web hosting service
Enable an AI agent to recognise a web hosting service, assess its ability to serve a particular website or web application, and determine which deployment, operational and lifecycle actions are permitted.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a web hosting service, assess its ability to serve a particular website or web application, and determine which deployment, operational and lifecycle actions are permitted.
A commercially or organizationally operated service that provisions and operates Internet-connected compute, storage, and network resources so that a customer's websites, web applications, and related content remain continuously reachable over HTTP/HTTPS.
It can be Assess whether a proposed website or application fits the supported runtime, resource and policy constraints.; Deploy or promote a release, or roll it back, using authorised hosting controls.; Bind a hostname and configure HTTPS after checking ownership validation and related DNS dependencies.; Inspect delivery health, logs and quota consumption to diagnose hosting failures.; Adjust hosting capacity or restore covered content and data within recorded authority and service capabilities.; Export hosted assets, prepare a migration, or retire the service after checking dependencies and retention obligations..
Distinguishing features
The service accepts content or an application workload for web publication; a domain registration service alone does not provide this execution or serving capability.
The service supplies a serving environment behind an HTTP or HTTPS endpoint; a website is the hosted product rather than the hosting arrangement.
The service explicitly supports web serving as a customer capability; a general-purpose compute instance may require the customer to establish that capability separately.
The service's boundary includes where deployable content resides or application requests execute; a forwarding proxy or CDN alone may only route or cache another host's responses.
The arrangement exposes identifiable hosting entitlements and operational responsibilities, even when hosting is bundled with a site builder or another product.
Scope
+ The hosting service instance, its provider, customer and hosted-site relationships
+ Supported web workloads, runtime constraints and resource entitlements
+ Deployment, domain binding, HTTPS configuration and request delivery
+ Operational health, recovery capabilities and division of operational responsibility
+ Hosting-specific access controls, charges, restrictions and exit conditions
- The website's content, information architecture and editorial lifecycle
- The application's business logic and software development lifecycle
- Domain registration, ownership transfer and the authoritative DNS service
- The internal design and lifecycle of underlying servers, networks and data centres
- Independent database, email, identity and content-delivery services beyond their hosting integration
- The provider organisation's overall business and governance
Characteristics
- Supported workload classes
- Static files, server-rendered application, managed CMS, request-triggered functions, or other explicitly supported classes; multiple values allowed Determines whether the intended website or application can operate on the service.
- Operational responsibility split
- Provider, customer or third party responsible for each of runtime patching, application updates, TLS, backups and incident response Prevents an agent from assuming that a hosting capability includes its ongoing management.
- Runtime compatibility
- Supported runtimes and versions, frameworks, extensions and execution restrictions; unsupported or unknown where applicable Identifies deployment blockers and maintenance requirements.
- Resource entitlement
- Named limits with units, such as storage bytes, memory bytes, CPU allocation, concurrent requests and execution seconds; record shared or dedicated allocation Makes workload fit and capacity constraints assessable.
- Web delivery state
- Unconfigured, provisioning, serving, degraded, unavailable, suspended, retiring or unknown, with observation time Distinguishes a purchased entitlement from a functioning public service.
- Domain and certificate bindings
- Hostnames linked to deployment targets and certificates, with validation and renewal states Shows whether visitors reach the intended deployment through the intended secure endpoint.
- Observed request performance
- Latency in milliseconds, error proportion and successful-check proportion, each with endpoint, observation window and measurement location Supports health judgments without confusing a sampled observation with a contractual guarantee.
- Recovery coverage
- Covered content, configuration and persistent data; backup retention, restore method and last verified restoration Reveals whether rollback or restoration can recover the whole hosted site.
- Hosting charge basis
- Subscription and metered dimensions, currency, billing interval, included allowances and overage treatment Allows an agent to judge the cost implications of deployment and traffic changes.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Hosting boundary and control Identifies the hosting arrangement and who controls each part of web publication.
Hosting can be bundled, resold or partly managed, so an agent needs an explicit service boundary and responsibility split.
Service identity and targets
Connects the hosting entitlement to the sites and environments it serves.
Hosting unit
Records the identifiable service instance, provider, customer and associated production or non-production targets.
- What identifies this hosting service instance, and which websites, applications and environments does it host? definition
- Which account record, order or service configuration establishes the provider and customer relationship? provenance
Responsibility and authority
Separates operational duties from permission to change the hosting service.
Hosting control boundaries
Records responsibility for each hosting function and the authority available to the agent.
- Who maintains the web server, runtime, application, certificates and backups, and where do those responsibilities end? boundary
- Which deployment, domain, access, billing and deletion operations may the agent perform, and under what approval conditions? action
Workload fit and isolation Captures whether the service can safely execute or serve the intended workload.
A reachable web endpoint does not establish runtime compatibility, sufficient capacity or appropriate separation between hosted workloads.
Execution and persistence
Describes supported application behaviour and the persistence of hosted data.
Web workload contract
Records supported runtimes, request execution limits, background work and storage behaviour.
