Homework 5
– Web Hosting Plan
Karen Dec
INP 190:
Web Development
June 20,
2006
Table of Contents
Executive Summary........................................................................................................... 1
Recommendation........................................................................................................... 1-2
Provider Comparison.................................................................................................... 3-5
Brightgirl Designs is a startup freelance
web design business located in
The website will have the following
features:
·
General information about Brightgirl Designs
·
Information about services and pricing
·
Form to request an estimate on a project
·
Form to contact Brightgirl Designs
·
Portfolio examples of Brightgirl Designs’ previous work
On behalf of Brightgirl Designs, I have
investigated web hosting providers and prepared a comparison of three providers
that most closely suit the needs of the organization. Brightgirl Designs requires:
·
A low cost hosting provider
·
Excellent technical support and customer service
·
Server capability to process forms
·
Possibility to process billing and payments through the site
in the future
·
Preference for a provider that is Macintosh-based, or at
least Macintosh-friendly
I chose three cost-efficient Macintosh-based web hosting
providers that offer shared hosting. Macintosh-based
hosts were chosen because Brightgirl Designs does all of its website
development on the Macintosh platform. All three companies offer strong
Mac-centric technical support and extremely secure, stable, fast, and reliable
Mac XServe servers. According to the Server Logistics Knowledge Base, “Mac OS X
is generally regarded as the most secure, out-of-the-box commercial operating
system available today.” (http://kb.serverlogistics.com/idx/0/082/article/) All of the providers offer a monthly payment plan,
although one provider does offer a small price break if you sign up for a
yearly plan. All of the providers also offer PHP and/or other scripting
capabilities for processing forms. Two of the plans have the option of
upgrading to another plan that would include an e-commerce system, if needed in
the future.
I recommend Itsamac’s Mac Purist Mini Plan because it offers
exactly the features needed by Brightgirl Designs. This is combined with
unparalleled technical support and glowing customer testimonials. The Mac
Purist Mini Plan would be an excellent starting point for Brightgirl Designs,
but Itsamac also offers the flexibility to upgrade to another plan in the
future that would offer more bandwidth, space, and email addresses, shopping
cart system, and security. This provider also is the only one of the three that
offers multi-site discounts; the more domain names you host, the cheaper the
prices get, and this would be a great advantage to a web designer who will be
reselling hosting to clients.
|
|
Itsamac: Mac Purist Mini Plan http://www.itsamac.com |
MacDock: Silver Plan http://www.macdock.com |
MacHost: Standard Basic Plan |
|
Email capabilities |
1
POP/IMAP email account; 10 aliases, 10 forwards, and 10 auto-responders; full-featured
Web mail and email control panel; MXLogic Intelligent Spam filtration |
20 POP/IMAP
e-mail accounts with unlimited aliases, forwards, and auto-responders; Web
mail; SSL email and spam/virus protection |
None, but
it is available in the “Standard Enhanced” plan ($24.95 per month) |
|
Monthly traffic allowance |
2 GB
bandwidth (40,000 50k page views) |
10 GB
bandwidth |
3 GB
bandwidth |
|
Server type |
Macintosh
XServe G5 servers |
Macintosh
XServe G5 servers |
“Powerful”
Macintosh servers |
|
Support types (CGI, Customized
Forms, PHP, ASP, JSP, FrontPage extensions, Cold Fusion?) |
Database:
None, but MySQL is available with the Mac Purist Plus Plan ($14.95 per month) Server
software: Mac OS X Server with Apache CGI bin (Perl
5.6) – mail script available PHP Daily web
stats for an extra $5 per month (or included in the Mac Purist Plus plan
($14.95 per month)) Web DAV
for publishing iCal calendars and mounting your Itsamac file space on your
desktop for easy maintenance |
Database:
MySQL Server
software: Mac OS X Server with Apache PHP 5
(some scripts available too) Urchin
web stats (daily) WebDAV
for publishing iCal calendars |
Server
software: Mac OS X Server (Unix-based) with Apache Perl PHP LassoPro
5 |
|
Size |
100 MB
space |
250 MB
space |
20 MB
space |
|
Connection speed |
Three OC-192's (10 Gigabit per
second) connected to six different backbone providers (AT&T, Cable &
Wireless, Digex, UUNET, GTE, and Sprint) All servers and connections are
monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year 99.99% uptime guarantee (in any given
month) |
Dual DS-3 upstreams served by
reliable AT&T and Lightpath connections |
“Fiber
optic backbone connectivity” |
|
Domain name registration |
$9.95/yr |
Root
level domain name included |
Included
for the first year, then you pay annual renewal fees |
|
Fee structure |
Yearly =
$49.50 ($4.12 per month) Setup is
always free for any plan. |
Monthly =
$19.95 Setup is
free. |
Monthly =
$14.95 Setup is
a one-time $35 fee. |
|
FTP methods |
1 FTP
login with unlimited 24/7 access |
1 FTP
account for site maintenance via a control panel |
1 FTP
account for site maintenance |
|
Ecommerce |
N/A, but
if needed in the future, plan could be upgraded to the Mac Purist Plus Plan
($14.95 per month) which does include the osCommerce shopping cart system. |
N/A, but
if needed in the future, plan could be upgraded to the Gold plan ($29.95 per
month) which does include the iSell shopping cart system. |
N/A |
|
Shared, Dedicated, Colocated |
Shared |
Shared |
Shared |
|
Customer
Support |
Toll-free
telephone support (12 hours per day) and email support. Live human beings
instead of phone trees! |
Support
available through website form, iChat, email, or phone. Website also includes
FAQs and a knowledgebase. |
30-day
starter support and ongoing online tech support include. Long distance phone
support is $15 per request. |
|
Security |
N/A, but
if needed in the future, plan could be upgraded to the Mac Purist Plus Plan
($14.95 per month) which does include SSL Server, using the hosting company’s
security certificate. |
SSL for
both web and email |
SSL available
for $20 extra, which does not include the price of the certificate. |
|
References |
Website
contains a “Customer Testimonials” section with glowing reviews! |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Other |
Itsamac
offers multi-site discounts if you host more than one site with them.
Customers get 25% off sites 2-4, 33% off sites 5-9, and 50% off sites 10 and
above. Has offered Mac hosting since 1997. Based in |
Has
offered Mac hosting since 1999. Based in |
Has
offered Mac hosting since 1996. Based in |