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704 WEBHOSTINGthe capitalization or borrowing power required to build
and operate such facilities. On the other hand, these first-
class facilities do exist, and there is no reason that a Web
site—no matter how small it may be—should not reap
the benefits of being located in one. Most of the owners
of first-class data centers, however, do not directly offer
shared-server hosting, because they are more likely to of-
fer services at the high end of the hosting spectrum. The
vendors that own large data centers are more experienced
in dealing with customers who have Web-hosting budgets
on the order of $10,000 per month or more.Tenant Vendors
Many smaller Web-hosting services came to realize over
time that their second-class infrastructure not only was in-
sufficient, but was also causing them to lose customers to
competitors who had better Internet connectivity, power,
air conditioning, and physical security. The smart ones—
those who realized they would otherwise be at a com-
petitive disadvantage—adopted an “if-you-can’t-beat-’em-
join-’em” attitude and opted out of providing any of the
physical aspects of Web-site hosting. They themselves are
customers (ortenants) of colocation facilities, but because
they, in turn, offer shared-server hosting, they aretenant
vendors. A tenant vendor can be an excellent alternative
for a shared-server customer. The customer gets the ad-
vantages of a first-class data center and of having someone
who is focused entirely on the operation of the shared-
server systems.Resellers
Resellers are the third tier of shared-server vendors. A
reseller bundles shared-server Web hosting from a third
party with the reseller’s own value-added services.
At first, the practice of reselling was considered decep-
tive, and today there are still some resellers who attempt
to hide what they are doing from their customers. The
better resellers, however, recognize that both they and the
parent Web-hosting service are providing value to the end
customer, and these resellers understand that it makes
more sense for the customer to be aware of exactly what
is happening.
From one perspective, resellers are simply salespeople
who sign up customers and collect money. But there are
some resellers who actually provide a substantial level of
service above and beyond the services provided by the
parent vendors for whom they resell. For example, some
resellers (like some tenant vendors) provide the site de-sign, setup, and maintenance services that a high-volume
shared-server vendor does not offer.
Likewise, some resellers and tenant vendors have
particularvertical-application expertisethat may be of
substantial value and importance. Vertical-application ex-
pertise means experience with shared-server hosting to
specific industry groups. There might be a reseller or ten-
ant vendor, for instance, that offered shared-server host-
ing for realtors. Such a vendor might include a number of
services that are unique to getting a real estate brokerage
site online.Dedicated Servers
Dedicated serversare essentially the same as shared servers
(i.e., they are owned by the hosting service and come with
a standard suite of software and tools), but each Web site
gets its own server and does not have to share it with other
sites. In fact, the same companies that offer shared-server
Web hosting typically offer dedicated servers as well, and
some treat the two categories as virtually identical.
As compared to shared servers, dedicated servers offer
the following advantages:Increased capacity. Dedicated servers can handle sub-
stantially more of everything than a shared server can.
Some dedicated servers can handle up to the following
limits:
100 GB disk space
1 TB (a terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes) monthly data
transfer
Peak data transfer rates approaching 100 Mbps
Improved security.Dedicated servers eliminate the risks
associated with sharing hardware with other Web sites.
Improved reliability.A dedicated server is less subject
to outages and slowdowns caused by interactions with
other Web sites.
Additional configurations.Some Web-hosting services
allow customers to build sites using multiple dedicated
servers that can be configured in a variety of ways to
increase reliability, capacity, functionality, or all three.The cost of dedicated-server hosting ranges from $100
to $20,000 per month, and like shared-server hosting, it is
sold in packages. Table 2 lists some typical examples.Two Tiers of Dedicated-Server Vendors
Unlike the shared-server business, where such relation-
ships are common, few resellers or tenant vendors are inTable 2Typical Dedicated-Server Packages (as of April 2003)Low-End Midrange High-EndMonthly Fee $125 $1,000 $10,000
Setup Fee $250 $1,000 $10,000
Server Hardware (1) 1-CPU server (2) 2-CPU servers (3) 1-CPU servers
(1) 2-CPU servers
Software Linux, Apache NT, IIS Solaris, Apache
Monthly Data Transfer 200 GB 500 GB 2,000 GB
Disk Storage 8 GB 36 GB RAID 250 GB RAID