Assessing Business Site Needs

The first step in selecting the right web hosting for your business site involves assessing the needs of the future business web site. What do you want your site to contain? If you are trying to sell hundreds of products, or host a plethora of videos, then you may need a comprehensive plan such as a VPS or eCommerce hosting plan, both of which include excessive server resources and extracurricular tools to aid in the construction and management of a business web site. If you are planning on building a portfolio site for your business, then a powerful web server will not be needed. In fact, there are some people that choose to host their business portfolios on free blogs. If you’re serious about the success of  your portfolio site, then you’ll want a paid web hosting service such as shared hosting.

Business Oriented Web Hosting Types

Some web hosting companies offer advertising coupons such as Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising credits. Look for companies offering hosting plans that are specifically targeting a business audience. Reseller and eCommerce web hosting are both business oriented web hosting types. Reseller hosting gives you the ability to offer web hosting services to your online clients. If you are already in the online service industry this is the perfect kind of web hosting to have. Many people pay for their own hosting expenses by reselling server resources, while also making a hefty profit. Ecommerce web hosting is built for retail businesses that want to create online stores quickly and easily. With eCommerce hosting you’ll be given tools such as site builders, product catalog managers, shopping carts, and integrated payment processing capabilities.

Corporate Business Hosting

Large corporations need more powerful web servers that are capable of dealing with excessive traffic levels and thousands of files. Dedicated web hosting is the ultimate web hosting types, aside from owning a colocated dedicated server. Dedicated web hosting lets you lease a dedicated server for about $100 – $350 per month, depending upon the hosting provider and plan size. You can also buy your own web server for a few thousand dollars, and then have it safely stored and monitored in a colocation facility. Colocation facilities are state of the art datacenters that are the perfect environment for any web server.

VPS hosting lets you lease a private server that you can control from a remote location using the web hosting manager (WHM, or control panel that is given to you by the hosting company. Although VPS hosting is cheaper than dedicated hosting, it offers many of the same benefits, including increased bandwidth and disk space, as well as included access to dedicated IP addresses. Since VPS hosting is such a unique solution, it requires a unique control panel to effectively administrate. One of the most popular control panels used in VPS hosting is the HyperVM control panel.

What is HyperVM?

HyperVM is a very competent control panel that is specifically designed for the virtual private server hosting environment. With HyperVM, users can easily manage nearly all aspects of their server and website, without having direct access to the server. HyperVM is not as comprehensive as other control panels, such as cPanel, primarily because it is a compact yet fully capable solution that focuses on functionality combined with usability.

What is Special About HyperVM?

One of the aspects that sets HyperVM apart from other control panels is it’s ability to show server usage in neatly organized and easy-to-understand graphs. HyperVM effectively shows the amount of memory usage, disk usage, and bandwidth usage, accurately depicting the amount of load that is being place don the server. Users can also conduct tests on their server to see how their server is performing without having to risk site performance by pushing the limits of their web server. Using the test features within HyperVM, users can conduct boot tests, shutdown tests, and reboot tests. The IP address used in the test is also displayed and the rest of the control panel can easily be accessed from within the test module.

How Much Does HyperVM Cost?

Usually HyperVM is automatically integrated into your monthly web hosting expense, so there is no expensive startup cost involved with HyperVM. If your web host does not include HyperVM in your hosting package, then you can talk to them about switching from your current control panel to HyperVM. Some web hosts will not allow you to do this, so it is important that you contact your web hosting provider before making the decision to purchase HyperVM. If you do decide to purchase HyperVM for use on your server(s), then you’ll be relieved to know that the it only costs a few dollars per month extra.

Conclusion

Due to it’s unique user-interface, VPS-based functionality, and low cost, HyperVM is a suitable solution for anyone using a virtual private server to host their websites. Using HyperVM, you’ll be able to easily control nearly every aspect of your websites and your server without having any prior experience in server management. In fact, HyperVM even provides email support and remote server administration for a set hourly fee.

cPanel

cPanel is by far the most popular and maybe even the most user-friendly control panel around. Cpanel provides more services and features than any other control panel in the industry, and it’s customer service is said to be second to none. Cpanel is an all-in-one web hosting solution, allowing it’s customers to administer all aspects of domain hosting, including FTP, email creation, and database maintenance. Cpanel customers also have the option to resell the web hosting services with a reseller’s account. The cPanel interface is so well designed that becoming an expert at using it takes only a few hours at the most. Since cPanel is the most popular control panel, it also has the most tutorials available online. All of this combines to make cPanel the most favored web hosting control panel on the internet.

Plesk for Linux

The Linux version of Plesk is said to be one of the most stable and powerful control panel on the market today.  Though Plesk does not carry as many attributes as cPanel, the learning curve for this control panel is very short. In fact, most of the functions are specifically designed to automate any administration function. Plesk for Linux is capable of controlling up to thirty domains by default, but you have the option of upgrading to an unlimited amount of domains if you’d like.

ServerCP

ServerCP is another user-friendly control panel that often comes integrated with VPS and dedicated  hosting packages. ServerCP is also an extremely powerful Linux-based web hosting solution, equipped with countless useful features.  ServerCP supports unlimited domains by default and also comes with a very user-friendly installation application that lets you install various popular web hosting applications such as blogging platforms (like WordPress), photo galleries, and even e-commerce shopping carts.  ServerCP is currently available as a free edition (ServerCP Lite, or you can upgrade to the premium version of the software.

