Imagine it’s 3 a.m. in the morning and you receive a call from one of your IT consultants for your web startup. “Hi, I’m sorry to wake you but our server went down,” he might say. While nobody likes to wake up in the middle of the night, having a site go down can mean lost revenue, brand trust and can derail marketing campaigns. The good news is you can circumvent many of the problems by selecting the right hosting provider for your web company. Investing in a reliable server provider can ensure you site stays up, loads quickly and is accessible around the clock. While there are bound to be challenges with your site, having the right hosting provide can help to get these challenges corrected and fixed. Selecting the right hosting company requires understanding both the technical and service aspects of the vendor. Consider your host as an infrastructure provider that keeps the “lights on” for your project around the clock – this guide helps you to navigate the process of choosing, communicating with and using services through your hosting provider.
Case Study: A Startup Guide to Selecting Hosting
Let’s support you’re building a web sports startup that provides fantasy sports games, breaking sports news and sells tickets to sporting events. You have a complete business model that requires a quality hosting provide to deliver your content quickly, effectively and securely to customers. The first factor you’ll want to consider is just how much capacity and security you need from a host. If you’re starting out with just the content (news) section of the site, your bandwidth (data transfer) requirements will be basic enough for shared hosting, which is where you lease a common server shared across a variety of other sites. A full site might require a larger investment in a virtual or dedicated server, which gives you more benefits in terms of load time, capacity and identity (you’ll have a dedicated IP address, which is how users and search engines uniquely identify your site.) Hosting providers maintain and lease servers to startups, so finding the right partner can limit your technical challenges while meeting all of your content needs:
- Support and Reputation
The first factor to consider is how responsive is your web host. Your server is running 24 hours a day, so their support desk should be too. In case your site goes down early in the morning, you want to hear a responsive voice at the other end with a helping hand. Look for a hosting provider who has been in business for years and offers quality support, whether they are a local or national provider.
- Data Security and Scalability
As you’re just starting out, make sure the hosting provider has the ability to easily migrate, or move, you to an upgraded hosting plan with minimal downtime. A reliable provider can help you add more space, features or options as your business grows. Having the ability to meet your current and future needs with the right provider can ensure your host can grow with you over time.
