DO-IT-YOURSELF You host the Web site yourself, relying purely on in-house resources except for the external connectivity. PROS: * No service costs to pay * You have total control over the application CONS: * Can be difficult and expensive to maintain the required expertise * You may not have an ideal physical environment * Coping with future increase in demand may be painful.

YANILLA CO-LOCATION Hosting company provides the physical space and associated environmental services, including building access security, for your Web server and the connectivity to the Internet. However, the server is yours and you manage everything else to do with it, including the hardware, operating system and application. PROS: * Far cheaper than full-blown dedicated hosting, while avoiding all the environmental and connectivity issues of in-house hosting CONS: * You stilt need the resources to manage the Web server itself including operating system and application.

CO-MANAGED This is a half-way house, in which you still look after the application, but now the hosting company owns and administers the server and the operating system, as well as providing all the basic co-location facilities. This represents a split in responsibility between the IT platform and the application running on it. PROS: * It off-loads all responsibility for hardware and operating system, allowing you to focus on the application * Cheaper than full dedicated hosting CONS: * Considerably more expensive than co-location * You still have to look after the application, which is often the main source of reliability problems.

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