Business owners trying decide which cloud services company to choose from should read Darren Dahl’s overview posted on INC.com: “10 things to Look for in a Web Hosting Service.”
He compiled these responses from business owners and computer experts:
1. Support: Look for a service that’s there when you need them: 24/7; the worst thing to happen? “…website to go down, or having an email issue,” said Angela Nielsen, of One Lily, web design.
2. Parking Service: “Most companies buy their .com, .net, .org, hyphenated versions of their domain name…It’s most efficient …to have these in one control panel and know that you’re not going to lose…traffic,” says Beatrice Johnson, director of Brand Excitement.
3. Backup: ‘Discovery recovery plan:’ find out what your hosting service provides with backup. Says Johnson: “I once mistakenly deleted…a directory for my website…(but) my host…provides automatic backups every day.” Even backups of backups should be standard procedure.
4. Uptime Guarantee: It comes down to “…uptime and redundancy,” says Nielsen. Make sure your hosting service doesn’t have spasms of “…server outages. Look for an uptime of 99 percent or more…”
5. Accessibility: You need a service that will allow to make changes to web pages or email accounts. Says Nielsen: “Make sure the host…gives you access to the server so you can easily create new email accounts, makes changes to service settings, etc.”
It’s also important to choose a service with capabilities to “scale” with the growth of the business. Ask about the different tier services, which are usually based on the number of visitors to your site.
Contact us to learn more about cloud hosting services, and how we can help move your company to that next level of success.