From a service provider perspective, what is the main purpose of offering web hosting services to individuals and organizations?

Introduction / Context:
Web hosting companies play a central role in the modern internet by running servers that hold websites and web applications. Without hosting services, individuals and organizations would need to maintain their own internet connected infrastructure to publish content. This question asks for the core purpose of web hosting from the provider’s point of view: enabling public access to web resources under domain names.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Customers have websites, web applications, or APIs they want to make accessible on the internet.
• Hosting providers operate data centers and maintain servers with reliable connectivity.
• Domain names map human readable addresses to the provider’s server IP addresses.
• The question focuses on why providers offer web hosting services at all.

Concept / Approach:
The primary mission of a web hosting service is to provide a stable, secure, and always on environment where website files and applications reside. The provider supplies disk space, processing power, memory, and network bandwidth on servers that are permanently connected to the internet. Customers upload their site content and link it to a domain name. When users type the domain name into a browser, DNS resolves it to the hosting server, and the server responds with the requested pages or data. Hosting providers may add value through backups, security, and support, but the foundation remains making websites reachable to anyone with internet access.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Identify the core function: storing website content and keeping it accessible via the web. Step 2: Recognize that providers must maintain servers, operating systems, web server software, and network links. Step 3: Recall that domain names provide a user friendly layer for addressing these servers. Step 4: Select the option that describes storing web content on internet connected servers and making it accessible under a domain name.

Verification / Alternative check:
If you read web hosting service descriptions, they emphasize disk space, bandwidth, uptime, and domain support. Marketing text often states that hosting allows you to put your site online so the world can see it. There is no mention of preventing publishing or restricting access to local machines. This alignment between provider descriptions and the explanation in option A confirms that it correctly states the purpose of web hosting services.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option B is wrong because hosting providers do more than sell hardware; they specifically enable website publishing. Option C is incorrect because offline printing services are not web hosting. Option D contradicts the idea of hosting by suggesting that sites remain local and inaccessible. Option E is incomplete and misleading because although some providers offer email hosting, web hosting focuses on web pages and applications, not only messages.

Common Pitfalls:
Some beginners confuse domain registration with web hosting, believing that registering a domain automatically hosts a site. In reality, hosting is a separate service that supplies server resources. Another pitfall is assuming that cloud storage services alone are equivalent to web hosting; while they store files, they may not provide the same HTTP based delivery and execution environment. By understanding that the purpose of web hosting is to bridge the gap between site content and public internet access, you can better design and explain web deployment architectures.

Final Answer:
To store website files and applications on internet connected servers and make them accessible to users worldwide under a domain name