[CentOS] Why CentOS as a webhosting platform

[Ken Price]

CentOS is doing well in the webhosting business for the same reason  
"the upstream provider" is doing well in the enterprise data center.   
Webhosting companies have recognized the low TCO CentOS brings to the  
table, as well as it's binary compatibility with RHEL and the benefits  
that come with.  Having an enterprise Linux distro as your hosting  
platform gives you confidence and piece of mind with regards to  
security and errata fixes for the better part of a decade.  I no  
longer have to reinstall Fedora every 6 months to keep my servers (and  
clients) secure.  An Enterprise distro also brings stability and ease  
of maintenance to the table.

The popularity of RHEL in the corporate world makes CentOS a  
no-brainer in the dedicated server market, which tends to be more  
price-conscious and volatile.  This market also tends to cater to the  
advanced linux user, whether that be a linux professional or serious  
hobbyist.

With the advent of CentOS 5.x, a VPS can benefit from all the points  
I've already made, again making CentOS a perfect candidate in the VPS  
market with no [or little] customization.

Webhosting companies are businesses.  TCO is a prime concern and  
consideration which makes enterprise distributions attractive.  A  
proven *free* enterprise distro is obviously a perfect fit.


Regards,
Kenneth Price


> Hi,
>
> CentOS seems to be doing really well in the hosting business these
> days, and even for people who would normally have used Windows or OSX
> on the hosting previously, are now looking at using CentOS. And I
> thought it would be nice to have a section on the wiki about exactly
> why that is.
>
> Not having any direct connection with the hosting business I was
> wondering if people here could help me out a bit and let me know why
> they think CentOS is good / bad as a platform in this market segment.
>
> I suppose that would include dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, Shared /
> Virtual hosting, and even high performance grid hosting that a few
> people seem to be offering these days.
>
> Once we have some material here in this thread, everything will go
> online at the wiki ( with due credit to all contributors ).
>
> -- 
> Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq