Description and Information of Shared Hosting

Description and Information of Shared Hosting

Description and Information of Shared Hosting

 Shared hosting is a commonly used type of web hosting wherein a single physical server hosts a similar web server more than once. This form of web hosting is also called virtual hosting. As the name implies, server maintenance and management costs are shared by a number of individuals.

Because of this, shared hosting is the best option for clients who cannot afford to pay - or those unwilling to spend large amounts of money - for full featured hosting services such as dedicated servers or virtual private servers.

Shared hosting however, doesn't offer the flexibility of dedicated servers and it's ilks due to the fact that system administration is required for shared hosting. This can be viewed as an advantage for clients who do not want to take care of this particular task, or as a limitation for power users who want to handle system administration.

Web based control panel systems are commonly used by shared hosting servers. Some control panels that have seen widespread use in recent years are Helm, Sphera, DirectAdmin, Plesk and cPanel.

Shared hosting doesn't differ that much to other web hosting types when it comes to the tasks of the service providers. Installation, management, technical support and other such tasks are usually the service providers' responsibility.

The operating systems used for shared hosting are usually variations of the Linux OS, although Microsoft products are also offered by some service providers.

Because several different operating systems are used by shared hosting service providers, some control panels have been designed to function for two or more operating system types. Ensim and Plesk are both examples of these control panels since both are applicable for Windows and Linux OS'.

Shared hosting providers can be found in abundance around the globe these days. Thousands are available in the US alone. They vary tremendously in size and structure; from providers that caters to the needs of small businesses to large corporations that provide shared hosting services to clients that number by the thousands.

Implementation of shared hosting can be done in two ways, either through IP based or name based. A small number of control panels however, are designed for a combination of the two on the single server.

Cooperative hosting is the term for a shared hosting that is executed privately with the server functioning in a colocation center. The cost is shared by the clients, as in most cases of shared hosting.