[Hidden-tech] Recommendation for Web Hosting, Etc.

[Mark Bucciarelli]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 10:49:28AM -0400, Elin Flashman wrote:

> I'm not going to get into a bid discussion on the topic, other
> than to be perfectly frank, as a customer I don't care how
> their servers are organized as long as it doesn't affect
> performance, downtime or the ability to use what I bought.

If you hadn't posted a reply, I would have followed your lead.
;)

> While downtime is possible, a company as big as GoDaddy.com is
> setup with many redundant datacenters in multiple regional
> locations. That is not something a local provider is going to
> be able to provide and still keep costs to match Godaddy.com. 

If you think multiple data centers have anything to do with site
reliability, you don't understand the hosting business.

A quality data center (such as Crocker's, TnR or the one GAIA
uses in Boston) should never go down.

A good data center has multiple fiber links coming in through
physically distinct conduits.  Even big providers don't provide
this [1].

You web site will work fine at a bulk provider until you have a
problem; for example, we have had customers that came to us from
a bulk provider that had their site moved, without any contact,
to a slower older server because they were using too much CPU
resource.

I am always surprised when people choose to save $2 to $5 a month
for an asset as important as email and their web presence.

Here are a few things that make a difference:

- does the hosting company own their own servers, or do they rent
  from a large provider.  If they rent, they have less control.

- does the hosting provider have physical access to their
  servers?  Again, if they do not they have less control.  And
  yes, you may technically have physical access to your cabinet
  in Texas, but it will just take you a while to get there.

- Do they use a managed switch if one computer starts consuming a
  ton of bandwidth, they can throttle it so it doesn't affect
  other computers in the cabinet.

- Does the data center have _physically_ redundant fiber
  conduits.  This one is important and not as common as you might
  think.

- How long do their diesel generators provide backup?  Our
  hosting facility lost power for over eight hours and we never
  lost a beat.

- A local company.  Having local service does make a difference;
  generally the company is smaller so you can talk to a qualified
  technical person faster.  Depending on the bulk provider, once
  you have a question that is not on their FAQ, you can sometimes
  wait for up to a day.  I have personally experienced this.

- Regular backups and a redundant array of disks.

Granted, there is a high probability that none of these issues
will ever affect you.  But if your web presence is an important
part of your business, why risk it?

m

[1] http://www.hostmysite.com/emergency/, pictures 07 and 09