High Uptime Web Hosting
High Uptime Web Hosting
High uptime web hosting services are used by businesses and individuals with mission critical websites that they can’t afford to be without, either because they receive a high volume of traffic or because they provide them with a good source of income. High uptime web hosting packages normally offer 99.95% uptime, whilst higher end packages are able to offer up to 100% uptime for the most important of websites. High uptime web hosting services can come in the form of business web hosting packages, VPS servers and dedicated servers; all are designed to offer reliability and greater uptime than your average shared web hosting package, and because of this businesses and individuals with important websites choose these forms of web hosting. Reliable web hosting services are now becoming cheaper as web hosting providers are able to make use of existing technologies to make shared web hosting accounts more reliable, meaning that those who need reliable hosting but are unable to afford high uptime web hosting services can choose a reputable web hosting provider who is able to offer reliable shared hosting instead. High uptime web hosting services come with the same standard features as any other web hosting package, the only difference being that the hardware being used is likely to be of a higher specification and the servers you are using are more likely to be actively monitored by your web hosting provider. You should always remember that high uptime web hosting services are going to be more expensive than normal web hosting packages because extra measures are being taken to ensure the reliability of your website. You should only consider high uptime web hosting if you need to host an important mission critical website as otherwise you could be paying for something which is a lot more than you need, considering that your website will be find on a lower end web hosting package.
What are the purposes of high uptime web hosting?
There are several purposes of high uptime hosting which you should take into consideration when looking at high end business, VPS server or dedicated server hosting solutions. High uptime web hosting services are meant only for those who wish to host websites which they rely upon for money, such as online shops for example; if you don’t class your website as mission critical then you should consider a cheaper form of web hosting such as shared web hosting as it isn’t in your interests to pay for a web hosting package that you are never going to make the most of. High uptime web hosting services are there to provide all users with a more reliable serivce all round, meaning that you should expect your web hosting provider to be offering you a high level of customer service as well as a high level of uptime. Most web hosting providers have measures in place to ensure that all high uptime web hosting customers are dealt with as a priority, and that any issues which occur are dealt with in a timely mannger. In summary, the main puposes of high uptime web hosting are:
- Reliable web hosting service – the main purpose of high uptime web hosting is to provide customers with high uptime web hosting package with a high level of uptime, nearing 100%, so that they are able to ensure that their websites are available when needed and necessary – most web hosting providers offer Service Level Agreements on their high uptime web hosting services so that clients know the kind of uptime and service they should expect from their web hosting provider, and if the provider breaks the SLA then you as a client have the right to ask your web hosting provider for some kind of refund
- Quality customer service – web hosting providers who are able to offer high uptime web hosting packages will also take into consideration the needs of customers with high uptime web hosting services and will endeavour to offer them the highest level of customer service available – this means that if you have an issue with your business web hosting package, VPS server or dedicated server then you should be able to contact your web hosting provider’s team who will then deal with your issue as necessary, providing you with the highest quality support available
- High uptime web hosting – this purpose is similar to the purpose of providing a reliable web hosting service, but at the end of the day you will be expecting up to 100% uptime from your high uptime web hosting package and because of this it is important for your web hosting provider to be able to provide you with this, regrdless of the amount you are paying or whether you have a business web hosting package, VPS server or dedicated server – if your web hosting provider isn’t able to meet the terms of your high uptime web hosting service then you are entitled to some form of account credit.
As you can see, the main purposes of high uptime web hosting services are to offer you as the end user the most reliable web hosting package available, both in terms of uptime and the level of customer service that you receive from your web hosting provider. High uptime web hosting services are only offered to those who are running important websites, meaning that if you just want to try out a high uptime web hosting package or just want it as somewhere to host a single low-traffic website then you would probably be better off with a lower end shared web hosting package.
