The Pros & Cons Of Hosting The Site Yourself
DO-IT-YOURSELF You host the Web site yourself, relying purely on
in-house resources except for the external connectivity. PROS: *
No service costs to pay * You have total control over the
application CONS: * Can be difficult and expensive to maintain
the required expertise * You may not have an ideal physical
environment * Coping with future increase in demand may be
painful.
YANILLA CO-LOCATION Hosting company provides the physical space
and associated environmental services, including building access
security, for your Web server and the connectivity to the
Internet. However, the server is yours and you manage everything
else to do with it, including the hardware, operating system and
application. PROS: * Far cheaper than full-blown dedicated
hosting, while avoiding all the environmental and connectivity
issues of in-house hosting CONS: * You stilt need the resources
to manage the Web server itself including operating system and
application.
CO-MANAGED This is a half-way house, in which you still look
after the application, but now the hosting company owns and
administers the server and the operating system, as well as
providing all the basic co-location facilities. This represents
a split in responsibility between the IT platform and the
application running on it. PROS: * It off-loads all
responsibility for hardware and operating system, allowing you
to focus on the application * Cheaper than full dedicated
hosting CONS: * Considerably more expensive than co-location *
You still have to look after the application, which is often the
main source of reliability problems.
DEDICATED HOSTING Here the hosting company looks after
everything to do with the IT of your Web site, including the
application and even processing-electronic payments. PROS: * It
off-loads all responsibility for IT, allowing you to focus
purely on products and customers CONS: * Very expensive * You
will stilt deal with customers and products * You may stilt have
to grapple with complex integration issues involving in-house
systems.
FULL-BLOWN PROCESS OUTSOURCING This is dedicated hosting with
the additional component of managing processes such as CRM and
product pricing, in effect outsourcing the whale e-commerce
operation, concentrating on the products or services you provide
but leaving the online distribution to the service provider.
PROS: * It off-loads some of the integration issues (or all of
them if you resort to total outsourcing of IT) * Fastest route
to new online markets CONS * Adds even more to the cost *
Extends dependence on hosting provider beyond IT provision into
customer relationship management, which may be beyond its core
competence.
Case study: Warner Brothers International Theatre (WBIT) WBIT.
like some other national cinema chains. recently established a
Web site supporting online ticket sales. With rivals moving
online, WBIT decided it needed to act quickly, setting itself a
tight four-month deadline. The business plan for a Web presence
coupled with online ticket sales was only completed in February
2000. However, the company wanted to go live in time for the
launch in July of the year's biggest movie. Star Wars, Episode
One -- The Phantom Menace. According to James Scott, WBIT
project director, this tight deadline narrowed the field of
contenders significantly and meant that only a seasoned hosting
provider could be considered. BT was chosen largely on the
strength of its existing relationship with WBIT for telecoms
services. The deadline was met, and the site quickly proved
popular, with seven million hits in a month shortly after going
live. This is an example of dedicated hosting, in which the
provider looks after all IT issues relating to provision and
operation of the Web site. But it is not full-blown outsourcing,
because WBIT looks after the actual ticketing systems within
each local cinema. The site is managed on BT's own server farm
in Milton Keynes and this interacts with WBIT's network
connecting the local cinemas. When a customer checks times of
films and orders a ticket, the enquiry runs through the BT
server farm to WBIT's central system in its London headquarters
and is then routed to the requested local cinema. The ticket
order is then processed in the local cinema's system and a
message confirming -- or if fully booked denying -- the purchase
is sent back via the same route.
Submitted by HostingChecker.com - for help on all your hosting
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