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If you are running a website hosting company, there are myriad things that can go wrong. There are the obvious things - technology breakdowns, and software glitches - but there are many items that arise which have the potential to truly cripple your business in a hurry. However, it isn't just the catastrophic situations that can harm your business. Anything that threatens your good will and reputation with customers should be addressed. Here is a short list of items collected together with the help of the website hosting experts over at 34SP.com that any web hosting business owner should pay attention to in order to grow and thrive in this tough business climate.
Outages - Of course down time is aweful for you and your customers. While there are sudden unforeseen circumstances that can take your hosting services offline, there are also factors that can be proactively addressed prior to an outage. For example, if you are running a legacy server that hasn't been upgraded or even really looked after since 2001, it's a safe bet that this server needs either maintenance or replacing. By creating a list of legacy hardware and systematically reviewing each machine's status, you can avoid downtime from pure neglect. It is also stating the obvious, but occaisionally you should simulate an outage and test your emergency procedures such as backup generators, switching over to UPS battery backups, and network switchovers.
Runaway Capital Costs - Ironically, sometimes success can actually be as damaging to your hosting business as failure. For example, if you offer a virtual server product or dedicated servers, these require significant capital expense on the front end. That is, you first purchase the server - then place customers on it and begin to recoop your costs - then eventually begin to earn profits. This cycle can be measured in years for some products. Therefore, a successful promotion or other high demand for your services can actually deplete your bank account, rather than adding to it. Securing an adequate line of credit can be indisepnsible for these short term cash crunches.
Bad Client Scripts - While you have plenty to worry about with regard to your own internal hardware and software, there is another factor which can wreak havoc with your hosting business - customers who either inadvertantly or maliciously run bad scripts which cripple your servers. In a shared hosting environment this can mean that one customer takes down many many more customers. Through rigorous server monitoring or properly placed server limits, you can prevent these rogue scripts from getting out of control.
The Weather - Even the weather can conspire against you. Here are a couple of examples. If you operate a data center or have your data housed in a data center anywhere near the southern coastal United States, there is a possibility of hurricanes. Each hurricane season (the Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1st to November 30th) there is the possibility of a major storm striking your data center. While preparations can be made ahead of time, there are so many variables in play during a major storm event that no one can foresee them all. Many data center operators avoid this geographic area when selecting locations for new data centers for this very reason.
Another very important weather related variable in website hosting operations is simply heat. A vast amount of energy is expended in many data centers during the summer months to keep the hardware cool enough to operate efficeinctly. Any disruption in the cooling system can be catastophic to customer servers. A prolonged heatwave can stress cooling units to the breaking point if you don't have enough excess cooling capacity.
Vendors Who Don't Back You Up Properly - While you can bring many operations in-house including customer service and data center operations, no hosting operation can supply every single piece of the hosting equation without outside vendors. Often a web hosting company will buy hardware from outside vendors, source bandwidth from third party providers, and even use software developed by outside vendors. When one of these systems experiences a problem, it is imperitive that the vendor step up and support your operation and customers with the same passion and concern that you yourself would. If they don't - you can suffer irreparable damage. Therefore, be sure to vet your vendors with the highest standards. You may find yourself in the position of depending on them to save your business.
A Poor Review - Every hosting company has its fans and those who prefer to host elsewhere. If you have more than just a handful of customers, it is likely that you will be subject to a negative review. One negative review in itself is not hugley damaging to your brand - it is the aggregation of negative reviews that can take its toll. The worst case negative review is a review that appears on Page 1 of Google for your brand name - thereby distracting hundreds of your best potential buyers with a solitary negative experience. The best defence against a negative review is to have truly great service. In the event that a customer has a legitimate complaint or bad service experience, you may need to contact that customer and offer to remedy the situation. Even if you have to swallow a bit of your pride, it is better than having an angry ex-customer who is driving business away from your hosting brand.
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