Virtuozzo Power Panel

Virtuozzo Power Panel is made by the company Parallels. This control panel is available in multiple  versions designed to support Windows and Linux VPS’s (virtual private servers).  The virtuozzo power panel allows you to access all administrative functions directly from your web browser. Some of the functions that can be accessed via your web browser include web service management processes, server reboots, backup restoring, log data viewing and server resource monitoring . The Virtuozzo Power Panel allows you to have an unprecedented amount of control via your web browser, and is said to be the most optimal control panel for users of Virtual Private Servers.

ISPmanager Features

ISPmanager is used by major hosting providers all over the world, giving them the automated power to efficiently manage their servers while allowing clients to easily administer their own websites.  The software has four login levels that give administrators, clients, domain owners and mail users extensive control of their respective environments.  Aside from management capabilities, ISPmanager offers a host of features that make it one of the most complete control panel solutions available.

Core Features

- Support for all major Linux distributions including, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS and Debian.  ISPmanager also supports Unix-based operating systems such as FreeBSD and Microsoft Windows as well.

- Support for both Apache and nginx web servers.

- Support for a wide range of mail servers, including CommuniGatePro, Exim, Postfix and Sendmail.

- Support for MySQL and PostgreSQL database servers.

- Multilingual support

- Flexible API and plugins allow for the integration of various new services.

Management Features

- Ability to automatically update time zones and other network settings.

- Compatible with PHP and Perl programming languages.

- Built-in cron job management facility.

- Ability to create and manage mail lists.

- Integrated file manager complete with extensive editing capabilities and data backup support.

- Instantly configure websites and updates application settings.

Advantages of ISPManager

There are both pros and cons to using ISPmanager as a server control panel.  One of the greatest advantages is that the software acts a multi-server solution that enables the streamlined management of web, database, FTP and mail servers.   It is also much lighter on system resources than other control panels and installs easily without needing changing your operating system configuration.  End-customers benefit as well with a host of useful features such as one-click application installers, database management with PHPMyAdmin, web stat tools and much more.

Disadvantages of ISPmanager

The major downside to ISPmanager is that the software does not come cheap.  If you want the Pro version, a one-year license will cost you a steep $453.16.  You can save yourself a lot of money with the lifetime license for $333.20.

Conclusion

ISPmanager is a fully featured control panel that offers plenty of advantages to the web host, server administrator and web hosting customer.  Though already equipped with an extensive set of features, ISPsystem is constantly incorporating new additions in its continuous mission to the make the software more powerful and easy to use.  Track record means a lot in the hosting business, and this mature control panel has the solid reputation you can count on.

]]> http://www.webhostingfan.com/2009/11/ispmanager-control-panel-review/feed/ 1 http://www.webhostingfan.com/2009/10/a-closet-look-at-the-many-types-of-web-hosting/ http://www.webhostingfan.com/2009/10/a-closet-look-at-the-many-types-of-web-hosting/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:49:05 +0000 gracechen http://www.webhostingfan.com/?p=264 While wading through the ever-expanding list of web hosting companies out there for those looking to place their business online, it can be rather overwhelming when faced with not only which company to choose but also which type of hosting would best fit the needs of one’s business.  There are essentially seven types – which one works best depends on the needs of the business.

Free and paid shared hosting

Free and paid shared hosting accounts are the most common type.  With free shared hosting one can expect to have advertising – often this can be a bit intrusive.  If one is on a tight budget and doesn’t mind possible unrelated or competition advertising, free shared hosting may be the way to go.  With both free and paid shared hosting, many different online businesses and entities share one server.  The downside to this is the possibility of web sites not being available due to heavy load processes being utilized by one or more sites at the same time.  This type of hosting is also known as virtual hosting as more than one domain is hosted on one server and occasionally even on the same ip address.

Dedicated hosting

Dedicated hosting is where a web hosting company allows a client to lease an entire server without needing to share with another client.  The advantage to this as compared to shared hosting is having complete control over the server in question.  This allows for a great deal of room in as far as what services can be run, software to be installed and also a lot more control over the type of hardware being used.

Co-location hosting

Co-location hosting is similar to dedicated hosting except businesses pay only for the space they require.  A lot of the same services apply as in dedicated hosting but instead of being responsible for an entire server, an online business is only required to attend to that specific section where their site resides.

Virtual dedicated server and virtual private server hosting

The final two types of hosting are virtual dedicated and private server hosting.  These two are the same thing with just two different names.  Web hosting companies offering this service partition a server into multiple instances of servers – giving the appearance of a separate server instance for each client.  VPS clients have the run of their own private “server” and can even reboot their virtual server much the same as physical server.  VPS accounts run in the same way as a dedicated server account and clients can add in software as needed and control the “server” in the same manner as a dedicated client is able.

Conclusion

What is all comes down to is the needs of the business that is going to be hosted online.  If a very small amount of space and not a lot of control is needed, free or paid shared hosting is the way to go.  If the business in question is going to need a lot more control but maybe not as much as what is allowed with an entire server, VPS or VDS hosting may apply.  Lastly, if the needs of the online business will require quite a lot of control, extreme flexibility and room to expand as needed, a dedicated hosting option should be considered.