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What Skills Does One Need to Offer Dedicated Web Hosting?




Every day, even after the big dot-com bust, individuals and companies are making good money on the Internet. One of the most lucrative and popular choices for web-based income is offering web hosting services.

Maybe you’ve got a small server farm set up already for your own use and want to rent out the extra space. Maybe you're just getting started and you know that offering dedicated web hosting is a great way to make money. Wherever you are on the spectrum of web hosting knowledge, you're probably wondering what it takes to offer dedicated web hosting.

Obviously, the hardware is the major part of offering dedicated web hosting. A server that can handle the demands of the site, both present and future, is a necessity. Dedicated web hosting requires that each client have their own server. Backup servers and a remote backup storage space for data are also needed to avoid long outages or loss of data.

Software that provides your clients with the features they need is another must. At the very least, an operating system and database will be needed. Depending on the type of business hosted on the server and the level of service you offer, you may need to provide other software, as well.

The technical knowledge that you'll need to make your dedicated web hosting a success is a little more difficult to define. Many requirements depend on the types of services and the level of hosting you choose to provide.

It's possible, and increasingly common, to offer a hands-off approach to web hosting. You simply provide the "real estate" by keeping and maintaining the server for the client. They are responsible for providing their own maintenance and upkeep of everything but the physical servers.

For a setup like this, the skills you need are a working knowledge of both the servers and the software associated with them. You'll have to know how to expand memory and bandwidth capacity. You will also need to know how to protect and back up data and recover any information that is compromised or lost. Server security will also be up to you. This includes using defensive measures to protect the data on the server from attacks.

More common today is dedicated hosting that offers basic services for clients. If you offer this type of dedicated web hosting, you'll be responsible for taking care of routine concerns for your clients. Performing regular data backups, installing software patches, keeping anti-virus software up-to-date, routing e-mail and ensuring that the system is up and running consistently are all duties that go along with this level of service.

In order to provide these services, you should be skilled in the administration of all associated hardware and software. This isn't something that can usually be accomplished by an amateur. You will need to troubleshoot and solve any problems that arise with the hardware and software. You also must be prepared to answer phone calls related to service problems at all hours of the day and night.

In short, the duties of a dedicated web hosting service closely parallel those of a system administrator. A wide range of skills is needed to deal with the many problems and issues that come up over the course of normal server usage. One of the most important skills you will need is the ability to troubleshoot. Determining why problems are happening makes up a large portion of the work you will do when running your own dedicated web hosting service.

Finally, a good working knowledge of programming languages is a huge help to those offering dedicated web hosting. Although you'll be doing very little programming, you'll need to know the languages well enough to see what is happening and why.

Many of these skills are already present in dedicated hobbyists. For true beginners who want to offer dedicated web hosting, it is advised to either take classes to develop these skills or hire someone to take care of the servers.