The Core Competencies of Hosting |
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| 3. Company Stability |
The financial stability of a company is a factor that I would consider one of
the most important when selecting a web hosting provider. In fact, I myself have been burned in the past.
I used to host with a company called Cephron which was bought out by a larger hosting company.
As a result, I was required to transfer all my files, my billing info, not to mention the
extended outages. The company that bought me out required that I transfer over to one of their plans
which was not as cheap (obviously) as the one I had with the company that went out of business!
The web hosting industry's is currently very competitive and therefore volatile.
The trend toward consolidation is likely to continue for several years. Selecting a failing provider
could result in extended outages, as well as significant costs not to mention the headaches associated
with moving your systems to another provider.
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| 4. Price & Features |
Finally, we've come to the item that is probably most important to users. Be wary of the
universal truth in this life is that you get what you pay for! That being said, understanding what
the purpose of your website often defines how much you should pay for a website. What I recommend is
fine a decent sized company that offers managed hosting and colocation services and see how much their
web hosting plans cost. If it is reasonable, it's a good bet that they have reliable systems and
knowledgable support staff for even their smaller hosting needs. Some will be wary of UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH
providers but just read their terms of use agreement. There are some clauses that prevent you from
taking advantage of this (usually streaming) but it is nice to know that you won't be charged if you have
a huge spike in traffic.
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| 5. Flexibility |
Be careful, some web hosting companies will do anything to lock you into their
services. That may include holding your domain name ransom!! Ask what happens if you decide to switch
web hosting providers in the future.
If the provider has standardized all of its services, your customization
options will be limited. The more customization you need, the more expensive it will be to receive
top-notch support. Network providers usually limit their customers to a standardized installation,
while most outsourcers will be happy to create a custom solution for you (at a significant cost
increase). Co-location providers fall somewhere in between. They usually offer the best cost/flexibility
combination for companies that cannot afford to hire an outsourcer, but need some special
customizations.
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