Top 5 Things Your Dedicated Host Won't Tell You
By: Saumya Aggarwal | Posted: 05th June 2009
Many a frustrated parent has told an inquisitive child "what you don't know can't hurt you". Of course, the opposite is true, and as adults we strive to learn as much as we can to optimize our success in life, both personally and professionally. It's not a stretch to say this is especially key as it relates to your dedicated hosting provider.
In many ways, your business web site is your number one sales person and the primary face of your company. There's a lot riding on it, and availability and performance are vitally important. If your website is down, no matter how large or small your business is, it's a reflection on you, and customers will inevitably draw conclusions that could negatively impact the bottom line. To help avoid that scenario, here are the top 5 things a substandard host isn't telling you.
1) They're using consumer grade hardware with no compatibility testing. This is a recipe for disaster. With the thousands of hardware options available today, server grade hardware and tough compatibility testing is a must. You've invested a lot in your business, and you don't want that undermined by white box servers and questionable driver support.
2) They don't have true hardware and network redundancy in the datacenter. There's a reason every new car comes with a spare tire. Bulletproof N+ 1 redundancy in your hosts' datacenter means everything from power to hardware to network connectivity. It can mean the difference between a brief reduction in availability and a back breaking outage.
3) They've outsourced support. Sticking with the car analogy for a minute, how comfortable would you be if you brought your car in to the shop for a repair, and your mechanic sent it out to another shop for the actual work? It begs the question "why am I using you if you aren't doing the work?" If your dedicated host can't deliver on support, why are you using them?
4) They're cutting corners. Certainly in today's tough economy, tightening of budgets is just part of doing business. However, if your host is cutting costs through bandwidth throttling, selling beyond capacity, utilizing cheap hardware or bargain basement network providers, then your business will be the one paying the price.
5) They have limited scalability and security options. This is where an enterprise class provider really shines. Smaller providers simply don't have the economies of scale that a larger provider can offer, and it's manifested in their ability to offer flexible solutions that really fit your requirements, as opposed to a one size fits all approach. You can leverage multimillion dollar security that includes firewalls, load balancers, intrusion protection and backup services that are already in place.
If you haven't already asked yourself these questions, then you need to. After all, if the answers aren't what you want to hear, your dedicated host certainly isn't going to bring it up.About the Author
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Tags: bottom line, hosting provider, disaster, conclusions, analogy, budgets, reflection, new car, mechanic, compatibility, business web, sales person, datacenter, spare tire, network connectivity, dedicated host, cutting corners