc. One must note that almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it's the software that's on it that makes it a server.

When one goes buying a web hosting, the monthly fees to be paid includes cost for maintenance and upgrading of the server's hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and cost of professional proving these services. It is surprising to know that it is possible to turn one’s home or office computer into a web server if one really desires, but it is just not economical. Therefore it is better to outsource it. There are several kinds of web hosting available which are discussed below:

Kinds of web hosting:

Shared Hosting – Through a shared server one can save a high amount. If one talks about the drawbacks then Spamming and blacklisting from different search engines are the key problems. Such problems arise due to the reason that several sites are assign to one particular IP address. One should demand for a separate IP address for his/her website (on additional monthly charges) to secure the user from such problems.

Dedicated Hosting –Dedicated servers are best for big, highly trafficked websites, which will require large amounts of server resources to run. One of the downsides to shared hosting is that the server’s resources are divided across all the sites it’s hosting and answering page requests for. If you are in a dedicated environment you can better monitor your server resources. The downside is that dedicated servers will run you generally $50 per month or more. Shared hosting can be purchased for as little as 5$ a month. Most small or medium sized businesses will have neither the website size or bandwidth requirements to make dedicated servers cost effective.

Server Co-Location - If one wants to have full control over every aspect of his/her web server, he/she might very well choose to buy one and maintain it himself/herself if he/she is having sufficient knowledge. Still there are possibilities that one is not having enough resources to keep his/her server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other problems and in addition it is not possible for him/her to keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection through out. Thus he/she needs a data center to provide those services for him/her.

Co-location is the center providing facilities like physical security on rental, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable Internet connection for a server that one owns. However, the data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, rather user his/her self. Thus it is a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if one is having the necessary expertise and time to run a web server by own.

There are several web hosts offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting.

UNIX Hosting

There are several web servers in the world running mostly on UNIX. UNIX is an operating system originally developed for servers and networking. Till now many different versions of UNIX have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available so as to enable programmers to customize and make improvements when and where necessary. The two most popular forms of UNIX are Linux and BSD that comes in several varieties, like Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. The best part of UNIX is most of above mentioned versions can be obtained free of cost, making UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host in comparison to other operating systems. Other plus points of UNIX are that UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. That is the reason why most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform.

Windows Hosting

Another very popular operating system developed by Microsoft is Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. Like every thing useful it is having price and can be obtained by purchasing a license, which in turn increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. This is considered a negative point as compared to UNIX. Plus points of Windows include it is mainly user friendly however it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. There are several scripting languages like ASP, ASP.NET, and Cold Fusion, which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. Thus the above are some of the most popular scripts for certain web programming applications, and if one is thinking of using them while building his/her site, he/she will first definitely need to find a Windows host.

Before searching for a web host, it is essential to know some important terms used in hosting. They are discussed as under:

Storage or Disk space –As one’s website is a collection of files being offered on the Internet for viewing, it is necessary for storing them somewhere for retrieval and take up space. For each and every web server there is a limited amount of hard disk memory, which is divided up and offered to hosting customers. Different package levels are there, so as to enable to pay more for more space and vice versa divide specifically that space up. If one’s website expands its space then the user needs to buy extra space from the web host.

Bandwidth or Data Transfer –One of the crucial parts to verify is bandwidth. There are several sites, which loose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget going beyond their expectations. Occasionally, host even charges in hundreds of dollars for the additional bandwidth. One should confirm about this before dealing with any of the host. Usually, ideal-hosting providers deliver initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB to the users.

Uptime –It is a universal truth that if one talks about perfect web servers then they are the one, which would be up, and running and offering web pages to the world round the clock, whole year. But, it is also true that web servers are mere computers, and like any other computer, they may fail or needs repairing or updating. Often web hosts gives 99% uptime guarantee, and if they fail they refund a certain portion of user’s money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.

Traffic Statistics – By traffic statistics we mean those programs that track visitors to one’s website. These programs are capable of telling how many times a user visited one site, how many visitors were unique and how many came back more than once, which pages were most popular, from where the visitors came to one’s site, what search terms they used in the search engines etc. In addition they offer several types of information which are useful for marketing one’s website to a target audience. There are several web hosts offering some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.

CGI Scripts – There are several web hosts offering a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. CGI Scripts are the things like hit counters, guest books, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that enable one website to perform commonly desired functions. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.

Thus one should take care and keep all the above points in mind while selecting a web host.