These days, websites are foundational to how our society and economy function. But, with modern sites handling more traffic than ever before, the need for performance and scalability is increased. Moreover, instances of cyber attacks are increasing globally, heightening the requirements for security measures. These are issues that naturally fall at the feet of web hosts. Amid these circumstances, web hosts are working to provide high-quality, high-capacity, and highly secure environments for client sites. But just exactly technologies and techniques are they using, and how do they enhance next level web hosting?
Table of Contents
Patch Management Software
Patch management is how web hosts provide client sites with the latest bug fixes and security measures. Given that cyber threats are continuously evolving, growing more sophisticated, and numerous, this patch management is critical.
But while updates and patches are essential to repairing bugs and remediating system vulnerabilities, the actual process of downloading, checking, and deploying them can be time and resource-intensive. This is where patch management tools come into play, as this software has been specially developed to help lighten this load.
So, then what exactly do the best patch management software platforms do? Well, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, they automate the processes of sourcing, testing, and applying updates. Using patch management software, hosts can create schedules for the automated deployment of patches, for instance, which helps keep downtime to a minimum. In this way, service providers can conduct updates more efficiently and provide better security and functionality.
Content Delivery Networks
In web hosting, the distance between users and a site’s main server can present a real challenge. If they are too far from a server’s location, sites can experience slow loading times, which hinders performance and degrades the user experience. Content delivery networks (CDNs), however, have made it possible to address this issue.
CDNs give hosts the ability to cache content on servers across different regions. By doing this, they can deliver content to users via more local servers. This minimizes the distance between users and servers, reducing latency and load times.
Additionally, CDNs also have security benefits. One key example is that they help to protect against DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which seek to overwhelm servers by inundating them with requests. Since they spread site traffic to edge servers, CDNs help prevent main servers from being overwhelmed.
Load Balancing Technology
The performance of a website is contingent on the resource management practices of its host. For this reason, load balancing technology is vitally important to how managed service providers deliver value to site owners.
Sudden spikes in user traffic, such as during a seasonal promotion or sale, can cause performance issues if servers become overwhelmed, but load-balancing technology prevents this. Modern load balancers work by monitoring and automatically redistributing traffic across servers to prevent lags or crashes, thereby increasing uptime and improving site performance.
Server Virtualization
Next Level web hosting is all about making the most of what hardware resources are available, especially physical servers. Server virtualization technology makes all the difference in this regard, as it makes it possible for hosts to run multiple virtual servers on a single device.
Incorporating virtual machines means service providers utilize their memory and storage resources optimally at all times. And since virtual machines require no additional infrastructure, they also facilitate more flexible and modular environments. This means that site owners can better adapt to their evolving needs, as scaling operations up and down becomes significantly easier.
Web Application Firewalls
Beyond typical site attacks, hosts need to account for a variety of other cyber risks, such as those that attack via web applications. Threats like SQL, for example, can compromise site security by exploiting web applications, leading to data breaches. To protect against these kinds of threats and safeguard client sites, hosting providers need purpose-built solutions. Conveniently, this is what web application firewalls (WAFs) have been developed for.
Modern WAFs work by monitoring the HTTP traffic of applications. They use AI to scan for suspicious behavior, detecting and blocking malicious activity in real-time to give client sites continuous protection against cyber attacks. With regular updates, hosts can ensure that WAFs are equipped to deal with emerging threats as well, allowing them to provide environments that remain secure, even in an evolving threat landscape.
Wrapping up
These days, site owners have a lot to contend with. With traffic volumes increasing and cyber threats also evolving, they need hosting environments that combine high performance with robust security and scalability. With the technologies and techniques we’ve discussed here, today’s leading hosting providers are doing just that. Using these innovations, web hosts are helping site owners deal with the challenges of today and prepare for those of tomorrow.