Advantages of High Uptime Web Hosting
There are many advantages of high uptime web hosting services, especially for users who are running busy websites which they rely upon for income, whether it be a large amount or small amount. In such cases you will find that having a website online all the time is important, as any downtime could cause visitors to go elsewhere which would result in a loss of long term trade for the website concerned. If you are looking to use high uptime web hosting for the hosting of a single low traffic website then you are unlikely to notice any advantages, primarily because you won’t be getting value for money when compared to your requirements. There are several differnet forms of web hosting that can be classed as high uptime web hosting packages; firstly there is 100% uptime business web hosting packages where web hosting providers used advanced technologies to offer clustered web hosting, secondly there is high specification VPS server hosting in which only a few VPS servers are hosted per node, and finally there is dedicated server hosting. The main advantages of high uptime web hosting are:
- High uptime – the most obvious advantage of high uptime web hosting is the fact that your web hosting service will come with a high uptime guarantee meaning that you should be able to expect your website to be available for 99% of the time as most web hosting providers don’t offer 100% uptime web hosting at the moment due to a number of factors that can affect server reliability – if your web hosting provider doesn’t meet the uptime guarantee that has been offered to you then you are entitled to account credit as in some cases it may be seen as a breach of contract
- Better web hosting support – you can count on your web hosting provider to treat any support tickets you open with them as a matter of priority, and this will enable them to ensure that any issues you may be facing are dealt with quickly which will help to maximise the uptime that your high uptime web hosting service has – at the end of the day you want the highest amount of uptime you can, and if an issue is going to hinder your efforts to keep your website up then you want to be safe in the knowledge that your issues will be prioritized over others
- SLA – most standard web hosting packages don’t come with any formal Service Level Agreement which specifies how much uptime your web hosting provider must offer you each month, as well as what your web hosting provider considers ‘downtime’ – SLAs are important for websites which may be providing you with a source of income as if your website is down then you may be losing money, and by having an SLA you are able to request account credit from your web hosting provider is they don’t meet the SLA to make up any money which you have lost.
The advantages that high uptime web hosting is able to offer end users are the main reasons why many customers choose such web hosting service. Those considering high uptime web hosting need to be safe in the knowledge that their websites will be available at peak times which means during the day and in the evenings, and that if there are any issues with their web hosting services then such issues can be sorted in a short amount of time.
Disadvantages of High Uptime Web Hosting
However, there are also disadvantages to using high uptime web hosting – even for those who are able to make the most of it through hosting busy mission-critical websites on forms of web hosting create for extra reliability. The cost of high uptime web hosting can put some people off, since in order to get a reliable VPS server or dedicated server you will have to pay for a high specification machine which will cost a lot; business/cluster web hosting services can also cost quite a bit when compared to a standard shared web hosting account, but what you need to remember is that people considering high uptime web hosting services normally wish to host websites that provide them with a source of income normally meaning that they have the money to spend on reliable web hosting services. In some cases your web hosting provider may not be able to fulfill the SLA that they have with you, since although the server that your account is hosted on may physically remain online, there is nothing to stop network outages which would mean that your high uptime web hosting service would become inaccessible externaly. In summary, the main disadvantages of high uptime web hosting services are:
- Cost – the cost of high uptime web hosting services is one factor that puts some people off from considering such web hosting packages – if you choose a business or clustered web hosting package then you are looking at paying £20 a month, whilst a high end VPS server can start from anything around £60 a month whilst a high specification dedicated server can cost you £500 a month – however, the level of web hosting you need will depend on how busy your website is as well as how reliable you want your web hosting service to be, obviously with dedicated server hosting being the most reliable
- Reliability – although the main aim of high uptime web hosting services is to provide you with a high amount of uptime, your web hosting provider may not be able to meet the SLA that was agreed between you and them when you purchased your high uptime web hosting service – some web hosting providers class different factors as downtime, which means that although your website may have become unreachable at some point, you may not be able to claim any account credit under the SLA as the SLA may not class it as downtime.
Apart from those 2 disadvantages, there isn’t really anything else bad about high uptime web hosting services. As long as you choose a reputable web hosting provider that is able to meet the pre-agreed SLA in terms of uptime and can offer you an affordable package, then there is no reason why you should face any issues. It is important to take into consideration the customer service that a web hosting provider has to offer, since if they offer poor service then the chances are that they won’t be able to respond to any issues that you are having in a reasonable time frame.
In conclusion, cluster and business web hosting packages, VPS servers and dedicated servers are all classed as forms of high uptime web hosting as all three have been designed with reliability and uptime in mind. Although the cost of any of the 3 may put some off, the advantages on offer to those running busy websites that are relied upon as a source of income greatly outweigh the disadvantages; it is important for you to take web hosting seriously in such a situation since if your website is down, the likelihood is that you are losing money.
