ISP, MSP, Domains and lions and tigers. Oh my!

We are often asked what exactly do we do? Most people are far removed from the creation of their website and are not sure how the different parts interact. The fact is that the creation of a website is far removed from the daily operation of one. This article provides a fast over view of the website business.

Website Designers

In simple speak, they design the look of the website. Though many, they also work the “code” or programming of the site and equal amount do not. In today’s IT environment, a web designer does not need to be a programmer. Much of the code and programs are copy and paste. This is also why there are many “self-design” websites out there. These prefabricated sites have all the code ready to go and the user only manipulates the variable design elements.

Whether you design you own website using an online tool or hire a designer to make a custom website, the next step is the same. Your website needs to be hosted.

Domain Hosting Service

Think of domain hosting in terms of a house. Your architect “the web designer” has given you the plans. Where now to build that house? A domain hosting company rents you space on their server. This server therefore hosts your website. This is where house is built. Domain hosting company rent space themselves in data centers where they house their servers. This kind of infrastructure is well beyond the means of most web designers. Your architect hardly ever owns the city too. So now your house is designed, built and has a plot of land, how do people find it? You need and address.

Domain Registration Service

We all know what a street address looks like. In fact, we all know what a website address looks like. It’s the “www.website.com” we all see in our browser. Once again, this is a “rented” item. There is very little ownership in the web. For a yearly fee, you rent an address that can be assigned to your website. Many companies “rent” domain registrations. The fact is they are only brokers. An average person cannot register a domain and must go through one of the many services out there.

Once you have acquired or rented your domain registration, you now have your address in the world wide web. This address is then configured to point to the right data center, your resident server and finally your website on that server.

Why Doesn’t my ISP do all this for me?

ISP or internet service provider is not an all in one shop. To put it in the simplest terms, they provide the road. They are not the city (data center) or the house (domain registrar and domain host) or the architect (web designer.” An ISP simply provides the method to get to the web sites.

What are MSP’s then?

Managed Service Providers are companies that were once the domain of only big business. They are in essence IT departments for rent. Once again, yes, there is a lot of renting going on. An MSP may be able to help navigate some of the above but are usually focused on the daily needs of an office versus website maintenance.

As much as end user may wish, there is really no one stop shop for website design and service. Several may combine the above services, but these are associated venders usually. Just be aware that having a website designed is only the start. Architectural plans are pretty, but they are nothing without the infrastructure required to make them work.

What about Deep Core Data?

First off, we are not web designers.  We are in fact an MSP. We are an MSP that actually provides Domain Hosting (we have our own servers) and Domain Registrations (we can register names). Plus, we also maintain our secure email server. All our services are self-contained, and we do not sell your data to anyone or provide access to any data mining / marketing companies. With Deep Core Data, your data is yours.