Webhosting is a critical part of your business operations, but hosting your own website can be done in several ways.
Which of these options you choose depends on a number of different factors. For example, how big your IT team is and what skill set they have. You may have a great team for solving IT issues, but they might not be specialized in hosting a website.
What does “hosting” your own website mean?
For some teams, web hosting is a complete unknown. For whatever reason, you may not have had the opportunity or experience to dive into this subject to learn more about it. For that reason, a perfectly viable option would be to hire a company to host your site for you. If you want to learn more about the basics of web hosting, we encourage further reading on the matter.
As we’ve written before,
Briefly, web hosting is when you put your website on a server and make it accessible to people. Said differently, web hosting is providing storage space for a website, and access to it. Many companies (and people) host their own websites on servers of their own. But others choose to pay a company to do the hosting for them (as well as associated costs).
So, with this clarified, let’s tackle a different question.
What should you do when you are planning on hosting your own website?
What do you need?
You’ve decided that you want to host your own website. Now what? Well, there are still questions that need to be addressed. For example, will you be cloud hosting your site or will you have a physical server? And even more importantly, what’s the difference between the two? Which is better for you?
Much like any sort of “cloud service” (and there are many), with cloud hosting, your website is on the servers of a third party. Typically, these third parties already have locations (generally known as data centers) where they handle all of the physical infrastructure needed to handle the flow of information (in and out).
So what’re the good parts and bad parts of cloud hosting? What about having a physical server?
Cloud hosting pros and cons
One of the most straightforward reasons for choosing cloud hosting is that these models of hosting are scalable and thus cost effective. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re the cheapest option, but when you take everything into account, they might be the most cost effective option. Remember that websites aren’t the sort of thing that you make and then just ignore forever. They require maintenance, updates, monitoring, and at times, fixing. One of the major pros of cloud hosting is that it can be easier on the budget when you take into account all the different considerations.
While there are lots of benefits to cloud hosting, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best option. For example, there might be concerns when it comes to security. A cloud hosting company might not have the level of security you want. Or you may not love their tech support. There are reasons why you might want to consider hosting your own website from your own offices.
Hosting your own website pros and cons
This is sometimes referred to as on-site, or on-premise, hosting. This is the most common way for companies to handle their website needs. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best option for you, though.
Starting with one of the biggest cons, there are significant costs that you need to deal with right away. You have to buy the physical equipment and infrastructure. In addition to this, you also need to have someone (or people) on hand who are able to take care of the technical side of a website. All the tasks that a cloud hosting company would be able to take care of, now get shifted to your own team. In the long term, this initial investment might be well worth it though, as you then have the resources you need for the long run.
Having said that, this might be the sort of thing that is prohibitively expensive to start. Hosting your own website shouldn’t break the bank.
Remember, that you can always start with one option (ideally the cloud hosting option) and then shift over to an internal system once you’ve grown enough to warrant it.
Make the choice that is best for your own journal.
How do host your own website?
Well, this is both easy and complicated.
It’s as simple as “buy your server hardware” and then “install and configure the server operating system”.
There are, however, many factors that need to be considered when you’re doing this. How much does your hardware cost? Is it ideal for you? Do you have sufficient storage space? These are all important questions, and also reasons why many people opt for cloud hosting options. In brief, here is the general outline of what you need to do:
- Buy the equipment you need (you need to remember that costs here are up-front) and make sure you have the right staff;
- Select and install your operating system (OS). Windows Server and Linux are the two most common choices;
- Selecting and installing your web server software;
- Configure and then connect your domain name.
While this does seem complicated if you have never experienced it before, it won’t be to someone who has training and experience.
Remember if you’re in need of staff, we have a handy guide for how to hire staff.