A good and stable server is crucial for web service. When we choose server space, there're multiple suggestions from hosting provider: VPS, Colocation, Dedicated or Cloud hosting server. Because of so many available choice, customers are not always so clear about different terms like colocation, dedicated bandwidth, virtual server and cloud etc.

If we are crazy on quality and purchase high cost plan but we actually don't use that much, it's a kind of waste. The vice versa. In following, we're brief explain the different plans with comparison & reviews.

VPS Hosting

VPS(Virtual Private Server). It's created on dedicated server by virtualization technologies. This virtualization technology devides haredware and system OS then setup multiple server systems. Each VPS got its own OS, space, RAM and dedicated CPU resource etc just like a common server. We can handle OS installation, software installation, reboot and everything the same as dedicated server operation. Logically, as long as the dedicated server resource is big enough, we can create unlimited VPS on it. It's a scalable solution for enterprise and IDC hardware usage efficiency.

At the time being, there're 5 popular virtualization technolgies used by different VPS providers – Xen, OpenVZ, Virtuozzo, Hyper-V & Vmware. Different VPS technologies come with different performance on different hardware configurations. Especially when deal with selling policy in this competitive market. That's why clients have different experience from different VPS hosting providers.

Hyper-V is provided by Microsoft group and only for Windows server at the moment. Actually hyper-v is almost standard choice for windows vps since they both are microsoft products. It's reasonable to think the two are most compatible.

Vmware, leading enterprise solution especially on cloud computing field. We can run almost any OS together on vmware platform. But as we know, the less service on host server, the more secure. So not too many vps providers use it, and it's expensive.

OpenVZ, probably the most popular solution used by all cheap vps providers. This technology provides OS level virtualization and each OS will work independantly. Because it's only on OS level and has very low hardware requirement, we can create more vps servers on same dedicated server. That's why VPS created on OpenVZ is cheaper than other solutions.

Xen, similar with OpenVZ but provides more advanced features. VPS created from Xen platform comes with swap and dedicated RAM/CPU etc. That means if there's no more resource available on host server, we can not create extra vps server. Because of this, VPS on XEN is more reliable than OpenVZ.

Virtuozzo is commercial software from swsoft company(Parallels now) who is leading in lots of hosting software products like sitebuilder wizard. It provides OS level virtualization as well like OpenVZ. However, the number of VPS instance is strictly limited by the license we purchase. At the meanwhile, virtuozzo vps provides very similar performance to host server.

The biggest advantage over VPS is cheap when we want to get system control. Weakness is we have to find a good vps provider because in case one node causes problem on host server then our server is in danger.

Dedicated Server Hosting

Dedicated server hosting is renting from IDC, we just need to provide our configuration then hosting provider will setup everything in their data center. Because of this, we reduced the cost of purchasing all hardware products. We get full remote control over hosting server.

The only weakness of this product is we don't know how the server is configured(structures and actual setup). Those honest hosting provider always tell us the truth such as spare parts brand, model etc. However, some providers do use their own setup to reduce investment and just provide customer the basic configuration such as amount of cpu/ram/space. We can only learn details after received remote login information.

Colocation Hosting

Probably the most reliable server service. We setup the server by our own then send to IDC server rack, service provider will connect the server based our contract. Mostly, we will have to be responsible for hardware problems. The biggest advantage is we have full control of this server especially when it's not so expensive to purchase those hardwares. We can apply our custom setup inside server for specific purpose. Especially when we need to copy lots of data to hard disk, remote uploading is definitely not good choice. We can prepare everything locally then send to data center.

For colocation, we have to get an IT professional to maintain the server while dedicated server hosting is maintained by hosting company. We have to evaluate carefully in choosing the service.

Cloud Hosting

Also called cloud computing where capability is elastic. Cloud computing is highly scalable and more efficient in handling web services. It's integrated with data calculating, storing and IaaS service. Cloud hosting can be provided and paid upon usage on real time. Because of this, we can control the costs efficiently.

Cloud server provides two core services: Advanced cloud hosting & scalable cloud computing for medium to large size enterprises.

All servers are deployed in backbone datacenters and each server be able to work independentely for computer service like storage, backup and other internet services.

Cloud server is designed for clients who have high requirement of system availability with quick recovery. Cloud hosting platform comes with storage sharing and smart backup, be able to make automatic recovery which is centrally managed. Cloud hosting provides the best price value comparing to any other available hosting plan.

Cloud hosting is hot at the time being and it's actually being developped the same way of traditional web hosting service. It's cheap but provides more features than dedicated server.

Conclusion

Based above explanation/comparison, here're some suggestions in choosing different hosting solutions:

• VPS: Suitable for small to medium size dynamic website with relatively high visits. To be more specific, it's only for small size company if you run a business.
• Dedicated Server: Suitable for small to medium size company, ecommerce or big forum with high daily traffic.
• Colocation: Only good for big groups and you must choose a good & profesional data center space.
• Cloud Hosting: Suitable for development companies who have frequent need changes.

