Planning

In order to determine the web site hosting option that best meets the needs of your company, you need to have a clear view of the range of services that the site is intended to offer, since that will dictate the web hosting software and application development tools that you will have to use. Your decision on the type of software employed will play a significant part in determining the scale of the web hosting solution required.

Perhaps more importantly, however, you need to take full account of the technical skills required to develop and maintain the web site in line with your business requirements. Developing an interactive online e-commerce site or an e-publishing service requires a significant amount of technical expertise. And the amount of effort and skill required to maintain and update such sites on an ongoing basis should not be underestimated.

So, think carefully about whether you have, or are happy to put in place, the necessary resources to develop and maintain your web site on an in-house basis, or whether utilizing an external service provider is a more realistic option. There are pros and cons to both solutions, as discussed earlier in this guide. The key is to take a systematic approach to identifying the requirements of the web site and then evaluating the options open to you. The following list gives you the basis upon which to determine your preferred approach:

Consider the technical requirements:

• Operating system
• Hardware
• Security
• Future features
• Expandability and flexibility
• Bandwidth
• Monitoring and statistics
• Back-up

Plan for the type of web site needed:

• Creating and developing the site
• Maintaining the site
• Software and systems required to run and support the site
• E-commerce requirements

Assess resources:

• Costs
• Skills
• Support and problem resolution available