With over 10,000 hosting companies offering a myriad of products and services, resellers are inundated with choice. Typically, the services offered to resellers assume the form of shared, dedicated hosting or virtual private hosting. The majority of resellers will offer their own customers some variant of the following services

Shared Hosting

Also known as "virtual hosting," shared hosting enables consumers to post a site from a central server that is shared with other Web hosting customers. Typically, an individual or small to mid-sized business cannot afford to independently obtain an extremely robust connection to the Internet for their Web presence. Shared hosting provides consumers with the option to outsource their Internet requirements inexpensively. It allows them to share the cost of a fast Internet connection, providing them with the ability to host their site on a powerful, professionally managed server at a low monthly cost with redundant connectivity and guaranteed uptime. Shared hosting is a common and reasonably priced hosting option that most Web hosting companies provide. Usually resellers will obtain a substantial discount if they resell shared hosting in bulk for a higher-tier hosting provider. Shared hosting is fully controlled and allocated by a higher-tier hosting provider.

Dedicated Hosting

A dedicated server is a single computer fully devoted to the requirements of one customer. It allows for faster access to information and provides greater flexibility in software deployment, site traffic management, security and scalability. With a dedicated server, consumers can exercise total control over their Web presence. They choose the operating system and software they wish to use, and individualize settings for their multimedia and e-commerce requirements. Dedicated servers are a good choice for customers that require custom software or enhanced server control but do not want to make the significant up-front investment required in purchasing a server. Dedicated hosing is emerging by far as the most popular option for small and mid-sized companies. Most resellers will obtain favorable discounts from higher-tier service providers and will resell dedicated hosting services under marked-up, long-term contracts with their own clientele. Dedicated hosting is fully controlled by the reseller's clientele but must be allocated by a higher-tier hosting provider.

Virtual Private Server

Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions provide resellers will a completely automated hosting platform that gives them multi-tenancy, virtualization, resource management and clustering. Virtual Private Servers allows resellers to multiplex resources on a dedicated server, using an enhanced technology platform. Unlike shared and dedicated hosting, a virtual private server allows resellers to fully control and allocate resources to their customer. Once a reseller obtains a virtual private server, they have total control over resources, and can instantly allocate Web space, e-mail accounts and other services. Because VPS solutions provide high levels of control, they are becoming the most popular option for resellers. VPS solutions allow multi-tenancy by providing resellers with capacity to host hundreds of customers on a single, physical server. The solutions also "virtualize" CPU resources so that they appear to customers as a standalone, dedicated server environment. Virtual Private Servers also provide innovative resource management which enables systems administrators to control the customer resources levels and offer service-level agreements and quality of service guarantees. Through automated, control panel management, administrators can allocate resources and support the deployment of third-party software. VPS solutions also provide clustering capacities, permitting customers to move data transparently among servers.

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