Capital Hosting

If you are exploring hosting options for your new online business you may be confused by the terminology. For example, what does 'unlimited hosting' mean? To make sure that you don't get carried away by enticing 'unlimited' service plans and offers that imply a limitless supply of resources, learn the basics of what hosting is all about. Plan ahead so that you don't have unexpected outages in the middle of a big product release.

Like so many people, I started using a shared hosting plan. However, as the business grew and traffic increased during major promotions, I experienced outages. I switched from shared hosting to VPS hosting. Let's get on with the website hosting basics.

Basics of Hosting

Your website is hosted on a computer. The server uses disk space to store data files and applications. It uses internal and external networks to present the data out to the World Wide Web. The reality is that there are real physical limitations to both server processing speed, the amount of data that can move from disk to network cable and out to the Internet and then back in again (hosting bandwidth), as well as disk space (storage). Here are some points to help you get a clearer picture on whether an unlimited plan makes sense for your online business.

The unlimited claim actually means that your usage of bandwidth should be seen as unrestricted but not infinite. This is because of three limiting factors.

First, the network and the server's connection have limited capacities. You can only use space that is available, it is not infinitely increasing.

Second, the server's CPU and memory and the input/output load determine the ability of the hard drive to serve the files as fast as it is required to.

Third, the telecommunication network pipe has limits too. If there's too much stuff coming down the pipe, there is a bottleneck. That's when shared resources start to bang into each other.

Your web hosting company works on the premise that your website will consume a very small amount of bandwidth and disk space and they work out a user average based on usage trends. They provide the unlimited plan by banking on the fact that you won't use very much.

Should all these shared services reach a point where you there is significant contention for resources, then the hosting is alerted that you are crossing the reasonable usage limits. At this point, your website may be suspended until you upgrade to a new service level.

It all boils down to a numbers game. The greater the number of accounts, the more money flows in for the web host. When resources start running out, websites start to bog down and become unavailable.

The smart thing is to look at how you plan on using your website. Blogs consisting of mostly text, some graphics and video may be fine with a starter hosting plan. Others with lots of large file uploads and downloads may need a dedicated or more robust hosting plan.

Often hosting companies that offer unlimited plans will also have restrictions in terms of audio and video downloads. These files are resource hogs and take up significant bandwidth and disk space. This exposes your hosting company to the risk of having to add more bandwidth and disk space which costs them money.

Someone has to pay for the resources. Networking, servers and disc storage aren't free. The hosting company is paying for it, but allocating the costs across multiple accounts. If you have a big sale and traffic exceeds their user average, you will find your website is taken offline. Yes, they can and will do that. I've experienced it.

Today, I use VPS hosting and am able to expand services during promotions and then return to normal sizing after a sale.

The best thing to do is to ask your hosting company how they handle shared resources and resource contention. Ask them how you know if the standard 'unlimited' hosting plan is satisfactory for your business needs. Don't just opt for a more expensive plan either as downgrading services can be a headache too.

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