Is share hosting good enough for small - medium sized companies?

[Amateur]

I have been developing for a few years now and for most of my clients I have used shared hosting. Most of my clients are small to medium sized companies that require both web hosting and email hosting (most hook this up to their mail server).

Lately I am wondering if shared hosting is satisfactory for such companies, is shared hosting secure enough for such? Should I be looking at providing clients with hosting on a dedicated server? When companies depend so much on their email, is shared hosting satisfactory for such reliance? No one has ever complained to me but looking at this with a nervous cap on! Or is shared hosting sufficient.

I dont develop that much so I would find it difficult to justify purchasing a dedicated server or even a virtual server, especially as I dont want the responsibility to maintain them.

 

[mneylon]

For "light" to "medium" use ie. no ecommerce, shared hosting should be fine for most people.

When you start getting into ecommerce you really should look at vps or dedicated.

 

[nevf]

As long as it's not ecommerce, shared hosting should be good enough.

In my opinion, the only difference, in terms of privacy and security between dedicated and shared is that shared can viewed by the people who work for the hosting company a little easier... which doesn't piss me off really to be honest. anyway, i would botch dedicated hosting if it was left to me. I'd rather leave it to the people who know.

Of course, if you had a good amount of clients, then dedicated or even VPS would be a much cheaper option... also bare in mind, support, etc.

 

[mneylon]

In my opinion, the only difference, in terms of privacy and security between dedicated and shared is that shared can viewed by the people who work for the hosting company a little easier...

Em... err.... no

If you're worried about security then you need to worry a lot more about potential issues from other users on the same servers.

 

[nevf]

Yes, as you can see - I'm surprised I even know what a server is...

care to enlighten me as to what the issues surrounding shared hosting in comparisons with VPS/dedicated are?

 

[mneylon]

Yes, as you can see - I'm surprised I even know what a server is...

care to enlighten me as to what the issues surrounding shared hosting in comparisons with VPS/dedicated are?

With VPS / Dedicated you have a lot more control over the environment.

On a shared server you have to deal with whatever the provider has provided in the manner in which it has been provided.

From a security perspective that means that it would be quite typical to find a lot more ports open to the outside world eg. MySQL, POP, IMAP, SMTP etc. etc.

You also have no way of knowing what other users are up to, so if another user on the same server were to be slashdotted or hit the frontpage of Digg you / your clients could suffer the consequences.

 

[nevf]

With VPS / Dedicated you have a lot more control over the environment.

But which also would mean that it would have to be well set up. Wouldn't a half arsed set-up of a dedicated server be less secure than any shared set-up?

On a shared server you have to deal with whatever the provider has provided in the manner in which it has been provided.

From a security perspective that means that it would be quite typical to find a lot more ports open to the outside world eg. MySQL, POP, IMAP, SMTP etc. etc.

Yes, actually. Good point. if you wanted to dabble in other technologies, you would be more restricted.

You also have no way of knowing what other users are up to, so if another user on the same server were to be slashdotted or hit the frontpage of Digg you / your clients could suffer the consequences.

Actually, that happened me a few times. A very famous lecturer in a uni in the USA died, and his website was fairly video heavy. Hosted on the same server as our own one. Google put an RIP link onto their front page, and before I knew it, I was getting an apology from Bluehost for the servers been so slow.

That pretty much answers all my questions, thanks mr. blacknight! Very helpful info.

 

[mneylon]

But which also would mean that it would have to be well set up. Wouldn't a half arsed set-up of a dedicated server be less secure than any shared set-up?

That would depend on who you get it from.

Some providers when you order a dedicated server will simply do a base install and hand it over. Others will configure it to your specification / requirement

Yes, actually. Good point. if you wanted to dabble in other technologies, you would be more restricted.

Yes. On shared hosting you're normally going to be dealing with "stable" technologies with quite restricted configurations as you're dealing with the lowest common denominator and want stability over anything else

That pretty much answers all my questions, thanks mr. blacknight! Very helpful info.

Glad to have been of some help

 

[nevf]

And actually to add to the bill - what advantage does plesk have?
is it like a control panel, or what purpose does it specifically serve?

Sorry i've hijacked the thread

 

[mneylon]

Plesk is a control panel

It basically controls all aspects of a server for you, so that you don't need to get "down and dirty" with the server unless you really want to

 

[Forbairt]

Shared hosting issues.

Depending on how its set up .. it could be quite easy for another user to gain access to your files through poor permissions on your part / ****ing something up.

You don't control the software versions that are installed on it.

As was said ... a site gets slashdotted ... and it could potentially bring the whole server to a stand still depending once again on how its set up.

The server will get upgraded ... which will mean down time. Normally you can't control this. (that said a VPS will have downtime as well for upgrades)

your sites performance may be sluggish due to overloading on the server (dreamhost springs to mind) (hosts that promise unlimited domains / bandwidth / resources are prone to this I'm afraid to say)

VPS

You have to manage things (this is a plus as well)

More secure ... you decide who has access to the system ...

just my few thoughts ... I'm currently in process of moving my sites over to my VPS ...

 

[nevf]

just my few thoughts ... I'm currently in process of moving my sites over to my VPS ...

Same. I have three packages costing 5 euro per month which I will be moving onto it. And then I have a client who's paying €290 per annum for 8mb of space and two .ie domains, that I'm thinking of switching her over. So from what I can see, apart from one or two failings, VPS/dedicated is by far, much better in terms of everything.

 

[mneylon]

And then I have a client who's paying €290 per annum for 8mb of space and two .ie domains

8mb of space?

That's mental!

 

[Forbairt]

Same. I have three packages costing 5 euro per month which I will be moving onto it. And then I have a client who's paying €290 per annum for 8mb of space and two .ie domains, that I'm thinking of switching her over. So from what I can see, apart from one or two failings, VPS/dedicated is by far, much better in terms of everything.

8mb of space?

That's mental!

elive ?

 

[cgarvey]

If going VPS/dedicated and you know nothing of such, then you really ought to get a managed instance/server (where the provider looks after updating security patches, and keeps it ticking over), or pay someone to look after it for you.

The advantages of VPS/dedicated soon fly out the window if you don't keep the OS/apps up to date.

 

[nevf]

I refuse to mention who it is but....

Yes, cgarvey, that would be my biggest concern, and managed hosting is out of the question for me really...

 

[niall]

I refuse to mention who it is but....

Yes, cgarvey, that would be my biggest concern, and managed hosting is out of the question for me really...

Having not heard of them before, I did a quick lookup to see who they are. They might want to fix their DNS:

niall@ernie:~$ host modata.ie
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.8
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.9
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.11
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.12
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.13
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.14
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.16
modata.ie has address 82.195.132.20
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.10
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.11
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.13
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.14
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.16
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.17
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.18
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.19
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.20
modata.ie has address 192.168.1.21
modata.ie mail is handled by 10 mail.secure-txns.com.
modata.ie mail is handled by 20 mail.iemx.net.

The www record is OK though!

niall@ernie:~$ host www.modata.ie
www.modata.ie has address 82.195.132.8

 

[cgarvey]

/me giggles at the poster who has just been and gone. Who needs a website when you can have a forum, eh?

 

[neweb]

I've been using sheared hosting for years and I have never had a problem with it.

Granted, most of my clients sites are not massive corporate sites but most people are only looking for small business sites.

I have one Ecommerce site (running on a WIN server) and its very good. Again, never had a problem with it.

I recently moved my personal account from register365 to BlackNight and I am more then impressed with there sheared hosting package.

I suppose its horses for courses... It all depends on what you are trying to do with your package.