Plesk Control Panel Utility and Ease of Navigation

Plesk Control Panel is among the control panels with the greatest degree of functions available on earth. It offers far greater utility than competing Internet based tools used for managing the resources of the server which websites have to possess in order to exist. Plesk demonstrates its utility in permitting individuals to manage literally thousands of virtual hosts on but a single computer. The Plesk control panel can be utilized with VPS, Shared, and also Dedicated web hosting. It in fact automates a number of tasks which permit web hosting companies to cut their costs of operation, as well as amounts of resources used. It does all of this while still managing to boost efficiency, profitability, and even customer satisfaction.

The control panel itself features a simple to navigate around interface for web hosting automation. Navigating around its various parts has been optimized so that users are able to simply and swiftly locate the functions which they require at any point and time. On top of this, the Plesk Control Panel remembers all of the more frequently utilized functions and presents them to the user anytime he or she accesses the interface.

Plesk Control Panel Abilities

Where management abilities are concerned, Plesk Control Panel provides a wide range of features useful for the effective administration of any hosting resources which are available. Among these are an auto component updater, an auto update mechanism, Internet based installation allowing for rapid deployment, and a migration manager. On top of this, the majority of such Plesk setups allow the user to do the following functions:

- Set up FTP user accounts
- Both upload, as well as manage, files
- Set up and maintain email accounts
- Put on additional sub-domains and domains
- Restore and backup site files
- Develop and maintain databases, including PostgreSQL and MySQL
- Look at Web Log Files
- Manage Resources like DNS

Plesk Control Panel Log In Levels and Compatibility

Four differing levels of log in exist for Plesk Control Panel. These are Client/Reseller, Administrator, Mail User, and Domain Owner. All of them have different levels of functions allowed. Plesk functions on a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows and Linux operating systems, Red Hat, Fedora, FreeBSD, Debian, CentOS, SuSE, and Ubuntu.

Plesk Control Panel Efficiency

Plesk Control Panel is particularly useful for those offering shared hosting. It allows the host provider to set up its proprietary web hosting packages to provide them to the end users. It proves its worth to the host provider by automating literally every management task so that the provider is able to concentrate on the other more critical parts of the business. Plesk’s interface permits the host provider to accomplish a great deal of operations for service setup, including creating email accounts, new websites, and even DNS settings using the Internet based platform.

Plesk Control Panel is also useful for a number of different functions. Some of these are for configuring and creating web sites. This is done by utilizing a swift and potent interface which is web based. It features simple to employ help files and menus. The Plesk control panel has many efficiencies and advantages. Among them are the fact that it proves to be modular (with new features which are simple to install), automated, international (with a few different languages supported), secure, and cost effective.

In summary, the Plesk Control Panel proves to be one which is technologically advanced. It will likely meet the majority of, if it does not meet all, of any individual’s web hosting requirements. While it is more expensive than competing control panels, it turns out to be worth the money to own such a potent and simple to utilize control panel interface.

At one time, only shared plans and dedicated hosting plans were available. The most common type was shared hosting because it is an economical solution compared to dedicated hosting which was and still is a costly hosting alternative. Windows VPS hosting has become an ideal solution because the costs are significantly lower than dedicated hosting and allow users to still have their own server for operating websites. The user is able to control all aspects of the server and the web site hosted on it.

Hosting plans of this type allow users to set up an unlimited number of sites with the only limit being the amount of space available. Hosting providers have many different plans setup with various amounts of disk space and bandwidth.

The user has full control of the website so it can be easily managed from a desktop or through the hosting companies control panel. Support is available through your hosting provider. Most hosts offer support at all times of the day to help with configuration and answer questions.

Various software programs can be installed but check with your hosting provider as to which programs are restricted from being installed. Usually, almost any kind of software or script can be installed on the server.

How Windows VPS Hosting Benefits Businesses

The information and files on the server are backed up regularly on your behalf. The backups are done daily so data is safe and current or you can select a backup from any day to do a restore. Contact the hosting provider’s support team to restore the site or server files.

Hosting provider technical teams also update the software on the server and upgrade the equipment so the user does not need to do any hardware installations or upgrades. The amount of resource usage is monitored and the information regarding this aspect is available at any given time. All usage is tracked to give the website owner current information. Based on this information, the hosting provider will recommend hosting upgrades or downgrades based on the usage and web site needs.

Another benefit is that the hosting provider will monitor and fix any problems with the server. The website owner is informed of any problems that occur with the server.

