Final answer:
The most cost-effective approach for a company launching a new website with highly variable traffic and high availability requirements is using a cloud hosting service. Cloud hosting offers flexibility, scalability, and reliability, allowing the company to adjust resources based on traffic demand and ensuring minimal downtime.
Step-by-step explanation:
The most cost-effective approach for a company launching a new website with highly variable traffic and high availability requirements is using a cloud hosting service. Cloud hosting offers flexibility, scalability, and reliability, allowing the company to adjust resources based on traffic demand and ensuring minimal downtime. Unlike dedicated servers or virtual private servers, cloud hosting eliminates the need for upfront hardware investments and enables efficient utilization of resources.
For example, if the website experiences a sudden surge in traffic, the cloud hosting provider can automatically scale up resources to handle the increased load, ensuring a smooth user experience. On the other hand, if the traffic decreases, the resources can be scaled down to optimize cost. Additionally, cloud hosting offers redundancy and data backups, reducing the risk of data loss and improving availability.
Using a dedicated server or a virtual private server may offer more control and customization options, but they can be costly and involve additional maintenance responsibilities. Shared hosting may be cheaper but may not provide the required level of availability and performance for a website with highly variable traffic.