The future of web hosting: Predictions and trends for 2023 and beyond
In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, putting your business at the forefront of your consumers is the most fool-proof way of improving your business branding. One of the core business digitalization trends that have catapulted many companies, especially during the pandemic, is the use of websites.
With the internet's help, consumers can access these websites and make research, transactions, and purchases seamlessly, without going from application to application. But how are these websites set up, and what features does web hosting have that make it more attractive for businesses as years go by?
What is web hosting, and why does it matter?
The simplest way to describe web hosting is that it’s similar to renting a warehouse property. You rent a warehouse property to store all your raw materials, items in progress, and finished goods, ready for selling.
Similarly, web hosting is an online service where web hosts ‘rent’ you a server (either physical or cloud) to store data to publish on your website. Web hosting allows your website to be accessible to online users. The users will input your website URL, which will then connect to your server and deliver your data to your audience.
Why does it matter?
There are many factors affecting your user’s website experience. While you can build a website without a web host, using the services of a web host makes your website look more professional, with added scalability, security, maintenance, data backup, 24/7 customer support, traffic analysis, and many more features.
According to Coty Perry, CMO at Anglers, "SEO, in a broad sense, optimizes your website to rank well on search engines. However, people do not often realize how important finding the right web host provider and plan is in SEO rankings. Uptime, security, and site speed -- these are all factors that significantly affect your rankings, and the right web host plays a huge role in that."
The future of web hosting
Web hosting continuously evolves year by year, and finding the right web host should be able to keep up with the trends to provide optimal service for its users. Here are some web hosting trends that have been surprising the internet:
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing how the internet operates, and web hosting is no exception. Today, web hosts and users benefit from AI from the following:
- Better security. AI can examine data and recognize patterns, so rather than web hosts addressing a cyberattack after it happens, AI helps web hosts recognize patterns of potential cyber threats before they occur and helps protect you against cybercrime.
- Better uptime.Uptime is a critical component in measuring a web host’s capability to keep a website running, and modern web hosts use AI to 'self-heal' to prevent system failure.
- Find and protect domain names. AI’s automated access to big data helps users find a potentially well-performing domain name and protect the domain name from cyber threats, which are likely to use similar domain names to perform cyber crimes.
According to Mark Pierce, CEO of Cloud Peak Law Group, "In as much as the public relies on the internet, criminals (or cyber criminals in this case) have also been rampant in this area. Domain hijacking is a common cybercrime where they take over a legitimate domain or cybersquatting where they register highly similar domain names with registered domains to confuse the general public."
Cloud servers
There are many types of web hosting, but in this case, we can classify them into traditional and cloud hosting. Traditional web hosting can be further broken down into dedicated and shared hosting, with the latter being the most common among small and medium-sized entities.
Some small businesses do not need an exclusive server, so they rent a 'space' in a single server -- as in shared hosting. However, shared hosting prevents you from scaling higher without spending on additional storage space or RAM.
This is where cloud hosting comes into the limelight. Cloud hosting has seen its rise over the years and will probably continue to do so over the years to come. This is because cloud servers offer valuable features that traditional and physical web hosting can never achieve. Here are some benefits of cloud hosting:
- Scalability. Cloud Hosting offers better scalability than traditional web hosting because, without a physical server, you can add or reduce features like RAM, storage, or bandwidth depending on your specific needs in an instant which you cannot do with a physical server.
- Cost-savings. While cloud hosting is priced slightly higher than traditional web hosting, it still offers significant cost savings in the long run because of its scalability, and you only pay for what you need, rather than paying for fixed amounts for traditional web hosting regardless of how much storage you use.
- Accessibility. Without physical servers, cloud servers allow you to access your data through a cloud on the internet, wherever you are.
- Environmentally friendly. Without the presence of local data centers, the use of cloud hosting reduces carbon footprints and benefits the environment.
According to Alex Milligan, Co-founder & CMO at NuggMD, "Many industries, from education to manufacturing to service providers, now use cloud servers to store data. Web hosting aside, the cloud is a better option for those looking into a more remote and accessible data access."
5G connections
With the emergency of 5G connections, web hosting is predicted to keep up with this technology that will allow web users to access websites with higher bandwidth and allow for faster downloads, faster site loading, more connected devices, a media-rich website experience, and many more.
With 5G, we will see websites include data-heavy content like virtual reality, longer videos, animated visuals, and complex web design, which, pre-5G, is discouraged because it affects loading times—a critical factor in webpages ranking high on search engines.
Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director at Circuit, says, "There’s a plethora of things you can do on the internet, and it will continue to evolve. As fast as 5G is today, website builders and web hosts must keep up and align their products and services that will make 5G a valuable addition to improved customer experience."
Green hosting
Did you know that your website is damaging the planet?
A report by Maxime Efoui-Hess for The Shift Project shows that digital technologies now make up for 4 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. How is that?
If you look at the internet as something deeper than what it is, you may realize that it runs mainly on information. This information has to be stored somewhere, and the positive impact of the internet on our lives is quickly negated by its significant effect on our environment. Those are:
- Energy consumed by the internet emits greenhouse gases.
- E-waste of disposed electronic devices
- Servers and data centers get electricity from non-renewable sources.
- Data centers can cause deforestation and soil degradation.
Green hosting is an environment-friendly option to traditional hosting. While web hosting uses a lot of dirty fossil fuels, green hosting uses renewable energy sources to reduce carbon footprint. Green hosts also usually offset their carbon footprints through carbon credits.
Jonathan Elster, CEO at EcomHalo, mentions "Positive environmental impact is the main function of green hosting, but marketing-wise, businesses can benefit from using green hosting by developing a better brand image by committing to sustainable practices."
Wrapping up
The future of web hosting will only continue to improve with technological advancements ramping up year after year. Businesses and organizations looking into building their websites must thoroughly research the features, benefits, and environmental impact of building a website and find a web host that provides the best services with the most cost-effective pricing while being environmentally conscious.
Image credit: djv/depositphotos.com
Roman Shvydun writes informative articles mainly about everything related to marketing, business, productivity, workplace culture, etc. His articles focus on balancing information with SEO needs, but never at the expense of providing an entertaining read. See a few more examples of Roman’s articles by visiting his Twitter: https://twitter.com/Roman27561221