How Windows VPS Hosting Benefits Developers

Website developers and software developers use this type of hosting because it is much cheaper than dedicated hosting and for the ease of software installation and testing. Both dedicated servers and virtual private servers operate the same way. Physical equipment is required for dedicated servers whereas a VPS server does not require expensive equipment.

Use of Windows VPS hosting allows a developer to complete simple tasks at a faster pace because of the burstable RAM feature that virtual private servers have. Some hosts provide this feature as a convenience to their clients.

Developers use various software programs to create packages. There is no limit to the number of different software programs that can be installed on a VPS. A shared server does not have this flexibility. Some developers use this type of hosting to create open source applications. Developers can add any features to customize their software packages because of the ability to install various software programs.

At one time, many service seekers opted for Linux hosting because of lower costs, but in today’s technological world, Windows hosting solutions are now affordable. There are many different hosting plans to choose from with a higher amount of disk space and higher amount of bandwidth. The number of websites and the amount of traffic will determine which plan is suitable. Your hosting provider will help you decide if a higher capacity plan is ideal.

With each era of growth, your online business is able to generate more traffic. As such, a large and larger burden is placed on the shared server because of the increasing amount of people who are trying to access it. When it becomes impossible for a dedicated server to handle your site’s web traffic, you should seriously consider moving onto VPS hosting. Contrary to conventional dedicated server hosting, a virtual private server divides the tasks of one real-time server into numerous virtual servers, which means far less stress for each server. Each one of these servers has the capability to emulate the appearance and task handling skills of a dedicated server machine. For example, each of these servers has the capability to run its own operating system and can provide the option of individual rebooting.

The concept of division of a sole server into numerous virtual servers is not new. Earlier too, large mainframe computers used this concept to divide information. The concept gradually caught speed with the development and expansion of virtualization software. The use of such software allows many companies to have dedicated resources residing on the same machine. Though, the real benefit of VPS concept lies in hosting high-end websites.

VPS hosting is of three types which include the following:

1. Managed Hosting – In this type of hosting, the customer pays the web hosting company for the maintenance of server systems and general health.
2. Unmanaged Hosting – This type of hosting means the customer has to undertake the responsibility of server monitoring, maintenance, and administration.
3. Unmetered Hosting – This hosting method is similar to unmanaged hosting type. In this type, the monthly rates are fixed and do not depend upon the number of updates, changes, monitoring, maintenance etc. performed during the month.

In the last few years, VPS hosting industry has witnessed tremendous growth due to consistent advancements in the realm of virtualization technology. It meets the tough standards set by the mainstream networking requirements. Let’s discuss some of the advantages of using VPS systems:

• Cost-efficient: The overall costs involved in VPS hosting is much lower as compared to dedicated hosting. Due to the use of a single machine, providers offer network connectivity, software, maintenance and speed at a reasonably lower price.
• Higher Protection and Security Levels: the security offered by a private server is much higher than a conventional server. All the processes run in an isolated environment. Due to lower costs, more money can be invested on protection equipment.
• Freedom: Webmasters experience more freedom when it comes to configuring their server requirements. Custom specifications can be selected by the webmaster to better manage their website’s needs. The role of hosting provider is almost eliminated.
• Guaranteed Web Resources: Due to the elimination of server sharing, users are given more space and web resources. This helps them expand their online business.
• Flexibility: More add-ons and configuration tools are provided to the users. Also, they can also choose to install their custom applications. Moreover, users are given root access to help them interact better with the server.
• Organization: virtual private servers can be specifically used for an important purpose. For example, one VPS can be used to collect emails, another for FTP, and yet another for backup. This way webmasters can easily track their various applications.

Besides of these, there are many advantages of opting for a VPS system. However, it must be understood that VPS isn’t for everyone. The tools and resources provided by virtual private server are for professional high-end websites. If your website is performing well on a conventional server, there’s no need to move to a VPS. Weigh your options and requirements clearly before switching to VPS.

So now that we know what a domain name is, let us further discuss internet hosting. Internet hosting and web hosting are the same. When you purchase hosting for a new website after obtaining your domain name, you are simply renting space on a web server.

What Is A Web Server?

A web server is simply a computer with a special program running on it. This program has multiple functions, but its main function is to serve you, the website owner. The web server gets a request from you to display your files over the Internet for everyone to see.

