Business Web hosting providers have the technology to get a company's Website
seen on the Internet (more specifically, published to the World Wide Web). In
other words, Website hosting services are used to "plug in" a Website to the
Internet. Through various technologies, Web hosting companies keep sites saved
on servers accessible through the Web.
Other services necessary to publish a Website to the Web - specifically
domain name registration and the actual Website design - are generally left to
the client company to work out. Some Web hosting services, however, do provide
domain registration and/or Website design in addition to Web hosting.
Definitions of Website Hosting
The
MarketingTerms.com definition of Web hosting is "the business of providing
the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website."
Webopedia explains that "a
Hosting Services Provider (HSP) is an application service
provider dedicated to providing hosting services. Typically
operates a Web server farm, either at a data center or colocation facility."
Further,
Webopedia
says that to host (used as a verb) is "to provide the
infrastructure for a computer service. For example, there are many companies
that host Web servers.
This means that they provide the
hardware,
software,
and communications lines required by the server, but the content on the server
may be controlled by someone else."
Finally, the
Bitpipe
Website's Web Hosting definition is "services
that lease server space and sometimes provision web services for a company's or
individual's Web page or Web site on a commercial Web server. These services may
be provided for a fee or at no charge by an ISP."
