On-demand Web hosting services based on grids of clustered server resources saw a serious upswing in popularity during 2006 - becoming a widely-used alternative to both shared and dedicated Web hosting.
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For customers seeking to set up new hosting for Web-based projects, particularly applications, supporters of the technology say grid-based hosting can provide a virtual pool of computing resources that can be purchased as needed to support projects or applications with fluctuating resource requirements.
The technology unites pools of servers, storage systems and networks into large systems to deliver the collaborative resources to a single user point for a specific purpose. To a user, data file, or an application, the system appears to be one big virtual computing system.
While grid-based utility hosting remains a niche at this point, there is nevertheless a relatively developed selection of Web hosting providers to which a customer can turn for utility hosting solutions.
Among the most popular of these solutions is Media Temple (mediatemple.net), which offers its GridServer solution for $20 a month for an account that comes with 100GB of disk space, 1 terabyte of monthly data transfer, the ability to host up to 100 domains and a 64MB Ruby on Rails/Mongrel container.
Media Temple's solution comes with a full money-back guarantee, allowing users to try out the service before they commit.
When a user consumes more than its monthly allowance for bandwidth, Media Temple charges overage fees of 10 cents per ?grid performance unit.? However, based on an analysis of 10,000 random customer sites, Media Temple says 99.97 percent of customers do not exceed their allowances.
Rackspace-hosted utility hosting company Mosso (mosso.com) offers a grid-based solution, delivering 80GB of disk space and 2,000GB of bandwidth for $100 per month. The price includes the ability to host unlimited Web sites and unlimited POP 3/IMAP email accounts with Web mail.
Dedicated hosting provider Layered Technologies (layeredtech.com) offers a grid-based hosting system, known as GridLayer. Packages range from $49 to $199 per month, and can be scaled out to accommodate growing Web applications.
And grid-based solutions are available for more specific applications as well. Online retail giant Amazon offers its Simple Storage Service, known as S3 for short (aws.amazon.s3), providing pay-as-you-go data storage in a very simple configuration that charges 15 cents per month per GB for storage, and 20 cents per GB transferred.
The biggest advantages of utility hosting, say the companies involved, include the easy addition of new capacity along with the elimination of excess purchasing, as well as the ability to scale in much smaller increments and the low cost of entry.
While grid-based hosting is in a stage of rapid development, there is already an impressive selection of hosts offering services based on the technology, and it could be the right solution for your new Web project.