When you pay for web or internet hosting, you are requesting for the hosting company to use their web server to display all of the files that make up your website. These files can be words, videos, pictures or any other content that you have on your website for display. Your hosting company serves you by displaying the files that make up your website each time someone types your domain name into the web address bar.

The monthly fee for web hosting is typically very reasonably priced. The money that you are paying goes to the hosting company each month and is used to maintain the web server, and upgrade the server as needed. Your monthly fee also helps to keep your website secure and to keep it up and running for 24 hours each day. There are various types of web hosting available. Let us review the most popular types of internet hosting used by most people to host their websites.

Shared Hosting

Web servers can handle requests from thousands of websites at one time. Shared hosting servers are very powerful, because they have the capability of effectively maintaining a large number of requests from websites while protecting the security of each. The majority of websites online use a shared hosting plan.

When you use shared hosting, you are simply sharing the server that is used to keep your website actively running online. Shared hosting plans are typically very inexpensive. This is because so many people are splitting the cost of maintaining one web server. Many website owners are happy with using shared hosting because of the service that they receive at such a low cost.

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting is for websites that get such a large number of visitors that they need a web server all to themselves. Websites that would fall into this category would be Google, Yahoo and MSN. These websites get millions of hits every few hours. If they did not use dedicated hosting, these websites would crash every few minutes. A shared server would not be able to handle the amount of server requests that large websites such as these require.

Dedicated hosting can be used for one powerhouse website, such as Google, or they can be split between 2 to 5 websites that have a large amount of traffic, but not so much that they need their own web server. Dedicated hosting, of course, is more expensive than shared hosting. The larger the number of website owners sharing a server, the cheaper the cost of internet hosting.

Free Hosting

There are many websites that allow you to host with them for free in exchange for the ability to place advertisements on your web space. This is not a very popular method of obtaining hosting, but is used by those who do not want to pay any monthly fees to maintain their website online. This is an option with most hosting companies, and the best way to get your website up and running for free if you are strapped for cash.

Obtaining Internet hosting is a fairly easy and straightforward process, and there are very reputable companies online that offer hosting for cheap. Now that you know the difference between domain names and web hosting, dedicated and shared hosting and the function of the web server, you can begin the process of finding a hosting company that will get your website live on the internet for all to see.

One of the main reasons to bring your equipment to a colocation facility is to ensure the physical safety of the equipment itself. Although the typical data center can’t do much to protect the data on your server from falling victim to a computer hacker on the other side of the world, they can protect you from somebody who might otherwise just break into your office and remove the server from the rack. Most data centers have multiple levels of security, including locking server racks, caged-off areas, biometic hand scanners, and around-the-clock security staffing all to protect your physical networking assets. With identity theft and other types of “virtual” crime on the rise, one of the safest ways to protect your data is to make sure that the hard drive it lives on is housed in a secure colocation facility.

Nevertheless, locking your gear in a cage won’t do much good if your routers and switches aren’t connected to a reliable power source. All data centers have redundant power feeds and full-time electrical engineers on staff to make sure that your site stays up and running. Most colocation providers will even guarantee something approaching 100% up-time when you are ready to sign your hosting contract.

Colocation facilities also offer access to many different carriers, telco providers and other essential services to always keep your business connected to the web. Specifically, neutral colocation companies may offer a choice of web hosting solutions from major carriers such as AT & T, Global Crossing, and Qwest, which allows customers to find just the right service provider to meet their needs. In addition, having access to multiple companies who can route your internet traffic ensures that one carrier’s service outage does not mean that your business will also go dark until the problem is rectified. Many companies also find it advantageous to partner up and exchange traffic with others located in the same colocation facility. Just a simple cross-connect cable can provide your company a physical connection to the services of another that may actually be located a world away from your own.

Finally, the cost of having a dedicated technical staff at the ready can be very prohibitive to many internet start-ups. Moving your equipment to a colocation facility where a dedicated staff of technicians are always available to reboot or troubleshoot your gear remotely just makes good financial sense. Most data centers run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and do not take holidays off. Just the peace of mind that comes from knowing that there is always somebody there to handle any connectivity issues that may arise is often well worth the expense for many companies.

Ultimately, any company that plans to be competitive on the web should consider colocation as an essential tool to ensure their success in an ever more crowded marketplace. Colocation facilities offer an easy solution to partnering and sharing resources with other companies, while still providing top-level physical security for your equipment and the opportunity for unlimited future expansion of your own business as well.

