Let’s take a look at the latest web hosting trends and see how the industry is facing the challenges threatening its position in the market.
1. Multi-cloud hosting
Emerging technologies that allow organizational resilience, team collaboration, and massive data management empower businesses to negate the early effects of the pandemic and help build a tough foundation for the future. One such technology is multi-cloud hosting.
This relatively new cloud-based hosting approach involves the distribution of a wide array of cloud assets like documents and software across two or more cloud environments. From a business model perspective, it is a strategy where an organization leverages several cloud computing platforms to carry out different tasks and processes. It frees a company from total reliance on a single cloud host by giving the option to engage multiple providers. With this setup, an organization can choose to only use the best-of-breed services from each cloud host.
Due to the impact of the pandemic, 38% of technology executives worldwide plan to increase their multi-cloud and/or hybrid cloud emerging technology spending in the next 12 months for 2020 (KPMG, 2020). For the same year, another study found that 93% of businesses are shifting to a multi-cloud architecture (Flexera, 2020).
2. Green web hosting
The Internet’s annual CO2 output is equal to 31 million cars driving around the world all at once. How did this happen? Well, think of the physical location where all your website data get stored. These are called data centers, and there’s definitely a lot going on in these places.
Apart from the web developers managing all the servers, all the hardware gets their fair share of work too, if not actually more. Much like the daily gadgets we use, like our phones, tablets, and laptops, they tend to get hot when used for a long time. Thus, the hardware in data centers needs to be stored in a cool and controlled environment. This, however, requires incredibly energy-intensive maintenance and results in a significant amount of CO2 output.
Fortunately, web hosting companies are now investing in carbon offsetting schemes. In green web hosting, web hosts actively participate in eco-friendly initiatives to reduce negative impacts on the environment. They do this by gaining renewable energy certificates (REC) or carbon offset certificates (VER).
RECs certify that a hosting company helped in generating renewable energy. Companies that specialize in creating renewable energy generate these RECs and sell them to a hosting company. The money from this purchase then finances the operational costs for green energy initiatives. VERs, however, certify that a hosting company helped in reducing the number of greenhouse gases that the certificate states.
3. Pricing competition
As the demand for web hosting spikes, the price wars follow suit and continue to heat up. The web host industry is getting extremely competitive day by day. Thus, apart from unique tools and features, web hosting companies often compete with their prices on the line. To attract new customers, they start to offer tempting and fairly discounted buy-in deals.
The costs in building a site vary greatly depending on the complexity or simplicity of your needs. The price of a website boils down to several items: web hosting, domain, content creation, graphic design, web development, and marketing among others.
In web hosting, there are different price schemes offering different features and options. Shared web hosting usually offers the cheapest prices. Nonetheless, finding the right features, the best hosting services software, and the right price for a website can provide a smooth platform for businesses on the web.
The shared web hosting service, which controls 31.7% of the market, is predicted to have a CAGR of 10.3 from 2019 to 2025 (Berkaweb, 2020). Compared to cloud hosting and dedicated hosting, shared web hosting usually comes cheap, and they provide excellent server performance and features. However, there is always a reason for cheap prices, so website owners will have to be wary and check if the web host provider can cover all the demands of the website they need. Shared hosting services are available for as low as $2 a month (TechRadar, 2021).
The Future of Web Hosting
There are a lot of new opportunities that lie in the web hosting industry, but you must pay close attention to where factors such as environment, cloud, and privacy protocols stand in relation to web hosting. Although the gap becomes clearer between managed hosting trends and DIY website builders, there’s a thing or two to learn as you take a closer look at them, such as the benefits they both bring to website owners. Keeping track of website owner needs can help you find the right solutions you can develop and offer to your customers.
Evidently, the web hosting industry has no other way to go except forward—but only if it continues to evolve and adapt to the relentlessly changing digital market. The easy access to online videos and the rise of mobile browsing and apps, such as several mobile marketing platforms, all forced out the maximum capabilities that web hosting can contribute to the creation of websites. And if you want to stand your ground in the industry, these are the trends you’ll have to keep in mind as you craft your strategy. Good luck!
