Choosing a hosting provider is a responsible task that affects the success and security of your business. The stability of work and the availability of your resources depend on it. In the modern market, hosting services are offered every day by more and more companies, and therefore it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose a reliable and advanced provider among them. Alexander Svadkovsky, CEO of is*hosting, talked about what main characteristics you should pay attention to when choosing a hosting.
Finding the right host is a process that requires consideration of many different characteristics. Already at this stage, it is important to understand which of them are key and what level of quality should be expected from a good provider.
Safety
Safety is undoubtedly the most important factor when it comes to choosing a web host. The company must be able to ensure the safety of data and equipment. A good sign here is that the provider has a backup system that will help recover lost or damaged data in any unforeseen situation. Also, appropriate conditions for the safe operation of servers (air temperature, connection to the power grid, etc.) should be provided in case of collocation or rent.
Depending on the selected service, the hosting provider may provide various security options. In the case of web hosting, the provider assumes all responsibilities for maintaining uninterrupted and fault-tolerant operations, which must be documented (in the contract/offer). When renting physical resources, the provider is responsible for their correct operation, as well as for the fault tolerance of the entire infrastructure.Â
Careful selection of equipment and cooperating only with data centers, with the necessary levels of security, allows is*hosting to talk about a truly uninterrupted operation of sites. Despite this, the company’s specialists are constantly monitoring the state of sites and also making free regular backups for the safety of your projects.
Reputation
Reputation is another important indicator that says a lot about the quality of a provider. Over the past few years, the market has experienced an influx of young companies that managed to sell themselves beautifully but, in practice, were unable to keep their enterprise afloat for a long time. As a result, a large number of clients have lost all site materials and databases due to the lack of reliability of the provider and their own negligent approach to creating backups.
But to avoid this, it is enough just to check the reputation of the selected hosting in advance. To do this is not so difficult. Reviews can be found on trust sites: forums and ratings. You should also pay attention to the duration of the existence of the company. If it was not possible to find sufficient evidence of the provider’s reliability, this is a good reason to think about whether to trust your business to a fly-by-night company.Â
The is*hosting company has been operating for more than 17 years in the world market of hosting providers and, during this time, has gathered an audience of more than 50 thousand customers.
Technological component
Most providers work with all programming languages ​​and CMS (Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, etc.). You should also make sure that the hosting supports all the tools used (CGI, ASP, Ruby, PHP, etc.). Do not forget that the servers work with different operating systems (Windows, Linux, etc.).
Consider what kind of service the client needs. If web hosting is required, then the hosting provider always specifies the supported languages/services and often just provides the option to download the code and run the website. If leased dedicated/virtual servers are needed, then any configuration can be supported with them since the client actually has at his disposal a separate server with a pre-installed operating system of his choice.Â
Based on many years of experience, is*hosting provides a wide range of programming languages, operating systems, and CMS, which is reflected in a wide tariff grid with a large number of configurations. Even the most demanding customers will be satisfied.
Uptime
This concept refers to the duration of continuous operation of the server. Although uptime is not considered to be the main indicator when choosing a provider, it can still significantly affect the reputation of a resource. Frequent problems with access to the site can negatively affect its position in the issuance and opinion of users.
For greater convenience, uptime is measured as a percentage of downtime (the time the server is idle). The ideal value is 100%, but in practice, it is practically unattainable. No hosting provider can do without scheduled software updates or completely insure themselves against emergencies. The acceptable value is over 98%. The most reliable measure of resource uptime is the one documented by the SLA. In case of non-compliance, the provider may incur financial penalties. is*hosting’s data centers comply with the best international standards, with uptime reaching 99.99%.Â
Performance
This indicator directly affects how quickly your site will function. Underpowered servers can lead to long waits and even failures to load content.
When concluding a contract, the client independently chooses the type and amount of leased resources, which directly affects the performance of the server. In turn, the hosting provider provides guarantees for the availability and reliable operation of the leased resources.
Performance depends entirely on the chosen service: if it is web hosting, then each tariff includes a certain amount of resources that will be available to the website; if these are rented servers, then during the purchase of such services, it is necessary to correctly calculate the required resources. In the case of renting virtual servers, they can be expanded at any time, while physical ones may not support expansion, which mainly depends on which server is being rented.Â
Even if, in the process of cooperation with is*hosting, your site starts to require more resources than you planned, you can always solve this issue with the help of additional equipment or switching to a more advanced tariff.
Outgoing and incoming traffic
When referring to traffic in the context of hosting, we are talking about the amount of data that the server receives or sends to the client. Outgoing traffic is an indicator that refers to those cases when the client receives data from the server. This includes downloading files, viewing images, music, videos, and banal browsing.
Incoming traffic, in turn, reflects the amount of data that comes to the server from the site. Accordingly, it will be important for those projects where a constant addition of content to the site is expected from both moderation and ordinary users (for example, an online store, blog, or forum).
The main factor here is the bandwidth, which affects the speed of data exchange. It should be understood that for a site that expects to reach an abundant number of visitors or provides for the download of large files, you will need to pay special attention to these restrictions. You can determine the necessary outgoing and incoming traffic yourself by calculating how many users are expected on the site each month and how much data they will download or upload from the site.
Often, providers limit the bandwidth (often with web hosting or virtual resources), while physical servers can use all the bandwidth provided. In general, both the bandwidth and the amount of traffic provided are fully regulated and described by the hosting provider. If this description is missing, then this may indicate the bad faith of the provider. The width of the throughput channel/port for is*hosting clients is 1000 Mbps, and the amount of traffic is clearly specified when choosing a tariff.
Customer support
With all the above advantages, no company will be able to provide quality service without 24/7 technical team support. Hosting problems can arise at any time of the day or night, and every minute of delay in their resolution critically affects the site’s reputation.
A good sign can be considered the presence of several options for contacting support, including online chat. Also, proactive user support will be a huge plus. Make sure the quality of services support is easy on your own. To do this, it will be enough to write to the online chat and see how quickly the answer comes. After that, you can create a trial ticket and evaluate the speed and quality of the response. is*hosting specialists quickly, clearly, and free of charge solve any technical problems of customers best 24/7/365, responding to tickets within 15 minutes or less.Â
Choosing a hosting provider is a responsible process, the result of which can seriously affect the further success of your business. Therefore, it is important to take into account all the key points in order to protect yourself and choose a reliable provider.