An SLA is literally a Service Level Agreement that pertains to the customer of any virtual private server, or VPS. In this agreement, the hosting provider firm states the percentage of the time which they guarantee that a business or individual’s website will be available to potential customers. This is also known as an uptime guarantee. Many novices in the Internet hosting world are at once stunned and dismayed to learn that in the technologically advancing age in which the world finds itself, a website can not be guaranteed to be up and running one hundred percent of the time. In fact, web hosting companies do manage to keep virtual private servers up and running generally anywhere from 99.5% to 99.99% of the time.

These figures start to reassure the customer when he or she hears such impressive sounding percentages thrown around in the uptime guarantee. But stop and think about what these percentages translate to in real time over a given thirty day month. What the SLA is telling the customers is that they may suffer from a down website for as much as a half of a percent to a hundredth of a percent of all the hours in the given month. Where an uptime guarantee of 99.5% is concerned, this is really stating that they business or person’s website could actually be down for a whole two hundred and sixteen minutes during the month. Suddenly 99.5% does not sound so impressive anymore. Firms which uptime guarantee 99.9% are doing better, telling the customer that in a typical thirty day month, the user’s website will only be down for up to forty-three minutes. And, the SLA’s which guarantee an uptime of 99.99% are promising that the website of the customers in question will be unavailable for a mere four point three minutes a month.

The point of such an SLA and uptime guarantee is not simply that a person will not have to pay for the time in which their website is down. The promise is that the business or individual will actually be compensated for the loss potentially incurred WHILE the website is down. Here is where the SLA fine print turns out to be so critically important. If the company is not literally offering compensation for the down time, then this so called uptime guarantee is not worth the marketing paper on which it is printed.

It is important to note that most of these web hosting server companies did not survive in this business being fools, or readily giving away money. They are not monitoring the business or individual’s website down time so that they can reimburse the customer as fast as possible. They do keep track of this information, for their own purposes, records, and benefit. In fact, if a customer does not monitor his or her own down time figures, so that the person is able to request the compensation, then it will likely not be offered at all. This is where observation and good record keeping come in handy where a business or individual’s virtual private server and the accompanying web hosting service provider are concerned.

All of this boils down to a central point in picking out a web hosting service provider. When deciding which company to trust for the business or individual’s VPS, one should not only contemplate the cost, brand name, and statistics which are bandied around. The fine print of the contract must be carefully and closely examined to understand what exactly such numbers signify, as well as if such outfits prove to be so real and stable as the marketing brochure claims. In following such advice, the individual’s business will likely stay online more of the time.

Script Heavy Websites Which Are Database Driven

There are a variety of ways that websites can be written. Many sites are written with bandwidth consuming scripts, such as CGI/Perl, ASP, or PHP. While these scripts lead to beautiful websites, they also require huge amounts of storage space and bandwidth to work. Fortunately, computer power is no longer expensive, so the majority of servers in the hosting business are now able to host such script heavy sites rather easily. Similarly, if the individual or business website turns out to be database driven, with huge numbers of names, descriptions, and information associated with these, then a large amount of server bandwidth is also necessary.

Video and Audio Intensive Websites

Websites which prove to be relatively simple, with only several images and the majority of the rest of the site being text, do not need much bandwidth from the hosting server. For those individuals or businesses whose website includes a great number of audio files, video files, or even simply many larger images, there will be a huge bandwidth and storage space requirement. This is as a result of the intensive nature of such video files, audio files, and picture images, which consume huge amounts of resources to both store and transmit.

Overall Size of Website

A final important explanation for why a person or business website would require much bandwidth from the web hosting server lies in the overall size of the website in question. When such a website is only a few sub pages and a home page, there is no problem. But if the site contains numerous pages, perhaps scores or even hundreds of pages, then a large bandwidth and storage space will almost certainly be required. Remember that bandwidth turns out to be the amount of traffic that a website can interface with at a single point and time. So if a given website contains a ten megabyte audio file which ten different Internet users download entirely, then the site has used up one hundred megabytes of bandwidth already. Bandwidth utilized is a direct result of the quantity of traffic which the website receives, multiplied times the sizes of the files which these web visitors then download.

