There are several general categories of web hosting:
Shared Hosting is the most common. This involves many customers sharing a single machine.
VPS, or Virtual PRviate Server, is also very common. With VPS hosting, each customer has their own virtual machine. Several virtual machines are usually run on top of a cluster of hardware.
Dedicated server hosting, which is relatively rare outside of the Enterprise software world, involves the customer having complete use of an actual server, which is essentially rented from the hosting company.
Colocation hosting is not exactly web hosting, so much as facilities rental. With “colo” hosting, the customer providers their own server equipment, and the hosting company rents space in a datya center, providing access to power and network connectivity.
Cloud Hosting is a type of VPS hosting plan in which the Virtual Machines are running on large pools of computing power — dozens or hundreds of machines networked together into a “cloud.” This is also sometimes called “scalable VPS” hosting, and is a fast growing sector of the hosting business.
