Reliable Web Hosting
Most web hosts will provide an uptime guarantees in the range of 99 to 100%, but how is this possible? Servers do crash at some point and packets are lost on occasion so how can you truly get 99% or 100% uptime?
While uptime may not be as important for personal homepages, e-commerce sites rely on their page being up 24/7 so that no sales are ever lost. Nothing is fool-proof but before signing up to a host there are a few features you should inquire into about the potential host:
- What type of UPS are they using?
- What type of backup generators are on site?
- Are the servers mirrored?
- How often are backups created?
Every host should have some combination of battery backed UPS systems and on-site generators in case of localized loss of electricity but it is good policy to see what you are risking thousands of dollars on.
Choosing a host with mirrored servers is your best possible option if you are worried about servers crashing and catastrophic loss of data. A mirrored server will always be running right along side the main server, ready to take over in the event of a halt or crash. An even better way to make sure of this would be to purchase a dedicated server plan that includes mirroring. This way you don’t have to worry about what -other- people are doing on the same server you use.