Unlimited bandwidth can be really important for a large and successful website. For a business or individual who does not have this on their major site, one of a couple of things will happen. Likely the host will decide to allow the person or business to have the extra traffic, but the proverbial electric meter will be running. An enormous extra bandwidth hosting bill will likely be the result at the end of the hosting period in question. Other hosts will simply enforce the bandwidth limit. This would mean that no additional visitors would be able to visit the website, period. Unfortunately, this looks to visitors like the site is not working correctly, or is down completely, for any new visitors trying to log on to the site. There is no reason to suffer from either of these potentially significant and worrisome problems. With so many different web hosting companies in the market today, competing for any business or individual’s custom, the competition for website hosting is extremely high. This means that for from only eight to fifteen dollars a month, a person or business ought to be capable of finding a reliable website host which happily offers its customers unlimited bandwidth hosting, and probably relatively generous amounts of website storage memory, along with it. Simply go with a web host which allows unlimited bandwidth hosting, and sleep easier at night.

Nineteen inch racks refer to standardized frames and enclosures created for the purpose of mounting several equipment modules. The term nineteen inches comes from the width of the front panel of each module; this width includes edges, also known as “ears”, that jut out from each side of the module, and enable personnel to fasten the module to the rack frame by use of screws.

Server racks originated as systems to mount railroad signaling relays. As a result, they are sometimes still called relay racks. However, the nineteen inch format width of the rack has remained through the years, although the equipment mounted within these racks has changed over the years to accommodate technology from a variety of fields.

Originally, the typical enclosure cabinet in the early server days maintained the nineteen inch module width and were twenty to twenty five inches in depth. This basic design remained the same for several years. However, as blade servers, or server computers stripped down and designed to fit in modules and optimized to use as little physical space and energy possible, became more popular in recent years, changes had to occur in the designs of enclosure cabinets. Before blade servers became increasingly popular, the typical server was either in a tower shape or came in a module between fifteen and twenty inches deep that would require 4U to 8U space for rack mounting. The “U” refers to “unit”, and refers to a region within a rack. The height of a space inside a rack is measured in Us; today, a computer that can be mounted in a rack is typically 1U or 2U higher, while an enclosure for a blade server may need 10U. For reference, a U is typically 1.75 inches high.

Initially, many well known blade servers on the market had been designed to make use of between 1U and 4U of space in a server rack. As a result, many more servers could be installed in a computer rack. However, when blade servers were inserted in the aforementioned U spaces, a problem arose as a result. Servers on the market began to be designed with significantly greater depth; some were forty two inches deep. They were also designed to run at hotter temperatures, with heat dispersal resulting from running air from the server’s front into the server and out behind it.

However, these new servers that were deeper in breadth and hotter in operating temperatures could not function well in the computer racks and enclosure cabinets that existed at the time, and to combat the premature failure rates, the computer rack industry developed a new style of rack to accommodate these new designs. A new computer rack had to be deeper to allow the servers to fit and had to have accommodations to allow air to flow from the front of the rack to the back, so servers would not overheat and shut down or fail altogether. This was the point where the term server rack began to be sued in place of the existing terminologies of computer rack, data cabinet, and enclosure cabinet.

Additionally, the existing standard of 10/32 tapped rack rails that had long been the default form of rack rail changed into a system involving punched square holes which held space for the insertion of cage nuts and screws. Today, many computer manufacturers make sliding rails that can be attached with special flanges to server racks; these flanges allow for fitting into the square holes without the need for rack screws, increasing functionality and the ability to swap modules on the fly.

Today, there are a variety of racks available, and changes continue to be made to optimize their storage capabilities.

Free hosting for your website may seem like a bargain at first until you consider the hidden costs. You have an impossibly cumbersome web address to deal with, search engines will ignore you, and you can’t add message boards, online shopping carts, chatrooms or any of the other interactive features that will keep your prospective audience coming back for more. Why did you put all that energy into designing and uploading a website in the first place? Because you wanted to excite other people about something that excited you! With a free hosting service, however, your cherished site will become little more than a billboard for ads, banners, pop-ups and other spam commissioned by your host.

Inexpensive web hosting solutions start for as little as one to two dollars a month for 20-50 MB of disk space. There are plenty of providers that will offer you gigabytes of space and unlimited bandwidth for under $10 a month. And that’s not all they offer you:

Your Own Domain

With paid web hosting you will have your own domain – much easier for your target audience to remember and an absolute “must” if you want to be ranked well on search engines.

Data Transfer

Ever set your browser to a URL only to discover that the site has been taken down because it exceeded its bandwidth? Bet you never logged on to that site again! Chances are that site is hosted on a free server that isn’t set up to handle robust web traffic. Free web hosts put their clients on a single server that’s overcrowded, slow and frequently offline altogether. Did you put all that work into researching and uploading content so it would only be seen by ten people on alternate Wednesdays? We didn’t think so!

