Professional Web Hosting from Courtix Web Hosting

Part – 4

Types of Web Hosting Services in the new millennium

Like all industries, the web hosting industry has evolved and changed to adapt to the new requirements of its customers. The result is, following types of unique web hosting services:

Video/FFMPEG Hosting- Video hosting refers to uploading and storing videos on the server for viewing over the internet. FFmpeg hosting is a term that refers to any “assortment of software which is available free, which helps in recording, converting and streaming a digital video or an audio”, so named because video sharing sites use the FFMpeg software library in their servers for converting the video files into an acceptable format. Video sites generally require a dedicated host server.

SHOUTcast/Audio Streaming Host- SHOUTcast is a software for encoding audio files in mp3 for broadcasting across the net. Using this software, one’s computer or server may be used as a server for broadcasting music or podcasts, as also for receiving such broadcasts from other computers.

Application Web Hosting- In this service, an application service provider (ASP) provides customers with the service of a particular computer application over the internet, generally on a pay-per-use basis. The ASP generally owns the application as well as the server hosting it. While this eliminates the need for the user to integrate the software into his own system, it also creates too much reliance on the ASP and compels him to accept his terms of use completely.

Social Network Hosting- This is a service that allows the user to create and hosts social networking services and related applications.

Game Server Hosting- This service involves leasing servers to gaming communities for them to host a game client in which the users can play multiplayer online games. Games generally require a dedicated server to collect the information from each individual gamer’s computer and distribute it throughout the network- a task that requires high bandwidth and resource usage.

Guild Hosting- They are similar to game servers, only such servers are specifically designed for building online gaming communities. Apart from hosting the gaming environment, they also provide tools for the players to be able to regularly interact with each other (rather than play in isolation), and the service provider takes the onus of maintenance and upgrading of software so the gaming communities can concentrate only on the game. MMORPGs follow this type of hosting.

Remote Backup Hosting- This is a service that provides user with space on a server to backup and store their computer files. They generally charge the user on the basis of factors like the amount of space given to them for backing up and the number of machines that can simultaneously be backed up. Remote backup allows you to create a safe shelter for your data which is distinct from your physical machine, so your data remains safe regardless of what happens to the original data or its storage medium. However, storing data on an external server can also be risky, as there is a possibility that it might be stolen by third parties, or permanently lost if the service provider goes out of business. Also, due to bandwidth restrictions, recovery of data is a very slow process. Many such services also have upload limits which prevent the backing up of very large files.

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Tags: Application Web Hosting, Game Server Hosting, Guild Hosting Reseller, Remote Backup Hosting, SHOUTcast/Audio Streaming Host, Social Network Hosting, Video/FFMPEG Hosting

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 9:00 pm and is filed under SHOUTcast hosting, Web Hosting Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.