Anyone with a website to their credit goes through the process of first creating one and then uploading it on the web for people to see it. Web hosting services primarily aid users in making their websites accessible by provide the space on the server and the internet connectivity.
The services provided by a web hosting company are varied. From basic services like the FTTP or ISP for a personal website that are generally free-of-cost to more complex services that include database support or application packages that are required by business websites that come with a price tag.
The cost of hosting depends on the services provided by your hosting company. Since every company looks to optimizing their resources and expenditure, it is imperative that the company has chalked out its requirements accurately and has chosen the right web hosting vendor.
Having the right hosting vendor does not automatically guarantee optimum expenses for the company seeking the web services. A lot depends on the kind of web services and the plan you choose for your company. Since there are various kinds of web hosting services on Sitecore, with each of them having their own pros and cons, it makes a lot of business sense to understand them thoroughly before deciding on the one that seems the right fit for you.
Shared Web Hosting
Pros:
It is the most affordable type of hosting. The hosting vendor manages the server for the Sitecore client websites. The services include monitoring, back-ups, and tech support.
Cons:
Since multiple client sites are hosted on a common server, security could be compromised and also the shared resources may not be available when you need them.
Dedicated Web Hosting
Pros:
The Sitecore clients are assigned their private server which gives the client more control over the server configuration and also the opportunity to obtain their own private network.
Cons:
Although the hosting vendor manages the monitoring, back-ups and provides tech support, the client is responsible for the server and site administration.
The costs are naturally higher than for a shared hosting as the client ends up paying for the resources irrespective of whether they have been used or not.
Virtual Private Server (VPS)
Pros:
Each VPS has its own set of files, resources and ports and while the clients have root access to their own VPS, the hosting vendor manages the hypervisor.
It’s less expensive than dedicated hosting and hence the ideal option for companies that wish to host on a budget.
Cons:
There is a risk of contending with one too many VPS that share the resources at the same time.
Cloud Hosting
Pros:
The cost of maintaining a server on-premise is huge. Significant costs arising out of power usage, backup power setup cost, uplink (public) connectivity cost, hardware spare management costs, networking gear costs, cooling unit costs, etc. can be brought down by moving these servers to the cloud that have enterprise grade setup specifically developed for servers along with regular maintenance of equipment performed along with ensuring that you receive better services out of similar servers.
Cons:
Being a fairly recent technology, it is relatively less mature than other hosting options.
Managed Web Hosting
Pros:
When your provider takes over the time-consuming duties of setup / provisioning, performing day to day management tasks, applying patches/updates to operating system, securing your server, performing daily backups, monitoring your server on 24/7 basis and performing routine security audits of your servers, companies can concentrate on their business objectives.
Cons:
The costs are, naturally, higher.
Colocation facilities
Pros:
The data center provides fast internet connections, rents facility, racks, power & cooling to Sitecore clients, as also speed and security for transactions.
Cons:
Clients have to manage their own equipment, server, storage, and site.
Fully-managed Sitecore Web Hosting
Pros:
Experts handle everything: right from the taking preventive and corrective maintenance tasks, to performance optimization and monitoring, to implementation advice and mentoring, to handling Sitecore supports and updates.
Cons:
This comes with a huge dependence on the provider and while the costs are more predictable they are definitely higher than shared, dedicated or virtual plans.
Sitecore Azure Edition
Sitecore Azure’s integrated user interface manages your cloud delivery infrastructure and simplifies the deployment of your website to the Microsoft Azure cloud. It is also possible to deploy from your on-premise content editing server to any number of Sitecore Azure cloud services that are hosted at various Microsoft Azure locations globally.
Features:
The Sitecore Azure provides a high scalability and stability.
Azure’s SLA provides a 99.5% uptime with a highly available infrastructure.
The costs to host and time to deploy are significantly lower.
The server response time is higher.
How to reduce hosting costs
In a nutshell, we can say that the entire procedure of Sitecore web hosting consists of the following steps that define requirements, calculate costs and selecting the right vendor and then, finally, manage or reduce the costs.
- Defining server requirements
- Defining network requirements
- Defining security requirements
- Defining service requirements
- Defining Sitecore requirements
Selecting the right vendor involves defining the technical, business and vendor requirements in writing, compiling a list of suitable vendors and comparing their prices. It is important that you don’t choose a vendor only because the cost is lowest. The vendor needs to provide flexible plans and provide services that are relevant to your business.
Reduce hosting resources and services
- Avoid resource & service costs that you don’t need- use virtual over dedicated hosting, scale back unnecessary memory space, bandwidth, etc. Use one consolidated database server for all sites, use your own facilities and equipment and negotiate for a lower monthly cost with the vendor.
- Try to use internal staff to do some Sitecore support. Encourage working in collaboration and mentoring of the staff to increase productivity.
- Use Sitecore experts to supplement your internal staff
- Encourage knowledge transfers so staff can do more
- Selecting low cost Sitecore partners that also provide flexible plans.