If your organisation does not have the hardware capacity or expertise to run all your IT needs in-house, and most do not, the obvious alternative is to find a vendor who can host them for you. But to the uninitiated, it needs to be understood that hosting can mean different things – and some solutions will suit certain organisations better than others.

In such a situation, a one-size-fits-all approach is a non-starter. This is, firstly, because there isn’t just one size (or, to be more precise, one kind of hosting), but several.

Secondly, because the characteristics of each organisation vary, even another entity similar to yours may find a different form of hosting that works for them. That means you shouldn’t simply copy what others do, but work with your IT support provider to find your optimal solution.

In our case, this means things like website hosting, email management, file storage and installation of systems like Microsoft 365. But these can be delivered in various ways through different forms of hosting.

Types Of Web Hosting

There are many kinds of web hosting. Even for running a WordPress site, there are five kinds to choose from:

  •       Shared hosting – this is where you share space on the same server with other accounts. This can be cheaper, but may not be the best from a performance perspective, partly depending on how many others you are sharing server space with and how this affects capacity.
  •       A virtual private server – this is where you do share server space, but you have a section of it set aside for you, which mimics having a private server. This is faster than shared serving and costs less than a private server, but you have less control and there are constraints on how much traffic it can handle.
  •       Dedicated hosting – this is where you have the whole server dedicated to your organisation.
  •       Managed WordPress Hosting – this is a specific service for those with WordPress sites, with the service provider taking care of issues like security, software updates and maximising performance.
  •       Co-location – this is where you have the scale of premises to own the hosting servers, but rent space in a data centre that will keep them running for you.

Don’t Forget The Cloud

These kinds of hosting are not the only ones for all kinds of IT needs, of course, as there is also the Cloud. This kind of hosting means renting virtual servers from a third party, which could, for example, be a company like ours.

This means that we would take care of technical matters like your security, ensuring you have the capacity to store all your data and so on, while you focus on the core functions of your business or organisation.

Whenever there are several options, two possibilities exist: Either these are competing alternatives that could all, in theory, work equally well for any organisation – a bit like trying to choose between an electric cooker or a gas cooker. Alternatively, you will find that what works best for you will depend on your firm’s circumstances.

Anyone with a good understanding of these matters will know it is the second that applies. For instance, co-location is only an option for a firm big enough to purchase a lot of servers in the first place. Shared hosting is a cheap option that may work well for a firm with limited data use and therefore less concern about restrictions on capacity.

The cloud may be very effective for firms with little IT knowledge and the need to have good management of data but still access a lot of capacity, something this can provide because it is made up of a large number of virtual servers, so isn’t limited in capacity in the manner of a finite number of physical servers.

Finding The Best Solution For You

To many companies who know they need IT support but don’t know what is the best option for them, all this may seem a lot to take in. But don’t worry; that is where we can help by assessing your company’s needs and using our experience of what works for various organisations and companies to help you make the best choice for your firm.

Your size, your budget, the level of data you need (either in general or at specific times of the day) and various other factors can all determine what is the best way forward for your firm.

However, with the right advice and a careful examination of your needs, the best solution can be found for your firm, one that will enable you to enjoy the benefits of hosting that works for you now and well into the future.