A webserver is nothing more than a computer configured to process requests generated from the internet. Every time you browse a website your computer is sending requests to a webserver. That server is receiving those requests, processing them and sending responses back to your machine. Within webservers a multitude of sites may be setup. For larger and higher volume websites an entire server may be dedicated to its functioning or the site may need to span multiple servers. Governments, corporations and educational institutions own and operate the majority of active webservers. The websites of most small to medium sized organizations are maintained by hosting companies.Many of these hosting companies purchase rackspace for their webservers from large collocation facilities spread throughout the world. Collocation facilities provide storage, connectivity, security and offsite backup for these servers. These facilities and others of the type comprise the root system that embodies the internet. Webservers hosting sites within these facilities are more closely networked to the taproot, if you will, of this system. Due to this, they are able to process requests and responses at a higher rate. This permits more efficient information distribution and faster-loading sites.

The offsite nature of these facilities adds another layer of security for the files that comprise your web-presence. This way if a fire, lightning strike, flood, earth quake, tsunami, terrorist attack or any other flavor of disaster damages or destroys your files in one location, a duplicate copy exists elsewhere. Ask your hosting company about the physical location of the webserver hosting your site. If you find it is being hosted outside one of these facilities I recommend searching for another provider.