With over 10,000 hosting companies offering a myriad of products and
services, resellers are inundated with choice. Typically, the services
offered to resellers assume the form of shared, dedicated hosting or virtual
private hosting. The majority of resellers will offer their own customers
some variant of the following services.
Shared Hosting
Also known as "virtual hosting," shared hosting enables consumers to post a
site from a central server that is shared with other Web hosting customers.
Typically, an individual or small to mid-sized business cannot afford to
independently obtain an extremely robust connection to the Internet for
their Web presence. Shared hosting provides consumers with the option to
outsource their Internet requirements inexpensively. It allows them to share
the cost of a fast Internet connection, providing them with the ability to
host their site on a powerful, professionally managed server at a low
monthly cost with redundant connectivity and guaranteed uptime. Shared
hosting is a common and reasonably priced hosting option that most Web
hosting companies provide. Usually resellers will obtain a substantial
discount if they resell shared hosting in bulk for a higher-tier hosting
provider. Shared hosting is fully controlled and allocated by a higher-tier
hosting provider.
Dedicated Hosting
A dedicated server is a single computer fully devoted to the requirements of
one customer. It allows for faster access to information and provides
greater flexibility in software deployment, site traffic management,
security and scalability. With a dedicated server, consumers can exercise
total control over their Web presence. They choose the operating system and
software they wish to use, and individualize settings for their multimedia
and e-commerce requirements. Dedicated servers are a good choice for
customers that require custom software or enhanced server control but do not
want to make the significant up-front investment required in purchasing a
server. Dedicated hosing is emerging by far as the most popular option for
small and mid-sized companies. Most resellers will obtain favorable
discounts from higher-tier service providers and will resell dedicated
hosting services under marked-up, long-term contracts with their own
clientele. Dedicated hosting is fully controlled by the reseller's clientele
but must be allocated by a higher-tier hosting provider.
Virtual Private Server
Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions provide resellers will a completely
automated hosting platform that gives them multi-tenancy, virtualization,
resource management and clustering. Virtual Private Servers allows
resellers to multiplex resources on a dedicated server, using an enhanced
technology platform. Unlike shared and dedicated hosting, a virtual
private server allows resellers to fully control and allocate resources to
their customer. Once a reseller obtains a virtual private server, they have
total control over resources, and can instantly allocate Web space, e-mail
accounts and other services. Because VPS solutions provide high levels of
control, they are becoming the most popular option for resellers. VPS
solutions allow multi-tenancy by providing resellers with capacity to host
hundreds of customers on a single, physical server. The solutions also
"virtualize" CPU resources so that they appear to customers as a standalone,
dedicated server environment. Virtual Private Servers also provide
innovative resource management which enables systems administrators to
control the customer resources levels and offer service-level agreements and
quality of service guarantees. Through automated, control panel management,
administrators can allocate resources and support the deployment of
third-party software. VPS solutions also provide clustering capacities,
permitting customers to move data transparently among servers.
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