Businesses looking to establish a presence on the Web or those that are dissatisfied with their current Web hosting provider have a plethora of choices in the highly-competitive Web hosting market.
Just a few years ago the Web hosting industry was so new that selecting an ISP/Web hosting company required a leap of faith. Now, with hundreds of companies to choose from, you are no longer operating in the dark. As competition in the Web hosting industry heats up, companies are scrambling to offer more value-added services without raising costs. Such services include e-commerce initiatives, up-to-date security measures and high-speed Internet access. Businesses end up with more choices, additional services and better prices.
A good litmus test to employ when evaluating a Web hosting company is simply to ask to see what type of work they’ve done. If their work matches what you been seeking for your business, you may have found your match. However, before you can start screening work, you need to narrow down the choices.
The first step in finding a Web host or deciding to leave your current provider is to know exactly what you want. For instance, if customer service is your number one priority then you may want to consider one of the smaller ISP/Web hosting companies.
Small ISPs can provide a level of personal customer service that the big boys cannot match. Many businesses prefer the “hand-holding” service that small ISPs can provide. In addition, while small ISPs are associated with dial-up access, more than 70 percent provide Web site hosting, page design, e-mail and other business-oriented services. In fact, according an article in Forbes magazine, small, local ISPs combined own more than 60 percent of the commercial ISP market.
However, large companies often need services that smaller ISPs and Web hosting companies cannot provide. These services may include Internet fax, voice and multimedia or live video and audio casting over the ‘Net. In addition, large companies often have an extensive office network that requires a dedicated Internet connection. Such companies will want to look for a provider with at least one T-3 line (45 mbps) connected to the Internet’s backbone or to an “upstream” provider. A T-3 is 28 times faster than the T-1 lines used by many smaller providers. Some large companies want their Web host to build and maintain extensive private IP networks. For these reasons, large companies should lean toward bigger, established Web hosting companies.
After you’ve narrowed your choices by deciding what type of Web hosting company you want, you still have a significant list of providers from which to choose. Narrowing down the choices further is difficult. However, this is where Web sites like TopHosts [http://www.tophosts.com] come in.
TopHosts bills itself as the complete Web hosting resource. The site currently maintains a searchable database of more than 500 hosts along with a ranking of the Top 15 hosts. TopHosts also offers a “Web Host Guide” tutorial that helps users — from novices to professionals — to better understand the Web hosting industry and issues like bandwidth, server setup and security.
While sites like TopHosts provide extensive information on what to look for and consider when choosing a Web hosting company, here are two areas that are often overlooked:
- Proximity to Backbone: Many Web hosting companies connect to larger Internet access providers, running a commercial phone line “upstream” to the larger company, who in turn might be running a connection to yet another provider. The further “downstream” your provider is, the more chances there are for things to go wrong, as your data is handed off with each connection. One question to ask potential hosts is “How many hops are you to the backbone?” Ideally, you want a host with few hops or whose machines sit on the Internet backbone. Even small companies can pay to “co- locate” their computers at a site that feeds directly to the Internet’s backbone.
- Who Owns Your Pages: Many firms have learned after the fact that designers or Web hosting companies often claim ownership of the domain name and pages they host. This can cause problems if you ever decide to switch to a different provider. Make sure that any contract or agreements you sign grants your company copyright and complete ownership of your domain name and pages.
