The More Things Change, the More They Stay a Pain

Even the most unskilled businessperson knows instinctively the old adage that it is "location, location, location" that is most important when reaching one's target customer base. Why then, do so many companies ignore this concept when building their eBusiness? Fundamental business practices are strikingly similar for both bricks-and-mortar and virtual storefronts. The only difference is that an eBusiness exists on the virtual "lot" of a Web host.

Choosing the wrong host for your eBusiness can be as damaging as attempting to open a baby-goods store next to a brothel.Much has been written on the methodology of choosing the right Web host for your business. But what happens when you want to move to another - hopefully superior - hosting company? Just as a decline in local income, a rising crime rate, or limited space in the face of corporate expansion will cause a bricks-and-mortar business to move to another location, an eBusiness will sometimes need to find another virtual lot to set up shop in. Why would you want to make such a move? As always, it's an issue of expansion of business or reduction of service. Perhaps your store has outgrown the meager resources of that small, inexpensive hosting company that was such a godsend when you were working out of your basement. Or maybe a recent merger has caused the service agreement to change in a detrimental way. The worst-case scenario - your host is going out of business - will definitely necessitate a move.

The assumption is that many eCommerce professionals are too complacent, and are unwilling to make such a large, fundamental change to their business. However, this complacency is well founded, as changing your Web hosting service can be a long and complicated process. This is especially true for an e-tail site, since the store's software, catalog, customer database and Web commerce server needs to be moved as well - all without causing an instant of disruption to the day-to-day transactions and sales of the company.In general, however, you can make the process relatively effortless as long as you take some preemptive steps:

1. Make sure you've already secured the services of the new host.
2. Ensure that you have access to your existing scripts and data.
3. Resolve any issues that may surround your domain name with the move. While the temptation may be to rush through the change in order to move and resecure your site as quickly as possible, if you don't take the time to choose the right provider, you could experience similar problems down the road - which will necessitate another move!

eCommerce sites in particular have some special issues to address when choosing a new host:
Ensure that the eCommerce package your business is using is supported by the new host, unless you wish to redo the entire architecture of your storefront.

If your store runs on CGI scripts, you must find a host that supports these. Even so, leave some extra time, as your scripts will probably still have to be amended to reflect the new server environment.

If your business is running on a single-source eCommerce solution (such as Yahoo! Store), then be prepared to leave time for a major overhaul, as you will have to select and configure a new eCommerce package.

The next major hurdle is the transfer of data to your new host. Obviously, in order to do this, you will need to have access to your current data and scripts. Ideally, you will be able to download these from your existing host, but issues of propriety, or your host going out of business can make this problematic. The best solution is to always maintain a local, updated copy of this info, as your most valuable asset as an eBusiness is your customer, sales, and product data.

The issue of you domain should be the easiest step. Your new host should be able to give you the nameserver information, which you then pass on to your domain name authority. It's best to do this on a Friday, as it will probably take about 72 hours to fully direct your current traffic to your new nameserver. One obstacle you may encounter is that the naming authority will only accept change requests from the person listed as the administrative contact, so make sure your name is there and not the host's, for if you host goes out of business, this person might be impossible to track down. Remember, the quality of your location will influence your customer's opinion. If your eBusiness is stuck in a bad neighborhood - it's time to move on!

Searching around for a web hosting company? Here's what to keep in mind

The current count of web hosts yields just over a gazillion companies claiming to be number 1, offering the very best in what hosting can offer with prices that simply cannot be beat. Needless to say, it can take a trained eye this day and age to see through their gimmicks and get right down to whether this company has what you want. If you're confused about what to choose, read on.Before even beginning your search, analyze what your needs are. What features would you like your site to have? What Internet programming languages do you anticipate using? Be sure to take under consideration any feedback form features, database connectivity or any other site virtue that is simply too advanced for pure HTML.

Would you like e-mail addresses? Do you have a domain name? How much traffic do you expect to receive? All these questions and more help in the final decision for that one glorious hosting company. In the midst of your search, you'll probably run across hosting services that offer 'unlimited bandwidth'. This is simply not true. The term 'bandwidth' refers to the amount of information that is past between the hosting servers and the end user. Most hosting companies are connected to high-speed Internet backbones (UUNET, Sprint, AT&T, etc) which charge the hosting company based on their monthly bandwidth from customers. Needless to say, if you rack up upwards of 25Gigs of bandwidth a month, that lacks financial prosperity for your hosting company.

Be sure to read the terms of service very carefully with each hosting company that you are considering, especially if they advertise 'free' or 'unlimited' site features. A hosting company's support services often goes untested, especially with beginners in the site design and hosting world. A skilled and prompt support staff should be one of the most important decision breakers in your mind. If you run into trouble getting a perl script to work, or perhaps your database permissions are not setup correctly on the hosting company's side.

You want those problems corrected, and fast. One way to test a service's support staff is to simply send them an e-mail and see how long it takes for a response to be sent. Try to send an inquiry to support and sales and any other department you deem necessary. Ask support if they offer a web language that you like, or ask the sales department if they charge your credit card or hire another company to do it for them. If you receive a response the same day, you can probably rest assured you will receive timely help with any inquiries you have. They should not take more than one complete day to get back to you. Perform research away from the company's web site. Ask questions through e-mail lists and other mediums to try and get some feedback. If the company lists a testimonials section, look into contacting the authors of the testimonials and start asking questions.