With a paid web provider, your website will be fully capable of handling the audiences it attracts and it will only be offline for occasional maintenance – which you will be informed about well in advance.

Disk Space

Free web hosts allow you only very limited space for your eye-catching graphics, multimedia, interactive features, databases and multiple pages. A paid web host, on the other hand, will provide you with plenty of space for your Internet vision at a price that often works out to just pennies a day.

Better Administrative Options

Paid web hosts routinely provide their customers with services like branded email addresses, autoresponders, email forwarding, FTP access, site statistics, CGI, SSI and PHP. Many of them also provide access to popular WYSIWYG web design programs like FrontPage as well as extras like real audio/video http streaming. You won’t get these services from a free web host.

Unlimited Design Options

Most free web hosts will insist that your website’s appearance conform to one of a very limited number of design templates. Do you really want your website to blend into the crowd? With a paid web host, the only restrictions on your design specs is your imagination.

Customer Service

It’s not easy administering a website. There are times when you definitely need to turn to somebody for help. Free web hosts offer nothing in the way of customer support: If you’re stuck, you’re on your own. But all paid hosts offer customer support, many of them through 24/7 email and/or live chat. Often they give their customers access to a toll-free help phone line.

Reliability

Many free websites are not actually “free:” they exist as bait to get you to pony up for a subscription service that’s generally priced higher than its competitors’ services. The thought is that after dealing with the multiple inconveniences of their free service, eventually you’ll throw up your hands, scream, “I surrender,” and reach for your credit card. (Your site is already on their server, after all; no one wants the hassle of migrating a website if they don’t have to.)

Worst case scenario: one day you log on to administer your site only to be greeted with an announcement that the company has discontinued its free hosting service and your files have been taken offline (and made inaccessible to you) until such time as you decide to show them the money.

Your paid website host is not in the business of blackmailing you or highjacking your files. You have access to your files 24/7.

A typical network audit will start with the simplest and most basic of problems: weak passwords. The auditor will attempt to crack the network with popular software for that purpose and ensure that no “dictionary” passwords are being used. If weak passwords are found the auditor will recommend changes to enforce password security.

The next thing that is typically checked is the software versions of software on the network. An audit ensures that all software is up-to-date with relevant security patches. If old software is being used, an audit will ensure that security patches have been backported.

A very simple thing to check is file access. Most network today use the Unix method of file access, with read/write/execute privileges based on user and user groups. Therefore, with a simple script an auditor can check all files on the network and ensure that they are only available

Many private networks today need to allow public access so that employees and users of the network can remotely access files. An auditor will ensure that such transactions are done in a secure fashion. For example, despite the insecurity, many organizations still use the telnet protocol, which offers no encryption or security. An auditor would likely recommend a transition to ssh or ftp for these transactions. During this process, an auditor may look for malware, based on logging practices, whether resource usage levels seem correct with respect to traffic levels, and packet inspection.

Continuing with security, an auditor would likely spend an inordinate amount of time crawling over every aspect of any SQL, Access, or any other database that an organization has implemented. These databases are known for requiring security updates on a very tight schedule and still being insecure.

Following security, a network auditor may move on to ensuring that a network has adequate hardware to meet its needs. Not all auditors do this, but it remains an extremely important part of an audit. For example, the first thing that an auditor may check is the amount of traffic that a network must handle. This will include the volume in terms of both data/unit time and users/unit time. The auditor will then proceed to check how well this is handled, with respect to both whether the hardware can theoretically handle the load and whether the hardware can handle the load in practice.

The auditor will also look at the redundancy of a system. Often overlooked, redundancy is important no matter how valuable the rest of the hardware on a network is. An auditor will ensure that backups are on a schedule and have enough information to recover a network in the event of a system crash. Based on the purpose of the network, the auditor will ensure that a recommended amount of time is always saved in a cache. An auditor may also check for hardware redundancy, so that the network can continue to work even if a given number of routers fail. Finally, the auditor will ensure that there are offsite backups, and test of integrity of those backups.

None of the above is the most important thing that the auditor will do. The single most important thing that an auditor does is that he or she will ensure that no changes are made during the auditing process. In fact, in many cases a system will go completely offline for an audit. Everything must stay constant so that the auditor can inspect a clean system. Only recommendations will be made. It is up to the company to choose to implement those recommendations or not, as they will.