Microsoft is the company that develops Windows and most of the Linux distributions are open source and free. Sometimes because of this a Windows server can be more expensive than a Linux server.  This article is written for help to the ones who are confused about what type of server the should choose.

Most of the people, who are beginners in the web hosting world naturally assume that since they have Windows on their PC their server must be an Windows too. That is not true at all. The uploading and updating your site happens mostly through FTP access and both types of the platforms support that feature. However there is a slight difference between the FTP programs because on some the commands are different for both the platforms. Often most of the programs are created with one platform in mind.

The choice for the web server should be dictated by your personal needs. Most people need PHP, MySQL, POP3 and similar services. The Linux server fully provides that. If you however need something developed for Windows like ASP, Access or Windows streaming media, then obviously the choice should be a Windows server.

One other thing, that is being discussed is the stability and reliability of the two types of platforms.  The vast majority of people think that, because Windows is made for home PC’s it is unreliable and is being hacked more often. The statistics however say different – a surprising number of Linux servers has been hacked over the years as well. And in terms of which is faster the answer is that there isn’t a huge difference between both.

The conclusion is that you should choose the web server type on your needs, so choose carefully.

If you have a bigger website, the biggest disadvantage on a shared web server is the lack of control over the software installed on the server.

Many website owners usually don’t care about that fact and they shouldn’t. However, as we mentioned if you own a big website with a lot of visitors every day you won’t feel comfortable on a shared web hosting server. There is a solution to this kind of issue – it’s called Virtual Private Server or the also well used term VPS. The VPS or Virtual Private Server can offer that control over the software resources for the people with more websites under one account or the ones who own a particularly big web site.

To know the advantages over the shared web hosing, first you need to be introduced to some definition for a VPS. The VPS is again a like a virtual account, divided by a Virtualization software, located on a physical machine. This time however, the resources are not shared – every VPS account has own predefined(usually by the webhosting company, depending on the VPS package you have ordered) resources like RAM and allocated space. You have a control over every software aspect on your Virtual Private Server as well and every other configurations, available for a web server.

The main advantage for that kind of server is the access granted to the owner of the VPS. The owner has “root” access to the Virtual Server and this allow him to control the software, configuration and even create other user accounts. In other words, a VPS is like any other normal Server.

The VPS has other advantages like the better security. For example, if a hacker breaches in a shared web hosting server, where all the accounts are stored, he can cause alot of damage to the all these accounts, located on the server. A VPS however acts independently and you can customize the level of security for it on you own preferences.  The structure of a Virtual Private Server is such, that even if a hacker gains access to a VPS, he cannot get to the other VPS accounts, stored on the same physical machine.

Virtual Private Servers can be setupped by the hosting company in many different ways. The most common configuration is depending on the hosting package, they give you defined disc space and RAM. The Operating Memory or Random-Access Memory also known as RAM is very important for a web server, since most of software you will use tend to use the RAM more than the CPU. You can read more for the RAM on Wikipedia if you like. Depending on the Virtualization software the web hosting company is using, there are some different setups as well. For example, a web hosting company which uses Parallels Virtuozzo sets a soft and a hard RAM limit. Once you hit the hard limit, you get a warning that you are exceeding your resources.

The main advantage of a VPS can also be the disadvantage. It is highly recommended that you know what you are doing and have the technical know-how so you can operate with your VPS. The Virtual Private Server is not for people who don’t like technical stuff or are not willing to learn, shared hosting plan is perfect for them.

In general, a today’s VPS packages are highly affordable and are huge advantage to the common big web site owners. If you are wondering what type of VPS hosting package you should order, make sure you are familiar with the software you will be using and how much resources it will take.

The first question is What Type of Website are You Building ?

Will you web site be a Blog, Online buisness web site, E-commerce web site? Will this website be a simple forum or web site with lots of dynamic content? These are all key questions, since as mentioned above you must meet certain requirements in order to successfully build your website.  For example, if you want to build an E-commersce web site first you need to find a SSL provider. Sometimes the hosting company can offer you SSL packages or stand-alone SSL certificates at very affordable prices. The SSL is important for your clients since it protects the confidential information(such as credit card numbers) to be stolen. You should check if your future host provides the Secure Socket Layer(SSL) before going to the next step, which is actually purchasing the package.

