Anthony Lackey (@ServeToWin), Serve to Win editor & freelance journalist, asks:
Hi Mike,
I was wondering first of all do you have your own server or do you host it? As I’m considering having my own server for my website, emails & so forth I’m wondering if you have any advice on the subject?
Should you Host from a Home Server?
Essentially, I would steer clear of having my own server, as there will be plenty of maintenance involved. Not to mention if you have a power cut or local problem such as a flood. Running a 24-hour server from your home is a burden that you don’t need, and with excellent cloud computing and hosting options, there is no reason to do so.
I like the mix of Spreaker as my media host, Bluehost as my self-hosted solution and Google Apps for Work as my email solution. We’ll compare podcast hosting services in a future episode of Podcast About Podcasting.
What About a Custom Email Address?
Anthony goes on to ask:
With the domain for your email was that purchased from Google to enable you to use it as your email domain?
No, I’ve purchased my domain from a domain registrar (such as GoDaddy), and then I simply update the domain’s MX records to route mail to Google’s mail servers. This can be done using a service such as CloudFlare.
The good news about hosting with Google Apps is that if your website host goes down, your email is routed elsewhere and is safe within Google.