Shared web hosting is cheap and space is used by lots of clients. Because of this, there's no 100% guarantee over data protection. In case some day you can not visit the space suddenly, backup is quite important. It's responsible to our websites and our hardworking. Here we introduce the popular backup solutions based editorial experience. However, keep in mind we have to put into action other than just learning different ways, we have dangerous experience about this!

Manual Backup

Simple and basic backup solution. To most websites, there's very low frequency of source code change, it's more about database updates instead. In this case, we can download all data to local disk drive via FTP. When we make changes to template or files, do backup again. Because database is the most important part, we must export at times to make sure we have the newest version on hand.

Login to your cpanel control panel and click the "phpMyadmin" icon then select your desired database. Follow this graphic instructions on how to export in phpmyadmin

(click to open in new window for large view)

The weakness of manual backup is less efficient, we have to operate everything manually. If any sudden case happens, we might loose days or weeks data.

Backup Functions in Hosting Control Panel

Most web hosting control panels provide backup/restore functions, we can improve efficiency greatly using such tools. Since cpanel is the most popular control panel solution, we'll briefly guide on how to make backups under it.

Firstly, let's login cpanel control panel and click "Backups" then navigate to backup page.

1. Backup all websites files. click "HomeDirectory" then it will download a compressed package including all folders/files under "public_html" directory to local computer.

2. Backup database. Click database name under "DATABASES" to start downloading zipped package for this database. If we have multiple databases then repeat this one after another. In case any problem happens in future, click "Upload" on right side to make full restoration.

Website Backup Functions

Many websites are created by CMS softwares that come with backup function themselves. Even there's not, there're always third party plugins for this purpose such as wordpress. For wordpress, there's a popular plugin "Database Backup" for efficient database backup.

Third Party Backup Tools

Third party tools are probably the most scalable & efficient ways. But mostly it requires server end support. Here we highly recommend dropbox which is easy and stable. Dropbox is supported by different platforms with up to 5G free storage. The core part is control over different backup versions, we can restore from different available backups easily.

Check out this official wiki on how to configure on shared space.

Again, no matter for website or database backup, it's easy to handle. The most important part is our mind, we must seriously treat the work and action now! Or else when our sites run into problem but no backup, any tool is useless.

Ecommerce is leading in worldwide business. The players in this cycle including both enterprises and individuals. Because of this, different business modes are developed and if we want to join in, it's necessary to understand the popular terms and their relationships.

P2P, P2C, O2O, B2C, B2B, C2C. These terms are frequently displayed in various news, if we want to earn business success, further understanding of all terms and add to your action!

What's P2P?

Abbreviation of "Peer-to-Peer", means person to person, is a kind of money service. Individuals can get loan from third party P2P platform by some service fees. P2P is pure online business to match different inquiries/offers. The big advantage of P2P is to make full use of free money. However the absolute weakness of this mode is lack of insurrance.

What's O2O?

O2O is a hot term for QR code marketing, means "Online To Offline" to connect traditional business via online marketing. Via online platform, consumers can select product/service directly and do online transactions.

O2O is connecting traditional business with modern platform, advantages on both sides can be perfectly matched so consumers can enjoy good online price and the same quality offline service. The core part of O2O is online payment.

What's B2C?

B2C means Business-to-Customer. Under this business mode, companies sell product/service to final clients directly. The direct thing we can see is store websites by various companies, while they do have real offline shops.

What's B2B?

B2B – Business to Business. Means the business among enterprises. B2B has been developed for many years and now a very powerful engine on the planet. The biggest B2B platform alibaba.com is now one of the most important international brand. There're three points for successful B2B mode:

1. Purchase – B2B web platform provides high quality and low price products.
2. Teamwork – Co-operation with logistics service for guaranteed products delivery.
3. Service – For second purchase

What's C2C?

C2C is dedicated to ecommerce, the number "C" refers to customer. So the term C2C means ecommerce business between individuals. It's popularly showed to us on various personal shopping cart websites such as ebay.

What's P2C?

P2C- Production to Consumer. Under this business mode, product is sent to end user directly from producers, no more middle transaction required. P2C is pretty new after B2B, B2Cand C2C. It's also popularly named "Life service platform". P2C put everything to its platform such as real estate, family service, ticketing, health caring etc.

More terms including:

B2B2C – Business to  – Business to Customer
B2F – Business to Family
SaaS – Software as a Service
PaaS – Platform as a Service
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
M-B – Mobile Business
B2G – Business to Government
G2B – Government to Business
B2M – Business to Marketing
M2C – Manufacturers to Consumer
SoLoMo – Social + Local + Mobile
ABC – Agent-Business-Consumer
BAB – Business Agent Business
SNS-EC – Social Network Service-Ecommerce
B2S – Business to Share