Choose a Host Platform

There are a number of platform options for hosting Drupal. Your choice will likely be determined primarily by your current datacenter environment and available skill sets. Drupal runs happily on shared hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers and cloud server environments. As with any service, the platform you choose will also be informed by performance and availability requirements.

If you plan to host your Drupal environment on a dedicated hardware server, Ubuntu has created a list of validated hardware to help you find the right server for your needs. There are also a number of services that provide managed and unmanaged dedicated server hosting if you do not have a datacenter of your own.

Hardware virtualization has become commonplace in enterprise datacenters. VMware is currently the most popular choice for server virtualization in the enterprise, but there are a number of other viable options, which include Xen, VirtualBox and Microsoft's Hyper-V. Many hosting providers offer Virtual Private Servers at reasonable rates if you do not have access to your own. Server virtualization is also commonly used to create a local environment for Drupal development.

Cloud computing is being heralded as the future of enterprise computing, as it offers many advantages over traditional dedicated and virtual computing architectures. One significant advantage of cloud computing is the ability to dynamically scale resources to meet demand, which can be an excellent solution for managing bursts in server, storage and network requirements.

In a cloud computing environment, resources can be dynamically allocated to an operating system as requirements change, as opposed to a dedicated or virtual server environment, where one must provision for the highest projected demands. This can also lead to cost savings in commercially hosted solutions, as you only pay for what you use. Ubuntu offers both private and public cloud computing solutions.

While shared hosting is a very popular and cost effective method of hosting Drupal with minimal administrative overhead, it is not recommended for enterprise Drupal implementations. With a number of sites hosted on the same hardware environment, it is not possible to guarantee that resources will be available when needed. Furthermore, the actions of other users on the same server can have negative impact on your sites. That said, shared hosting may be a viable solution if you have very simple needs and limited financial resources.

If you do not plan to host Drupal in your own datacenter, there are a number of hosting providers that specialize in hosting Drupal.