Windows Web Hosting FAQs I
General Windows Hosting FAQ
Overview
The website will be a public site for use to individual members of the General Public in the UK. As this is a new website product, the services provided are strictly confidential for commercial reasons.
Requirements
The requirements described in this document detail what is needed in a windows hosting package.
Windows Hosting Supplier Information
Please provide the following information: -
• How long has the company been established and trading?
• Where is the company based?
• Is the company a private limited company?
• How many employees does the company have?
• How many support staff does the company have?
• Where are the support staff based geographically?
• Where are the web servers and databases servers located geographically?
• What debit cards do you accept?
Platform
The website will need to be hosted for ASP.Net 2.0 and Ajax. Future plans are that we expect to migrate to ASP.Net 3.5 within 12 months. We will therefore be looking for a plan that could support this in 12 months time.
Windows Hosting & Security
The security of data is of vital importance in any hosting package. Although windows shared hosting is being considered as the viable option initially, the website must be hosted on one physical machine (i.e., not across several servers like a “web farm”). There needs to be a guarantee of security for the web server and database server. I would like details of how any potential hosting supplier handles this and the architectural set up of the web server and database server (i.e., do they reside on different machines, are they in different physical locations, etc). I would also need reassurances and guarantees over the firewalls between the web servers and database servers.
Disaster Recovery
I require full details of this from any potential windows hosting supplier.
Development Tools / Programming
The website shall be constructed, in the main, using Microsoft Visual Studio.Net 2005.
Database
The database used is Microsoft SQL Server 2005. It is important that if SQLServerAuthentication is being used that all data is secure and protected
by appropriate firewalls and security policies.
3rd Party Tools
A number of 3rd party components will be used in the project. These are controls and components that provide superior functionality to those supplied with ASP.Net 2.0 and/or provide additional functionality not found in ASP.Net 2.0. These are vital to the project. A full list is not yet available. However, those that will definitely be included will be a “file upload” component; a “image manipulation” component (which will be mainly used to resize and reformat uploaded images programmatically). There may also be a reporting component. Others may also be added if needed.
It is vital that all of the relevant runtime required files and components can be installed on the windows server being used to host the website.
Webservices and 3rd Party Site Integration
The website will need to integrate with other websites and make use of webservices. Do the packages fully support this? As an example, when visitors pay, payments will be handled via a 3rd party site. Additionally, aspects of order details will be obtained from a 3rd party web service.
Other Technologies
Other technologies used and that therefore need to be supported include: -
• HTTP
• HTML
• XML
• CSS
