Web hosting is quite simply the service of preserving and displaying Web pages to the World Wide Web. This service is provided by Web hosting companies which allow nearly anyone the ability to publish information on the Internet. Although at first glace it may appear simple, Web hosting is very complicated.

Web hosting companies and Internet service providers perform two different functions. In order to gain access to the Internet an ISP would be required. However, if you want to add content to the Internet then you'll require a web hosting company. Often times your ISP will provide a certain amount of free hosting where you can publish a personal Web site. If you're looking for something a little more in depth than a personal Web page then you'll want to check out a Web hosting company.

Serving Web pages is not quite as easy as it may sound. Web sites need to be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. This puts an incredible amount of stress on both the people and the equipment that operate in a Web hosting environment.

A Web hosting company has a very high overhead. In order to store and serve Web sites these companies require high-end computers. These high-end computers, or Web servers, get very hot and use a lot of power. Even more power is then needed to keep the servers cold. Special facilities, with a controlled environment that is kept clean and cool, are a must for the serious Web hosting company. Large air conditioning units are used to pump in cold air directly to the computers. A good Web hosting company will also have industrial size generators in case of a power outage.

Connecting to a backbone provider is also needed to provide adequate transfer speed. These backbone providers, or network service providers, give the hosting company direct access to the Internet trunk lines. Network service providers sell network access by bandwidth. This bandwidth is bought by Web hosting companies which then resell it to their clients. Bandwidth is the amount of information transferred in a given period of time across a specific communications line.

As you can see, Web hosting is a very complicated business. To counter-balance the operational costs involved hosting companies deal in volume. A Web server can host 1000's of Web sites. Seeing that it takes a certain amount of money to keep a Web server running constantly, each new site will reduce the cost per customer.

However, if too many Web sites are on one server then the performance of that server will start to decrease. Customers might start getting page errors or start to experience a general slow down in their Web site's speed. Between high operational costs and server performance, Web hosting companies must maintain a balance.

Due to the fact that Web hosting is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week business, the human costs are also above average. The staff must be on the job all the time. Instead of just one 8 hour shift there are three 8 hour shifts. Weekends must be covered too. Usually though, off hours staff are there in a technical support capacity only.

In conclusion, Web hosting is a combination of computer hardware, software, network technologies and human ingenuity. This combination of man and machine is what makes the Internet what it is today.