- Which static or executable workloads, runtime versions, background tasks and connection types are supported? definition
- Which files and application data survive restarts, redeployments and scaling, and which require an external persistence service? boundary
Capacity and tenant separation
Captures allocation limits and separation between sites, accounts and environments.
Resource and isolation envelope
Records resource ceilings, contention behaviour and the boundaries protecting hosted workloads.
- What resource limits and current consumption apply, and what happens when storage, traffic, execution or concurrency allowances are exceeded? measurement
- How are hosted sites and environments separated for processes, files, credentials and resource consumption, and which protections remain unverified? boundary
Deployment and web delivery Connects deployed releases to the hostnames and request paths through which visitors reach them.
Deployment success, domain routing and HTTPS readiness are separate conditions that must align for a site to be served correctly.
Release publication
Captures how content or application releases enter service.
Deployment state and reversibility
Records the active release, its origin and the conditions for safe promotion or rollback.
- Which artifact, repository revision or content snapshot is currently served in each environment, and what deployment record establishes that? provenance
- How can the agent validate, promote or roll back a release, and what happens to persistent data and in-flight requests during those operations? action
Hostname and request routing
Captures the route from a requested hostname to the intended hosted release.
Public delivery chain
Records domain bindings, certificate status and any proxy or cache dependencies affecting delivery.
- Which hostnames, redirects, TLS termination points and optional CDN or proxy services lead to each deployment, and which components are outside this hosting service? boundary
- Do current checks confirm that each intended hostname serves the expected release over HTTPS with a valid certificate? measurement
Hosting health and recovery Captures evidence of usable web delivery and the means to recover from failure or compromise.
Provider status, site reachability and application correctness can diverge, while backups may cover only part of a hosted site.
Delivery observation and incidents
Separates measured site behaviour from provider reports and contractual availability targets.
Serving health evidence
Records endpoint observations, hosting diagnostics and unresolved incident attribution.
- What do recent endpoint checks show about reachability, latency and errors, and from which locations and time windows? measurement
- Which logs, provider notices or diagnostic observations support attributing a failure to hosting, deployment, DNS or an external dependency? provenance
Restoration and containment
Captures practical recovery coverage and hosting controls available during an incident.
Recoverable hosted state
Records recoverable content, configuration and data, together with authorised containment and restoration actions.
- Which hosted assets and settings have recoverable copies, how old are they, and what evidence shows that restoration has been tested? measurement
- Which controls can isolate a compromised site, revoke deployment credentials or restore a known release, and what downtime or data loss could follow? action
Service terms and exit Captures the commitments and lifecycle conditions governing continued hosting and departure.
An agent must account for hosting charges, use restrictions and data-retention consequences before changing capacity or ending service.
Entitlements and restrictions
Records the applicable plan, commitments and constraints on hosted activity.
Hosting service commitments
Connects the active hosting arrangement to its applicable commercial and operational terms.
- Which current plan and terms establish charges, allowances, support coverage, availability commitments and suspension triggers? provenance
- Which restrictions on hosted content, workload behaviour, processing location or traffic affect the intended use? boundary
Migration and retirement
Captures what must be preserved, transferred or disconnected when hosting ends.
Hosting exit readiness
Records exportability, dependencies and the consequences of cancellation or expiration.
- Which content, application data, configuration and domain bindings can be transferred, and which depend on provider-specific facilities? boundary
- What verified export, cutover and retention conditions must be satisfied before cancellation, and when would serving access and stored data be lost? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Shared hosting
- Virtual private server (VPS) hosting
- Dedicated-server hosting
- Cloud / IaaS web hosting
- Managed WordPress and CMS hosting
- Reseller hosting
- Colocation
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) application hosting
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q1851760 - item 'web hosting service'
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- ISO/IEC 17788:2014 - ISO/IEC (cloud vocabulary covering hosting as a cloud service)
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- A small business buys a shared-hosting plan so its public website and email stay online without running its own server.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Monthly uptime - 99.9-99.99 - %
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Provider outage takes customer sites offline
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- EU hosting is commonly sold with GDPR-bound data-residency options; US commodity hosting is more often priced without a residency guarantee.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Content delivery network (CDN) - A CDN caches and distributes copies of content; a web hosting service originates and stores the canonical site or application.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of web hosting service this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- ISO/IEC 17788:2014 Information technology - Cloud computing - Overview and vocabulary - Places web hosting in the cloud-service vocabulary as a common IaaS/PaaS offering and supplies the service-model distinctions used in kinds and neighbours.
What the second pass must settle
- Should this registry entry cover general-purpose virtual servers configured for web serving, or only offerings with an explicit web-hosting service boundary?
- When hosting is embedded in a site builder, managed CMS or application platform, what criterion determines whether it warrants a separate service model instance?
- What is the authoritative unit of identity: a hosting subscription, an independently managed site allocation, or another provider-defined service unit?
- Which adjacent Vercy models already own deployment releases, CDN services, certificates and service agreements, and what should this model record only by reference?
- What minimum evidence and freshness requirements should govern claims that hosting is healthy, isolated or recoverable?