Control panels in web hosting

Web hosting can become a very complex activity particularly when a large number of sites are hosted from a single server. The complexity of this task is made more manageable through the user of control panels. Control panels are used by several industries in the Engineering field, automation and in computers. Control panels when used in web hosting provide a convenient way of managing several administrative tasks.

Although these control panels vary in many respects, the basic idea is the same – to control the activities that the process or activity involves from a single location through a convenient and easy to use interface.

Function of Control Panels in web hosting

Control panels perform several tasks in web hosting. They help in creating different levels of users and maintaining the details of these users and the rights that are given to them. You can think of a shared web hosting system somewhat like a hotel. Each room is allotted to a different individual, and the privacy of the individual should be maintained. The individual in each room should not be disturbed by others in the hotel. Others should not gain unauthorized access to any room, unless specifically invited by the room guest. The hotel will have to take care to see that the wrong keys are not handed over to the guests, and that each guest is given the key to his or her own room and allowed entry only into that room. The hotel also has a number of common services, which are managed centrally by the hotel management. Some of these are necessary for the upkeep of the hotel. Others are services, such as laundry and restaurant services that individual occupants may specifically request on payment.

A shared web hosting also has all these characteristics, although the nature of the services is vastly different. It has to manage multiple domains (which are analogous to rooms in our hotel example), and maintain a number of common services, in addition to providing value added services as a default option or on request. A control panel helps the web hosting company perform all these tasks and also provides the basis for some user based actions.

Some of the common tasks performed by control panels

Some of the common tasks performed by control panels for web hosting include the following:

1. Creation and management of users: Control panels support creation of users at various levels. This is important because the web hosting company requires these services at one level, while its clients may require it at other levels. The web hosting company is responsible for setting up domains. In addition it may also have resellers doing the same job, and therefore may have to give them similar rights, but in a more restricted fashion. The domain owners will require the services in two levels – the first one to manage their accounts, and the second to be given to individual email clients.
2. Analysis and information: Control panels also provide useful information and analysis of various essential statistics. These statistics help the website owner to understand and analyze the traffic that comes into his or her website.
3. File transfer and file management: Web hosting involves designing and making the websites. These sites are dynamic and therefore undergo periodic changes. The individual domain or website owners are responsible for making these changes and updating their sites. This is done through file transfers of program and script files. The control panel needs to support this activity in a secure fashion.

Advantages of control panels in web hosting

Control panels have become an essential part of web hosting. Shared web hosting would be near impossible without these useful packages. Control panels offer a variety of advantages to both the web hosting company, and the domain user or site owner. Some of these advantages are:

• Easy interface: Control panels provide an easy to use interface that makes managing complex tasks easier, and allows routine tasks to be handled by non-professional individuals.
• Stability: Control panels provide a stable means for providing and managing web hosting services.
• Security: Hundreds or even thousands of websites are managed under a single server under shared web hosting systems. The security of these systems needs to be fool proof. Control panels provide such security to operations connected with shared web hosting

Control panels have become an essential part of web hosting. Without them, web hosting would be a very complex task, particularly when thousands of sites are involved.