Most business owners are well aware of the fact that the internet will be an important part of their future. After all, it’s almost always an important part of their present as well. But one often finds a lot of confusion about how one should best plan for companies IT as it moves forward. In particular, there’s quite a bit of confusion over the various hosting options and their relative merits. And in particular, there’s often simply not enough discussion about the idea of no-hurdle hosting. This involving hosting options which one can essentially just jump into without much overall effort.

One of the most important parts of web hosting comes down to the nature of the hardware involved. People often talk about servers in a way that implies a single physical object. And it’s true that can be the case. But some of the lower end and upper end hosting solutions tend to use either virtualization or cloud services. To begin with, one should understand the most inexpensive options. However, it’s best to begin by adding that most hosting companies use slightly different terminology. As with many things in the science and engineering field one will encounter a large number of overlapping terminology.

The most basic hosting package is usually known, quite appropriately, like a basic server. The basic server or basic package is a small subdivided section within a larger server. This is similar to some of the other virtualized options in some respects. Namely for the fact that the server isn’t really a physical thing in and of itself. One might think of a basic package as a room within an apartment building. One can’t really do much with a single room in terms of management. For example, one probably couldn’t decide to paint the walls as the owner of the apartment complex wouldn’t allow it. And in turn, the center of the apartment itself wouldn’t be thrilled with that fact either. A basic package is somewhat similar to this in terms of limitations.

One can host websites on a basic server. And one will usually have some form of database access. However, most of the options are prechosen for people right from the beginning. It’s the cheapest option. But it’s typically not the best option for business use. The next option up is usually a better option for a small business. Likewise any of the options beyond it.

The next step beyond a basic package gives considerably more control. To use the earlier example of an apartment complex one might think of it as an actual apartment. The apartment sits within the larger apartment complex. But one has more control over an apartment than a single room within it. Basically, this metaphor points to a virtual private server, or VPS, as a mid-point of overall control. One usually has full control over a virtualized server within a much larger physical one. This can even extend to installing one’s choice of operating systems on the server.

The next step up is an actual physical server. This is known as dedicated server hosting. It’s is akin to owning the apartment complex. One has full control of the infrastructure when opting for dedicated server hosting. In fact, in the apartment metaphor, the level of control extends to using the entire building as is or sectioning it out into apartments. Pushing past the metaphor into reality, it means one can use the entirety of the server or create virtualized components and run a VPS. As such this is usually considered the most no-hurdle form of hosting. In large part due to the fact that one can make things as simple or complex as needed.

And finally, one can consider cloud servers. A cloud server is something like a combination of dedicated servers and a VPS. It’s more complex than either. But it offers similar functionality to that of a server. But the virtualized nature makes it more similar to a VPS in that sense.