Making the most of virtual server hosting is important to running your online business. Because of the Internet, you have a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to making the most of virtual server hosting. It’s important you choose the right one for your business.

Sure, VPS hosting plans are inexpensive. But you must have the right plan to address your needs and meet your customers’ demands. Here are three types of virtual service hosting plans you should consider for your online business:

1. Run your online enterprise business with a virtual server hosting plan.

2. Secure your small business with a virtual dedicated server.

3. Employ your SEO business with virtual server hosting.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get a virtual private server hosting plan designed for your enterprise business

If you run an enterprise business, not only do you need powerful virtual private servers, but they must be reliable. If you choose to buy a hosted virtual server and install it in your place of business, you will have to deal with the maintenance or upkeep of the service. As an alternative, look into VPS hosting. Virtual server hosting services guarantee 99.9% uptime.

I recommend: VPSLAND offers enterprise virtual server hosting services. You can decide if you want to use Windows 2003 or Linux virtual server hosting plans. Applied Innovations also offers enterprise VPS hosting plans. You’ll be able to take advantage of the company’s cutting edge hardware.

Use a virtual dedicated server to secure your small business

You can save your business money by using small business VPS hosting services. Another reason to consider relying on VPS hosting services is security; security is a main concern for businesses that sell services or products online. The virtual hosting company will make sure your website is secure. It invests in the latest technology, including network monitoring, firewall, and blocking viruses and spam.

I recommend: Progent provides enterprise services to your business. It offers the following services: firewall, virus and spam filtering, and 24x7 network monitoring. Server Intellect also offers security. For example, it automatically installs security patches on the servers.

Get virtual server hosting for your SEO business

Do you run an SEO (search engine optimization) business? You should consider getting an SEO VPS hosting plan. An SEO web host enables you to have better management over your domains. The virtual server hosting plan will prevent your rankings from being filtered out by web hosting filters. As a result, you'll get excellent SEO virtual server hosting.

I recommend: Got Web Host provides three-tier support, which means it’ll quickly resolve issues you’ll have. The company provides 24x7 technical support. This company is global in terms of clients who use its services. Webair Internet Development also provides SEO virtual server hosting. The company offers three different plans, including SEO Maintenance Plus Plan, Business Placement Campaign and Corporate Placement Plan.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make sure your virtual server hosting company gives you root access so that you have control over your authentication and access rights.

If you ever had to point to a physical object and say, "There is the Internet," you would end up pointing to a squat, undistinguished electronic box known as a Web server. Inside would be a series of narrow, horizontal or vertical components and some basic hardware that look a lot like the guts an ordinary PC, stacked like stereo equipment in metal rack and cooled by lots of tiny fans.

It's those slices of technology that listen to the thousands, sometimes millions, of simultaneous requests to see a given Web page, decide how quickly to respond, then administer the resources it takes to make Web e-mail, a favorite shopping site or your own company's home page appear on those distant screens around the world.

Many small businesses outsource the work of buying, maintaining, updating and administering Web servers, but there are good reasons, too, to buy and own them. Covered in this guide:

1. What Web servers do and what Web servers do not do for you
2. Buying and using Web servers for hosting
3. Web server software options
4. When to avoid Web servers entirely and use Web server hosting

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

A quick guide to Web servers vs. other servers

It can get confusing on the buying side if not really sure what you need. For instance, a 'server' can mean any central computer that controls data shared by several individual users on ordinary desktop computers, for managing e-mail or storing company-wide files, for instance.

I recommend: A good, mostly non-technical overview of Web servers can be found at Web servers entry of How Stuff Works. See also the See Web server vendors and Web servers by brand at Business.com.

Choosing from types of web hosting servers: blades and racks

Web servers have been shrinking over the decades. The first was much like a large-ish PC, while the latest iteration -- known as a 'blade' server -- allows for vertical stacking of many blades since memory, cooling, power and other functions are separate and built instead into the enclosure.

I recommend: If you might need to expand (or contract) your Web servers quickly, blades can be good choice. Some key vendors of blade servers include HP, IBM, Dell, HItachi, Rackable and Verari Systems. See more on specific Web server technologies, including rack Web servers and blade Web servers at Business.com.

