To the untrained website owner’s eye, website hosting may look boring and one-dimensional. After all, it’s playing the role of a website landlord… How interesting can it possibly be?
Well, you’d be surprised. The most innovative things happening with website hosting are technological breakthroughs, changing the face of web hosting, website performance, and online security almost daily.
Understanding these innovations can help you make better decisions about your website hosting based on your type of business and your goals for the future.
Cloud Hosting
Most things are going digital these days… And web hosting is no exception. It’s moving away from physical data centers and towards cloud hosting—with all the necessary resources and data stored online rather than in physical locations.
Cloud solutions have been around for a long time—think DropBox and Google Drive. But it’s becoming commonplace for web hosting companies to offer the same service.
Cloud hosting is a popular alternative to shared, dedicated, and hybrid VPS hosting. It’s a fair bit more expensive, but it has plenty of advantages over the more traditional types of hosting.
In cloud hosting, resources are stored on a network of servers. Because you’re essentially renting virtual space, you only have to pay for the space you actually use, unlike physical servers. This is a bonus that ends up making them more affordable.
It also makes it almost infinitely scalable, which is excellent news for businesses expected to grow exponentially. Security on cloud hosting is also state-of-the-art. Websites are backed up regularly, and the huge bonus is that if one of the connected servers goes down, the others can carry the site until it’s back up.
Improved Web Security
The year 2020 saw over 37 billion data breaches! Is your web security strong enough to prevent your website from being one of those breached? Since the pandemic, cybercriminals have been doubling down on their efforts, and since almost everything has gone online, they have plenty of targets.
This explains why web hosting has emphasized security more in recent years. Security improvements never end—as long as there are hackers, more and more tech innovations will come out to protect personal data.
As such, web hosts are placing a lot more emphasis on security to protect your information and your website visitors. It’s become common for web hosts to offer security tools like SSL certificates, encrypted data, and domain privacy.
It’s a good idea to double-check what security features your web host offers. Depending on your type of business, your host’s security may be more than adequate or need some buffing up. Do your research here—it’s different for every website.
Automation and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has been around for decades, but it’s now starting to infiltrate almost every area of life, including web hosting. Web hosting companies are beginning to use machine learning and AI to streamline processes and increase security.
AI is currently helping to optimize server performance thanks to machine learning and performance analytics. It significantly impacts security by monitoring traffic and identifying threats before they actually set in. Some AI can also neutralize threats before they become a problem.
The same is true for equipment. AI is trained to monitor equipment performance and spot defects or setbacks before they become problematic, streamlining all processes and lowering costs.
Other popular web-hosting AI applications include temperature monitoring and ventilation for physical servers and fire hazard warnings.
DIY Website Builders
You don’t need to know how to code to build a website. Gone are the days of paying someone to design and build a website for you—DIY drag-and-drop builders are the way to go.
It’s important to understand that not all websites will work with a drag-and-drop approach. Detailed, technical websites still need a knowledgeable and skilled web developer behind them, as do most mobile apps.
But simpler websites can easily be designed and created through your web host. WordPress is probably the best-known example of this kind of tech, one of the first to allow users to create their sites.
Multiple similar services have arisen since WordPress, including SiteGround, Squarespace, etc. These services are the biggest competition for traditional web hosts because they offer hosting and design functionality.
Declining Data Centers
Data centers are essential, but the demand for physical centers has declined dramatically. The number of physical centers has dropped by around 2 million since 2015, and it’s expected to keep dropping steadily as the years go by.
Cloud hosting may be expensive, but it’s becoming increasingly popular, further negating the need for physical data centers. Given the inaccessibility of cloud hosting for certain businesses, it’s likely that data centers will still be around for a while. Still, there’s a trend towards fewer physical servers and more online storage and resources.
Conclusion
Website hosting is a much more exciting field than you may imagine. These are just a few of the latest technological innovations in the industry, which could have far-reaching consequences for website owners.
That’s not to say that remaining unaware of them will have bad consequences. But knowing some of the latest techs can make a difference to your web hosting choices… And ultimately, your web hosting choices can make a difference to the performance of your website and, in turn, your business.
Now may be the time to reassess your current web host and what they’re offering you and determine if your business needs are being met. If they are, then there’s nothing to worry about! But if not, shopping around and finding something better suited to your business and goals might be a good idea.
About the Author
Paul Wheeler runs a web design agency that helps small businesses optimize their websites for business success. He aims to educate business owners on all things website-related on his own website, Reviews for Website Hosting.
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