One of the things that happened after the dot com boom was there was a massive need for companies of all shapes and sizes to have an online presence. This has also been seen with regards to tech people who want to share their wisdom and ideas with the world on the internet. This has meant that Web Hosting has grown at a dramatic rate as all users, organizations and individuals have been looking to interact. This has meant sharing ideas, information, footage, selling and marketing services and products and all of this has been made possible by operating systems which have supported the platforms of web hosting. In recent times there have been numerous advances in hosting web sites and these providers are always looking to provide customers with the most up to date technologies.

Getting to grips with Web Hosting Platforms.

The Web Hosting platforms are actually the operating systems that support Web Hosting. The most traditional forms of Web Hosting Platforms used are Linux and Windows.

Linux can be seen as the older and standard type of web hosting platform. Linux is seen as very reliable and is able to utilize its disk space and memory effectively. It is said that in excess of 70% of web servers use the Linux / Unix system because it is cheap and has fantastic power and can be relied upon.

Windows - Windows is Microsoft's answer to Web Hosting and is becoming highly popular with the Web developers with its potential ASP and ASP.NET programming environments. This operating system also integrates very well with the advanced .NET server technologies such as:

* Commerce Server 2002

* BizTalk Server 2002

* BizTalk Server 2002

In days gone by, there may have only been basic functions for web host packages but there are more now and some of the most commonly found and essential ones are:

* Disk Space - Each web hosting account is equipped with a limited number of disk space that a customer can utilize to save their files on the size of the disk space varies from company to company and package to package. Disk space that is saved on a shared web host space will be less than one on customized space.

* Email Accounts - The price of the package can have an impact on how many email accounts are made available. These accounts are a feature provided by many hoists and sought after by many clients and some hosts allow their clients to have full control over their mail settings. Of course, some web hosts will do all of this for their client. How each client sets u their email accounts is down to their preference but there are a number of options including POP3, auto-responders, aliases and forwarders.

* Uploading files via FTP access - Another feature that appears in a great number of hosting accounts is the ability to have FTP access. If the user wishes to load files to their site or edit or erase content held on the server, the simplest way to do it is via FTP access, which is far quicker than utilizing a web=based interface to do the same task.

Progression in modern Web Hosting:

As technology surges onwards and more companies find a presence online, the needs and wants of individuals and companies are evolving rapidly. This means that Web Hosts also have to progress to be able to deliver the most modern technologies to their clients.

The technology up gradation of the Windows Server technology and the release of the Windows 2003 Server provides what is now arguably known as the highest performance server environment. It provides outstanding support for the web developers and has a single vendor (Microsoft) committed to its ongoing development.

The advances in operating systems in the recent years, especially in the areas of inter-operability, have brought the available feature sets of Windows and Linux based website hosting offerings much closer to each other. Earlier both these operating systems had cut and dry advantages to one over the other for particular applications. These differences have now diminished, thanks to the advancements!to the point where the choice of operating system a hosting service company makes is frequently not a concern to the client. Today, with a few exceptions, as mentioned above, you can often make your choice of hosting packages based on the available feature set and factors concerning the company themselves, rather than the operating system they have chosen.

Web hosting software

The key step forward in recent years in web hosting fields has came through web hosting software, which has greatly increased the effectiveness and efficiency of the hosts. The manner in which the new software can aid the host can be seen in the following functions:

* Automation of account creation

* Management of dedicated servers

* Ensuring that monotonous tasks can be automated saving the time of system administrators

There are numerous ways that this software is of benefit to a company. In choosing an automation software approach, the company is able to make the management of their dedicated server an easier process and vastly reduce the time spent on providing this resource.

The Windows dedicated server software are Plesk for Windows, Helm for Windows, Easy Admin Exchange Control Panel, Cold Fusion MX, Anti Virus & Security Software to name a few.

Linux also offers a number of dedicated server software packages including,the Linux dedicated server software are centOS Linux, Fantastico De Luxe, cPanel / Web Host Manager, Red Hat Enterprise, Plesk for Linux and Anti Virus Software and Security Software.

> Web Hosting and Voice over Internet Protocol technology

Like any growing industry, Web Hosting is creating new technologies to provide a better service to their customers. Due to the competition in the market there is a need for firms to provide improved services and one of the areas of advancement is Voice over Internet Protocol and this technology has been widely used in the web hosting industry. Basically, this technology enables people with a broadband internet connection on their computer to communicate with other people around the world without having to pay the usually associated high costs.

As this new technology is fairly cheap, many service providers have figured out that VOIP is able to give them an edge and can be seen as a new and innovative addition to their range of services and one which can be implemented with no real trouble. This has led to a surge in VOIP companies who are seeking to find a way into this lucrative market.

The Web hosting industry is not far behind and is beginning to follow suit. Many of the top rated Web Hosts have come up with the plan to launch VOIPo, a VOIP telephone service. The hosting provider hopes to extend this offer to all over the world.

> Launching the provision of the Virtual Rack:

A popular Web Host has come up with a "virtual rack" solution, which is designed to make the features of its popular private rack solution available to customers running as few as two servers. The main aim of launching the private rack product to provide the customers with complete customization on there web hosting.

Having installed the virtual rack, the client is able to choose the servers they truly desire or need. There is also the provision for them to choose which type of network and security-based technologies they would like to have. These can range from loaded balances that are provided by server iron to the range of ASA firewalls from Cisco. If a customer ever wanted to tell their Web host exactly how they would like their web site to be configured or to demand what IP arrangements would be best for them, the Virtual Rack will allow them to do it all.

There is no doubt that the advances and improvements in Web Hosting have greatly increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry. All of these steps have played a part in fulfilling customer needs and serving the consumer purposes in a far better manner and one which may have exceeded expectations.