The more comments you have, the better understanding you'll have on how that hosting service treats its customers. Pay attention to how long they have been online. A well-established hosting company of many years will most likely yield the greatest chances of customer successes. Click on the about page if they have one and read it all; after all, you may very well be giving this company your credit card number. Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty: Does the service offer what you want? Although you may expect your site to remain fairly small, allow yourself some room to grow, represented in megabytes (Mbs). If you're using 5Mbs, look for 10. If you're using 20Mbs, look for 30 or 40. If you are a photographer and want to use your site as a portfolio, you better opt for a more powerful account with more space and bandwidth, as images take more of both. Depending on how many images you have and how popular your site is, look for at least 50Mbs of space and 5Gigs of bandwidth. However, a regular, average size site with mostly html pages should be fine with 15 or 20Mbs and 1 or 2gigs of bandwidth and paying no more than $15 a month, depending on other features.

If you have purchased your own domain name, be sure the hosting company supports them (most do), and be sure they give you at least 1 e-mail address (you@yourdomain.com). A lot of companies offer 10 or more custom pop e-mail accounts with unlimited forwarding address at little or no additional cost, which is a nice feature. .

Web Hosting Industry Event, HostingCon 2008, to Feature Microsoft Keynote Speech

HostingCon 2008 is the only conference and tradeshow, focused exclusively on the hosting industry. As companies and individuals continue to expand usage of hosting services and hosted applications, hosting providers have new opportunities to provide valuable services to customers.

George A. Roberts IV, Executive Director of HostingCon 2008 noted, ”HostingCon 2008 will be a great place to learn about how cloud services will impact your hosted services business and how you can take advantage of those trends. It will also be a wonderful opportunity to network with others in the industry and get their thoughts and ideas on how they’re transforming their businesses to thrive in a cloud services future.

”The emergence of the Web as a business and consumer platform presents many new possibilities for the hosting industry, as well as a new set of challenges. While hosted services providers are rightly concerned with a new competitive landscape that includes Microsoft and others, cloud services hold the key to a bright future. Mr. Rogers spends his time talking to the industry about the choice between on-premise software and cloud services, and the important factors to consider when determining and investing in models for software and services.

Mr. Rogers explained, ”Hosting providers are contemplating the challenges and opportunities cloud computing represents. At HostingCon 2008, I look forward to sharing the exciting technology developments taking place, and initiating a dialogue about the potential concerns and opportunities for hosting service providers.”In addition to Mr. Rogers’ keynote address, HostingCon 2008’s conference program will contain a number of sessions discussing cloud computing and its impact on hosted services providers. Attendees will be able to learn how to help their customers feel comfortable with cloud services, how software as a service and open source software work together and how to employ virtualization in your infrastructure.HostingCon 2008 will feature a full three days of conference sessions, intended to allow hosting professionals the ability to expand knowledge in business, shared services, enterprise, data center, and application hosting.

HostingCon is the largest conference and trade show for the hosted services industry, this year to be spread over 56,000 square feet reserved specifically for the event, with approximately 20,000 net square feet of booth space in an easy to navigate floorplan. The exhibit hall will feature over 70 vendors displaying products and services, offering demonstrations and activities related to the hosted services industry.

Colocation, Dedicated Server Provider, DediPower, Selected for Interactive Websi

DediPower is providing all the managed hosting requirements for newsecondarycurriculum.org. In order to support the introduction and rollout of a new secondary school curriculum the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) funded the CfBT Education Trust to produce and manage an interactive support website. This will enable thousands of teachers to register, access and download information on the new curriculum that is being rolled out, including video case study downloads of schools that are already implementing the new curriculum. The site also allows teachers to plan their own curriculum requirements online via a number of interactive tools whilst also delivering a library of material to support best practice and links to valuable information and source materials.

Martin Bulmer, Head of Digital Media, Oculus noted, ”This was a challenging project involving multiple stakeholders, complex requirements and a substantial amount of content. We needed to have the very best suppliers working with us to ensure its success. In terms of our managed hosting requirements we needed a partner who could provide scalability, the ability to handle rapid and sharp increases in site traffic, ‘always on’ dependability, and the very highest levels of security. DediPower delivered on all of these requirements.”CfBT worked closely with a large number of teaching associations to provide content and advice. The site, launched in March 2008, is already extensively used, having achieved over 6,000 teacher registrations.

Mr. Bulmer added, ”We selected DediPower because it is focused on data centre efficiencies, deliver service excellence and have the depth of technical skills and knowledge that we require. This, coupled with their outstanding track record of working on mission critical online initiatives, made them the natural choice for Oculus to provide all of our managed hosting requirements.”DediPower’s Managed Hosting provides enterprises with business server solutions delivering custom built high-specification dedicated servers. This is underpinned by a world-class hosting infrastructure that has been designed to ensure the highest levels of network uptime, availability, flexibility and security. Focused on delivering support with passion, DediPower offers one of the best service level agreements in the industry today and is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and RedHat Ready Hosting Partner.

Craig Martin, CEO, DediPower commented, ”It is exciting to be a critical provider in a major government education initiative with Oculus and being selected to deliver the managed hosting requirements for this value added support service for teaching professionals. The power of the internet today enables faster access to information in a rapidly changing world, with information at your fingertips. It is great to be at the heart of such initiatives.”DediPower, one of the UK’s fastest growing managed hosting providers delivers a range of managed hosting solutions including: dedicated servers, application and exchange hosting, high availability multi-server clusters and co-location.

DediPower is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a RedHat Ready Hosting Partner. A winner of numerous awards, hosted sites include Sony, Sam Learning, Institute of Physics, Coca-Cola, Capita, First Great Western and Carphone Warehouse. Established in 1998 and self-funded, DediPower runs its own purpose built data centres totalling over 22,000 sq ft situated in Reading, UK.