An other example is if you are building a personal Blog or something similar that is simple compared to the E-commerce web site. Then you must ensure that the host provides PHP, Perl/CGI Scripting and Database support such as MySQL or PostgreSQL. Also, make sure they have one of the latest versions of these software since the applications you might be running on your hosting could require latest versions of PHP, MySQL and etc.

The other important question is How much allocated disc space you will need?

Again, if you are running a small and static website you shouldn’t need much disc space. However, if you are planning to upload much multimedia content such as videos and pictures, make sure you have plenty of disc space on your host. Another example for a high-demanding of disc space web site is business site or some other dynamic web site, which will have big database. You should watch for such things like what;s the database storage because database storage and disc space can be quite different things on some hosts.

The third important question you might ask is How much traffic should I need?

To be honest, this totally depends on your website. Large, business websites can suck up huge traffic every month. The unlimited bandwith package however might be a bit more costly than the one with limitations and if your website is small like some hobby website or personal site, you’ll probably do fine with these limitations. You can determine the average traffic by the things displayed on you web page aswell. For example, one small logo is about 5kb and if you have multiple banners/pictures in your website their total size won’t be that much. However if you receive many hits per day this size significantly adds up to your total bandwith. Another example are forums. Forums tend to use alot of traffic since there are multiple hits as well as transmitted data per user.

One last thing you should watch for is The Hosting Features You Will Need.

The most important things you should watch are the features a host provides. In most cases, you will need the languages PHP, Perl/CGI, Java installed on your server as well as database support from software like MySQL, PosgreSQL or Microsoft SQL. These days most hosts support these features, but you should watch for the version of these features since the newest software you will be installing will require new versions of the above mentioned features. The other thing you will need as a feature is the FTP support, because that is the easiest way to upload your website on the web quickly and effectively. SSH support is advanced feature which costs more and we do not recommend using it, unless you don’t know what you are doing. One last feature which again most hosts provide is the POP3/Email, but you want to check out if it is available anyways.

Hosting.com are one of the first web hosting companies, offering the vCloud solution, wjoch can be adjusted with a pay-as-you-go model. However, their service is not yet officially launched since the beta phase has launched on Spetember 1, 2009.

Craig McLellan, the CTO of Hosting.com remarked “vCloud Express delivers control directly to customers. They can setup new accounts, adjust virtual machine resources, turn additional machines on or off and deploy and execute virtual machine commands with no human interaction – if so desired. We will continue to innovate to deliver on the promises of capacity and infrastructure on-demand, utility-based pricing, and cloud interconnectivity.”

vCloud Express is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution that will be presented on the Hosting.com’s Enterprise infrastructure. Hosting.com will be offering vCloud Express via their Cloud Enterprise solution. Cloud Enterprise offers the latest in the virtualization platform technology with the VMware vSphere 4. Hosting.com are making large investments in technologies like  Dell, EMC, F5,  Juniper and Intel so that a standard-based cloud solution is offered to the clients.

Jason Waxman, General Manager, High Density Computing Division, Intel remarked, ”Hosting.com has made a promise to deliver Enterprise-Class cloud hosting services to their customers. The Intel Xeon 5500 processor family delivers outstanding benefits to enterprises in performance, energy efficiency and virtualization. Investments in products like Intel’s Xeon 5500 processor family help Hosting.com to deliver this promise to their clients via cloud services.”

The vCloud Express prices start from $0.42 / hour and is available immediately after purchase.

Hosting.com is providing enterprise colocation, cloud computing, dedicated hosting, managed hosting and disaster recovery along with their packages so it can cover the demands of today’s level of quality of the services.

She also explained: “‘Customers who purchase our Basic, Windows, or LPQuicksite Hosting Plans will receive $25; Business Hosting clients will get $35; VPS customers receive $50; and Dedicated Server customers receive a whopping $100 in free Google AdWords credits.”

This is great new offer from Lunarpages Web Hosting in addition to their cheap Dedicated and VPS hosting plans. If you are planning to order hosting from them or you are an existing customer, you should hurry if you wish to get the promotion because it expires on Dec3, 2009.