Hosting for ECommerce

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Hosting for E-Commerce
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Hosting Services

• The total costs of setting up your own in-house
  Web commerce site are expensive.
• Web hosting services allow businesses to start
  electronic commerce inexpensively.
• Web hosting services provide all the services
  that an ISP does.

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Types of hosting services

• Self-hosting
• Shared hosting
• Dedicated hosting
• Collocated hosting

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Implications of Self-hosting

• The online business owns and maintains the server
  and all its software.
• It implies full control, instant hardware access,
  and complete flexibility.
• Business must have additional staff, Web
  expertise, expensive equipment, and a high-speed
  direct Internet connection.

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Implications of Shared Hosting

• Your Web or commerce site resides on the same
  server as several other sites.
• It is inexpensive, requires very little of an
  online stores time to maintain.

• It has a very high-speed connection to the
  Internet.
• It may lose direct control from online stores.
• Security concerns arise from unrelated online
  businesses sharing the same server.

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Implications of Dedicated Hosting

• A Web host provides a server for your Web site
  alone.
• More Web and commerce software options, a good
  high-speed connection, more control to sites
  design become available.
• Higher software costs and maintenance costs can
  be incurred.

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Implications of Collocated Hosting

• The server is owned by the online store but is
  located at the Web hosts site.
• The Web host provides maintenance based on the
  level of service the online business requires.
• Maintenance costs are higher than self-hosting.
• ValueWeb is an example of a Web hosting
  service. It provides services of shared hosting,
  dedicated hosting, and collocation services.

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What should you look for in a host?

• Usage limitations
• Most hosting plans limit how much data you can
  transfer to and from their servers in a given
  month. Once you reach 500MB or 1GB of data
  transfer, most companies charge you by the
  megabyte for any additional traffic
• Script and extension support
• If your Web site uses or will soon use
• SQL databases
• CGI scripts
• FrontPage 2000 extensions
• PHP
• Active Server Pages.

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What should you look for in a host?

• File-transfer options
• You'll need to upload your site from your local
  machine to the server it lives on, and you may
  want people to be able to download files directly
  from your site. Look for a host that offers
  unlimited password-protected FTP uploads to get
  your site online
• Mail options
• How much e-mail will you need for your domain?
  Estimate the number of mailboxes you'll want. You
  might pick one for each employee, for example,
  and add some for functions such as sales, info,
  complaints, and feedback

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What should you look for in a host?

• Site statisticsYou may not think much about hit
  rates and browser versions and types now, but
  once you get the site off the ground, you might
  want site statistic tools so that you can
  evaluate traffic and plan future site
  development.

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Factors to evaluate when selecting a hosting
service

• Functionality
• Reliability
• Bandwidth and server scalability
• Security
• Backup and disaster recovery
• Cost

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How do you narrow down your hosting options?

• How's the tech support?
• Check out the host's service policy at its site
• Are other customers happy?
• The best insight you'll get into your prospective
  Web host is unedited customer feedback.
• Hosts own online forums
• other online discussions
• WebHostingTalk
• Usenet newsgroups at Google Groups.

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How do you narrow down your hosting options?

• Is the service reliable?
• Check out online forums for comments about a
  host's performance.
• Check out hosts other customers at key times of
  day to see how quickly they load or whether they
  seem sluggish or unresponsive.
• Test those sites using the free NetMechanic
  monitoring service.

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How do you narrow down your hosting options?

• If I back out, will it cost me?
• Can get out of your hosting contract should the
  deal go sour.
• Opt to pay month to month, even if your host
  offers discounts for year-in-advance payments.
• Look for plans with free setup, too, so that you
  can test your site before your payments start
  rolling in.
• Most important, register your own domain instead
  of having your host register it for you. If you
  administer your own domain, it's easy to switch
  hosts.

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How do you narrow down your hosting options?

• Will my host be around in a year's time?
• In theory, a big, publicly traded hosting company
  is less likely to go belly-up and take your Web
  site with it.
• Have a back up plan READY!!!

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Where to find Hosts

• Make a shortlist of your needs
• Comb directories of Web hosting companies
• CNET's list of basic hosts
• the Web Host Directory
• TopHosts
• WebHosters.com
• and the Web Hosts List.
• Shorten the list by first picking the type of
  hosting that suits you best (basic, shared,
  e-commerce, dedicated, and so on).
• Next, look for plans that satisfy both your
  budget and basic requirements.