2015 is nearly upon us, and in a world that is constantly changing, technology also moves forward quite rapidly. Almost every single day there is a new invention that contributes to making our lives a little less uncomfortable, if we are to believe all the inventors. Like every field in technology, web hosting too needs to evolve. Staying connected in these times means that at some point there is the need for a better place to store data. For gadgets to run smoothly and efficiently they need the backing of a pool of data that they can access on the backend. With every improvement that is made to the frontend of technologies, hosting providers must play catch up and grow at a matching pace. Below are five top webhosting features that will determine which hosting providers will corner the market in 2015 and maybe even longer.

Mobile users are set to increase

The webhosting company that has laid out plans to cater to these clients is set to be a preferred provider for the years to come. Today, more people access the internet using their smart phones than any other device. This means that any website that they visit needs to be customized for mobile phones and the hosting provider that makes it easy to create such websites can look forward to being a favorite among website owners. GoDaddy takes this point to heart. When a client publishes a site using their Website Builder software, it automatically creates a mobile version of it. No extra steps are required. As a matter of fact, with advanced hosting plans, further customization can be done on these mobile sites making them easier to view and navigate.

2015 is set to be the year of big data

Any hosting provider that can’t handle the transfer of the data of the future, or does so at a high price, will find itself being left behind. Complex and large amounts of data that were normally used for scientific purposes (meteorology, genomics, etc.) are being consumed by more and more websites as they try to offer ever more detailed and user-friendly information. Hosting providers will need to increase their processing speed if they are not to stand in the way of future inventions and their processor-intensive websites. Already, hosting providers like BlueHost are offering their clients speeds of up to 4 X 3.3 GHz of CPU. To make sure that they meet their clients’ requirements they take it upon themselves to build their servers in-house. With the in-house know-how, they will be able to push out other hosting providers who depend on outside sources for their server capabilities.

Cloud computing will be the “in” thing

People will want to access their data from anywhere and at high speeds. In cloud hosting, providers offer storage of websites on virtual servers that depend on an intricate networks of physical servers from which they can pull the computing resources they require. This method of hosting will be the basic requirement as clients seek hosting solutions that offer a truly global presence to their sites and ensures 0% – or as near it as possible – downtime. iPage, a leader in the hosting industry, ensures these promises are kept by offering cloud hosting that allows for unlimited room for sites to grow in as well as instant provisioning of resources in case unexpected surges in demands-for-services occur.

Data theft is already on the rise

If governments aren’t doing it, individuals certainly are. A webhosting company’s reputation to thwart hackers will prove to be its selling point. Gone are the days where web hosting security was comprised of just a sequence of firewalls and a string of security software running behind them. 1&1 Hosting makes sure that when it comes to locking attackers out there are no compromises to be made. They offer Secure Socket Layer (SSL) services which allow for secure data transfers ensuring the protection of both website owner and visitor. They also have SiteLock, a security package with features like search engine blacklist-monitoring, file change monitoring, malware scanning and vulnerability scans for their clients’ applications.

Automatic scaling up is the way to go

A website that is running perfectly can have a sudden spike in CPU utilization. An administrator can’t always be around to keep an eye on every resource-usage data. Instead, there needs to be an automated scaling system put in place. HostGator is a web hosting solution provider that seems to have approached this problem with a no-limits solution. If a client’s website needs to use all the resources that a dedicated server has to offer, that is exactly what it will get. The company has packages that offer dedicated hardware without any resource restrictions. Disk space is unlimited, 8 threads of Intel Xeon Quad Core processors and 16 GB of High Performance RAM work to make sure everything is processed in a blink and 25 TB of bandwidth makes sure information is transported as rapidly as it is required. Once the emergency is over, everything goes back to normal.

Ultimately, the web hosting provider that manages to incorporate all the features mentioned above will be the winner in the web hosting game come 2015.