Once you choose a server, Web hosting means software

Web servers are really just hardware, plain and simple. What makes Web servers run, in fact, is software that interprets the commands from around the Web and manages your Web site's pages.

I recommend: Generally, if you hire a Web master or IT director, they should in with a very clear idea of what flavor software to buy. Web servers themselves often come installed with designed for one or another system, like operating systems on a desktop computer. Nevertheless, the major types of Web server software in use today include Apache, Internet Information Services (IIS) from Microsoft, Sun Microsystems' Java server and Zeus.

Run away from your Web server with dedicated server Web hosting

Making the choice to buy, operating and maintain a Web server is not to be taken lightly. At minimum, your company will have to have compelling reason -- information security, proprietary Web services, paranoia, whatever -- to justify the ongoing expense.

I recommend: If you expect to give eBay a run for its money or your corporation is quickly outgrowing standardized Web offerings for e-commerce, consider a Web server. If not, dedicated server Web hosting is for you. Rent the Web server capacity you need, adding or subtracting at will. Some big vendors of this service include Rackspace, 1&1, Vianetworks, and Hostway. See more on dedicated Web servers at Business.com

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Web servers are not complex devices, but their care and feeding can be a real drain. Always price the five-year cost of a Web server against simpler Web server hosting, feature for feature.
• •  If your online business is likely to spike tremendously you will need the capacity to deal with the additional hits. Be sure to review traffic over the past few years and consider capacity carefully. A crashed Web site might be the result if your Web servers are not ready.
• •  Just like ordinary PCs, Web servers are prone to attacks. In the case of Web servers, though, the risk is usually denial of service: So many hits that real users cannot reach you. Talk with your vendor or about security and traffic management techniques that help offset these risks.

Do you need to research virtual server hosting news and trends? You do if you have a successful business and now you want to sell your services online. The problem is which virtual server hosting company do you use? There are many you can find online, in your local newspaper, or in the yellow pages.

Target your research so that you don’t have to spend much time finding virtual server hosting companies. Here are three ways you can find your virtual server hosting plan:

1. Find virtual server hosting plans through blogs.

2. Use magazines to find your next VPS hosting plan.

3. Rely on news’ websites to discover more virtual server hosting information.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use blogs to find information on virtual server hosting plans

Are you feeling bombarded with all of the online advertisements on various server hosting service providers? Many offer great and competitive prices, but you're not sure about their services. There's a solution for you. You should use blogs as your research to finding VPS hosting services. In addition, blogs will give you information on the virtual server hosting service industry as a whole.

I recommend: Spry presents articles on virtual server hosting companies. Topics you might see include OpenSSL issues that affect VPS hosting. Host Discussion Blog also discusses virtual server hosting services. In addition to virtual private server hosting articles, you will also see articles about the Internet.

Peruse online magazines for virtual server hosting plans

Don't discount magazines as valuable resources. Online magazines can provide in-depth information on virtual server hosting plans. Instead of you doing all the research, the magazine's writers will do all of the dirty work for you. They test the virtual private servers. Then, they give you the pros and cons of the company. They'll cover various VPS hosting plans, such as enterprise and managed hosting.

I recommend: Web Host Magazine & Buyer’s Guide not only tests and reviews VPS hosting plans, but they list what they think are the best plans for you. Articles Magazines also will discuss virtual server hosting topics, such as defining virtual server hosting. In addition, it identifies the issues that surround virtual server hosting.

Get more virtual server hosting information from news' websites

News websites can offer solid information on the virtual private server hosting industry. For example, you can read about Internet Service Providers or web hosting resellers. For those of you that are looking for in-depth information on data centers, news websites can cover collocation or full data backup.

I recommend: The Hosting News focuses on virtual server hosting news and trends. For example, one of the topics that it discusses is the debate between grid computing versus dedicated servers. Another topic that the Hosting News covers is web analytics. Web Host Industry Review also covers Internet Service Providers, web hosting resellers, and others.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make sure you determine your business needs before you commit to a virtual server hosting company. It's important to have an estimate on how many web pages you will have, how many people will visit your website, and if you will have functions, such as video and audio. Then go out and compare virtural server hosting plans.