If the current trend will continue then there are chances that in 2014 no. of web hosting companies or companies on the web will increase, whether the companies are small or large, they will all going to enjoy the benefits of being present on the web. But with this one more thing need to be consider, the new challenges which hosting providers will go to face and that will need them to adapt.

Netcraft has done an estimation by which it is known that in the last year 2013, the no. of websites are around 630 million and this no. rose to 861 million websites as of Jan 2014. On the basis of this estimation and figures, it is possible that the no. of websites will increase in the next few months also. As the no. of websites is increasing, it shows that the no. of companies will also increase who will be searching for those web hosting providers which are safe and secure, reliable, cost-effective, and up to date with the latest technology. If the no. of sites is increasing, so with the problems or challenges faced by hosting companies that will require them to adapt. This will include re-inventing and overhauling their processes in order to better serve the increased customer base.

There is various challenges faced by the hosting companies, but among them, the three major ones in the current year 2014 are as follows:

• Legal issues: One of the major challenges faced by the providers is legal issues. Vendors allow their users to host content, text, images, audios, and videos on their servers as web pages but they always do not monitor or check every file that’s being uploaded. The laws governing the ever-evolving Internet are still being refined, but in most cases, it is seen that the web hosting providers will be responsible for the content available on the site. It is predicted that in 2014, various issues related to the protection of data on the site and lawsuits resulting from defamatory content will continue. There are various kinds of damages that could arise due to legal issues such as it affect the credibility of the company, major loss of customers, and sometimes even shutdown of the company or web hosting provider if the complicated issues cannot be easily resolved.
• Rise of Cloud hosting: Web hosting companies offer shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting plans. These services are the mainstay for many hosting companies, but things started to change as cloud hosting gained momentum, with its robust technology and scalability advantages. There are various Cloud computing companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bluehost, HostGator, and iPage which are successful in generating impressive user bases. In the hosting space, the emerging trend is Enterprise-class cloud solutions from the likes of Verizon Terremark. For many websites, shared or dedicated web hosting is enough but cloud hosting is the wave of the future. In 2014, cloud hosting providers will give tough competition to the traditional web hosting companies. It is also estimated that around 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have already shifted to cloud hosting. Analysts predicted that as cloud hosting technology becomes more widespread, and then it will trickle down to other media- to large-scale businesses.
• Customer Support: All the companies want to succeed and wanted to go ahead of their competitors and for this, they offer good web hosting packages and a loyal customer base. But with this, they also need to maintain their customer service in a satisfactory manner, so if customers face any kind of problem, then they will get good service in proper time and in a very cost-effective way. If the customer services are not satisfactory, then companies will face problems. Today Live Chat and ticketing systems are preferred but still, one-third of clients still prefer calling, and they don’t like being kept on hold for long periods. Thus improvement in this direction is required and can also be proved as positive for hosting companies.

In the end, all the companies need to innovate themselves and improve themselves in a continuous way in order to stay afloat in this ever-changing hosting space.