Web Hosting.

Every website consists of files, often supplemented by a database, which sit on a server and are delivered with every request. Hosting provides that server, the network connection, the power, the physical security of the data centre and — depending on the model — the operating system, updates and backups as well. From the outside you barely notice good hosting; you notice bad hosting through slow pages, outages and emails that land in spam because the server is on a blocklist.

The common models differ in who is responsible for which part. With shared hosting, many websites share one server; that is cheap, but performance depends on the neighbours. Managed hosting, for example specialised in WordPress, takes care of updates, caching and backups. A VPS (Virtual Private Server) offers guaranteed resources but requires your own maintenance. Cloud and serverless platforms scale automatically and suit modern frameworks, where static pages are distributed via a CDN.

For Swiss SMEs there is also the question of location. The revised Data Protection Act does not require servers to be in Switzerland; the EU is recognised as offering adequate data protection. What matters is a data processing agreement, transparent security measures and clarity about who has access. For particularly sensitive personal data — health data, for instance — a Swiss data centre can still be sensible or contractually required.

The cost of hosting is rarely the decisive item. It gets expensive when nobody is responsible for updates, backups and monitoring, and people have to improvise after an outage or a hack. At DLM Digital, hosting for a new website is free in the first year and then costs CHF 300 a year (domain not included); changes and upkeep are handled separately through website maintenance.