Why Do You Need Access to Support from Your Web Hosting Provider
With most hosting providers, tech support comes as a standard as part of the hosting package; however, the standard and quality of the tech support provider is often what defines a good or bad web host. For many business owners, they leave the technical side of the website up to the web designer. They therefore don’t necessarily understand why having reliable tech support is so important. If, however, you are a smaller business, you may have had the need to call the support desk in which case you will know how valuable it is to have a helpful and friendly voice on the other end of the line.
Day and Night Accessibility
Your web host should have a support desk that is accessible 24/7. You should be able to reach them by email or telephone at any time of day or night. Many people may ask why the 24 hour accessibility is important. Your website is accessible around the globe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If clients browsing the web try to log onto your website and it’s down, they may think you are no longer in business or they may simply get frustrated when they can’t access web pages. That just creates a bad impression of your company. Customer expectations are so high these days with technology making websites ever more efficient that if a website is not working properly, they usually just go onto the next company. If there is a problem with your website, no matter how small, you need to be able to fix it right away. Usually, you need to be able to contact the web host to find out if it is a server problem or a problem just with your website. This is why it is important for them to be accessible 24/7.
Technical Expertise
Even for many web designers, there are times when they need to consult the expertise of web hosting providers. Your web host service provider can glance at the server on which your site is hosted and troubleshoot to see if there are any problems. This can save you and your web designer many hours of hassle trying to find the problem on your website. A good web hosting provider will also have advanced technical expertise. They can give you advice when needed and help you find solutions to any hassles you are experiencing with your website. This expertise can prove to be very valuable when you are trying to decide what hosting package best suits your needs and if you need to upgrade your website at any stage.
Website Maintenance
For most types of hosting packages, your web host service provider is responsible for maintaining the server on which your website is hosted. This means that they check and make sure that all the operating systems of the server are functional. This is important to your website because, without proper maintenance, the website can slow down and become problematic. Part of the maintenance is to ensure that the anti-virus protection is current and active. This is particularly important if you have a shared hosting package. A virus that gets into one website can infiltrate other websites on the shared server if the server is not properly maintained. If you suspect that you may have a virus or spyware on your website, you can contact the web host support desk and ask them to run some diagnostics. Their superior knowledge and systems should be able to help you pinpoint the problem.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Hosting your own website and Outsourcing
When deciding on your business hosting first you must decide whether you would like to host the site yourself or outsource it to an established hosting company. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these options.
Advantages of hosting your own website
Those who decide to host their website themselves are those who want complete control over their hosting. This can be a major advantage to some, especially those who would like to constantly monitor everything about their website and their web hosting. Those who would like to make regular changes to the hosting setup (and want to do it themselves) will benefit from hosting their own site. In some circumstances it can be cost effective to host your own site but only if you have the requirements to have your own server. This is because you wont have to pay another company to do it for you. There is also the potential for an extra income stream, because if you are hosting your own website you may have the equipment and expertise to host websites on behalf of others as well.
Disadvantages of hosting your own website
Although in some circumstances it can be cheaper, the majority of the time it is more expensive to host your website yourself. You may have to hire staff just for this purpose, and the relevant expertise can be costly. You will also have to have you own server and other equipment, and if you dont have the requirements to use this to its capacity you will still be paying for it. If you dont have the necessary expertise it can pose obvious problems, especially if something goes wrong. It is also another area you have to worry about, and can distract you from the rest of your business.
Advantages of outsourcing your hosting
The main benefit of outsourcing your hosting is that you are leaving it in the hands of experts. You therefore should be able to forget about it, which allows you to focus on your core business. Most hosting companies offer 24/7 support, something you are unlikely to be able to manage if you are hosting your own site, unless you have a large team employed for this purpose. This support means your site is being watched around the clock which gives you peace of mind. For some sites this can be extremely important. If shared hosting is adequate then you can share servers with the hosting companys other customers which will be cheaper than having your own server. Colocation can also take away one of the disadvantages of outsourcing: that you have no control. With Colocation you own and maintain your own server but rent rack space at a Colocation centre which will cost less than hosting it yourself as you are sharing bandwidth and other variable with other customers. With outsourcing you can purchase Managed Hosting. Managed Hosting means all your hosting is completely managed for you. This should take the worry completely away from you.
Disadvantages of outsourcing your hosting
As already mentioned, you dont have the same control if you are outsourcing. To an extent things are dictated to you by the limitation of the hosting package you choose and the operations of the hosting company. If something goes wrong with the hosting company, for example if they go out of business or make a mistake, you could have a problem. There could also be a potential security risk if confidentiality is a major issue.
For the majority of businesses, outsourcing is the better option. Most do not have the expertise to host their own website, and can make use of the support an established hosting company can offer. In the end it all comes down to the hosting needs and hosting knowledge of each individual business.
Andrew Marshall (c)
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