I’m asking this because i’m hoping to start developing an online community (social network) and i’m reluctant to contact my existing web host and just add a domain on to my account and just use them. They give me unlimited bandwidth & diskspace but i mean its obvious to say that Google, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo, etc, doesnt just use your average web host do they? They would have datacentres and cloud servers and god know what else. So my question is, when does a web application warrant using cloud servers, data centres, etc?
I’m asking this because i’m hoping to start developing an online community (social network)
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If you like to do your own configuration, you should look into a VPS from the beginning, otherwise I’d ask your web host upfront to give you options for continuation, based on what your estimate will happen (traffic, load, visitors, stuff like that).
If your plans don’t succeed or it takes longer than you assumed, you’ll be happy that you settled with a provider/basic plan for a lower cost until things got heavy.
If your plans does indeed come through, your hosting company could probably turn your account off temporarily due to too much load. You would want to have a plan for this moment, probably by moving up to a more costly but also more performing pricing plan; or switching hosting all together to a VPS or something similiar.
(Many if’s there… but finally) if your current hosting company does not seem clever or open enough when you approach them, don’t hesitate to ask around with their competitors – they would probably be happy to steal you as a customer. Plus, the more you ask, the more you know on beforehand as you ask the next possible provider – your competence in this area will grow.
Have fun!